A good deed is never lost

"A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love."
-- St. Basil the Great

It's also Mary's Hour

(…) The Hour of the Passion, the greatest of all loves and Jesus’ total gift of himself, is also Mary’s Hour. In this Hour Mary is intimately associated to the sacrifice of her Son, as she stands at the foot of the cross. She is not, as we sometimes represent her, crushed and collapsing on the ground. She is standing up, because she intensely participated in her Son’s sacrifice as he gave up his life and his blood.

In the suffering of her heart, Mary offered up the life of her Son as the same time as he did. This is what Simeon had predicted to Mary at the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple: “A sword of suffering will pierce your soul”(Lk 2: 35). At the same time that the soldier's lance pierced Jesus' heart to release all mercy and forgiveness, a bitter sword pierced Mary's soul.

Mary is so closely united to the sacrifice of her Son. It is the first meaning of this passage from the Gospel, the mystery referred to as Mary's compassion. We have Jesus’ Passion on one hand, and Mary's compassion on the other. Compassion means: “suffering with.”

The weapon of the Christian is the Rosary

Predestinate souls, you who are of God, cut yourselves adrift from those who are damning themselves by their impious lives, laziness and lack of devotion—and, without delay, recite often your Rosary, with faith, with humility, with confidence and with perseverance.

Anyone who really gives heed to this Our Master's commandment will surely not be satisfied with saying the Rosary once a year or once a week but will say it every day and will never fail in this—even though the only obligation he has is that of saving his own soul.
St. Louis De Monfort

Mary's Pain from Losing Jesus

Mary's suffering from losing Jesus for three days surpassed not only the power of silence, but also the right of silence. Those days brought Mary's nature to the limits of its capacity to endure suffering (…). They forced her to react in proportion to the violence done to her, and to seek the last refuge given to a creature, by pouring out her heart before the Creator.

The perfection of Our Lord, in his human nature, reached its highest degree in the impact of one phrase. His silence certainly was an adorable perfection, but the cry that escaped his lips was even more sublime: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This is where the Christ’s Passion reached the utmost limits of his humanity.

This is how our beloved Mother experienced her passion at the end of Jesus' childhood, and her compassion during the Passion of Our Lord.
Frederic William Faber (1814-1863)

The Prophetic Mission of Fatima

We would be mistaken to think that Fatima’s prophetic mission is complete. Here there takes on new life the plan of God which asks humanity from the beginning: “Where is your brother Abel (…) Your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground!” (Gen 4:9). Mankind has succeeded in unleashing a cycle of death and terror, but failed in bringing it to an end…

In sacred Scripture we often find that God seeks righteous men and women in order to save the city of man and he does the same here, in Fatima, when Our Lady asks: “Do you want to offer yourselves to God, to endure all the sufferings which he will send you, in an act of reparation for the sins by which he is offended and of supplication for the conversion of sinners?” (Memoirs of Sister Lucia, I, 162).

(…) At that time it was only to three children, yet the example of their lives spread and multiplied, especially as a result of the travels of the Pilgrim Virgin, in countless groups throughout the world dedicated to the cause of fraternal solidarity. May the seven years* which separate us from the centenary of the apparitions hasten the fulfillment of the prophecy of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity.

Pope Benedict XVI Homily for the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, May 13, 2010 *(1917-2017) www.vatican.va

Mary gave birth to all of us

At that moment, when Our Lady received the love of the Holy Spirit as the wedded love of her soul, she also received her dead son in her arms. (…) She trusted God, she understood on earth that which many mothers will only understand in heaven. She was able to see her boy killed, lying there (…), dead, and to believe the Father’s cry: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” God asks for extreme courage in love, the Bride of the Spirit must respond with strength like His own strength. Our Lady did this. How much easier it would have been for her, had she been asked to withdraw from common life, (…) renouncing all “earthly joys,” bring forth Christ in cloistered security. (…) But she was consenting not only to bear her own child, Christ, but to bear Christ into the world in all men, (…) in all times (…). She was consenting not only to give birth to Christ (…), but to give Him death. In her brief historical life (…) the history of the world is concentrated, particularly the lives of all the common people of the world, who often do not know themselves that they are Christbearers, living the life of the Mother of God.

Caryll Houselander
In: The Reed of God, Sheed and Ward, New York, 1944, pp.32-33.

Courage in the midst of Temptation

"Temptation to a certain sin, to any sin whatsoever, might last throughout our whole life, yet it can never make us displeasing to God’s Majesty provided we do not take pleasure in it and give consent to it. You must have great courage in the midst of temptation. Never think yourself overcome as long as they are displeasing to you, keeping clearly in mind the difference between feeling temptation and consenting to it."
-- St. Teresa of Avila

Our Actions and Love

"You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love at which we do them."
-- St. Therese of Lisieux