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Love the Immaculate with your whole being,
with all your will, and all your heart. But if you must go through a time of
aridity when you are unable to awaken sentiments of love, do not worry too
much, for such feelings are not the essence of love.
As long as your will desires only her will, be at peace, for then do you truly love her, and through her, you love Jesus and the Father. |
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Saint Maximilian Kolbe
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Queen of the Holy Rosary, Help of Christians,
Refuge of the human race, Conqueress in God's battlefield, to you and to your
Immaculate Heart, in this tragic hour of human history, we entrust and
consecrate ourselves (…).
Oh, Mother of Mercy, obtain peace for us from God! Obtain especially those graces, which can convert human hearts quickly. Those graces, which can prepare, establish and insure peace. Queen of Peace, pray for us. Give the world at war the peace for which all are longing. Peace in Truth, Justice and the Charity of Christ. Give them peace of the arms and peace of mind, that in tranquility and order, the Kingdom of God may expand. Grant your protection to infidels (…), and permit that the sun of truth may rise upon them. |
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Pope Pius XII
Act of Consecration of the World to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on October 31, 1942 (Excerpts) |
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The Rosary: "A sustaining prayer in the battle against the evil one and his accomplices"
The passage from Revelation presents the
vision of the struggle between the woman and the dragon. The figure
of the woman, representing the Church, is, on the one hand, glorious and
triumphant and yet, on the other, still in travail.
And the Church is like that: if in heaven she is already associated in some way with the glory of her Lord, in history she continually lives through the trials and challenges that the conflict between God and the evil one, the perennial enemy, brings. And in the struggle that the disciples must confront—all of us, all the disciples of Jesus, we must face this struggle—Mary does not leave them alone. The Mother of Christ and of the Church (…) struggles with us, sustains Christians in their fight against the forces of evil. Prayer with Mary, especially the Rosary—but listen carefully: the Rosary. Do you pray the Rosary every day? But I am not sure you do (the people shout “Yes!”)… Really? Well, prayer with Mary, especially the Rosary, has this “suffering” dimension, that is of struggle, a sustaining prayer in the battle against the evil one and his accomplices. |
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Pope Francis
Excerpt of his homily on the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Castel Gandolfo, August 15, 2013 |
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Mary Teach Us Compassion
Mary leads us constantly. She knows all forms
of suffering. She wants to strengthen us, console us and help us. (…) Mary is
compassion itself, because she was next to her Son when he suffered and she
suffered with him. (…) It is important for us to ask Mary, who suffered and
commiserated with Jesus at the foot of the cross, to teach us compassion.
We must ask this of Mary because it is a mystery of motherhood. She actually gives birth to us through suffering. We can see that this cross is painful, but also joyful. It transforms us in God's love. Lord Jesus, help us to understand this mystery. It is simply incomprehensible for us to grasp with our human reason; but with love and grace, you help us understand, you save and transform us. |
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Pierre Goursat (1914-1991),
Founder of the Community of the Emmanuel (France, 1972). Taken from his meditations, at the Inter-Assembly Day, March 13, 1976, and the Community Weekend on September 20, 1981 |
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Mary, Mother of Jesus, Mother of God's Word
The Virgin is devoid of what the world calls
happiness. When we meditate the "Magnificat," the Virgin seems to
be an abyss of smallness, just a "servant." She is one of the
"humble" and the "hungry." But the Lord looked at that
abyss with a merciful heart—he filled her with happiness—she is "full of
grace."
Mary is poor. She has no resources, and sometimes she even lacks a house and furniture. She is unable to preach, but she has the most precious possession that she gives willingly to the shepherds, the Wisemen, Simeon and Anna in the Temple, and all of humanity on Golgotha. Without words, she gives them Jesus, who she alone possesses. And that gift speaks for her, since he is the "Word of God" in person. |
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Cardinal François-Xavier NGUYEN
VAN THUAN,
Sur le chemin de l'espérance (The Road to Hope), Le Sarment, Fayard 1991 |
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Reciting the Rosary Protects Families
It will not, then, seem too much to say that in places, families, and nations in which the Rosary of Mary retains its ancient honor, the loss of faith through ignorance and vicious error need not be feared. (…) To ward off these exceedingly great dangers of ignorance from her children, the Church, which never relaxes her vigilant and diligent care, has been in the habit of looking for the staunchest support of faith in the Rosary of Mary. And indeed in the Rosary, along with the most beautiful and efficacious prayer arranged in an orderly pattern, the chief mysteries of our religion follow one another, as they are brought before our mind for contemplation. |
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Pope Leo XIII
Encyclical Letter on the excellence of the Rosary: Magnae Dei Matris, September 7, 1892. Leo XIII devoted to that prayer no less than twelve encyclical or letters, which earned him the name of “the Pope of the Rosary” |
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