Our Lady and the Rosary IS MARY IN THE COFFEE? Ladies Spiritual Night May 2014 S.D.G

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1 Our Lady and the Rosary IS MARY IN THE COFFEE? Ladies Spiritual Night May 2014 S.D.G A couple of years back, family friends of mine who had developed the habit of making it to Mass on a daily basis, ended up taking in a weekday Mass at Sacred Heart where they, unlike this family s home parish uphold the Tradition of ringing bells during the time of consecration. For the kids, that was the first time that they d ever heard bells ringing during the Mass! And so you can imagine what goes through the mind of a three-year-old when something as unexpected as THAT happens The first time the bells rang during the elevation of the Sacred Host, three-year-old Rachel leaned in towards mom s ear and asked: "Mommy, what's that?" That's Jesus in the bread..." Oh, O.K. it seemed to satisfy her curiosity Once again, at the elevation of the chalice: the bells rang out from the sanctuary. Once again the little Rachel leaned in towards mom and asked: "Mommy, what's that?" "That's Jesus in the wine..." Oh, O.K. A few seconds later, she leaned in to mom s ear once again and asked: "Mommy, is Mary in the coffee??" IS MARY IN THE COFFEE I love it! Cause on purely human level, that's a funny story. But after having taken this story to prayer, on a spiritual level, I'm here to tell you that YES!!! Yes, Mary IS in the coffee!! After all, what's the purpose of coffee? We use it to kick start the day we take it into us so that everything about it, from its aroma, taste, and caffeine can awaken our physical senses to the world around us. Likewise, if we desire to have our SPIRITUAL SENSES AWAKENED to the realities of what life is really all about, then let s take Mary into our prayer life and then watch what happens Cause when it comes to Mary; we're talking about a woman to whom the Church has attributed the definition of Four Dogmas. That's right, the definition for how True Believers are meant to understand Mary's Personal Relationship with God in light of her role in salvation history are so precise that it took the formulating of DOGMA to get the message across. Before I briefly unpack the Four Marian Dogmas, I want to provide us with a working definition for how we are to understand these dogmas: The dogmas concerning the Blessed Virgin are truths rooted in the realm of Faith. The Church understands them to have been Revealed By God having been transmitted from the Apostles in the Scriptures or by Tradition. The Church presents Marian Dogmas as Articles of Faith that are necessary to be believed by those who freely choose to be Catholic. What that means is that if someone chooses not to ascend to them in faith, in other words, if for whatever reason one chooses NOT TO BELIEVE the Marian Dogmas and even perhaps go so far as to contradict them, then they are no longer Catholic for at that very moment, they will have entered the realm of heresy in other words, that s how one becomes a Heretic. But that's enough on that Dogma #1 - Divine Motherhood THEOTOKOS Mary is the Mother of God and her Divine Motherhood was proclaimed at the Council of Ephesus back in the year 431. This Dogma needs to be understood in light of the Council's declaration that in Christ there are two natures, one divine and one human, but only one person. 1

2 Indeed, according to the Council the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God since she begot according to the flesh the Word of God made flesh. Dogma #2 - Perpetual Virginity The expression often times used is: "Perpetual Virginity, Ever-Virgin, or simply: The Virgin Mary." These titles are in direct reference to the conception and birth of Jesus. Although never explained in detail, the Catholic Church holds as dogma that Mary was and is Virgin before, in and after Christ's birth. For from the very first formulations of Faith going as far back as the third century, especially in baptismal formulas, the Church has always professed that Jesus Christ was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit ONLY. A later statement formulated at the Lateran Council of 649 is even more explicit. Mary conceived "without any detriment to her virginity, which remained inviolate even after his birth." (Council of the Lateran, 649). Dogma #3 Immaculate Conception On Thursday, March 25, 1858, three weeks after the apparitions to Bernadette Soubirous had begun, Bernadette asked the beautiful woman in White: "Would you be so kind to us to tell me who you are?" The answer she received: "I am the Immaculate Conception." Having finally received this crucial piece of information, Bernadette made her way to the local priest who upon hearing the name that Bernadette had received, became visibly shaken to the point where he was unable to speak. He immediately wrote a letter to his Bishop saying: "She could never have invented this..." For you see, four years earlier, on December 8, 1854, the Church had officially and infallibly declared that Mary was the "Immaculate Conception". Thing is, a young peasant girl like Bernadette would not have known about this because it was not being discussed in the liturgy and she could neither read nor write. By means of a supernatural revelation, God confirmed that which Pope Pius IX had solemnly declared from the chair of St. Peter on December 8, "That the most Blessed Virgin Mary, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege from Almighty God and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, was kept free of every stain of original sin." It is a DIRECT REFERENCE to how Mary was conceived in the womb of her mother St. Anne. The teaching holds that by way of a special privilege from God, Mary was preserved immaculate from all stains of Original Sin at the very moment of her conception. Dogma #4 The Assumption This Marian Dogma was Solemnly Proclaimed by Pope Pius XII on November 1, It s the belief in Faith that Mary was elevated or assumed into heaven by the Power and Grace of God. It s important to keep a distinction between the Ascension of Jesus and the ASSUMPTION OF MARY. Jesus Christ, Son of God and Risen Lord, ascended into heaven, a sign of DIVINE POWER of His own Power 2

3 While Mary, on the contrary, was assumed by the power and grace of God. The dogma states: "Mary, Immaculate Mother of God ever Virgin, after finishing the course of her life on earth, was taken up in body and soul to heavenly glory." I love the way Lumen Gentium, (a Vatican II document), along with the Catechism capture this moment for us: In heaven, Mary's active involvement in salvation history continues: "Taken up to heaven, she did not lay aside her salvific duty... By her Maternal Love she cares for the brothers and sisters of her Son who still journey on earth" (LG). Mary is the "eschatological icon of the Church" (CCC 972), meaning the Church contemplates in Mary her own end of times. Who she is NOW is that which we long to someday be: GLORIFIED IN BODY AND SOUL, Mary is already in the state that will be ours following the resurrection of the dead. In other words, in Heaven only two people exist with their glorified bodies while the rest of our dead brothers and sisters exist in the state of a soul separated from their body, awaiting the time of the resurrection Mary and Jesus foreshadow for us that which awaits believers in the Kingdom. And it's from that place, from that STATE OF BEING, that our Blessed mother continues to shower forth her maternal love towards her children journeying on earth. How and why do we know that? It's because the Eternal Son of God the Father and Mary the Mother He to whom the Father has given all authority, He set it up this way It was ONE OF HIS SEVEN LAST WORDS FROM THE CROSS knowing that his time had come, he looked lovingly into the eyes of his mother and said: "Woman, behold your son. At that moment, he glanced towards John the beloved disciple He who at that point in time, stood in for all would be believers until the end of the age And he said to him: Son, behold you mother. The Scriptures go on to tell us that: "from that hour, the disciple took her into his home." (John 19:27) Question I have for each of us here tonight is: "Have we, as his disciples taken Mary into our home? And when I say home, I'm not talking about a picture or a statue in your family house. I'm talking about within the confines of our own heart and soul. "Mommy, mommy, is Mary in the coffee??" YES, sweetheart, yes Mary is in the coffee and she has come to wake us up! For by means of the Rosary, which the Church received from Our Lady back during the 13 th century, Mary desires to protect and shelter her children from the flesh, the world and the devil. For it happened around the year 1214 that the Church received the Rosary in the present form that we know it today. The word itself: Rosary comes from the Latin word, ROSARIUM, which means rose garden or garland of roses. It refers to both the words of this Marian prayer as well as to the prayer beads so often used to recite it. Throughout history, the Rose is one of the flowers that has been used to symbolize the Virgin Mary, as we pray the Rosary, it is as though we are offering our Blessed Mother a spiritual bouquet of roses which she in turn uses to obtain Graces for souls who need them the most. 3

4 St. Louis de Monfort, in his book The Secret of the Rosary relates how St. Dominic, around the year 1208 received the Rosary from the Blessed Virgin as a means of converting the Albigensians and other sinners of his time. As the story goes, Dominic had withdrawn into a forest near Toulouse, where he prayed continuously for three days and three nights IMPOSING UPON HIMSELF HARSH PENANCES COMBINED WITH THE USE OF THE DISCIPLINE so lacerated was his body that he fell into a coma and that s when our Lady appeared to him accompanied by three angels. She said, "Dear Dominic, do you know which WEAPON the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the world?" "Oh, my Lady," answered Dominic, "you know far better than I do, because next to your Son Jesus Christ you have always been THE CHIEF INSTRUMENT OF OUR SALVATION." To which Mary replied, "I want you to know that, in this kind of warfare, the PRINCIPAL WEAPON has always been the Angelic Psalter, which is the foundation-stone of the New Testament. Therefore, if you want to reach these hardened souls and win them over to God, PREACH MY PSALTER." He rose from where he lay and with burning with zeal for the conversion of the people, he headed straight for the cathedral. Unseen angels rang the bells to gather the people and Saint Dominic preaching. Jus then, a huge storm broke out, the earth shook, the sun was darkened, and there was so much thunder and lightning that everybody was very much afraid. The call being put forth was that of CONVERSION, AMMENDMENT OF LIFE and SEEKING THE PROTECTION OF MARY by means of praying the Rosary! So fervent was Dominic in his exhortation that day, that almost everyone in Toulouse was converted over to the Faith. So as to understand what Our Lady meant when she said: The Principal Weapon is the Angelic Psalter: PREACH MY PSALTER. We need to remember that during the first centuries of the Church, it had become a Monastic Practice to pray all 150 Psalms of the Bible every day during the Liturgy of the Hours. Often times the monks were joined by townspeople who, though illiterate, wanted to share in this practice of praying the Psalms. And so they began praying on a string of 150 beads or knots in parallel fashion whenever the monks gathered for prayer. The people substituted Ave Marias ( Hail Marys ) in exchange for the words of the Psalms. That s why the Rosary is structured the way that it is. Originally, the Rosary had 150 beads on it and you can still see these at times worn by some religious but the one we are most accustomed to seeing is the Rosary as we know it today that is, with 50 beads upon which we pray the Hail Mary as we reflect upon a certain mystery of our Lord's life. It took another 300 years, but eventually a Carthusian monk divided the rosary into fifteen brackets (or decades) and a Dominican assigned Mysteries of our Lord s Life to each of the decades. These mysteries, as we know them today, are events in the life of Jesus as written in the gospels. WHY DO SUCH A THING??? It's because the Rosary is a means, a tool, a channel through which ANYONE and EVERYONE can meditate upon the story of our Savior s life from the moment of his conception to the time of his unnatural death and Supernatural Resurrection!! That s why Our Lady calls it a WEAPON, because when we re busy contemplating the life of Our Savior, no other distractions and or temptations can wage war upon us!! 4

5 The Rosary is THE ROSE OF ALL DEVOTIONS because within the contemplation of its mysteries, the interior of our souls are led to contemplate the beautiful fragrance of salvation history as it has been revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Pope Pius XII called it: A Compendium of the Gospel. For the MAIN FOCUS IS ON JESUS his birth, life, death and resurrection. The Our Fathers remind us that Jesus' Father God the Father is the ONE Through whom, With whom and Inn whom salvation has been INITIATED. It is the PERFECT prayer born out from the Heart of the Trinity and given to us by the Word made Flesh The Hail Marys are a prayer based in Scripture. It begins with the greeting spoken to Mary by the angel Gabriel at the time of the Annunciation: Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you (Lk 1:28), and continues with the greeting spoken to her by her relative, St. Elizabeth: Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus (Lk 1:42). It remind us to join with Mary in contemplating the mysteries of our Salvation PONDERING THEM WITHIN OUR HEARTS while at one and the same time, they also make us aware that Mary was and is intimately joined with her Son in all the mysteries of his earthly and heavenly existence and that we, like her, are called to intimately experience the Joys, Sorrows, and Luminous Glory of her Son's life. And finally: The Glory Be s remind us that THE PURPOSE OF ALL LIFE is to bring glory to the Trinity. SOLI DEO GLORIA Glory to God ALONE That is to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Pope Paul VI explained it this way: Without [contemplation] the Rosary is a body without a soul, and its recitation is in DANGER OF BECOMING A MECHANICAL REPETITION OF FORMULAS and of going counter to the warning of Christ: In praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words (Mt 6:7). By its nature the recitation of the Rosary calls for a quiet rhythm and a lingering pace, helping the individual to meditate on the mysteries of the Lord s life as seen through the eyes of her who was closest to the Lord. The ultimate goal of meditating with the Rosary is to help us to know Jesus better and to bring us to union with Him. What sets the Rosary apart from ALL OTHER worldly types of Meditation practices, (Yoga, Zen Meditation, Transcendental Meditation, Buddhism, Chakra Meditation, and the list goes on and on) is that with the Rosary, we are not seeking to EMPTY OURSELVES but rather to FILL OUR MINDS and HEARTS with the Action of the Holy Spirit with the second person of the Trinity who accompanied God the Son along his earthly life s journey so that through Mary s intercession, we can be protected from the FLESH, the WORLD, and the DEVIL. When we take all this into consideration, we discover is that the Rosary actually has a purpose which goes beyond just being an ornament hanging from the rearview mirrors of our vehicles!! The Rosary has a Mission: by means of an authentic devotion to Our Lady, we, through the power of the same Spirit that formed the Son of God in Mary's womb are being formed, TRANSFORMED, into souls that are worthy of heaven!! St. Augustine says that: "During their present life all of the elect are hidden in Mary's womb they are not TRULY BORN until the Blessed Mother brings them forth to life eternal." 5

6 BUT we as a race that is we as Fallen Human Beings we re not all that good ON THE UPTAKE when it comes to God s gift of Salvation brought about through the sending of His Eternal Son. And so it has come to pass throughout the course of history that God the Father has willed to send us a number of Marian Apparitions. Some of which have OFFICIALLY been approved by the Church. Take for example what took place between the months of May and October of 1917 in Fatima. Visits from our Lady meant to AWAKEN HUMANITY out of our spiritual coma. For six consecutive months, Our Lady of Fatima appeared to three young shepherd children in Fátima, Portugal. LUCIA SANTOS, the oldest of the three children and the only one to speak to Our Lady, described seeing a woman who was brighter than the sun, shedding rays of light clearer and stronger than a crystal ball filled with the most sparkling water and pierced by the burning rays of the sun. Our Lady asked the children to pray, to make sacrifices for sinners, and to pray the Rosary. She also requested that the following prayer be added to the Rosary at the close of each decade: O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who have most need of your mercy. Our Lady of Fatima also said the following during one of the Apparitions, which happened to take place during the time of World War I: "If people do not stop affecting God, another worse war will begin during the reign of Pius XI... When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that it is the great sign that God gives you that He is going to punish the world for its crimes by means of war, of hunger, and of persecution of the Church and of the Holy Father." 21 years later: on January 25, 1938, BRIGHT LIGHTS, (now known to us as an aurora borealis appeared all over the northern hemisphere) these bright lights were seen as far as Africa, Bermuda and California. The people of Paris believed that a great fire was burning Fire Departments were being called in to investigate... A month later, Hitler seized Austria and eight months later, he invaded Czechoslovakia: - World War II, a worse war than the first had now begun - As we all know, world hunger continues to plague various nations throughout our world. - And finally, what about persecution of the Church and of the Holy Father? Never in the history of the church has there been such scandal, division, and persecutions on a global level aimed at the Catholic Church as we have today... Everything that our Lady said would happen if people did not stop affecting God through sin has come to pass Did you know that there were 3 secrets entrusted to the children in Fatima the first secret had to with a Vision of Hell (in other words, the showing to humanity how that place and state of being truly exists souls go there!) The second secret had to do with how to save souls: the specific instruction given: "The Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary." The THIRD SECRET, was kept actually kept as a secret right up until the year 2000 That's nearly 100 years of silence On May 13, 2000 St. John Paul II chose to reveal the contents of third secret on the day when two out of the three children of Fatima, Jacinta and Franciso, were beatified. 6

7 In revealing the final secret, Sr. Lucia wrote, After the two parts which I have already explained, at the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendor that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: Penance, Penance, Penance! And we saw a Bishop dressed in White we had the impression that it was the Holy Father. Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him. In the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were TWO ANGELS EACH WITH A CRYSTAL ASPERSORIUM IN HIS HAND, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God. There s NO OFFICIAL interpretation of the third secret no One Way to understand its meaning as far as I m concerned, it s symbolic imagery speaks for itself I m going to switch gears and share with you a miraculous event that took place back on August 6, That morning, Fr. Hubert Schiffer began his day with Mass in the Church of Our Lady s Assumption. When he finished, he headed to the nearby rectory for breakfast. He had just sat down to slice his grapefruit when there was a sudden, BLINDING FLASH OF LIGHT. A terrific explosion filled the air with one bursting thunder stroke, he recalled. An invisible force lifted me from the chair, hurled me through the air, shook me, battered me, [and] whirled me round and round like a leaf in a gust of autumn wind. Fr. Schiffer was a Jesuit missionary living in Hiroshima, and what he had seen was no ordinary flash of light. It was an atomic bomb that had exploded just eight city blocks from the church. Right within the FIREBALL DIAMETER of the bomb which was between two to four kilometers in length and it should have destroyed everything in its path. While the roof of the church was gone, its walls remained standing. THE TWO-STORY RECTORY WHERE FR. SCHIFFER WAS EATING BREAKFAST WAS INTACT; even the windows were still in place. Half a million people were annihilated in that blast. Pictures of those who died can be found on the internet and they will leave you speechless Yet miraculously, the eight Jesuit priests living there all survived. Although they were only ONE KILOMETER from the epicentre of the blast (where the temperature was in excess of 20,000 to 30,000 degrees Fahrenheit), they sustained only minor injuries. They experienced absolutely no ill effects from their exposure to the radiation and did not have any loss of hearing. In fact, they had no visible long-term defects or sickness at all! How is that even possible? 7

8 There is no question that it was a miracle that defied all human logic. For apart from the church and the rectory, there were no buildings left standing anywhere near the vicinity. And while the Jesuits were not burned or injured in the initial blast, they should AT LEAST have all received enough radiation to be dead within a matter of minutes. Yet they were all spared. They had no doubt that Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary, had protected them. We believe that we survived because we were living the Message of Fatima, said Fr. Schiffer. We lived and prayed the rosary daily in that home The rosary, DAILY ROSARY is the bedrock upon which every family ought to be building the structure of their Faith. As individuals or collectively. "Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell and great was its fall. (Matthew 7:24-27) I leave this evening s final word to Venerable Bishop Fulton Sheen: "The Rosary is the book of the blind, where souls see and there enact the greatest drama of love the world has ever known; it is the book of the simple, which initiates them into mysteries and knowledge more satisfying than the education of other men; it is the book of the aged, whose eyes close upon the shadows of this world, and open on the substance of the next. The power of the Rosary: it is beyond description " Mommy, mommy is Mary in the coffee?? Yes, sweetheart, yes Mary is IN the coffee and praying the Rosary is like EATING A CAN OF CHOCOLATE COVERED COFFEE BEANS. Good for the mind, body and soul! 8