One Minute Reflection – 22 August – Month and Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Octave Day of the Assumption) – Readings: Heb 4:16, Ps 44:2, Sir 24:23-31, John 19:25-27
At that time, there were standing by the Cross of Jesus, His Mother, and His Mother’s sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalen. When Jesus, therefore, saw His Mother and the disciple standing by, whom He loved, He said to His Mother, Woman, behold your son. Then He said to the disciple, Behold, your mother. And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
John 19:25-27
REFLECTION – There are two martyrdom species: one manifest, the other secret; One visible, the other hidden; One in the flesh, the other in the heart. The martyrdom of the heart goes beyond the torments of the flesh.
So the glorious virgin triumphed in this kind of suffering, all the more glorious as it was closer when, attached to the adorable cross of the Lord's passion, she drew from the chalice, she drinks of His passion, watered in the torrent of pain, she could endure a pain forever unparalleled. She runs following Jesus not only with the smell of her perfumes, but in the abundance of her pain; Not only in the joy of consolations, but also in the overflow of suffering. Mother, she saw her son, the real Solomon, with the tiara of which she had crowned him and, herself crowned with a crown of affliction, she was following Him.
She was standing with the cross to consider the very soft head of her son, anoint of oil with her companions, struck with a reed and crowned with thorns. She saw the most beautiful of the children of men who no longer had neither radiance or beauty. She saw despised and restored to the last rank He who is exalted above all peoples. She saw the saint of saints crucified with the scoundrels and the impious. She saw the eyes of this sublime man lowering himself, and the head of the one who supports the universe to lean, tilted on his shoulders, the very serene face of God wither, and vanish the beauty of his face.
St Amadeus of Lausanne
PRAYER – Almighty, everlasting God, Who in the Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, prepared a dwelling place worthy of the Holy Spirit, graciously grant, that we, who are devoutly keeping the Feast of her Immaculate Heart, may be able to live according to Thy Heart.Through Jesus Christ, Thy Son our Lord, Who lives and reigns with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen
AnaStpaul 