Posted in DOCTORS of the Church, EASTER, MARIAN QUOTES, MARIAN REFLECTIONS, MARIAN Saturdays, MATER DOLOROSA - Mother of SORROWS, Quotes on SALVATION, The PASSION, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 18 April – “Woman, behold thy son. … Behold thy mother” – John 19:26

One Minute Reflection – 18 April – “The Month of the Resurrection and the Blessed Sacrament” – Saturday of the Blessed Virgin (Salve Sancta Parens – Eastertide ) – Sirach 24:9-12. – John 19:25-27 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

Woman, behold thy son. … Behold thy mother” – John 19:26

REFLECTION – “Mary, the Mother of the Lord, stood by her Son’s Cross. No-one has taught me this but the holy Evangelist John. Others have related how the earth was shaken at the Lord’s Passion, the sky was covered with darkness, the sun withdrew itself and how, the thief was, after a faithful confession, received into Paradise. John tells us what the others have not told, how the Lord, while fixed on the Cross called to His Mother. He thought it was more important that, victorious over His sufferings, Jesus gave her the offices of piety, than that He gave her a Heavenly Kingdom. For if it is the mark of religion to grant pardon to the thief, it is a mark of much greater piety, that a mother is honoured with such affection, by her Son. “Behold,” He says, “thy son.” “Behold thy mother.” Christ testified from the Cross and divided the offices of piety, between the mother and the disciple.

Nor was Mary below what was becoming the Mother of Christ. When the Apostles fled, she stood at the Cross and with pious eyes beheld her Son’s wounds. For she did not look to the death of her offspring but to the salvation of the world. Or perhaps, because that “royal heart knew, that the redemption of the world would be through the death of her Son, she thought that by her death, she also might add something to that universal gift. But Jesus did not need a helper, for the redemption of all, Who saved all without a helper. This is why He says, “I am counted among those who go down to the pit. I am like those who have no help.” He received indeed, the affection of His Mother but sought not another’s help. Imitate her, holy mothers, who in her only dearly beloved Son, set forth so great an example of maternal virtue. For neither have you sweeter children, nor did the Virgin seek the consolation of being able to bear another son.” – St Ambrose (340-397) Archbishop of Milan, Great Western Father and Doctor (Letter 63)

PRAYER – Almighty, everlasting God, Who in the Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, prepared a dwelling place worthy of the Holy Ghost, 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 (Collect).

Posted in CHRIST the WORD and WISDOM, FATHERS of the Church, GOD ALONE!, MARIAN QUOTES, MARIAN REFLECTIONS, MARY, MATER ECCLESIAE, MATER DOLOROSA - Mother of SORROWS, ONE Minute REFLECTION, Quotes on SALVATION, QUOTES on the CHURCH, QUOTES on the CROSS of CHRIST, SEPTEMBER-The SEVEN SORROWS of MARY and The HOLY CROSS, The HOLY CROSS, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 11 April – “Behold, thy mother” – John 19:27

One Minute Reflection – 11 April – “The Month of the Resurrection and the Blessed Sacrament” – Friday of Passion Week – St Leo I, the Great (c400-461) Pope, Confessor, Father and Doctor of the Church – Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows – Judith 13:22, 25 – John 19:25-27–Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

Behold, thy mother” – John 19:27

REFLECTION – “Woman, this is thy son. This is thy mother.” By what right is the disciple. whom Jesus loved, the son of the Lord’s mother? By what right is she his mother? By the fact that, without pain, she brought into the world the salvation of us all, when she gave birth in the flesh to the God-Man. But now, she is in labour, with great pain as she stands at the foot of the Cross!

At the hour of His Passion, the Lord Himself rightly compared the Apostles to a woman in childbirth, when He said: “When a woman is in labour she is in anguish because a child is born into the world” (cf Jn 16:21). How much more, then, might such a Son compare such a Mother, the Mother standing at the foot of His Cross, to a woman in labour? What am I saying? “Compare?” She is indeed truly a woman and truly a mother and, at this hour, she is truly experiencing the pains of childbirth. When her Son was born she did not experience the anguish of giving birth in pain as other women do; it is now that she is suffering, that she is crucified, that she experiences sorrow; like a woman in labour because her hour has come ( Jn 16:21; cf 13:1; 17:1). …

When this hour has passed, when the sword of sorrow has completely pierced her soul in labour (Lk 2:35), then, no more will she “remember the pain because a child has been born into the world” – the new Man Who renews the entire human race and reigns forever over the whole world, truly born, beyond all suffering, immortal, the Firstborn from the Dead. If the Virgin has thus brought the salvation of us all into the world, in her Son’s Passion, then she is, indeed, the Mother of us all! – Rupert of Deutz (c1075-1130) Benedictine Monk, Theologian, Exegete and Writer – (Commentary on Saint Johns Gospel, 13).

PRAYER – O God, in Whose Passion the sword, according to the prophecy of blessed Simeon, pierced through the soul of Mary, the glorious Virgin and Mother, mercifully grant that we, who reverently commemorate her piercing through and her suffering, may, by the interceding glorious merits of all the Saints faithfully standing by the Cross, obtain the abundant fruit of Thine Passion. Who lives and reigns with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen (Collect).

Posted in FATHERS of the Church, MARIAN REFLECTIONS, MARY, MATER ECCLESIAE, MATER DOLOROSA - Mother of SORROWS, ONE Minute REFLECTION, Quotes on SALVATION, QUOTES on the CROSS of CHRIST, SEPTEMBER-The SEVEN SORROWS of MARY and The HOLY CROSS, The HOLY CROSS, The PASSION, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 15 September – “Behold, thy mother” – John 19:27

One Minute Reflection – 15 September – “The Month of The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary and The Holy Cross” and The Feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin – Our Lady of Sorrows – Judith 13:22; 13:25, John 19:25-27 – Scripture search here:

“Behold, thy mother” – John 19:27

REFLECTION – “Woman, this is thy son. This is thy mother.” By what right is the disciple. whom Jesus loved, the son of the Lord’s mother? By what right is she his mother? By the fact that, without pain, she brought into the world the salvation of us all, when she gave birth in the flesh to the God-Man. But now, she is in labour, with great pain as she stands at the foot of the Cross!

At the hour of His Passion, the Lord Himself rightly compared the Apostles to a woman in childbirth, when He said: “When a woman is in labour she is in anguish because a child is born into the world” (cf Jn 16:21). How much more, then, might such a Son compare such a Mother, the Mother standing at the foot of His Cross, to a woman in labour? What am I saying? “Compare?” She is indeed truly a woman and truly a mother and, at this hour, she is truly experiencing the pains of childbirth. When her Son was born she did not experience the anguish of giving birth in pain as other women do; it is now that she is suffering, that she is crucified, that she experiences sorrow; like a woman in labour because her hour has come ( Jn 16:21; cf 13:1; 17:1). …

When this hour has passed, when the sword of sorrow has completely pierced her soul in labour (Lk 2:35), then, no more will she “remember the pain because a child has been born into the world” – the new Man Who renews the entire human race and reigns forever over the whole world, truly born, beyond all suffering, immortal, the Firstborn from the Dead. If the Virgin has thus brought the salvation of us all into the world, in her Son’s Passion, then she is, indeed, the Mother of us all! – Rupert of Deutz (c1075-1130) Benedictine Monk, Theologian, Exegete and Writer – (Commentary on Saint Johns Gospel, 13).

PRAYER – O God, in Whose Passion the sword, according to the prophecy of blessed Simeon, pierced through the soul of Mary, the glorious Virgin and Mother, mercifully grant that we, who reverently commemorate her piercing through and her suffering, may, by the interceding glorious merits of all the Saints faithfully standing by the Cross, obtain the abundant fruit of Thine Passion. Who lives and reigns with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen (Collect).

Posted in AUGUST - The Immaculate Heart of Mary, AUGUSTINIANS OSA, CHRIST the WORD and WISDOM, DOCTORS of the Church, FATHERS of the Church, IMMACULATE CONCEPTION Prayers and Novena, IMMACULATE HEART PRAYERS, JUNE-THE SACRED HEART, MARIAN QUOTES, PRAYERS of the SAINTS, QUOTES on REPARATION/EXPIATION, SACRED and IMMACULATE HEARTS, SACRED HEART PRAYERS, The SEVEN LAST WORDS of CHRIST, The WORD

Quote/s of the Day – 22 August – Mother of love

Quote/s of the Day – 22 August – “The Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary” and the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Octave Day of the Assumption – Ecclesiasticus 24:23-31, John 19:25-27 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

Woman, behold thy son. …
Behold thy mother.”

John 19:26-27

And from that hour,
the disciple took her to his own.

John 19:27

As His last will and testament,
He committed, to His beloved heir,
the care of His Mother…
The Church fell to Peter, Mary to John.
This bequest belonged to John,
not only by right of kinship but too,
because of the privilege, love had bestowed
and the witness, his chastity bore…
It was fitting that none other than the beloved
of her Son, should minister to the Mother of the Lord… Providence too arranged, very conveniently
that he who was to write a Gospel,
should have intimate conferences with her,
who knew about them all,
for she had taken note from the beginning,
of everything that happened to her Son
and “treasured all the words concerning Him, pondering them in her heart” (Lk 2:19).

Blessed Guerric of Igny O. Cist. (c1080-1157)
Cistercian Abbot

In the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I trust.
Look to the Star, call upon Mary!
In danger, in difficulty or in doubt,
think of Mary, call upon Mary.
Keep her name on your lips,
never let it pass out of your heart.

St Bernard (1090-1153)
Mellifluous Doctor of the Church

O Immaculate Heart of Mary
By St Gertrude the Great (1256-1302)

O Immaculate Heart of Mary,
I have nothing in myself to offer thee
which is worthy of thee
but what thankgiving I ought I to pay thee,
for all the favours
which thou hast obtained for me
from the Heart of Jesus!
What reparation ought I to make thee
for all my tepidity in thy service!
I desire to return thee love for love,
the only good which I possess,
is the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
which thou, thyself hast given me.
I offer thee this Treasure of Infinite Price,
I cannot do more
and thou dost not deserve less, at my hand
but, receiving from me,
this Gift most Precious in thy sight,
be pleased, I beseech thee,
to accept too, my poor heart
which I here offer to thee
and I shall be forever blessed!
Amen.

Posted in DOCTORS of the Church, franciscan OFM, MARIAN REFLECTIONS, MATER DOLOROSA - Mother of SORROWS, MOTHER of GOD, ONE Minute REFLECTION, QUOTES on MOTHERHOOD, The BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, The PASSION, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 22 August – ‘ … Other women know bodily pain, she felt that of the heart. …’ St Bonaventure

One Minute Reflection – 22 August – “The Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary”and the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Octave Day of the Assumption – Ecclesiasticus 24:23-31; John 19:25-27 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

Behold, thy mother” – John 19:27

REFLECTION – “The glorious Virgin paid our ransom as a courageous woman who loved with the compassionate love of Christ. In Saint John it is said: “When a woman is in labour she is sad that her time has come.” (Jn 16:21) The Blessed Virgin did not feel the pain which precedes childbirth because she did not conceive following the sin of Eve, against whom the curse was spoken. She felt her pain later – she gave birth under the Cross! Other women know bodily pain, she felt that of the heart. Others suffer from physical change; she, from compassion and love.

The Blessed Virgin paid our ransom as a courageous woman who loved the world and, above all the christian people, with merciful love. “Can a mother forget her infant or be without tenderness for the child of her womb?” (Isa 49:15) This can make us understand – the entire Christian people has come forth from the womb of the glorious Virgin! What a loving Mother we have! Let us take our Mother as our model and, let us follow her in her love. She had compassion for souls, to such an extent that she counted all material loss and every physical suffering as nothing. “(We) have been purchased … at a great price!” (1 Cor 6:20) – St Bonaventure (1217-1274) Franciscan, Cardinal Bishop of Albano, Theologian, Minister General of the Franciscans, Seraphic Doctor of the Church (The Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost – Conference VI, 15-21).

PRAYER – Almighty, everlasting God, Who in the Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, prepared a dwelling place worthy of the Holy Ghost, 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 (Collect).