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Theme for the
Week: Knowledge Of The Blessed Virgin
Acts of love,
pious affection for the Blessed Virgin, imitation of her virtues,
especially her profound humility, her lively faith, her blind
obedience, her continual mental prayer, her mortification in all
things, her surpassing purity, her ardent charity, her heroic patience,
her angelic sweetness, and her divine wisdom: "there being," as St.
Louis De Montfort says, "the ten principal virtues of the Blessed
Virgin."
We must unite ourselves to Jesus through Mary - this is the
characteristic of our devotion; therefore, Saint Louis De Montfort asks
that we employ ourselves in acquiring a knowledge of the Blessed
Virgin.
Mary is our sovereign and our mediatrix, our Mother and our Mistress.
Let us then endeavor to know the effects of this royalty, of this
mediation, and of this maternity, as well as the grandeurs and
prerogatives which are the foundation or consequences thereof. Our
Mother is also a perfect mold wherein we are to be molded in order to
make her intentions and dispositions ours. This we cannot achieve
without studying the interior life of Mary; namely, her virtues, her
sentiments, her actions, her participation in the mysteries of Christ
and her union with Him.
Luke 2:16-21,
45-52
And they came
with haste; and they found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the
manger. And seeing, they understood of the word that had been spoken to
them concerning this child. And all that heard, wondered; and at those
things that were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these
words, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned,
glorifying and praising God, for all the things they had heard and
seen, as it was told unto them. And after eight days were accomplished,
that the child should be circumcised, his name was called JESUS, which
was called by the angel, before he was conceived in the womb...
...And not finding him, they returned into Jerusalem, seeking him. And
it came to pass, that, after three days, they found him in the temple,
sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing them, and asking them
questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his wisdom and his
answers. And seeing him, they wondered. And his mother said to him:
Son, why hast thou done so to us? behold thy father and I have sought
thee sorrowing. And he said to them: How is it that you sought me? did
you not know, that I must be about my father's business? And they
understood not the word that he spoke unto them. And he went down with
them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them. And his mother
kept all these words in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom, and
age, and grace with God and men.
Prayers for the Second Week
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