Hello my friends! Well, Lori is off for the airport - first to Fort Laudervale from the Mpls airport, with a lay over there in Florida, then on to Guatemala. Got to see her briefly today when she brought over her Ollie and Phoebe. Darla and Greg stay over here another night, as they are now visiting with Greg's brother and wife, and they live close to us. Tomorrow they leave to go back to Texas. We were at Greg's Dad's 80th Birthday party this afternoon when Linus got off work at 2. Had a nice blessing visit with the parents of Greg's brother's wife - and they know Father Jerry - said he was their priest at one time, interesting! Lots of blessings today - too many to count! God bless us all! Nice day out here today sun was out all day! No snow - not now anyway!
HAIL, MARY, full of grace; the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
HOLY MARY, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Millions of Catholics often say the Hail Mary. Some repeat it hastily not even thinking on the words they are saying. These following words may help some say it more thoughtfully.
They can give God's Mother great joy and obtain for themselves graces that she wishes to give them.
One Hail Mary well said fills the heart of Our Lady with delight and obtains for us indescribably great graces. One Hail Mary well said gives us more graces than a thousand thoughtlessly said.
The Hail Mary is like a mine of gold that we can always take from but never exhaust.
Is it hard to say the Hail Mary well? All we have to do is to know its value and understand its meaning.
St. Jerome tells us that "the truths contained in the Hail Mary are so sublime, so wonderful that no man or Angel could fully understand them."
St. Thomas Aquinas, the Prince of Theologians, "the wisest of Saints and holiest of wise men," as Leo XIII called him, preached for 40 days in Rome on the Hail Mary, filling his hearers with rapture.
Father F. Suarez, the holy and learned Jesuit, declared when dying that he would willingly give all the many learned books he wrote, all his life's labors, for the merit of one Hail Mary prayerfully and devoutly said.
St. Mechtilde, who loved our Lady very much, was one day striving to compose a beautiful prayer in her honor. Our Lady appeared to her, with the golden letters on her breast of: "Hail Mary full of grace." She said to her: "Desist, dear child, from your labor for no prayer you could possibly compose would give me the joy and delight of the Hall Mary."
A certain man found joy in saying slowly the Hail Mary. The Blessed Virgin in return appeared to him smiling and announced to him the day and hour that he should die, granting him a most holy and happy death.
After death a beautiful white lily grew from his mouth having written on its petals: "Hail Mary."
Cesarius recounts a similar incident. A humble and holy monk lived in the monastery. His poor mind and memory were so weak that he could only repeat one prayer which was the "Hail Mary." After death a tree grew over his grave and on all its leaves was written: "Hail Mary."
These beautiful legends show us how much devotion to Our Lady was valued, and the power attributed to the Hail Mary devoutly prayed.
Each time that we say the Hail Mary we are repeating the very same words with which St. Gabriel the Archangel saluted Mary on the day of the Annunciation, when she was made Mother of the Son of God.
Many graces and joys filled the soul of Mary at that moment.
Now when we say the Hail Mary we offer anew all these graces and joys to Our Lady and she accepts them with Immense delight.
In return she gives us a share in these joys.
Once Our Lord asked St. Francis Assisi to give Him something. The Saint replied: "Dear Lord, I can give You nothing for I have already given you all, all my love."
Jesus smiled and said: "Francis, give Me it all again and again, it will give Me the same pleasure."
So with our dearest Mother, she accepts from us each time we say the Hail Mary the joys and delight she received from the words of St. Gabriel.
Almighty God gave His Blessed Mother all the dignity, greatness and holiness necessary to make her His own most perfect Mother.
But He also gave her all the sweetness, love, tenderness and affection necessary to make her our most loving Mother. Mary is truly and really our Mother.
As children when in trouble run to their mothers for help, so ought we to run at once with unbounded confidence to Mary.
St. Bernard and many Saints said that it was never, never heard at any time or in any place that Mary refused to hear the prayers of her children on earth.
Why do we not realize this most consoling truth? Why refuse the love and consolation that God's Sweet Mother is offering us?
Is it our lamentable ignorance which deprives us of such help and consolation.
To love and trust Mary is to be happy on earth now and afterwards to be happy in Heaven.
Dr. Hugh Lammer was a staunch Protestant, with strong prejudices against the Catholic Church.
One day he found an explanation of the Hail Mary and read it. He was so charmed with it that he began to say it daily. Insensibly all his anti-Catholic animosity began to disappear. He became a Catholic, a holy priest and a professor of Catholic Theology in Breslau.
A priest was called to the bedside of a man who was dying in despair because of his sins.
Yet he refused obstinately to go to confession. As a last recourse the priest asked him to say at least the Hail Mary after which the poor man made a sincere confession and died a holy death.
In England, a parish priest was asked to go and see a Protestant lady who was gravely ill, and who wished to become a Catholic.
Asked if she had ever gone to a Catholic Church, or, if she had spoken to Catholics, or if she had read Catholic books? She replied, "No, no."
All she could remember was that------when a child------she had learned from a little Catholic neighbor girl the Hail Mary, which she said every night. She was Baptized and before dying had the happiness of seeing her husband and children Baptized.
St. Gertrude tells us in her book, "Revelations" that when we thank God for the graces He has given to any Saint, we get a great share of those particular graces.
What graces, then, do we not receive when we say the Hail Mary while thanking God for all the unspeakable graces He has given His Blessed Mother?
With Ecclesiastical Approval.
How To Conquer Your Loneliness!
By the late Father Kilian McGowan, C.P.
Used with permission, from the Passionist Priests
Few of us are immune to the pangs of loneliness. Like the common cold it hits everyone at one time or another. Most don't know how to handle this common ailment of the human heart. Every priest knows that many a soul plunges into the frivolous and the sensual just to dull the pangs of loneliness. Not that serious sin ever does that -it merely adds a burden to remorse to it.
It should be reassuring to us to realize that our Blessed Lord shared practically every kind of loneliness that we can experience, excepting that caused by the separation from God resulting from sin.
There's the loneliness caused by our not being accepted for what we are. Who can truly say that he or she doesn't want to be found acceptable...to be loved and wanted for what one is? It's not easy when the world passes us by. We may say: "I couldn't care less;" but do we really mean it?
Our Lord didn't find it easy to be accepted as the Son of God. St. John said that "He came unto His own, but His own received Him not." As a thrilling wonder-worker, or the peerless preacher He was acceptable. But when He demanded His just recognition as the very Son of God, they crucified Him!
There's the loneliness of not being understood. How many people get married just to dispel their loneliness or to have someone on hand who really understands them. Yet, every marriage counselor will tell you how many couples have slammed the doors on mutual communication. It's a tragedy that marriage has denied them one of life's greatest comforts-a truly understanding friend.
Who was more misunderstood than Christ? The common people didn't want the kind of spiritual kingdom He offered them; the Apostles considered His Passion and Death a scandal for a God-man to contemplate; and we consistently fail to understand that God's ways are not our own.
There is also the loneliness of suffering. We seem to be never so alone as when we are crucified by physical or spiritual pain. Even those nearest and dearest to us are unable to share the burden of our suffering. Yet, even our deepest suffering is but a faint reflection of the pain of mind, heart and body suffered by Christ in His Passion. His abandonment on the cross made Him feel as though He was abandoned by His Heavenly Father.
Many a personal life-history is pierced with the loneliness of rejection. To have your talents, your efforts to please, your very love rejected is the most painful cross to human nature. Yet, none of us have been so rejected as our Lord. There was no room for Him at His birth and He died as an outcast.
There is, finally the loneliness of one who loves unselfishly-and often one-sidedly. For all true love is creative-putting love and understanding where it was nonexistent. Unrewarded and unappreciated often, it remains in its aloneness. And wasn't it that way with Christ? He "emptied" Himself of all the love that a God could give, and still He receives very little from us in return.
Our Blessed Lord was willing to suffer all these kinds of loneliness, not only to give us the courage and example we need, but also to teach us that personal friendship with Him is the only answer to a lonely heart. Nothing that this life can offer you can take away that deep-seated "aloneness" that is part of human nature. We must ask Christ to show us how to sanctify our loneliness. We must beseech Him to share it with us. Borne with Him, it can fashion a saint!
"There are so many religions and each one has its different ways of following God. I follow Christ:
Jesus is my God,
Jesus is my Spouse,
Jesus is my Life,
Jesus is my only Love,
Jesus is my All in All;
Jesus is my Everything."
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