This is the first of my installments taking faith on the road. I want to share reflections and notes about various Catholic sites and share the beauty of our faith.
The first site we will visit is Czestochowa. Częstochowa is located in southern Poland and is home to the Black Madonna also known as Our Lady of Częstochowa, is a venerated icon of the Blessed Mother Mary housed at the Jasna Gora monastery. The icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa has been intimately associated with Poland for the past 600 years. Its history prior to its arrival in Poland is shrouded in numerous legends which trace the icon’s origin to St. Luke who painted it on a cedar table top from the house of the Holy Family.
St. Faustina talks of the icon in paragraph 260. “I had permission to visit Czestochowa while on my journey. I saw the Mother of God [image] for the first time, when I went to attend the unveiling of the image at five in the morning. I prayed without interruption until eleven, and it seemed to me that I had just come…..I entrusted my perpetual vows to Her. I felt that I was her child and that She was my Mother. She did not refuse any of my requests.” My own experience visiting Our Lady was incredible – and more so when I read this passage from the diary.
I knelt before Our Lady of Częstochowa and renewed my consecration to her – my ‘vow’ to entrust all to her Immaculate Heart. I knew she very happily accepted my offering. She confirmed very strongly that she was my Mother as she is the Mother of our Lord. Her love outpouring lifted my soul.
I asked her to intercede for my daughter aKC and children, and for Emmaus intentions I offered. I asked her intercession for Kristina for healing that we could come back and pin a medal of thanks to the walls. I also asked her to be Mother to my children and lovingly guide their hearts back to her Son – to wrap her mantle around them until they could find their way back. I was overwhelmed with the sensation of acceptance – I knew she heard my prayers.
Offer your heart to Jesus through Mary’s Immaculate Heart – I can help you with St. D’Montfort’s consecration OT you could just but the book ‘33 Days to Morning Glory’. Either way, knowing Mary as your Mother is very freeing.
Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary truly is the “surest, easiest, shortest, and the most perfect means to becoming a saint.”