My Mother Mary

I consecrated myself to Jesus through Mary eight years ago on the Feast of Our Mother of Perpetual Help. My brother in Christ, Philip, led me to the Consecration in the writings of St. Louis de Montfort and just his devotion and love of our Lady. Philip has always been the vessel that stretched me to reach new heights in my faith. He is a very hands on Catholic, the best way to describe what that means is by his own words, “I love our Catholic faith, I love everything about it. I love Adoration, Mass, the Rosary. I just love what our Catholic faith gives to us.” He led me and my family to the Consecration through Father Michael Gaitley’s book, “33 Days to Morning Glory”. If you haven’t read the book and done the Consecration, this book puts Mary in such a new light for me. It allowed me to see our Lady in new and clean ways that left me wanting to be close to her for so many reasons.

So why do I bring this reflection today following immediately after “Fear of the Illumination? Precisely because of that. So many souls fear standing before God the Father and having Him show to them the failures and sins of their life. That is where Mary stands out. As I was praying this morning, Mary put on my heart the story of Esther. How she stepped before the king to defend her people (Esther 15).

We have the greatest defenses available to us at the moment of judgment, The Divine Mercy and Mary. We need to depend upon both.
Someday, maybe I will share a story and vision I had concerning the Blessed Mother. But for today, I want to prompt everyone to sit and reflect upon the beauty and love of the Blessed Mother in their life.

When I was completing my Consecration, one of the things that struck me most, and moved me most was the intercessory power of Mary. In trusting her intercessory power in union with her Spouse, the Holy Spirit, we are saying, “Mary, I give you the right to distribute the grace of my prayers as you see fit.” Making this gift to Mary has a big benefit. It ensures that the grace of our prayers will be used in the best way possible. Because of her unique vantage point and intimate relationship with her Divine Son, Mary can best determine who is most in need of our prayers. What struck me most though was that in that moment I was praying heavily every day for my daughter, who was suffering heavily with Lupus. How could I not pray for her? She needed MY prayers. Then, I read on. Mary makes good things we give her perfect. Like Bathsheba, she adds to our gift, purifies it and delivers it herself to the King (see 1 Kings 2:14-22). When we give our gifts and prayers to her, she perfects them. But, what about my needs? Don’t worry, Mary is never outdone in generosity. If we give her the right to distribute our prayers as needed, she will be especially generous to our needs. Actually, she will take better care of those needs based on the point above.

I ask all on The Road Of Faith both directly in the blog site (www.theroadoffaith.net) and the Facebook page and group by the same name, “the Road of Faith” today to pray the Hail Mary at the top of every hour through midnight.

When praying these Hail Marys each day, offer no intentions or needs, simply trust Mary’s love to not be outdone. Offer these prayers to her in trust that she will apply them as most needed.