From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Christ is our Master who teaches us   
      
      "There is a Master within Who teaches us. Christ is our Master, and   
   his inspiration and his anointing teaches us. Where his inspiration   
   and his anointing are lacking, it is in vain that words resound in our   
   ears. As Paul the Apostle said: 'I planted the seed and Apollos   
   watered it, but God made it grow.' Therefore, whether we plant or   
   whether we water by our words, we are nothing. It is God Who gives the   
   increase; His anointing teaches you all things."   
   --St. Augustine--(excerpt from Sermon on 1 John 3,13)   
      
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   January 1st - The Divine Maternity of Mary   
      
   When Mary of Nazareth conceived in Her womb the Word of God, that conception   
   was the effect of the fullness of Her grace, and of an action of the Holy   
   Spirit which occurred in Her soul first of all, thereby making of Her flesh a   
   tabernacle and a    
   sanctuary. The dignity of the Mother of God is Her great sanctity, it is the   
   incomparable grace which raises Her above all the Angels, the grace in which   
   She was predestined and created for this glorious purpose. By the acts of Her   
   blessed Maternity, She    
   bordered on divinity while remaining entirely human. In this way She seems to   
   exhaust, as it were, the power of God - the fullness of the grace accorded Her   
   cannot be surpassed. It is easier for us to conceive of the greatness of Mary,   
   however, when we    
   consider Her maternity of the Mystical Body, the Church, which like Herself is   
   entirely human, and composed of persons who are very far indeed from being   
   what our Saviour was, a Divine Person incarnate.   
      
   We understand better what Mary is for the Church by listening to Saint Louis   
   Mary de Montfort, Apostle of the Cross and of the Rosary of Our Lady. As Mary   
   was necessary for God in the Incarnation of the Word, so She is necessary for   
   Him to sanctify souls    
   and bring about their likeness to Christ, and She is much needed by us, in our   
   great infirmity:   
      
   "The Holy Ghost gives no heavenly gift to men which He does not have pass   
   through Her virginal hands...; such is the sentiment of the Church and its   
   holy Fathers. Mary, being altogether transformed into God by grace and by the   
   glory which transforms all    
   the Saints into Him, asks nothing, wishes nothing, does nothing contrary to   
   the eternal and immutable Will of God. When we read then in the writings of   
   Saints Bernard, Bernardine, Bonaventure and others, that in heaven and on   
   earth everything, even God    
   Himself, is subject to the Blessed Virgin, they mean that the authority which   
   God has been well pleased to give Her is so great that it seems as if She had   
   the same power as God; and that Her prayers and petitions are so powerful with   
   God that they    
   always pass for commandments with His Majesty, who never resists the prayer of   
   His dear Mother, because She is always humble and conformed to His Will. If   
   Moses, by the force of his prayer, stayed the anger of God against the   
   Israelites in a manner so    
   powerful that the most high and infinitely merciful Lord, being unable to   
   resist him, told him to let Him alone that He might be angry with and punish   
   that rebellious people, what must we not, with much greater reason, think of   
   the prayer of the humble    
   Mary, the worthy Mother of God, which is more powerful with His Majesty than   
   the prayers and intercessions of all the Angels and Saints both in heaven and   
   on earth?"   
      
   "The sin of our first father has spoiled us all, soured us, puffed us up and   
   corrupted us... The actual sins which we have committed, whether mortal or   
   venial, pardoned though they may be, have nevertheless increased our   
   concupiscence, our weakness, our    
   inconstancy and our corruption, and have left evil remains in our souls... We   
   have nothing for our portion but pride and blindness of spirit, hardness of   
   heart, weakness and inconstancy of soul, revolted passions, and sicknesses in   
   the body... Let us say    
   boldly with Saint Bernard that we have need of a mediator with the Mediator   
   Himself, and that it is the divine Mary who is most capable of filling that   
   charitable office. It was through Her that Jesus Christ came to us, and it is   
   through Her that we must    
   go to Him. If we fear to go directly to Jesus Christ, our God, whether because   
   of His infinite greatness or because of our vileness, or because of our sins,   
   let us boldly implore the aid and intercession of Mary, our Mother. She is   
   good, She is tender,    
   She has nothing in Her that is austere and forbidding, nothing too sublime and   
   too brilliant... She is so charitable that She repels none of those who ask   
   Her intercession, no matter how great sinners they have been; for, as the   
   Saints say, never has it    
   been heard, since the world was the world, that anyone has confidently and   
   perseveringly had recourse to our Blessed Lady and yet been repelled." (True   
   Devotion to Mary)   
      
   Sources: True Devotion to Mary, by Saint Louis Mary de Montfort(Montfort   
   Publications: Bay Shore, 1960); Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by   
   Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 12.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   O Sacred Heart of Jesus! I fly to Thee, I unite myself with Thee, I enclose   
   myself to Thee! Receive this, my call for help, O my Saviour, as a sign of my   
   horror of all within me contrary to Thy Holy Love. Let me rather die a   
   thousand times than consent!    
   Be Thou my Strength, O God: defend me, protect me. I am thine, and desire   
   forever to be Thine!   
   --St. Margaret Mary Alocoque   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; upon   
   Him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with His stripes we are   
   healed.  (Isaiah 53:5)   
      
      
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   ACT OF CONSECRATIONTO THE BLESSED TRINITY   
      
       With all my heart I praise Thee,   
       Most Holy Virgin above all Angels and Saints in Paradise,   
       Daughter of the Eternal Father,   
       and I consecrate  to Thee my soul with all its faculties.   
      
        Hail Mary...   
      
       With all my heart I praise Thee,   
       Most Holy Virgin above all Angels and Saints in Paradise,   
       beloved Mother of the Son of God,   
       and I consecrate to Thee my body with all its senses.   
      
        Hail Mary...   
      
       With all my heart I praise Thee,   
       Most Holy Virgin above all Angels and Saints in Paradise,   
       beloved Spouse of the Holy Ghost,   
       and I consecrate to Thee my heart with all its affections,   
       and beseech Thee to obtain for me from the Most Holy Trinity   
       all the graces necessary for salvation.   
      
        Hail Mary...   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)