From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Come and Be Filled   
      
   "Let us come to this Supper and be filled to satiety. And who have   
   come to this Supper except the beggars, the sick, the lame, and the   
   blind?   
      
   Let the beggars come, for he invites us who became poor for our sakes.   
   Let the sick come, for it is not the healthy who need a physician but   
   the sick. Let the blind come and say to him: "Give light to my eyes   
   lest I sleep in death.""   
   --St. Augustine--Sermon 112, 18   
      
   Prayer: O God, come to me in your kindness. For you are the good and   
   the beautiful, in whom, by whom, and through whom all things are good   
   and beautiful.   
   --St. Augustine--Soliloquies 1, 1   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   March 25th - The Feast of the Annunciation   
    and the Incarnation of the Word   
      
   Texts of St. Louis Grignion de Montfort :   
   First text: “Those who undertake this holy slavery should have a   
   special devotion to the great mystery of the Incarnation of the Word.   
   Indeed, the Incarnation is the mystery proper to this practice,   
   insomuch as it is a devotion inspired by the Holy Ghost:   
      
      1. First, to honor and imitate the ineffable dependence that God   
   the Son was pleased to have on Mary, for His Father’s glory and our   
   salvation. This dependence appears in a particular way in this   
   mystery, where Our Lord Jesus Christ is a captive and a slave in the   
   bosom of the Most Holy Virgin, and depends on her for all things.   
      
      2. Second, to thank God for the incomparable graces He has given   
   Mary, and particularly for having chosen her to be His most worthy   
   Mother, which choice was made in this mystery.” (True Devotion to   
   Mary, Montfort Publications, 1975, p. 165).   
      
   Second text: “Time does not permit me to explain here the excellences   
   and grandeurs of the mystery of Jesus living in Mary, in other words,   
   the Incarnation of the Word. I will content myself to say these few   
   words. We have here the first mystery of Jesus Christ--the most   
   hidden, the most exalted, and the least known. It is in this mystery   
   that Jesus, in concert with Mary, has chosen all the elect. For this   
   reason, her womb is called by the saints aula sacramentorum, the room   
   of the secrets of God. From this mystery, He has wrought all the   
   subsequent mysteries of His life …. Hence, this mystery is the   
   summation of all mysteries and contains the will and grace of all.   
   Finally, this mystery is the throne of the mercy, the liberality, and   
   the glory of God.” (Ibid., p. 167)   
      
   Comments of the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: (died 1995)   
      
   The two texts here are co-related. 1st, St. Louis de Montfort affirms   
   that the mystery of Incarnation is par excellence the one to which the   
   true slaves of Our Lady should have devotion. 2nd, he sustains that   
   the mystery of the secret life of Jesus in Mary is a mystery that   
   contains all the others, that it was the point of departure for all   
   the wonders of His life.   
      
   Let us analyze the 1st part and then the 2nd.   
      
   The Treatise of True Devotion to Our Lady is, in my opinion, a   
   prophetic book with regard to what it states about the mysteries and   
   devotion to Our Lady. One sees that the profound things St. Louis de   
   Montfort says will be revealed as theology develops in the Reign of   
   Mary. Today, the meaning of his words cannot be fully comprehended.   
   For example, who can entirely understand his affirmation that Our Lord   
   was the slave of Our Lady during the time He lived in her? After the   
   Annunciation and the fiat of Our Lady, Our Lord was made flesh in her   
   bosom. From that moment, He had a perfect knowledge of everything. He   
   was cloistered inside her, living in exclusive contact with her, in a   
   complete dependence on her, the most complete dependence a person can   
   have upon another.   
      
   The Word Incarnate, completely lucid from the first moment of His   
   being, chose to live this life inside another creature. It was by His   
   design He lived inside that temple, that palace, in a mysterious   
   relation with Our Lady. God manifested His omnipotence in the   
   Incarnation. He also manifested His power by maintaining Our Lady a   
   Virgin before, during, and after the parturition. Everything about the   
   Incarnation is so extraordinary that He could have arranged for Our   
   Lord to be born just a short time after the conception. But He did not   
   do this. He chose to live the full nine months in her. He wanted to   
   establish that special form of dependence upon her. He chose to have   
   that profound and mysterious relations of soul with her. In short, He   
   wanted to be her slave. But a special kind of slave, because the   
   normal slave has his own life, he breathes on his own, he has freedom   
   of movement. What He wanted was more than this, it was to depend   
   entirely on Our Lady.   
      
   What kind of relation of souls was established during this period?   
   What type of union took place? It is an impenetrable matter. But just   
   to have a certain reference point, we should consider that in the   
   mystery of the Incarnation, Our Lord assumed a human nature, that is,   
   in addition to being true God, He also became true Man. That is, He   
   had soul and a body, as we do. He was a descendent of Adam and Eve   
   like us. But parallel to this, His human soul had--and has--a union   
   with God so close that Jesus Christ is part of the Holy Trinity. In   
   Jesus Christ there are not two persons, there is only one Person, even   
   though the human soul of Christ was created. How can a human soul   
   constitute one person with God? It is a mystery. Theology teaches us   
   that this is a hypostatic union, but it does not explain the mystery.   
      
   Considering His divine and human natures, how can one explain why Our   
   Lord cried out on the Cross, “My God, My God, why hast Thou abandoned   
   Me?” At that moment, He continued to be God, but He chose to suffer in   
   His humanity a kind of abandonment and isolation that made Him feel in   
   His human nature a complete abandonment, even though He remained   
   united with God in His Divinity. Again, we have a mystery.   
      
   The union of Our Lord with Our Lady when He was in her womb is less   
   than, but similar to His hypostatic union. It is entirely   
   incomprehensible, but a day will come when light will fall on it for   
   mankind. I believe that in the Reign of Mary a theological explanation   
   will be made for the greater glory of God and the good of the souls.   
      
   There are still many unexplained mystical points regarding the union   
   that Our Lady has with each one of her slaves, which is incomparably   
   less than the divine mystery of her union with Our Lord. All these   
   mysteries follow the same line, but we do not know how to explain   
   them. What we can see, however, is that these mysteries take a   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)