Author: Essy Dias

74 j-k, o-p

Priests of my Movement, you beloved sons of my sorrowful Heart, what must you do in order to save all these priests who are so ill and so much in need of my motherly help? Help them, without ever judging them. Love them always. Do not condemn them; this is not your role. Love them by your suffering, by your witnessing, by your good example. Suffer with the pope, with the bishops, with the faithful priests. This is the cross which Jesus now asks you to carry: to live side-by-side with brother priests who no longer believe, who spiritually are no longer alive, will betray the Gospel, who are unfaithful servants and yet remain in the Church to be ministers of this infidelity. This is for you the heaviest of crosses, but it enters into a greater plan of mine. The decisive events have already begun, and the one you are living through is the beginning of these.

 

Some thoughts: I’m not a good ‘sufferer’, in fact I pretty much do everything in my power to run from the cross as much as I humanly can. I procrastinate, I waste time on useless activities, I self isolate, I turn to food  to help me numb the pain of the moment…over and over, non stop. I have escapism down to an art form. I told my Confessor this on Sunday before attending Easter Mass and he reminded me that our daily crosses can be a source of redemption for others. Acckkk…of course they can. Why can’t I remember this when I’m getting ready to run for it?  

Dear Blessed Mother, help us to remember to unite our small sufferings  to the Cross of your Beloved Son. May they bring about the conversion of those who have fallen away from the faith, especially priests and our close family and friends.

 

Our participation in Christ’s sacrifice

618 The cross is the unique sacrifice of Christ, the “one mediator between God and men”.⁴⁵² But because in his incarnate divine person he has in some way united himself to every man, “the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery” is offered to all men.⁴⁵³ He calls his disciples to “take up [their] cross and follow [him]”,⁴⁵⁴ for “Christ also suffered for [us], leaving [us] an example so that [we] should follow in his steps.”⁴⁵⁵ In fact Jesus desires to associate with his redeeming sacrifice those who were to be its first beneficiaries.⁴⁵⁶ This is achieved supremely in the case of his mother, who was associated more intimately than any other person in the mystery of his redemptive suffering.⁴⁵⁷ Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.⁴⁵⁸

1368 The Eucharist is also the sacrifice of the Church. The Church which is the Body of Christ participates in the offering of her Head. With him, she herself is offered whole and entire. She unites herself to his intercession with the Father for all men. In the Eucharist the sacrifice of Christ becomes also the sacrifice of the members of his Body. The lives of the faithful, their praise, sufferings, prayer, and work, are united with those of Christ and with his total offering, and so acquire a new value. Christ’s sacrifice present on the altar makes it possible for all generations of Christians to be united with his offering.

 

69 e-g (The Blue Book)

My beloved sons, let yourselves be truly detached from everything! See: it is not your defects, your falls or your great limitations that prevent you from being totally mine and available for my great plan. Oh, no! On the contrary, these are great gift to you because they help you to realize how little you are and to remain little. They give you, so to speak, measure of your littleness.

It is your attachments which make up the only obstacle which prevents you from being totally mine. How many ties you still have, my sons! Ties to your own self, to other persons however good and holy day be, to your activities, to your ideas, to your feelings. And I will break them, one by one, so that you will be mine alone.

With each day that passes, I will liberate you from your attachments, and I’ll make you more and more free, little, trusting and surrendered, until you are totally mine and my Immaculate Heart is in fact your only good. Then I’ll be able to act in you and carry out my work as Mother, which is that of making each one of you into a living copy of my Son Jesus. Entrust yourselves to me without fear. Every pain that you feel because of a new detachment will be soothed by me with a new gift of love. Each time that you detach yourself from a creature, you will feel your Mother closer to you.

Day 1 of Mary’s Mantle Consecration: Thanksgiving

 

“ One of God’s first acts of love for you was to create this world so that you could be born into it.”

“Since all of the good within and around us comes from the magnanimous and benevolent hand of our Creator take a moment to write down some of the many gifts and graces He has bestowed on you.” (Mary’s Mantle Consecration Prayer Journal)

 

 

The following is from today’s readings… so much to be thankful for right there…

A reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah

Thus says God, the LORD,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spreads out the earth with its crops,
Who gives breath to its people
and spirit to those who walk on it:
I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice,
I have grasped you by the hand;
I formed you, and set you
as a covenant of the people,
a light for the nations,
To open the eyes of the blind,
to bring out prisoners from confinement,
and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.

My Reflection:

What an interesting place to be put into here at the start of Holy Week and the Consecration prep… to acknowledge and be grateful for so much goodness, but yet to be told in the Blue book message to not get too attached. The things we cling to, end up binding us…even the good things. They risk becoming idols. We are meant for more. For Him alone!

It reminds me of St. John of the Cross and the Nada Path. Nothing but God!!

 

 

To reach satisfaction in all
Desire satisfaction in nothing.
To come to possess all
Desire the possession of nothing.
To arrive at being all
Desire to be nothing.
To come to the knowledge of all
Desire the knowledge of nothing.
To come to enjoy what you have not
You must go by a way in which you enjoy not.
To come to the knowledge you have not
You must go by a way in which you know not.
To come to the possession you have not
You must go by a way in which you possess not.
To come to be what you are notYou must go by a way in which you are not. (AMC, I, 13, 11: 150)

 

67 n,o (Blue Book)

You also will be persecuted: the time will come when you will be the only light left burning, and thus, through your fidelity to the Gospel and your sufferings, you will be able to point out the way of salvation to a vast number of souls. And through my intervention, this light of yours will never be completely extinguished. My especially loved ones, be aware of my presence as Mother at the side of each one of you. Now the days are passing, and the great moment is approaching. This is the hour when I am gathering you together from each part of the world to enfold you all in my Immaculate Heart.

 

 

Wholly united with her Son . . .(Catechism of the Catholic Church)

964 Mary’s role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it. “This union of the mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of Christ’s virginal conception up to his death”;⁵⁰⁴ it is made manifest above all at the hour of his Passion:

Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross. There she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, joining herself with his sacrifice in her mother’s heart, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim, born of her: to be given, by the same Christ Jesus dying on the cross, as a mother to his disciple, with these words: “Woman, behold your son.”⁵⁰⁵

 

 

 

 

66 c, d

It is this way that the invitation sent out by me has now reached all my chosen ones throughout the world. Thus the seed has been sown and is already beginning to germinate. With the coming year it will mature and blossom into so marvelous a spring that it will be a great joy and comfort for all my children. (Blue Book)

Prayer of propitiation for so many of your brothers who await this new year amidst amusements, simply straining to forget things and to enjoy themselves, and often they offend the Heart of my Son and my motherly Heart.

Fr. Andre’s Homily

We don’t need to purposefully seek crosses that weren’t meant for us, true sacrifice mostly entails embracing our own, the ones found while living out our own calling. And only then true freedom comes. Distractions, diversions and many amusements are nothing more than a contrived escape path. Mere temptations for us to escape our crosses and forfeit the freedom and joy that was meant for us.

Four Common Tactic of the Devil

“At the heart of all diversion is the fact that the devil wants us to focus on lesser things in order to avoid focusing on greater things such as a moral decisions and the overall direction of our life.”

 

1 Corinthians 7:35

I am saying this for your benefit, not to place restrictions on you. I want you to do whatever will help you serve the Lord best, with as few distractions as possible.

Bible Reasons/ Distractions

 

(65 e,f) Blue Book

As upon him so also upon you I pour out the fullness of my Son’s love so that no one will be able to resist this grace. The Holy Spirit will sweep you along like a little feather on the wave of his fullness. Each of the priests of my Movement will be this crown of love for me, a crown of lilies, of roses and of cyclamens, all these little children of mine. But no one will be able to resist the power of the Spirit which I will obtain for them.

(226k)

Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well-beloved Spouse!

 

V. The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.
R. And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.
 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
V. Behold the handmaid of the Lord.
R. Be it done unto me according to thy word.
 Hail Mary, etc.
V. And the Word was made Flesh.
R. And dwelt among us.
 Hail Mary, etc.
V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
LET US PRAY
Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts, that we to whom the Incarnation of Christ Thy Son was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection. Through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen

 

. . . she is our Mother in the order of grace

967 By her complete adherence to the Father’s will, to his Son’s redemptive work, and to every prompting of the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary is the Church’s model of faith and charity. Thus she is a “preeminent and . . . wholly unique member of the Church”; indeed, she is the “exemplary realization” (typus)⁵¹⁰ of the Church.

968 Her role in relation to the Church and to all humanity goes still further. “In a wholly singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope, and burning charity in the Savior’s work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace.”⁵¹¹

969 “This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation . . . . Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix.”⁵¹²

970 “Mary’s function as mother of men in no way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power. But the Blessed Virgin’s salutary influence on men . . . flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on his mediation, depends entirely on it, and draws all its power from it.”⁵¹³ “No creature could ever be counted along with the Incarnate Word and Redeemer; but just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various ways both by his ministers and the faithful, and as the one goodness of God is radiated in different ways among his creatures, so also the unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in this one source.”^{514 (Catechism of the Catholic church)}

 

The following video is lengthy but a must watch…especially if you don’t quite get all this Marian stuff. 😉 At the 50 minute mark he brings it home for me. The Chapel in the Mall that he refers to is where I was received and Professed as a Third Order Carmelite. 😀 I LOVE this SO much!!! <3

 

 

 

64 k, n

And the voice and the ideas which I will communicate to you will be those of my Son. How clear then for you will all the Gospel be! The gospel of my Son will be your only light, and you, in a Church filled with darkness, will give the full light of the Gospel.

Do not be afraid if the world does not understand you and does not accept you; there is always the Heart of the Mother which will be your home and your refuge.

It’s this Light that guides, instructs, comforts and heals. This anointing is so much needed right now.

1293 … it is fitting to consider the sign of anointing and what it signifies and imprints: a spiritual seal.

Anointing, in Biblical and other ancient symbolism, is rich in meaning: oil is a sign of abundance and joy;¹⁰³ it cleanses (anointing before and after a bath) and limbers (the anointing of athletes and wrestlers); oil is a sign of healing, since it is soothing to bruises and wounds;¹⁰⁴ and it makes radiant with beauty, health, and strength. 

436 The word “Christ” comes from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Messiah, which means “anointed”. It became the name proper to Jesus only because he accomplished perfectly the divine mission that “Christ” signifies. In effect, in Israel those consecrated to God for a mission that he gave were anointed in his name. This was the case for kings, for priests and, in rare instances, for prophets.²⁹ This had to be the case all the more so for the Messiah whom God would send to inaugurate his kingdom definitively.³⁰ It was necessary that the Messiah be anointed by the Spirit of the Lord at once as king and priest, and also as prophet.³¹ Jesus fulfilled the messianic hope of Israel in his threefold office of priest, prophet and king.

690 Jesus is Christ, “anointed,” because the Spirit is his anointing, and everything that occurs from the Incarnation on derives from this fullness.¹¹ When Christ is finally glorified,¹² he can in turn send the Spirit from his place with the Father to those who believe in him: he communicates to them his glory,¹³ that is, the Holy Spirit who glorifies him.¹⁴ From that time on, this joint mission will be manifested in the children adopted by the Father in the Body of his Son: the mission of the Spirit of adoption is to unite them to Christ and make them live in him:

The notion of anointing suggests . . . that there is no distance between the Son and the Spirit. Indeed, just as between the surface of the body and the anointing with oil neither reason nor sensation recognizes any intermediary, so the contact of the Son with the Spirit is immediate, so that anyone who would make contact with the Son by faith must first encounter the oil by contact. In fact there is no part that is not covered by the Holy Spirit. That is why the confession of the Son’s Lordship is made in the Holy Spirit by those who receive him, the Spirit coming from all sides to those who approach the Son in faith.^{15(Catechism of the Catholic Church)}

As we are sent forth on this joint mission of anointing and bringing healing, and it’s the suffering church that is most receptive to this light. 

“Heal the sick . . .”

1506 Christ invites his disciples to follow him by taking up their cross in their turn..¹¹⁴ By following him they acquire a new outlook on illness and the sick. Jesus associates them with his own life of poverty and service. He makes them share in his ministry of compassion and healing: “So they went out and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them.”.¹¹⁵

1507 The risen Lord renews this mission (“In my name . . . they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”¹¹⁶) and confirms it through the signs that the Church performs by invoking his name.¹¹⁷ These signs demonstrate in a special way that Jesus is truly “God who saves.”¹¹⁸

1508 The Holy Spirit gives to some a special charism of healing¹¹⁹ so as to make manifest the power of the grace of the risen Lord. But even the most intense prayers do not always obtain the healing of all illnesses. Thus St. Paul must learn from the Lord that “my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness,” and that the sufferings to be endured can mean that “in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his Body, that is, the Church.”¹²⁰

1509 “Heal the sick!”¹²¹ The Church has received this charge from the Lord and strives to carry it out by taking care of the sick as well as by accompanying them with her prayer of intercession. She believes in the life-giving presence of Christ, the physician of souls and bodies. This presence is particularly active through the sacraments, and in an altogether special way through the Eucharist, the bread that gives eternal life and that St. Paul suggests is connected with bodily health.¹²²

1510 However, the apostolic Church has its own rite for the sick, attested to by St. James: “Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders [presbyters] of the Church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.”¹²³ Tradition has recognized in this rite one of the seven sacraments.¹²

 

 

But we are not to make physical health an idol.

2289 If morality requires respect for the life of the body, it does not make it an absolute value. It rejects a neo-pagan notion that tends to promote the cult of the body, to sacrifice everything for it’s sake, to idolize physical perfection and success at sports. By its selective preference of the strong over the weak, such a conception can lead to the perversion of human relationships.

2290 The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine. Those incur grave guilt who, by drunkenness or a love of speed, endanger their own and others’ safety on the road, at sea, or in the air. (Catechism of the Catholic Church)

 

63 h, I (Blue Book)

Therefore in order to recognize this action of mine, you must have the eyes of a little child, the mind of a little child, the heart of a little child. You must again become simple, humble, recollected, poor, innocent. You must truly become once again those little children to whom alone will be revealed the plans of God, the mysteries of the kingdom of God. Thus the interior space of your souls will be brightened, and your hearts will be truly transfigured because I myself will imprint my image upon them.

Mark 10:13-16

And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.

 

Children have a docility about them, an eagerness to believe, they don’t over think things. They instinctively know who to trust and how to do it well, in full dependence, no egoism involved. Sin has not yet impeded this wondrous relationship with their Creator and the world around them since their Baptism, so grace abounds in them. The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation restores this to the rest of us who have succumbed to sinfulness.

1468 “The whole power of the sacrament of Penance consists in restoring us to God’s grace and joining us with him in an intimate friendship.”⁷³ Reconciliation with God is thus the purpose and effect of this sacrament. For those who receive the sacrament of Penance with contrite heart and religious disposition, reconciliation “is usually followed by peace and serenity of conscience with strong spiritual consolation.”⁷⁴ Indeed the sacrament of Reconciliation with God brings about a true “spiritual resurrection,” restoration of the dignity and blessings of the life of the children of God, of which the most precious is friendship with God.^{75(Catechism of the Catholic Church)}

 

paragraph 62 of (Blue Book)

a, b

My beloved sons, do not let your hearts be troubled. Why do you doubt? Why do you look with uncertainty at the present and the future in search of the sign which I have predicted to you? There is only one sign which God gives to the world and to the Church of this day. I myself.

d

My victory over the Red Dragon has been foretold and over atheism which is triumphing and apparently victorious today. This victory will be obtained through a triumph of my Immaculate Heart in the world, and I will achieve this victory through the priests of my movement.

f

For this reason prepare yourselves in prayer, in suffering and in complete trust in me. That decisive hours of the battle are near, but I am already declaring in advance that the great sign of my victory is you, O priest consecrated to me whom I am gathering together in the Church of which I am the Mother.

 

Catechism of the Catholic Church

507 At once virgin and mother, Mary is the symbol and the most perfect realization of the Church: “the Church indeed. . . by receiving the word of God in faith becomes herself a mother. By preaching and Baptism she brings forth sons, who are conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of God, to a new and immortal life. She herself is a virgin, who keeps in its entirety and purity the faith she pledged to her spouse.”¹⁷⁰

We are not only called to be ‘another Christ’ to the world, we are called to be another ‘Mary’ by ‘birthing’ Christ into a world that so desperately needs Him. We are called to be missionaries… starting with those closest to us.

854 By her very mission, “the Church . . . travels the same journey as all humanity and shares the same earthly lot with the world: she is to be a leaven and, as it were, the soul of human society in its renewal by Christ and transformation into the family of God.”³⁵¹ Missionary endeavor requires patience. It begins with the proclamation of the Gospel to peoples and groups who do not yet believe in Christ,³⁵² continues with the establishment of Christian communities that are “a sign of God’s presence in the world,”³⁵³ and leads to the foundation of local churches.³⁵⁴ It must involve a process of inculturation if the Gospel is to take flesh in each people’s culture.³⁵⁵ There will be times of defeat. “With regard to individuals, groups, and peoples it is only by degrees that [the Church] touches and penetrates them and so receives them into a fullness which is Catholic.”³⁵⁶

Today this takes on a different look because the ones that we are called to bring the Gospel to, may even profess to be Catholic but yet proclaim they’re true disbelief by their actions. we can’t pull back due to fear of offending. Although truth must always be spoken in love…it must still be spoken. This also brings to mind the importance of family Cenacles. Not as just another church prayer group for those who are already well established in their faith, but a place where the life of faith and the secular world meet.

 

 

57 a

Spend these days in continuous prayer; make your spiritual exercises with me… upon your descent from this mountain, I myself will lead you here and there, that you may gather my priests into my Movement.

Sometimes I feel an initial pull to something in these readings, then move forward…only for Mother to tell me ‘not so fast… let’s revisit this. 😀

Today was such a time, as it concerns the Spiritual Exercises. Something is developing in this area but I don’t want to say too much at this point.

So let me know… have you done the St. Ignatius Spiritual exercises? Do you have any special testimony or grace to share with us? I’d love to hear about it.

57b

Pray also for the Holy Father. There are grave and painful moments approaching for him, and I myself want to give him the comfort of your filial affection and of your prayer

 

Prayers For The Holy Father

Unity with the Pope and the Church united to him remains an indispensable characteristic of the cenacles of the Marian Movement of Priests.

“You must support him with prayer, with your love and with your fidelity. You must follow him, carrying out to perfection whatever he determines for the good of the Church.” (162e, Oct. 17, 1978)

*With the recitation of the rosary, it is customary to pray one Our Father, one Hail Mary and one Glory Be for the Pope’s intentions. These fully satisfy the conditions for obtaining the indulgence attached to the rosary.