St. Kathryn’s Church
Hudson, New Hamsphire
May 7 - May
8, 2006
Flower offering by Miss Charlotte Keating. We thank you, and may
the Lord and his Blessed Mother continue to bless,
to strengthen and to take good care of you in all, body, soul, spirit and mind.
Amen.
May 26, 2006 A few months after I
became a Catholic on Easter 1998, I came to the realization (or shall I say the
Spirit urged me) that I needed to get to know the Blessed Virgin Mary since all
the faithful and devout Catholics love her.
They seem to have a very strong and loving relationship with the loving
and compassionate mother who helps them to get to know her Son in a most
personal and intimate way. Who would understand and love Jesus most if not his
loving mother who faithfully devoted her whole being and life to bear, shelter,
love, nourish, teach and support him throughout his ministry on earth? During his Passion and death, faithfully and wholeheartedly
she was united with him in accepting the will of the Heavenly Father. Excruciatingly, she bore his suffering wounds
and humiliation and death. She is now
with him in glory. She is our loving
advocate mother who feels our every pain and anguish and so readily intercedes
for our every supplication.
With God’s generous and special grace, urged by the Holy Spirit, I was open to
be taught and eventually I got to know our Lady. I know her well enough to have the confidence
to trust that she is always present to help guide me in my seeking to love the
Lord more intimately and to serve him more faithfully. Sustain by God’s grace and mercy, the more I
live my vocation, with the spiritual guidance and teaching as well as the
encouragement of my spiritual father -
the good shepherd given me by my Lord, the more I trust that THE LORD IS
my courage, my strength, my spirit and my very life. He sure is “the Way, the Truth and the Life”.
As
I do my active ministry, I come across many devout convert Catholics who too
would like to get to know our Lady. In
my experience, I believe that if the Spirit puts the desire in me to seek to
know her, He knows that His spouse is so ready to reveal herself to me. Thank you Blessed Mother! So instead of me
getting so busy and trying so hard to find books, articles, religious objects
and going to shrines to initiate my friendship with her, there is a simple and
contemplative way, but child-like in faith which worked for me. For instance, my spiritual father reminded me
often that I need to be more attentive and aware of God’s presence in
everything I do and encounter daily. If
I want to get to know the Blessed Mother, he said: “You have to learn to be
like her in virtues”. “Well, that would
take more than a lifetime for me!”, I told myself. But God’s love makes all things
possible. Like our dear poor St.
Bernadette who did not have the means and the intellect to pursue ways to find
our Lady, in hope and trust, I, bearing what my spiritual father advised in
mind, waited with an open child-like spirit.
When the time was right, she finally came. After the many encounters I had with her
through dreams and consolations, in faith, I got to know her. Now that I have grown a little stronger in the
Spirit, I do not have those same consolations, instead, I feel united with her
more intimately in living my vocation. That
includes imitating her virtues with whatever gifts God gives me. One of the unique consolations about the Blessed
Mother’s abiding presence in guiding me to her Son was my meeting with Pat
Alioto. She might or might not see how
our Lady came to her as simple and loving as that, but the Blessed Mother
did. Through Pat’s sincere search and love
for God and to do his will, she helped connected me to St. Kathryn’s Church in
July 27, 2006 A few days ago, I sent
the finished update of the Marian
Children Rosary we did at the church of Holy Spirit in
With St. Louis the Montfort
we can graciously affirm that: "the Holy Ghost, the more He finds Mary,
His dear and inseparable spouse, in any soul, the more active and mighty He
becomes in producing Jesus Christ in that soul, and that soul in Jesus
Christ." He goes on to say: "When the Holy Ghost, her spouse, has
found Mary in a soul, He flies there. He enters there in His fulness; He communicates Himself to that soul abundantly,
and to the full extent to which it makes room for His spouse." In Christ and Mary, Fr. Alberic
(To be cont.)
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