We read: “Everything that is material occurs in time.” We are material, while at the same time we are also spiritual. Our ultimate end is union with God. Reflect on how we prepare for that eternal union with God in heaven. Mary was the one created human being who lived that intimate union with God while still on earth. How can she help us deepen our relationship to God through consecration to Jesus through her?
Saint Maximillian’s most important reflection on the mystery of the Immaculate Conception comes in a sudden burst of insight, just two hours before his arrest by the Nazis. When have you experienced a sudden or surprising understanding about a Truth of the Church? Are you able to articulate it for others?
“A person practices ‘purity of intention’ when he directs his thoughts, words, and actions not to himself or another creature but to a divine purpose or mission, and ultimately to God.” Such an attitude of the heart avoids doing things for selfish reasons and instead tries to do all things out of love for God and his glory. Identify an example from your life of a situation in which you believe you acted with purity of intention (your actions were guided by Divine Providence) Reflect on how you experience God working in such a situation. How Mary can help you act with purity of intention in your daily life?
Can you identify the blessings in these crosses? Can you say you have experienced “Heavenly graces or favors” as a result of bearing these crosses? In this final reading of St. Louis de Montfort’s teaching about consecration to Jesus through Mary, we are told an essential part of growing in holiness involves dying to self. Bearing our daily crosses is one way we are called to die to self. St. Louis says that these crosses are “the greatest graces and favors of Heaven.” Ponder what crosses you have been given.
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