New Year, Protection of the Heart of Mary

“Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.”  When I was growing up, I didn’t see New Year’s Eve as a time, having any special religious or spiritual significance. It was just a worldly celebration. And it wasn’t till later on when I encountered the book called “The Marian Movement of Priests,” a book of what seems to be our messages or locutions from our Blessed Mother to a priest, that I was struck to see that in that book, she gave a lot of importance to New Year’s Eve. Well, that actually the two celebrations were in this Mass, we’re kind of combining two different celebrations. One was for New Year’s Eve, she was asking priests, not just priests but lay people to gather together and live it as a vigil of prayer, a vigil of prayer, intercession, adoration, reparation. And so that gave a very important and different significance to the end of the year, not just as just kind of empty parties. But as a real time of special prayer and intercession, of keeping vigil, and especially with all that’s going on in our world today. With this difficult year, as I’ve said, so many times, difficult and important year, for our country, for Church, for so many people that we know, and people that we don’t know, but we know it’s been a very, very, very challenging year for so many people.  So, it’s an important moment to gather in prayer.  And then for January 1, then she expressed how important that was at this great feast of Mary, the Mother of God, and how important her role was in God’s plans for children today.  And so, in this Mass, we’re combining these two, both this vigil of prayer to end the year, and also this Mass in honor of Mary, the Mother of God.  And so, I was preparing a while ago a homily when I thought we were still going to be with the larger group up on the hillside, and, of course, that had to change. But we’re glad that we could have still a few people with us today, and that you all can make it. So, I’ll just share with you because I was thinking, well, what would you want to say to us now, or what would our Blessed Mother want to say for us now. And, to share with you this little meditation, as a little inspiration, and it is like a meditation. And so, if you want to just close your eyes and listen to it, feel free to do so. But I felt, first of all that she wanted to remind us that she is truly our mother, and we are the sons and daughters of her heart. And above all, how much she loves us.  “Sons and daughters of the heart of our Blessed Mother. How much is unfolded in these words, so much more than their simplicity conveys. Her heart is the furnace of faith, it is its’ holy, abiding place.” You know that the scripture we had that I spoke of the heart of Mary.  “Her heart is completely immune to the attacks of the enemy, and to the attacks of fallen human reason, the attacks of satan and the evil spirit, and to the attacks of our human reason as it’s been when it’s used for evil corruption.  Both of them try to destroy simple childlike faith, true faith, everlasting faith.” And we all know so many people whose faith has been lost because of the attacks against faith, so we need to find a way to protect faith in the midst of so many attacks.  “In order to protect the fate of God’s children. He has given us her heart as a special refuge, like a citadel, high tower, a fortress to protect our faith.”   And remember at Fatima, our Blessed Mother spoke of how important it was to do it, to take refuge in her heart, to consecrate ourselves to her heart, for this as a fortress to protect our faith. “That is why our consecration is so important, so essential, so powerful. Her heart is the refuge of faith in these times when it is under such terrible attacks. Faith gives Divine Life in the same way that the breath of life animates the body, making it useful, living, capable of movement of expression, of love, living faith, animates our soul, making it useful, beautiful, alive, capable of cooperating with God, of receiving this light, like breath for our body. Living Faith is like the breath for our soul, making it living and capable of cooperating with God. Faith is what makes us live. However, while faith is being rooted in us, we experience it as death. A slow, agonizing death, lived in obscurity and loneliness.” And so that’s a great paradox, that faith is a paradox that many of the great mystics have spoken about, that faith is life, it’s giving the Divine Life to our soul. But given our situation here on earth, as it’s growing and taking root in as we experience it often, as a death. The Gospel often speaks that we need to die, in order to live, to die, there are human ways of doing things that are human ways of understanding, in order to live a new life, divine life. And so, faith is often experienced, as a death. And as like a slow, agonizing death, lived in obscurity. Because we don’t see, we don’t understand the loneliness. “By living in faith, God’s light begins to shine ever brighter in our soul.”  So, He is present, and not only through the grace of Baptism, but also through this growing faith. So, our Blessed Mother sees us, her children, so often tired, worn out in our spirit, weighed down by so many trials, so much suffering, that we share, in order to save our brothers and sisters.  For what we’re going through, is not just for ourselves, but it’s also a sharing in Jesus’ suffering, to help our brothers and sisters. “In this great work of salvation, our Blessed Mother asked for our help.” And so that’s our mission right now, to take upon ourselves, the pain of so many, and unite it to the blood of Jesus, and the tears of our Blessed Mother. And that’s precisely the sense of this Mass is to bring not only our own suffering, but bring all the suffering of God’s children today, and unite it to the blood of Jesus, and the tears of our Blessed Mother, so we can offer all of this to God, our Father, that the necessary atonement be completed, and that the dark veil of satan’s sin may be crushed, and crushed, and completely crushed. Our Blessed Mother’s heel, as the prophecy in the book of Genesis said, “and the heel of her children, shall crush the filthy head of the ancient serpent.”  We remember what Jesus said, “Who is my mother, my father, my brothers and sisters, those who do the will of the Father.” And we might ask, who are the sons and daughters of our Blessed Mother? Remember, what Elizabeth filled with the Holy Spirit said of her, “Blessed is she who believed that there will be fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” Blessed is she who believed, you know, we know that’s the special grace that the Lord is asking of our mission, faith, faith so that God can act, faith, believing, like we see in our Blessed Mother, believing what God revealed to us, which is sometimes so hard to believe. So, it’s those who believe, those who receive the word of God, those who accept His will, His word, without understanding, without seeing, or hearing. And I think those of us who’ve been in the mission for a while know how much that’s been our child to believe, without understanding, without seeing, or hearing. “So, her children are those who accept the seed of true faith and come to her to protect the seed. Thus, through faith, we become true sons and daughters of her heart, true sons and daughters of true faith. This faith shall be our crown, and her kiss, and her smile, it’s jewels. This gives a deep joy for her when we entrust ourselves to her, because she loves us.” So, in these special days, the special days that the season of Christmas, in the midst of this, as we end this year, 2020, be prepared to begin 2021. She invites us to live these days with her, not as an obligation, but simply to give her our love each day, so that she can place Jesus, her tiny little child Jesus, in our heart. Today we celebrate Mary as the Mother of God, so, she can place that tiny child, Jesus in our heart, so He can be happy to rest in our heart, as He rested with, remember, the heart of the shepherds of Bethlehem, very simple men who came that night.  Drawn in as He did, for so many years, Jesus rested in the heart of St. Joseph, who we’re celebrating this year. So much grace surrounds St. Joseph. He is near to and assists us and all we do. And here we’re in this chapel, dedicated to St. Joseph. We are her poor little children also, that have to endure this terrible time, which is like a desert because it’s so dry and barren. We’re just like at night, because it’s often so cold and obscure, which is like a storm, because of all the violence and turbulence. This terrible desert, night and storm of faith in which we do not see yet. We don’t yet see God’s powerful action. We see a world is so struggling, so fearful, so suffering. We don’t yet see how God’s light surrounds us. How the angels who are here also tonight, how the angels assist us, how our Blessed Mother’s smile is ever present for us. We don’t see how much we’re helping our brothers and sisters all around the world. And not just today, but our brothers and sisters who have lived and who will. That is when we obey the Lord’s word, it can bear fruit, not just beyond distance, but also beyond time. “Faith breaks all bounds of time and distance.” So, on this night, on this feast, that Mary the mother of God, remember that she is truly also our Mother and our Queen. And so, what does she want to tell us?  Just in very simple words to conclude, I think she would like to tell us, to say to us, “I love you, my tiny ones, my beloved ones, sons and daughters of my heart.”