Mary at Our Cross

This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable.  It has not been verified by the author. 

The middle of the afternoon on a warm day, it’s not an easy time to have a service, and especially for those of you who joined us for this morning. It’s been already a long day, and so it’s not easy, as I say, it’s not an easy time, but it makes the sacrifice we’re offering right now even more powerful. “When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved, standing near, He said to His mother, Woman, behold your son. And then He said to the disciple, behold your mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home.” The passages that we’re reading this morning and the rest of Maria Valtorta, and especially the passages that we’ll read tomorrow, help us understand both how much Mary was accompanying Jesus in His mission of saving and His great sacrifice.  And also because we can forget, as Catholics, we can think that well, then Jesus dies on Good Friday, and then we kind of skip to Easter Sunday without realizing how extreme was that trial in which Mary and the rest of the disciples were struggling to continue to believe, to continue to hope, to not give in to hatred at that time which was so dark. And it was when Jesus was no longer there to strengthen them, to guide them, it was Mary who was the one who was keeping the Church in faith and hope, in that darkest of moments with the Holy Spirit. And so, in this dark moment with the struggles that we’re living today, this presence of our Blessed Mother is especially important. And so, we saw that before Jesus died, He wanted to give us His mother. What was so important to Jesus in that moment in which the suffering was unbelievably intense, the type of suffering which makes people lose their mind. What was so important to Jesus that – and this was like when Jesus says, I thirst, that’s obviously, there’s a lot of sense to that physical and spiritual. But for Jesus, when the moment He most needed the support of His mother to be thinking of His disciple, John, and through John, each one of us. And like giving up the one great consolation He had on Earth, giving that up for you as to accompany you, so that she could accompany you and your struggles, and in a very special way today. You know, there’s some scholars have noticed that there’s been Marian apparitions throughout the history of the Church, but it’s especially in these modern times, but beginning especially with the apparition of the Americas medal in 1830, that there’s been an increasing series of apparitions which manifest our Blessed Mother’s presence with us; wanting to be, especially with us now. And so I wanted to, and these times that we’re living, I wanted to – we’re very grateful here at the mission for the messages the Lord has shared with us through Sister and I want to read one of these; which a lot of you have already heard this, but I think it’s good to hear it on this day. This was given; the Lord gave it that May 21 for the Feast of Pentecost. And I won’t read the whole thing, but it’s a message from our Blessed Mother, which I think is so appropriate right now for this day. And so it’s a rather long message. I’m not going to read the whole thing, but it’s still a rather long excerpt. And so, you can’t remember the whole thing, but you can see if maybe there’s one particular passage that stands out to you. “How much I love you children, with the love of the Father and of my Son and of the Most Holy Spirit of God that descends into my heart as a flame and from there as from a spring of water. I give it to you to drink, to console your hearts, to heal the wounds in your spirits, to heal your bodies, if it is necessary for your salvation and to give you the encouragement that you are not alone. My children, little ones of my heart, I see all your wounds. None of them pass unnoticed. Just as I washed and kissed each of my Jesus wounds, so I do with you kissing to console and to extract the venom that satan and his envy has injected into you with all his machinations and deceits. I cleanse your wounds with my tears. I cover them with my love. I take possession of them. And I offer them to the Father, together with the sacred wounds of my Jesus; all the wounds caused by pain and disobedience and the envy of satan, together with the most pure and holy wounds of my Jesus, of the Immaculate and innocent lamb, immolated out of love. The ones to be reparation for the others. Look at the wounds of my Jesus, the one He carries in His most holy body, and the ones that have lacerated His heart and that live reflected in my heart. Do not forget them children. Let them give you hope and fortitude, the certain hope of the incommensurable love of God for His creatures, for each of them, the love that seeks the eternal good. Eternal children do not be confused nor forget all that you see. Do not be afraid, do not be confused, nor forget that all that you see and live will pass, and that you are to live for this eternity, for the divine embrace that will surround you and fill you and heal you, and in which you will find everything that your heart desires. Not here children on this earth that is now full of sin and death, for the spirit. The earth itself groans children at seeing such great offenses against the heart of God. And the earth itself will be renewed, made beautiful, purified to be a worthy home and vessel for the renewed Church, for the new heavens and the new earth. Children, now more than ever, renew your hope by means of your faith in what we say to you and in what we do on your behalf. Look up to heaven, to the home that is prepared for you from the beginning. Lay aside the human longings and elevate them through your faith in pure and holy hope and to longings for God, longings of eternity. The rest passes away and how quickly it passes. Fulfill the obligations of your state of life but begin to live the hope of heaven and of He who dwells in it and who awaits you. The fruit of faith is hope, and the fruit of hope is fortitude. And all these lead to abandonment to God. That is why I ask for your faith. Why speak to you of hope and of the fortitude that leads you to scorn the imperishable; the perishable treasures of earth in order to appreciate the treasures of the love of God and its fullness that will be your reward in Heaven. Look at the holy wounds of my Jesus. Gaze at them in my heart. Hide your wounds in ours, allowing us to wash them in the blood and water which flowed from them so that purified of the venom of satan and of your own actions and offenses, they may be acceptable to our Abba as an offering of love, imitating the most holy offering that obtains everything. Children breathe this truth, let it enter as pure air into the deepest corners of your being and free you from any stench of satan and of human criteria that are so harmful to you. My children, you feel weak, incapable of doing what we ask of you, incapable of resisting, defeated, anguished on the brink of despair.  My little children, I know and that what hurts you the most is our apparent indifference to your suffering, that nothing seems to change. Nothing happens, and that your prayers seem to crash into a closed heaven, and how much this makes you suffer. I know, and your mother takes compassion on you, and therefore speaks to you to tell you that each day of each drop of your suffering is accounted for and will receive its consolation. To tell you that in order to form my army, a very hard formation is necessary. Time is short, and you must be formed in the crucible of suffering, of dryness and of the apparent abandonment by us, so that the seed of faith germinates in the darkness and takes root in the darkness and grows strong and vigorous, capable of withstanding what is upon you. Children, your mother knows what you will be facing and prepares you. This preparation requires that you see the face of my Jesus, His true face, not the distorted one that many of you have learned and that now causes you so much confusion and anguish, because not being the truth, it wounds your soul. We will show you our faces, and you will carry them in your souls as jewels and as shields. But before you receive them children, you must be purified in faith, all the trials that you live, all the anguish and darkness when you give them to us, we take them and make them useful, the old ones, the present ones and the future ones. We make everything useful, and we fill everything with life when you give it to us. You do not see the germination of a seed. How often, being hard and dry and surrounded by total darkness, it begins to swell and transform. It is the same with you little children, when you accept in faith what the Father, full of love for His children, permits. This is why I say to you, look with the eyes of eternity and long with the heart of eternity, by means of faith and hope. And in this way, you will have the strength to take one more step and another after that, during this time of the immediate preparation for the battle. I remind you once again of what happened to my beloved apostles, my beloved apostle sons at Pentecost. They were transformed and strengthened in order to fulfill the mission entrusted to them at all cost and sparing no sacrifice. The Most Holy Spirit of God descended into their heart and completed and sealed their preparation. It will be the same with you little children. Do not be afraid. To the one who is seated on the throne and to the Lamb, be praise and honor and glory and power for ever and ever. Amen. Amen, children, say it with me. Amen. So may it be done. Your mother who loves you and blesses you, Mary most holy, the morning star that announces the coming of the Son of justice and truth. Amen.

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
John 18:1-19:42