“For greater things you were born.” (Ven. Mother Luisita)
MONDAY, March 15th Jn. 4: 43-54 “Jesus said to him, ‘You may go; your son will live.’ The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.”
Part 1: Points for Reflection on the Gospel
Part 2: 10 WAYS TO INCREASE FAITH BY IMITATING MARY by Fr. Ed Broom, OMV
- The royal official travels a long distance to see Jesus; the distance between Capernaum and Cana is about twenty-five miles! He recognizes power and authority when he sees it. He approaches Jesus and asks Him to come to Capernaum and heal his son who is dying.
- At first Jesus accuses him of seeking signs and wonders. Does the official take offense? Quite the opposite; he insists more urgently! “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
- Jesus performs this cure by His word alone – no laying on of hands as with the leper, no applying mud to the eyes of the blind man, just His word: “You may go; your son will live.”
- What is the official’s response? “The man believed what Jesus said and left.”
- FAITH! Here is a man who has faith in Jesus. How strong is our faith? De we believe that Jesus answers our prayers, but in the way that is best for us, even if we can’t see it? Let us beg for deeper faith in Jesus and the power of prayer! Let us share our faith by telling non-believers we will pray for them in their difficulties. No one has ever refused my offer to pray for them. Suffering softens the most resistant hearts. Every atheist is a potential believer!
- INTENSITY! The intensity of the official’s prayer is revealed in the distance he was willing to travel to save his son – twenty-five miles, at least a day’s ride on horseback! Do we pray intensely and at great cost to ourselves? Do we make the extra effort to go to daily Mass for our intentions? To add 15 minutes to our holy hour for our intentions? To pray an extra Rosary each day for our intentions? Do we fast for our intentions?
- HUMILITY! The official is an important man; people come to him for help! Yet here he is, a humble supplicant before this itinerant preacher! How often does our pride get in the way of asking the Lord for help? Sometimes we prefer to fail than admit our weakness! Sometimes it is only when our heart is broken that we allow Him to enter!
- PERSISTENCE! The official is not put off by Jesus’ rebuff. He asks again! If Jesus had not responded, we can imagine he would have kept begging the Lord for his son’s life!
- TRUST! The official trusts Jesus! “You may go; your son will live,” and on Jesus’ word alone the official returns 25 miles home. Do we have that kind of confident trust in Jesus’ word?
- What is His word to us? “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Mt 7: 7-11)
- We shouldn’t wonder if our prayers will be answered; we should wonder why we still doubt!!! They will always be answered. Not always in the way we want, but always in the way that is most conducive for our salvation and the salvation of those we pray for!
- LOVE! “Whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in them.” (1 Jn 4:16) God is already at work in the official through his sacrificial love for his son! For this reason he is able to accept the recovery of his son for the miracle that it is, and he and his whole household are converted!
- Saint John tells us, “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love!
PART 2: Ten Ways to Increase Faith by Imitating Mary…by Fr. Ed Broom, OMV
Mary is the Masterpiece of Creation, in the words of Saint Louis de Montfort. She is worthy of imitation. Mary is the Daughter of the Eternal Father; she is the Mother of the Eternal Son, and she is the Mystical Spouse of the Holy Spirit. In other words, Mary is intimately united to the Trinity and she can unite us with God. For that reason, Saint Louis de Montfort says: “Mary is the quickest, shortest, and easiest path to Jesus.”
If we get to know Mary, we love her; if we love her, we want to imitate her; and imitation leads to a desire to make her known. Finally, we become like the one we love. Therefore, let us pray for the grace to imitate the Blessed Virgin Mary in her most sublime virtues and she will lead us to heaven.
Let us learn the ten virtues of Mary and beg Our Lady for the grace to put them into practice!
1. Great Faith
Mary was truly a woman of great faith. At the death of Jesus, the faith of the Apostles was deeply shaken, shaken to its very foundation. Our Lady suffered intensely, but her faith never wavered. So let us turn to Mary in the midst of the storms, tempests, and intense trials of life to have faith. Mary, strengthen my faith! Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, specifies that Mary was the first disciple of Jesus — indeed the most faithful disciple!
Dearest Mother Mary, I believe, increase my faith!
2. Unwavering Hope
Not only did Mary have a deep and solid faith, but she had unwavering hope. In Mary alone, hope was alive from Good Friday to Easter Sunday morning! Saint Ignatius of Loyola, and Catholic tradition, have pointed out that Jesus first appeared to His Mother Mary after He rose from the dead. Our Lady helps us to lift our mind, our heart, our soul, our total being with unwavering hope in God and heaven.
More than anything else Mary wants to help us get to heaven. This is hope — trusting that through Mary’s prayers, we will safety arrive at heaven.
Dearest Mother Mary, help me to pray daily: Jesus and Mary I trust in you!
3. Charity & Supernatural Love
Mary possessed charity and supernatural love. The greatest of all virtues is charity — and supernatural love is to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. No one ever loved God and neighbor more than Mary. Her love for God is a blazing fire, and her zeal for the salvation of souls has no limits, and will never have limits! Mary sparks love in our hearts, and due to her powerful intercession, an ardent love for God and neighbor.
Dearest Mother Mary, teach me how to love like you, and like you, to die of love!
4. Model of Patience
Beyond a shadow of a doubt, one of the virtues that we need most is that of patience, better yet, heroic patience! Our Lady patiently waited upon the Lord. She patiently accepted all of the contradictions and sufferings that God allowed her to undergo. She patiently accompanied Jesus on the Way of the Cross. But most especially, Mary patiently stood beneath the cross, suffering with Jesus for our salvation and the salvation of the world.
Dearest Mother Mary, help me to grow in heroic patience.
5. Model of purity
Our Lady of Fatima said that most souls are lost for all eternity due to the sins of the flesh—that is to say, due to the sins against the sixth and ninth commandments related to purity. Consecration to Mary and to her most pure and Immaculate Heart, is a most powerful means to attain purity, be an example of purity, live modesty, and die with a pure heart.
Mary most holy, Mary most pure, attain for me purity of heart, mind, body, and soul. Help me to live out the Beatitude: “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God.” (Mt. 5: 8)
6. Obedience of Mary
Jesus was “obedient to death, even to death on a cross.” (Phil. 2) Like Jesus, Mary treasured and lived out that most demanding virtue of obedience. By pronouncing her Fiat (Yes), Mary was expressing her desire to be totally submissive to the will of God in obedience.
“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word.” (Lk. 1: 38)
Dearest Mother Mary, in a world marked by so much rebellion and disobedience, help me to treasure and live out obedience.
7. Deep and Constant Prayer
Our Lady had a constant, dynamic, and profound union with God at all times and in all places—this is prayer! One of the primary messages of Our Lady is to pray, and to pray constantly.
Mary’s prayers for us are all-powerful! The first Public Miracle of Jesus, at the Wedding Feast of Cana, came about through the powerful intercession of Mary.
Dearest Mother Mary, I beg you, teach me how to pray and grant me a great desire to pray. Mary, pray and intercede for me always!
8. Mortification and penance
At both Lourdes and Fatima, Our Lady mentioned the dire need for prayer, but also for the practice of penance — or, if you like, the importance of offering sacrifices, especially for the conversion and salvation of sinners. At Fatima, Our Lady said that many souls are lost because not enough people offer prayers and sacrifices for them. Our Lady told the children at Fatima that they could offer everything as a sacrifice to God, especially for the conversion of sinners.
It is not so much the greatness of the act, but the love that accompanies the act that gives power and merit to the action.
Dearest Mother Mary, I offer my penances to God through your Immaculate Heart!
9. Angelic sweetness and meekness
Another sublime virtue of Mary is that of her angelic sweetness or sublime meekness. By this we mean that Mary was very kind, loving, meek, affable, attractive, and appealing, and always pointing to God. In our dealings with others, may Our Lady inspire in us great sentiments of kindness, compassion, gentleness and meekness.
As Our Lady greeted Saint Elizabeth with exquisite charm, may we do the same in our social meetings and encounters. Pope Francis expressed this in his document, Joy of the Gospel.
Dearest Mother Mary, help me to love others with your gentleness and meekness, never seeking my own gain.
10. Strength of Spirit
Mary most holy embodied a gentle and meek spirit, this is so true. However, she was also a strong woman. This is exemplified most clearly as she stood at the foot of the cross, called the Stabat Mater (the Mother Standing). In the last moments of our life, when we are about to breathe forth our spirit, let us turn to Mary and beg her for courage and strength, and for the grace of all graces, to die in the state of grace, so that we will be united with her forever in heaven praising the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit!
Dearest Mother Mary, assist me in my last agony, with your courage and strength to sustain me.
