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The
Mother He Left Behind |
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Fire |
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Death |
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The
Worlds Hope |
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First
Glorious Mystery: The
Whispered Name |
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Magdalen's
eyes were dim with tears, her mind dulled by lack of sleep
and grief, as she arrived at the tomb and found it empty.
At that early morning hour, that man moving in the garden
could be only the gardener. She cried out to him: "Sir,
where have you taken Him?" "Mary!" He replied.
How often I have failed to recognize Our Lord in the Blessed
Sacrament... |
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Oh,
yes, I have it on faith that He is truly present, body,
blood, soul and divinity. But how often have I heard Him
whisper my name and really recognized Him? How often have
my Communions, or my presence before Him as at this moment,
been such that my heart reached to engulf His Heart, even
as Mary rant to throw Herself upon Him? |
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In
these next ten Hail Marys, I am going to ask my Mother,
to whom Our Lord most certainly came first at the very moment
of His resurrection, to cause His name to be so whispered
in my heart during the vigil that I may recognize Him as
did Magdalen, and that the meager fire of love in my heart
may mingle with the flames of love in His. |
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Again,
in this mystery, I am reminded of the humanness of Christ,
of His personal interest in me. Three days before, at the
Last Supper, while reclining at that table, John actually
rested his head on Our Lord's bosom. That was the first
physical act of love and adoration to the Sacred Heart,
the prelude to St. John's first Communion. |
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Now,
again, Magdalen threw herself upon Him, fondling Him so
that He had to restrain her: Do not touch Me. I have not
yet ascended to My Father." |
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Usually,
Our Lord cured by touching people, or by being touched by
them. He used physical things, even something as lowly as
spittle mixed with dust, to place His Infinite Power in
contact with us. |
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Now
in His risen glory, bearing the lightsome scars of His Passion,
He is present before me under the species of bread. I know
this is so because He has told me. I know this is so because
during 2,000 years, men of great intellect and wisdom have
believed in this mystery and died for it. I know it because
of the tremendous number of miracles He has performed in
His Eucharistic state, possibly even more than He did in
all of His life in Palestine. |
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But
I want to hear Him whisper my name. I want to recognize
Him as Magdalen did. I want the scales to fall from my eyes
so that I can see Him with the eyes of faith so clearly
that my heart will leap up within me, and the minutes of
this vigil will be all too short to tell Him of my love,
and to make reparation for all those who ignore Him in His
Sacrament of Love. |
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Again,
after His resurrection, He appeared on the road and met
two disciples who were journeying a distance from Jerusalem.
They were sad and were discussing His curcifixion. He walked
along with them, and even though they had known Hima and
heard Him preach, and had seen His miracles, they did not
recognize Him. He was shrouded in the night, and had they
not seen Him die? How could they have imagined that this
stranger walking in the dark was He? |
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Then
when they came to the inn, He pretended to boing on, and
they had to beg Him to tarry with them. Finally came the
great moment. He broke the bread and they recognized Him! |
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How
often I have felt Our Lord walking with me, but I could
not see Him clearly. My heart has burned with envy as I
have heard words such as I am hearing now, or had thoughts
such as I am having during this vigil. Yet I haven't seen
Him clearly. I haven't heard Him speak my name. I earnestly
desire this favor now, not for my own satisfaction, but
so that I may more completely and worthily return the greatness
of His love. |
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Dearest
Mary, when He does speak to me and I know His reality and
nearness, how unworthy I shall feel in His presence! How
can I dare to reach out to Him as Magdalen did? |
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Oh,
I dare only to ask this favor, dearest Mother, because I
know from your visitation at Fatima that You offer me Your
Immaculate Heart with which to believe in Him, with which
to trust Him, with which to love Him. |
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Dearest
Mother of my Savior and my Mother, grant me, a poor sinner,
this favor now. |
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Optional
- Decade Prayer to the Father
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1)
Dear Father, the first recorded words of Our dear Lord after
His resurrection were: "Do not touch Me. I have not
yet ascended to My Father!" He reminded us, as He had
the night before He died, that He was sent by You to show
us Your Love. Confirm us in the hope of our own resurrection
to be with You forever. |
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Second
Glorious Mystery: The
Mother He Left Behind |
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Our
Lord knew the loneliness that would assail the apostles
when He left them. He knew the desperation and fear that
filled their hearts after the time of the crucifixion, and
that would still tear at their weak natures until the great
moment of Pentecost. |
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But
that was not the only reason He left His Mother behind to
be with them. Otherwise He would have left Her only until
Pentecost. But He left Her for fifteen years! She was to
be the bridge. She was to be the Mother of the Church. She
was to be the personal confidante of the first Pope. She
was to be the consolation of the beloved disciple who had
stood with Her at the foot of the cross, and the inspiration
of the fiery apostle who had persecuted the new Church. |
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Certainly
after Our Lord disappeared into heaven having told them
all that it was expedient that He go, but that He would
send the Paraclete who would make all things known to them,
what a sense of comfort must have filled the hearts of the
apostles when they realized that He had left His Mother
with them! As the days went on, She was gathered with them
in prayer at the cenacle, awaiting the fulfillment of Our
Lord's great promise. |
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What
a tremendous bond of love and trust must have developed
in the hearts of those first members of the Church for their
Mother! Today the world is forgetting this mystery of Mary's
importance in the Church. Many cannot understand why it
is that God sent the Mother of the Church at La Salette
at Lourdes, and finally at Fatima, with the apocalyptic
messages of our times. |
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Pope
Paul VI had to remind the world almost forcibly of Her importance
at the end of the last session of the Ecumenical Council
by officially proclaiming Her what She has always been,
Mother of the Church, while simultaneously announcing that
he was sending a special mission to Fatima to confer upon
that site where She showed Herself Mother of the Church
in our own time, the gift of the Golden Rose with the inscription:
We confide the entire Church to You." |
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This
is what Our Lord did when He ascended into heaven, so is
it any real surprise that the Holy Father repeated this
now? Is it any wonder that we should turn to Mary, here
in the presence of Jesus exposed, to find Her heart with
which to worthily honor Him? Find a love to return His love?
Find a trust worthy of His Infinite Goodness? |
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Certainly,
the closer we come to Mary, the closer we are certain to
come to Christ. Even though He is human, He is also divine.
I have no hope of grasping the greatness of this mystery
unless I associate it with themystery of a human being like
myself who was exempted from original sin. I cannot hope
to enter into this mystery unless I enter into the mystery
of Her Immaculate Heart. |
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O,
dearest Mother, my Mother and Mother of the Church, even
as You were physically present with the first disciples
in the cenacle after the resurrection, be present to me
now as I find myself here in the physical presence of Your
divine Son. |
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Obtain
for me now, as I pray these next ten salutations, a sense
of my responsibility in the Church, of my oneness with the
other members gathered here before the Blessed Sacrament
with me, and living in any circumstance, in any part of
this city, this state, this nation, this world. |
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You
appealed to me at Fatima, dearest Mother, to pray for the
conversion of sinners, to accept my responsibility as a
member of the Mystical Body of Christ. How can I fulfill
this request unless You help me? |
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Optional
- Decade Prayer to the Father
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2)
Ascending to You, dear Father, He said that You would send
the Holy Spirit to make all things known to us, and He left
His Mother behind to gather with the church in prayer as
we do now. Send Your Holy Spirit upon us and upon the Church! |
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Third Glorious Mystery:
Fire |
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After
their long days of waiting and of fearing, what sudden terror
must have gripped the hearts of many of the disciples when
the building trembled and the tremendous roar of thunder
was heard! But it was not the Roman Legions, or the armed
mob of the Pharisses storming the building. It was a far
different visitation! It was the fulfillment of the great
promise of Christ when He said: "It is expedient that
I go...I will send the Paraclet who will make all things
know to you." |
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Fire
appeared. The visible flame raged over Mary and then into
tongues that leaped forth and appeared over the head of
each person there! With the fire, came so many gifts that
it astounded the world and resulted in a change in the whole
course of humanity. Formerly weak, they were strong. Formerly
dull in understanding, they were now brilliant. Formerly
ignorant, they now spoke in many tongues. Formerly shaky
in their love, they now loved enough to die for God and
for the salvation of their fellow men. |
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Has
Our Lady not promised us at Fatima a similar visitation?
Today there are thousands huddled in concentration camps
or in the secrecy fo their homes behind the Iron and Bamboo
Curtains, living in constant fear. But, Our Lady has said
that if enough persons will pray, the militant atheists
will be converted. How will this conversion take place except
by a fiery storm of love from the Holy Spirit descending
upon them? |
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Our
Lady has promised that this evil that has been fomenting
wars, and that could bring upon us the annihilation of entire
nations, will be lifted if only enough persons will make
sacrifices and will pray for the conversion of sinners.
Is not the very event of Pentecost proof to us that Our
Lady can and will keep Her promise? Again, at Fatima, She
used fire to confirm the reality of Her promise. She promised
that on a certian day, in a certainplace, She would perform
a public miracle so that "everyone may believe."
On that day upwards of a hundred thousand people stared
into theskyand saw a ball of fire which was so much like
the sun that they described it as the sun. |
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They
saw it dance in the sky and suddenly plunge toward the earth,
as though it were about to consume them and all the world
around them. Each and every person in that vast throng was
convinced that it was the end of the world. Just as suddenly
as it seemed about to consume them, it gathered back into
itself and staggered back into the sky. Immediately, everything
around them which had been drenched by manyhours of heavy
rain, was dry. The sky had clered and the sun was shining
normally in the heavens. |
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Even
as Our Lady could cause this tremendous fire to appear in
thesky and fall upon the mountain at Fatima, certainly She
can obtain from God such a tremendous fire of the holy Spirit
that could convert not only the Communists, but could change
the hearts of the most wicked men. Above all, it could turn
those who are weak in their faith, it could turn weaklings
into giants, it could give us all the kind oflove that we
would be willing to die for God. |
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Is
there anything we could more earnestly desire for these,
our own days? Can't we identify ourselves at thismoment
with those who are imprisoned, with those who are praying
behind locked doors, with those who read of God and think
of God in secret? Oh, how important is this night! Because
so few have had the understanding. |
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I
am not worthy to be here. I am no better than any of those
who are not here. But, I turn to You, dearest Mother, and
remind You that it is because of Your appeal that I have
come. I need You. Please lend me the fire of Your Immaculate
Heart with which to call downthe fire of the Holy Spirit---even
as that fire called Him to by Your spouse and brought about
the Incarnation---even as that fire called Him down to the
cenacle to confirm all the disciples in the first Pentecost. |
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O,
Mother of the Church, be my Mother now. As I recite these
next ten salutations, with each one give me an increase
of the gift of the Holy Spirit and make me a victim soul,
an instrument to help bring about the great miracle which
You promised at Fatima, the conversion of militant atheists
and the peace of the world. |
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Optional
- Decade Prayer to the Father
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3)
Father, You kept the promise Jesus made as He ascended to
You. You sent the Holy Spirit with light and strength. Grant,
beloved Father, through the intercession of Our Lady, His
spouse, that we may receive His gifts. |
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Fourth
Glorious Mystery: Death |
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How
many of the deaths tonight will be inglorious? In the early
morning hours of this day, death wagons will roll through
the streets of Calcutta and Benares in India to pick up
the corpses of persons who died in the streets, unattended,
unwept for. |
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Some
will die tonight in concentration camps after years of torture
and semi-starvation. They will have no priest. They will
long have beenwithout the Sacraments. They will long have
endured the mockery of their faith. But even though they
may be unattended and dying in a most pitiable condition,
if they have persevered, how glorious their deaths will
be! |
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What
will my own death be like? Will it come within a week, a
month, a few years? Most certainly it will come. This is
as certian as the fact that I am here. |
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In
each of these Hail Marys I have been asking my Mother to
pray for me at the hour of my death---but not just for me,
but for all of us sinners. For while I need help at all
times in my life, the hour of my death is my last chance
for salvation. It is the last chance for everyone. who can
help those souls dying tonight in places such as Benares
and Calcutta? Who can help those who die in concentration
camps and prisons? Who can help those who die alone, without
spiritual succor? |
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Only
persons like myself---persons who ar ealso part of the human
family and who can reach through distances even to persons
unknown with the tremendous power of human love, with the
far greater power of prayer to the God who made us. That
is one of the most important reasons why I am here tonight.
I ham here because of the reality of death, which for amny
can be made glorious only if I and others like I remember
to pray. Was this not the most urgent, the most plaintive
message of Our Lady at Fatima? |
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She
showed the children a vision of hell, with souls falling
into hell in such great numbers that it was like leaves
falling from the trees in autumn, as she lamented: "So
many souls are lsot because there isno one to pray and to
make sacrifices for them." |
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Now,
as I come to the close of this night, in this mystery of
Our Lady's own death, I plead with Her in a special way
for the faith, the love, and the trust in God that will
enable me to obtain thelast minute conversion of a thousand
sinners. What love surrounded Mary at the moment of Her
death! What joys awaited Her as She was to be almost immediately
raised back to life and taken bodily intoheaven to reign
with Her diving Son! She had endured the birth, the years
of anxiety, the three days of loss, and finally the terrible
fulfillment of Simeon's prophesy, when She witnessed Our
Lord's passion, heard the pounding on the nails and saw
Him die. |
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She
had endured the fifteen years of exile from Him after the
ascension. She had humbly, in a thousand ways we can never
know, aided the new Church, comforted the apostles in their
distress, and anguished over the death of the first martyr.
Now, came that longed for moment, the moment of Her own
death. |
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Dearest
Mother, I need not remind You tonight of all those who may
not only die ingloriously, but may die in mortal sin---lost
to the Passion of Your Son, lost to all the graces He brought
to the world through You. It is You, dearest Mother, who
at Fatima reminded me. You told me that we, the living,
are our brothers' keepers. Only we, still exercising our
free will, can raise the entire human family from its present
distress. Only we can change that terrible statement you
made at Fatima as you showed us hell: "There is no
one to pray and to make sacrifie for them." |
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I
am here this night, dearest Mother, to make that sacrifice,
to say those prayers. But, I am not worthy to be here. I
am not worthymyself to have a glorious death. I tremble
at the thought of my own final moments as I remember my
weaknesses, my failures, and the possible fall that I may
make tomorrow. It even has been known that some who make
the all-night vigils and holy hours becoem the special object
of Satan's hatred, and fall away not only from thisholy
practice, but into abominable habits of sin. Yes, dearest
Mother, I am not worthy to be here, and I tremble for my
own tomorrow. |
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However,
I have heard your plea. I recall before my mind the vision
ofhell which the children of Fatima described. I can still
hearechoing the words of little Jacinta: "O, if Our
Lady had not been there, I would have died of fright!"
Forgetting my own misery, dearest Mother, I accede to Your
request by giving this night in reparation for my sins and
the sins of the world. I plead with You for a glorious death
for a thousand souls now---that before this day is over,
because of this vigil, a thousand souls wo otherwise would
be damned, will receive the grace of final contrition. I
ask this, dearest Mother, by virtue of Your own most glorious
transition to Heaven. |
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Optional
- Decade Prayer to the Father
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4)
With what joy, Father, You received Your daughter Mary assumed
into Heaven! We are told that, in this joy, all Purgatory
was emptied. By Her intercession, grant relief to the Holy
Souls and final contrition to all the dying! And grant that
we may obtain, by Her motherly intercession, to be with
You and the saints forever in Heaven. |
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Fifth
Glorious Mystery: The
World's Hope |
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In
1946 Pope Pius XII sent a personal Legate to Fatima (Cardinal
Macella) and crowned the statue of Our Lady at the spot
where She appeared, simultaneously proclaiming Her in a
radio message to the world. |
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Then
in 1954, the Holy Father caused the most venerable picture
of Our Lady in Christendom to be carried from St. Mary Major's
in Rome to St. Peter's, and there over the tomb of Peter
he crowned that picture and instituted the Feast of the
Queenship of Mary. In his decree the Holy Father said: "We
are not instituting something new int he Church, but affirming
something old...and I recall to you that I first crowned
Her Queen of the World at Fatima." |
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So,
in a sense, we are living now in that moment of the flowering
of Christiantiy which could be called moment of Mary's Queenship.
This is themoment of the world's hope. As Pope John XXIII
put it: "Fatima is the hope of the world." Or
to use another epression of "the Pope of Fatima."
Pope Pius XII, which would seem incongruous against the
backdrop of the atomic armament race: "We are in the
springtime of history." |
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Yes,
the great promise of Our Lady of Fatima far outweighs Her
terrible prophesies of the second World War, and even of
the annihilation of nations: "My Immaculate Heart will
triumph, and an era of peace will be conceded tomankind."
But how will this reign of the queenship of Mary be accomplished?
Has the world even begun to recognize that it is by borrowing
the fire of the Immaculate Heart of Mary that we can bring
upon the earth the flaming love of His Scared Heart? Or,
to turn the analogy, is it not only bylighting our love
with the fire of the Immaculate Heart that we can attract
there the full flame of the love of Jesus? |
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The
very title Queen implies power. We so often think of Our
Lady as the humble virgin of Nazareth, the instrument of
God's grace, themeans by which He has come to the world.
But we too rarely think of Her in the fulfillment of Her
role as intermediary, in the fulfillment of Her position
as the means of God's coming to our world. |
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We
rarely think of Her in the fullness of Her power --- a power
so great that Christ acknowledged it by performing a miracle
before His time at Her mere suggestion, and the first miracle
in history at a predicted time and place in our very own
day at Fatima, so that "everyone may believe."
This is a dark hour for Satan, who trembles constantly in
remembrance of the words God spoke in the Garden of Eden:
"I shall place enmity between thee and the Woman, thy
seed and Her seed, and thou shall lie in wait for Her heel
and She shall crush thy head." |
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How
can we bring the power of our Queen into the world? We can
do this by truly being Her "seed"---by responding
to Her appear at Fatima as obedient, loving children would
do. She asked for our prayer and sacrifice, and this night
have we given Her enough? Oh no, dearest Mother, we want
to give You all the nights, all the days, all the hours,
all the minutes of our lives. We thank You for the grace
of being here. We thank You for all the graces we hae experienced
in these passingmoments. Now we long to become more efficient
instruments of Your love, Your grace, Your intervention
in the world. Since You are my Queen, take possession of
all my faculties. Make my heart Your heart. Fill my imagination.
Enlighten my understanding. Keep me ever conscious of my
tremendous power because I am Your child and You will hear
my requests---and since You are a Queen with power over
all things, when You hear me, the world will change. |
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Final
Prayer Before Closing Mass |
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Now,
I have ended my night with Your divine Son, fulfilling Your
request for prayer and sacrifice. I have borrowed Your Immaculate
Heart to love Him with Your love, to adore Him with Your
faith, to pray to Him with Your trust and confidence. |
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But
the greatest moment of all remains. Once again, I am about
to be present with You on Calvary, really and truly. Calvary
is about to become present to me in the Sacrifice of the
Mass. |
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When
I attended the Sacrifice of the Mass at the opening of this
vigil, I untied my heart with Yours at the foot of the cross.
You who are the Mother of suffering, the Co-redemptrix,
the sorrowful one. Now at this Sacrifice of the Mass, when
it is the suffering Christ who is to become present on the
altar when Calvary becomes present to me, I unite my poor
heart with Your Immaculate Heart, not in its mystery of
thorns, but in its mystery of pwer. |
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To
You, said St. Grignion de Montfort, have been confided the
keys fo the cellars of divine love. So wehn I kneel at the
foot of the cross during this Sacrifice, I will be kneeling
with the heart which the redeeming Christ cannot refuse.
In that heart, dearest Mother, I place the salvation of
a thousand souls who otherwise would be lost before this
night is over were it not for this Sacrifice, for this prayer. |
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This
is my gift to You, my Mother and Queen. This is my figt
to my Redeemer: A thousand souls. In these next ten salutations,
I will ask You for two special favors: |
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First,
dearest Mother, give me an understanding of my own unworthiness.
I would not be here if I had not been called. I would not
be here if, sometimes in my life, I had not been given the
star of Your devotion to guide me through the darkness,
to lead me up out of the slough of evil into which I fell,
and to bring me constantly back to the consuming love of
Jesus and the greater faith in His presence. |
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But
Satan who so deplores my keeping Your request for the conversion
of sinners, will not only do everything to prevent me from
making a vigil, but will try to spoil it all by pointing
out that there are not many people here, and that, therefore,
I may be some special kind of person because I came. I can
only overcome this kind of terrible temptation, dearest
Mother, if Thou will obtain for me that sense of perspective
and of right which filled Your heart when You explained
before Elizabeth that Your soul magnified the Lord not because
You were the Immaculate Conception, but because He who was
mighty had recognized the nothingness, the lowliness of
His handmaid. |
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Second,
dearest Mother, having asked You to preserve me from every
type of sin, especially the sin of pride, I ask You for
a final time to lend me Your Immaculate Heart, the heart
of My Mother and Queen ---but as St. Therese said"
"More a Mother than a Queen." I want this Mass
which I am about to attend to be the most improtant of my
entire life. No matter how many times previously I have
been privileged to be present on Calvary in the Sacrifice
of the Mass, no matter how many times I may have this privilege
again in the days to come. I know that right now I have
only this once chance, this one moment right now to speak
to Our Lord as He hangs on the cross. So give me all the
virtues I need by filling my heart with the virtues of Your
Immaculate Heart, that Our Lord may look down from the orss
and behold not unworthy me, but His own loving Mother, more
a Mother than a Queen---but will all the power of a queen
to vanquish sin, to drive Satan back into hell. |
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Optional
- Decade Prayer to the Father
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5)
Eternal Father, we rejoice to live in this age of mercy
when You have entrusted the peace of the world to Mary,
our loving mother! We hail Her as our Queen. See us clothed
in her livery and use us in Her service for the triumph
of Your Kingdom in our nation and in all the nations of
the world! |
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