12/24/2008

HE IS HERE "LET US REJOICE'

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled.This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear. The angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger."

And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying:
"Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."
When the angels went away from them to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us."
So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child.
All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. (Luke 2:1-19 NAB)


This morning while praying the scriptural way of the rosary the Holy Spirit broke open my heart. I was able to see our Lord Jesus as the helpless baby in His mother's arms come as our Peace. My Peace and your Peace, our Peace announced by the Angels come down from Heaven. They are the first ones in spreading the Good news with Holy Adoration by pointing the way to the Baby born in Bethlehem. The Creator has come to Earth under the illuminating rays of a bright Star so all can see His face and worship Him.
Our Creator comes to us as a baby in the arms of His Loving Mother who was filled up with Grace. The darkness of our disordered lives and altar-egos of trying to know good from evil and trying to obey the law through our own self determination now exposed in the Light of His coming. The Promise One of all the ages and of all Good the "I AM" is before us. His flesh is now with us. Baby Jesus body, blood, soul and divinity, now smiling in the arms of His Mother Mary and Saint Joseph at her side. He is the Baby of all babies. There is no other baby like Him. This Baby in the arms of our Mother Mary is the Head of the Church and the Creator of the Universe from which all unity and Loves flows. Truly God has emptied Himself and entrusted Mary and Joseph with Holy parental protection under angelic guidance. This Holy Family brings to us the key to the Kingdom seen on the face of Mary when she looks deep into her Son's eyes and sees His Father. She has no words on her lips, but can only ponder what she is experiencing in her heart with holy adoration. The fullness of Life that establishes Peace to all the world past, present, and future is looking back at her with total dependency and trust. This Baby is the Bread of heaven come down to feed us the Fathers Love!
Rejoice and again I say Rejoice!
O’ Come all you Faithful and let us Adore Him!
Joy to the World!

Peace of Christ to All,
Francis AmbroseT

A Word from Mother


The Father has shown me the fullness of His Kingdom and it is greater then what you will ever experience or know on earth. The Father desires His children to breath the prayer of complete abandonment to His will, so Love and Mercy be in your lives while on earth. I have poured forth the Fathers Divine Mercy upon all mankind. Don't let go of your devotion to me or the Divine Mercy, they are one in the same to our Father. Know the time on earth draws to a close fast and I want my Mercy to increase in your hearts.
Know that a scriptural rosary unto me your Mother excites the Fathers heart as He creates a new mind of Christ Jesus in you.
Never separate Divine Mercy from my Son's work of complete passion for your soul. Know that His Love is running to find you by the all powerful Holy Spirit my spouse.

Mary your MotherT

12/21/2008

The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary



The Holy Spirit has so much to teach us about Jesus Love and I believe Saint Ambrose has pointed out and unexplored view that has been mostly forgotten in the Church today. Let us ask the Father for ears to hear the faithfulness and receive the grace brought through His Son into this world in which we live. May we receive the fullness of His Love and the grace outpouring upon the world through His Mother Mary. Is my Prayer this season for all His Church.
Read this Passage First from Luke's Gospel;
Luke 1:27-45 NAB
In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said, "Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you."
But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." But Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?"
And the angel said to her in reply, "The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God."
Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.
During those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, "Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled."



The following was given by my Patron Saint Ambrose. In his commentary of the Gospel according to Saint Luke he gave the following words of inspiration.
The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The angel Gabriel had announced the news of something that was as yet hidden and so, to buttress the Virgin Mary’s faith by means of a real example, he told her also that an old and sterile woman had conceived, showing that everything that God willed was possible to God.
When Mary heard this she did not disbelieve the prophecy, she was not uncertain of the message, she did not doubt the example: but happy because of the promise that had been given, eager to fulfill her duty as a cousin, hurried by her joy, she went up into the hill country.
Where could she hurry to except to the hills, filled with God as she was? The grace of the Holy Spirit does not admit of delays. And Mary’s arrival and the presence of her Son quickly show their effects: As soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting her child leapt in her womb and she was filled with the Holy Spirit.
See the careful distinction in the choice of words. Elizabeth was the first to hear the voice but her son John was the first to feel the effects of grace. She heard as one hears in the natural course of things; he leapt because of the mystery that was there. She sensed the coming of Mary, he the coming of the Lord — the woman knew the woman, and the child knew the child. The women speak of grace while inside them grace works on their babies. And by a double miracle the women prophesy under the inspiration of their unborn children.
The infant leapt and the mother was filled with the Spirit. The mother was not filled before her son: her son was filled with the Holy Spirit and in turn filled his mother. John leapt and so did Mary’s spirit. John leapt and filled Elizabeth with the Spirit; but we know that Mary was not filled but her spirit rejoiced. For the Incomprehensible was working incomprehensibly within his mother. Elizabeth had been filled with the Spirit after she conceived, but Mary before, at the moment the angel had come. “Blessed are you,” said Elizabeth, “who believed”.
You too, my people, are blessed, you who have heard and who believe. Every soul that believes — that soul both conceives and gives birth to the Word of God and recognizes his works.
Let the soul of Mary be in each one of you, to proclaim the greatness of the Lord. Let the spirit of Mary be in each one of you, to rejoice in God. According to the flesh only one woman can be the mother of Christ but in the world of faith Christ is the fruit of all of us. For every soul can receive the Word of God if only it is pure and preserves itself in chastity and modesty.
The soul that has been able to reach this state proclaims the greatness of the Lord just as Mary did and rejoices in God its savior just like her.
The Lord’s greatness is proclaimed, as you have read elsewhere; where it says Join me in magnifying the Lord. This does not mean that anything can be added to the Lord’s greatness by human words, but that he is magnified in us. Christ is the image of God and so any good or religious act that a soul performs magnifies that image of God in that soul, the God in whose likeness the soul itself was made. And thus the soul itself has some share in his greatness and is ennobled.

St Ambrose's commentary on St Luke's Gospel

12/12/2008

FEAST OF OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE


O Immaculate Virgin, Mother of the true God and Mother of the Church!, who from this place reveal your clemency and your pity to all those who ask for your protection, hear the prayer that we address to you with filial trust, and present it to your Son Jesus, our sole Redeemer.
Mother of Mercy, Teacher of hidden and silent sacrifice, to you, who come to meet us sinners, we dedicate on this day all our being and all our love. We also dedicate to you our life, our work, our joys, our infirmities and our sorrows. Grant peace, justice and prosperity to our peoples; for we entrust to your care all that we have and all that we are, our Lady and Mother. We wish to be entirely yours and to walk with you along the way of complete faithfulness to Jesus Christ in His Church; hold us always with your loving hand.
Virgin of Guadalupe, Mother of the Americas, we pray to you for all the Bishops, that they may lead the faithful along paths of intense Christian life, of love and humble service of God and souls. Contemplate this immense harvest, and intercede with the Lord that He may instill a hunger for holiness in the whole people of God, and grant abundant vocations of priests and religious, strong in the faith and zealous dispensers of God’s mysteries.
Grant to our homes the grace of loving and respecting life in its beginnings, with the same love with which you conceived in your womb the life of the Son of God. Blessed Virgin Mary, protect our families, so that they may always be united, and bless the upbringing of our children.
Our hope, look upon us with compassion, teach us to go continually to Jesus and, if we fall, help us to rise again, to return to Him, by means of the confession of our faults and sins in the Sacrament of Penance, which gives peace to the soul.
We beg you to grant us a great love for all the holy Sacraments, which are, as it were, the signs that your Son left us on earth.
Thus, Most Holy Mother, with the peace of God in our conscience, with our hearts free from evil and hatred, we will be able to bring to all true joy and true peace, which come to us from your son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns for ever and ever.

Amen.


His Holiness John Paul II
Mexico, January 1979. Visiting Her Basilica during his first foreign trip as Pope