- Our
Lady of Good Counsel, patroness of the
11 guidelines - feast day: April
26
- Novena
to Our Lady of Good Counsel - April
17 to 25
- Holy Virgin, moved by the
painful uncertainty we experience in seeking
and acquiring the true and the good, we cast
ourselves at thy feet and invoke thee under
the sweet title of Mother of Good
Counsel. We beseech thee: come to our
aid at this moment in our worldly sojourn when
the twin darknesses of error and of evil that
plots our ruin by leading minds and hearts
astray.
Seat of Wisdom and Star of the Sea, enlighten
the victims of doubt and of error so that they
may not be seduced by evil masquerading as
good; strengthen them against the hostile and
corrupting forces of passion and of sin.
Mother of Good Counsel, obtain for us from
thy Divine Son the love of virtue and the
strength to choose, in doubtful and difficult
situations, the course agreeable to our
salvation. Supported by thy hand we shall thus
journey without harm along the paths taught us
by the word and example of Jesus our Savior,
following the Sun of Truth and Justice in
freedom and safety across the battlefield of
life under the guidance of thy maternal Star,
until we come at length to the harbor of
salvation to enjoy with thee unalloyed and
everlasting peace. Amen.
(By Pope Pius XII, 23
January 1953).
The
blessed path of tribulations
The monk, who continues faithfully in his cell and
lets himself be molded by it, will gradually find that his
whole life tends to become one continual prayer. But he
cannot attain to this repose except at the cost of stern
battle; both by living austerely in fidelity to the law of
the cross, and willingly accepting the tribulations by
which God will try him as gold in the furnace. In this
way, having been cleansed in the night of patience, and
having been consoled and sustained by assiduous meditation
of the Scriptures, and having been led by the Holy Spirit
into the depths of his own soul, he is now ready, not only
to serve God, but even to cleave to him in love. Carthusian
Statutes, chapter 3 
.
As an example, Dom Pablo (Thomas
Verner Moore ) states that
for the soul to turn spontaneously to the contemplation of
God "it is necessary that it should have labored long and
suffered much in a life devoted to the service of God."
He spent his last years back at Miraflores, not speaking
Spanish, blind, finally alone with God. This will be
ultimately the path of the SBPCLC's. The
Suffering Servant
Mary's spiritual motherhood
We celebrate the eternal newness of the mystery that is
Mary‘s spiritual engendering of Christ in our hearts.
Carthusian
Statutes, chapter 21 .
If therefore we are truly living in union with God, our
minds and hearts, far from becoming shut in on themselves,
open up to embrace the whole universe and the mystery of
Christ that saves it. Apart from all, to all we are
united, so that it is in the name of all that we stand
before the living God. This continual effort to be always
— as far as human frailty permits — very close to God,
unites us in a special way with the Blessed Virgin Mary,
whom we are accustomed to call the Mother in particular of
all Carthusians. Carthusian
Statutes, chapter 34 .
“Christ is the supreme Teacher, the revealer and the one
revealed. It is not just a question of learning what he
taught but of “learning him”. In this regard could we have
any better teacher than Mary? From the divine standpoint,
the Spirit is the interior teacher who leads us to the
full truth of Christ (cf. Jn 14:26; 15:26; 16:13). But
among creatures no one knows Christ better than Mary; no
one can introduce us to a profound knowledge of his
mystery better than his Mother.” Rosarium
Virginis Mariae by JPII, section 14
She is the safest, easiest, shortest and most perfect
way of approaching Jesus and (they) will surrender
themselves to her, body and soul, without reserve in order
to belong entirely to Jesus. Treatise
on true devotion to the Blessed Virgin, Saint Louis
de Montfort no 55
We make more progress in a brief period of submission to
and dependence on Mary than in whole years of following
our own will and relying upon ourselves. Saint
Louis de Montfort in Treatise
on true devotion to the Blessed Virgin
When you want to offer something to God, to be welcomed by
him be sure to offer it through the worthy Mother of God.
St. Bernard, quoted by Saint Louis de
Montfort in Treatise
on true devotion to the Blessed Virgin
“To be devout to thee O Blessed virgin, is an arm of
salvation that God gives to those whom He wishes to save”
(St John Damascene, True Devotion, 41)
Venerating the Mother of Jesus in the Church, then,
means to learn from her to be a community that prays, that
is one of the essential characteristics of the first
description of the Christian community outlined in the
Acts of the Apostles (cf. 2:42). Prayer is
often dictated by difficult situations, personal problems
that lead us to turn to the Lord for light, comfort and
help. Mary invites us to open the dimensions of our
prayer, to turn to God not only in need and not just for
ourselves but in a unanimous, persevering, faithful way
with a " of one heart and mind" (cf.
Acts 4.32 ). Pope:
Praying with Mary, mother and Church Benedict XVI
Our Total
Consecration to Mary
Saint Louis-Marie De Montfort's own blessed path
of tribulations, gifted us of the Total
Consecration to Mary
,
in view of cleaving ever deeper to God. Our own
personal Total Consecration to Mary could be a fruit of
listening with the heart to the 11 guidelines, wishing to
surrender ourselves more and more to a life of continual
conversion through notably regular sacramental confession (Step 1),
into living in a permanent "spirit of confession" (Adrienne
Von Speyr Confession ),
by our True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, Mother of the
Carthusians, and without which we who would wish to follow
Saint Bruno, would be certainly lost, because "Our
sanctity depends on the degree of our nearness to Mary.
She is the nearest to God, and if we are the nearest to
her then we therefore will be nearest, through her, to God
Himself" Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe.
Questions
for reflection and further development
- How does one who has made total consecration to Mary
situate approved Marian apparitions, such as Fatima, and
their messages within devotion to the spirituality of De
Montfort ?
- Perfect Devotion to Jesus through Mary, the
spirituality of De Montfort is entirely based
on Sacred Scripture.
- In Public Revelations such as Fatima, if, when and
what is approved: the Church's discernment is entirely
based on Sacred Scripture.
- For example the messages of Fatima speak of
"penance", which is also Scriptural.
- How does one account for the absence of reference to
devotion to Mary in the sayings of the Desert Fathers ?
- In response to the lack of space paid to the Mother of
God in the sayings of the Desert Fathers: it is true
that the Theotokos receives far less space in these
writings than in other texts of the Church, but this is
largely explained by reference to the pragmatic
character of the sayings -- they are principally aimed
at delivering practical advice on living the ascetic
life of virtue and devotion, and in general do not deal
with 'theological' or exegetical teachings on the Faith
or persons within it. Discussions on the precise
attributes of the holy Mother of God lie outside this
general purview, and so they receive little time.
- But there is a notable and important exception. We
find in saying 144 of Abba Poemen the Shepherd: "Abba
Joseph related that Abba Isaac said, 'I was sitting with
Abba Poemen one day and I saw him in ecstasy and as I
was on terms of great freedom of speech with him, I
prostrated myself before him and begged him, saying,
"Tell me where you were." He was forced to answer and he
said, "My thought was with St Mary, the Mother of God,
as she wept by the cross of the Saviour. I wish I could
always weep like that."'
- It is especially noteworthy that Abba Poemen
uses the title 'Mother of God' for the holy Mary,
demonstrating that what would later be conciliarly and
doctrinally 'approved' as an appropriate theological
title was already in popular use among the simple and
holy folk of the Egyptian desert.
- It is also interesting to note that Mary is already
being called 'Saint', even at this early date. Source
- How might one best integrate the Eastern iconography
tradition of the Theotokos, within consecration to Mary
?
- Icons are customary in all Eastern Orthodox Churches,
and are often called “windows to heaven,” because they
offer us a glimpse of what awaits us in eternity with
Christ. An icon can be defined as an image created for
religious veneration that provides a space for the
mystical encounter between the person before it and God.
Icons usually represent Christ, the Virgin Mary, the
saints, and angels. Since the sixth century, they have
been considered to be a means to assist the worshiper in
making his prayers heard by the holy figure represented
in the icon.Eastern Iconography tradition considers
Icon's a prayer, window into an almost Real
Moral Presence into Heaven. In
Eastern iconography tradition, Saints, Mary (the
Theotokos) and Jesus, are represented "in Heaven";
shrouded in a halo. As links between Heaven and earth,
icons continue to evoke for Christians the invisible
presence of the Kingdom of Heaven.
- Perfect Devotion to Jesus through Mary, the
spirituality of De Montfort; is based on Jesus's Divine
Word; His Creative, Redemptive and Sanctifying
Divine Will : "Here is your mother." John
19:27.
- Marian
Devotions
- Consecration
and entrustment to Mary
