Day 90: Consoling Mother

I'm Father Mark Mary with Franciscan Friars of Renewal, and this is the Rosary in a Year

podcast where through prayer and meditation, the rosary brings us deeper into relationship

with Jesus and Mary and becomes a source of grace for the whole world.

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This is day 90.

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Today, we're going to be praying with, reflecting on, the second joyful mystery, the Visitation, with help from a writing by St. Alphonsus Liguri called On the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin.
Before getting into the writing itself, just a very brief introduction to our author, to our saint today, St. Alphonsus Liguri was born in 1696 and he lived a long life dying in the year 1787.
He is the founder of the congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, which is often called the Redemptress. Something interesting about St.
Alphonsus Liguori, among many interesting things about St. Alphonsus Liguori, is that he was a bit of a law prodigy.
He obtained a degree in civil and canon law by the age of 16. And apparently, he won all of the cases he defended for the following eight years.
My source on this is none other than our friend Pope Benedict XVI. So, it's a good source.
It's a reliable source. But then the Lord called him to be a priest.
He was ordained at 30 years old. And at 36, he would have found the congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer.
St. Alphonse Zagori is the patron saint of all confessors and moral theologians.
He's also the author of one of my most quoted lines, which I use in my opening chapter on prayer and habits for holiness, which kind of is the thesis of the whole chapter there. And it's also quoted by the catechism.
Pope Benedict quotes it sort of concisely saying, he who prays is saved. The whole catechism quote is that those who pray are certainly saved.
Those who do not pray are certainly damned.

St. Alphonsus is also a doctor of the church,

and he's known as the doctor of prayer,

or I've also seen him referred to as the Marian doctor of the church.

So now let us read and pray with a writing on the visitation

from St. Alphonsus Liguori, the doctor of prayer, and the doctor of Mary.
Mary set out from Nazareth to go to the city of Hebron, distant 70 miles, that is at least seven days' journey over rugged mountains, without any other companion but her spouse Joseph.

The Holy Virgin made haste, as the evangelist records,

Mary went into the hill country with haste.

Tell us, O blessed lady, why you undertake so long and painful a journey,

and why you are in such haste on your way.

I am going, she replies, to do my office of exercising charity. I am going to console a family.
If then, O Holy Mother of God, your office is to console us, and to dispense favors to our souls, O come and visit and console my poor soul. Your visit sanctified the house of Elizabeth.
She was already become mother of God, but she was the first to salute her relation. She entered and saluted Elizabeth.
Elizabeth, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, knew that the divine word was already made flesh in the womb of Mary, and hence she called her blessed amongst women, and the fruit of her womb blessed also. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
And full of holy confusion and joy, she at the same time exclaimed, Whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? But what did the humble Mary answer to such words? She answered, My soul doth magnify the Lord. As though she had said, Elizabeth, thou praises me, but I praise my God for having exalted me to the dignity of becoming his mother.
He hath regarded the humility of his handmaid. O most holy Mary, since you dispense so many favors to those who ask for them, I beseech you to impart to me your profound humility.
You esteem yourself as nothing before God, but I am worse than nothing, for I am nothing and a sinner. You can make me humble.
Make me such by your holy intercession for the love of that God who made you his mother. The end of the reading.
Thanks be to God.

All right, so this is an experience of a comedian, right?

A comedian, he meets somebody.

The person he meets asks him, so what do you do?

He says, I'm a comedian.

What do they immediately respond?

Hey, well, then tell me a joke.

Right, a magician meets somebody.

The person they meet says, oh, what do you do?

He says, I'm a magician.

He says, well, do a trick. A nurse meets somebody, right? And they ask, what do you do he says i'm a magician says we'll do a trip our nurse meets somebody right and they ask what do you do the nurse responds well i'm a nurse and the person says hey can you take a look at this rash right that's kind of a common experience of all these people i think all the nurses out there they can relate to it or the doctors out there right well can you take a look at this um and this is what i think in a certain sense is happening here in the writing with St.
Alphonsus Liguori, but properly so, justly so. And this is a great way for us to come to and to pray with the visitation.
We come to Mary and who is she? She's a mother, right? But she's not just any mother. She's the mother of God.
She's the mother of Jesus. And she's the mother called by God through the angel, full of grace.
And St. Alphandos, in a beautiful example of like the meditazione of engaging scripture, he comes to Mary and he says, blessed lady, why do you undertake so long and painful a journey and why you are in such haste on your way? And then St.
Alphonsus in his own prayer has this reply from Our Lady. She replies, to do my office of exercising charity, I am going to console a family.
So Mary is communicating who she is and what her job is. A comedian says, I'm a comedian.
A magician says, I'm a magician. I am mother.
I'm a mother of God. And my office, my role, my task is charity.
More specifically here, to bring consolation. And how does St.
Alphonsus responds? He responds like this. If then, O Holy Mother of God, your office is to console us and to dispense favors to our souls, come and visit and console my poor soul.
If your office is to sanctify,

will your visit sanctify the house of Elizabeth?

Come, O Mary, and sanctify me also.

This is just a beautiful disposition of a son to a mother,

of one in need to one who has come to console and to sanctify.

So far, we've reflected on and studied and looked at the visitation as Mary is the new ark. We've looked at her Magnificat.
We've looked at the beautiful response of Elizabeth. But here St.
Alphonsus, he offers us this invitation to place ourselves in the place of Elizabeth and say to Mary, you are mother. You are mother of God.
You carry Jesus in your womb. You are full of grace.
Your office is to be a mother. Your office is to console and to sanctify.
Here we are, poor sinners in need. Come and console us.
Come and comfort us. Come and sanctify us.
Come and bring us Jesus.

And my friends, my brothers and sisters, I do believe that as the questions I proposed at the beginning could be annoying to the comedian or the magician or the nurse.

The Blessed Mother, our mother, she always loves when we come to her and say,

Hey, if your office is to mother, come and mother us now, to console us now, to sanctify, come and sanctify us now. St.
Mother Teresa beautifully has this prayer, which she said so often and taught so many, Mary, be a mother to me now. Mary, be a mother to me now.
And I think that's what St. Alphonsus Liguori is saying here in his writing on the visitation.
And how I'm going to invite you to pray now as we conclude this episode, praying one decade of the Most Holy Rosary. We're going to reflect on our poverty and our need of sanctification.
And in our prayer, just really say, Mother, be a mother to me now. Mary, full of grace, bring to me the Holy Spirit.
Sanctify me. And now with Mary, let us pray.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners.
Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
Amen. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen. Well, thank you for joining me and praying with me today.
I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow all right poke a poke friends god bless y'all