Father Maassen's Message - 05/19/24

From the Pen of Fr. Tim…

    As May is the month of Mary, Fr. Maassen asked if I would write concerning our Mother.  I have never understood why – just perhaps – December is not her month: for the Salvation of all humanity depends on her ‘yes’.  To quote St. Bernerd of Clairvaux, ‘You have heard, O Virgin, that you will conceive and bear a son; you have heard that it will not be by man but by the Holy Spirit.  The angel awaits an answer; it is time for him to return to God who sent him.  We too are waiting, O Lady, for your word of compassion; the sentence of condemnation weighs heavily upon us.’  This is a small snippet from St. Bernerd of Clairvaux, and is one of the Church’s masterworks.
    Yet, in May, perhaps we celebrate another facet of our sweet Mother: her ministry as Prophet and our greatest intercessor before the Lord Jesus Christ.  Appearing in Fatima – Portugal, Akita – Japan, La Salette – France, Quito – Ecuador, she prophesies to us as a loving mother.  In Rue de Bac France and Lourdes France, she comes to us with healing remedies.  And in Guadalupe, she grants the Grace of conversion to a people.  If you wonder why your favorite apparition is not included, I sought to stay with the messages where Holy Mother Church has said clearly that the messages are ‘worthy of belief.’
    Our sweet mother is truly the Gibirah, the Queen Mother.  Christ has patterned the leadership of His Kingdom in many ways after the pattern of Israel.  We were granted a Prime Minister – the Holy Fathers throughout History – using the same language in the New Testament as used by the Prophet Isaiah 22 when God threw out the Old Prime Minister and installed a new one [in part, it is the Biblical underpinnings for the papacy].  And often times in the Israel of yesteryear the queen mother held greater importance than the married women of the king.  Even so, Christ is less concerned about Blood affiliation than He is about ‘hearing the Word of God and keeping it’ – of which our Lady is a model.
    Perhaps as much as a quarter of the world venerates our sweet mother – though for different reasons: including the people of Islam, those of the Eastern Orthodox Churches, as well as our own Roman Catholic Church.
    One of our kind-hearted mother’s oft repeated messages – aside from that of ‘Penance, Penance, Penance’ [overheard by St. Bernadette Soubirous], is to pray the Most Holy Rosary.
    We all have our own unique prayer styles… but the Rosary is prayer that I recommend we all learn.  Sometimes in pain, fear, or sorrow, all you and I can do is move the Rosary Beads.  In addition, there are Fifteen Promises attached to faithful recitation the Most Holy Rosary [thanks to EWTN]; and they are:

1. Those who faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary shall receive signal graces.

2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.

3. The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell. It will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.

4. The recitation of the Rosary will cause virtue and good works to flourish. It will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God. It will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of

5. The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish.

6. Those who recite my Rosary devoutly, applying themselves to the consideration of its sacred mysteries, shall never be conquered by misfortune. In his justice, God will not chastise them; nor shall they perish by an unprovided death, i.e., be

7. Those who have a true devotion to the Rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church.

8. Those who faithfully recite the Rosary shall have, during their life and at their death, the light of God and the plenitude of his graces. At the moment of death, they shall participate in the merits of the saints in paradise.

9. I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.

10. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in heaven.

11. By the recitation of the Rosary you shall obtain all that you ask of me.

12. Those who propagate the holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.

13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of their death.

14. All who recite the Rosary are my beloved children and the brothers and sisters of my only Son, Jesus Christ.

15. Devotion for my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.  [There is a difference between predestination and double-predestination – this does not mean double-predestination.]

    To quote the Liturgy of the Hours and St. Maximillian Kolbe: Holy Mary, Mother of God, Theotokos, Gibirah: The robe You wear is white as spotless snow; You are the glory of Jerusalem; You are the joy of Israel; You are the Fairest Honor of the Human Race.’  Let us be careful out there.