A Marian Psalter

I greet you, rose garden of heaven,
The chosen, the pure, the tender one.
You noble, sweet rose blossom
Entreat God for me through your goodness.

[A Marian Psalter]

I thought this was a beautiful description of Mary and her intercessory power. I am not sure in which century it was written or who the author was.

Pray

There have been more apparitions of the Blessed Mother in the past century than ever before. Why? Because we live in critical times. She asks us to pray. Maybe we should listen.

The Fruit

Hail!  Full of Grace
Heavenly Rose
From thy Fiat
Salvation arose

Unto thy womb
The Spirit flew
And sowed the seed
Of  life anew

O Beautiful Dove
Star of the Sea
In the cradle of thy womb
Dwelt Divinity

Flower of Carmel
Enfolded in thee
The Word made Flesh
Nestled peacefully

Salvation poured forth
One silent eve
A signal for men
That all might believe

On this holy night
In the fullness of time
"The Woman" gave birth
The Child.... Divine

For You....My Mother

The Woman raised eyes sorrowful
Bedimmed with grief and loss
Suffering she spoke not a word
But leaned upon the cross
In agony, her tears flowed down
A soldier pierced His side
Her Baby's head was crowned with thorns
Her Life, Her Joy, Her Pride
Upon this scene I entered
Espied, entwined, two Hearts
Naked He came from Her Womb
....and naked He departs

Tug of war

http://openingthefloodgatesofmercy.blogspot.com/2009/08/tug-of-war.html

The Woman

The fall from grace began through a woman's yes to the devil.
The restoration began through "The Woman's" yes to God.

FIAT!

The forbidden fruit was stolen by Eve from a tree.
"The Fruit" of Mary's womb was nailed on the tree of the cross.

The restoration is greater than the fall.

"But the gift is not like the transgression. For if by that one person's transgression the many died, how much more did the gracious gift of the one person Jesus Christ overflow for the many." Rom. 5:15

Mother of God

It seems that Martin Luther and John Calvin had some surprisingly Catholic viewpoints. Martin Luther had this to say regarding Mother Mary:

Mary is the Mother of Jesus And the Mother of us all...
If He is ours, we ought to be in his situation; there where he is, we ought also to be and all that he has ought to be ours, and his mother is also our mother.

Our prayers should include the Mother of God....What the Hail Mary says is that all glory should be given to God, using these words: "Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee; blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus Christ. Amen! You see that these words are not concerned with prayer, but purely with giving praise and honor....We can use the Hail Mary as a meditation in which we recite what grace God has given her. Second, we should add a wish that everyone may know and respect her...He who has no faith is advised to refrain from saying the Hail Mary....

Although she was without sin , yet that grace was far too great for her to deserve it in any way. How should a creature deserve to become the Mother of God? ....It is necessary also to keep within bounds and not to make too much of calling her "Queen of Heaven," which is a true-enough name.... M. Luther

Sounds to me as if Martin Luther prayed the Rosary! Next is a comment by John Calvin:

We cannot give praise for the blessing which Christ has given to us without remembering at the same time the glorious privilege which God bestowed on Mary by choosing her to be the mother of his only Son....Now she is called Blessed because, receiving by faith the blessing which is offered to her, she opened the way for God to accomplish his work.

Let us learn to praise the holy Virgin. When we confess with her that we are nothing...and that we owe all to the pure goodness of God, see how we will be disciples of the Virgin Mary?
J. Calvin

The Rosary

The other day someone asked me why I do the Rosary and "Why don't you pray directly to Jesus?" The answer is: I do pray to Jesus....constantly. From the moment I wake up and straight through the day. I have even caught myself praying to Him while asleep. Many times I have awakened in the middle of dreams in which I was conversing with the Lord. I eat, drink [I mean these literally], sleep and breathe the Lord. I walk with Him during the day and during the night. I also walk with Him in the Rosary. The Rosary is the life of Jesus and Mary; I meditate on different aspects of their lives while I am saying it. The Rosary is beautiful and Mother Mary leads hearts to her Son. I do not worship Mary, but rather I revere her as the Mother of God. She is dear to my heart, this heavenly mother of mine.

In my next post, I will write a little about what Martin Luther and John Calvin said about Our Lady. You might be surprised. Pleasantly.