LOVE OF MARY (Virgin, O.L of Mercy, Redemptrix of Captives, Mother…)
- I have also decided to love the Order with all my heart and to have a fondness for its saints and spirit. The Order is full of apostolic zeal, has a great love of the Cross, is heroic in nature, and exudes a special filial love for the (p. 21)
- I continue to show enthusiasm for all that is important and big. Mary gently takes me to Jesus. (p.27)
- When I arrive in Heaven and stand before my celestial Father, my Virgin Mother, and all the saints, they will find in me the triumph of the love of Jesus. (p. 35)
- I own this feeling of Jesus to I admire everything about Mary, but what I am drawn to the most about Her is her purity of the love for God without hoping for anything in return. ((p. 36)
- I’ve have lived this entire month very close to Mary and I’ve tried to know Her more. When I think of Mary the same thing happens to me when I think of God. I admire everything in her, her faith, her humility and Her very simple dependence on God…Mary teaches me to live by love, in perfect purity, detached from everything. (p. 40)
- I’m filled1 with a multitude of imperfections that deprive me from the inner freedom that I had for so many years. Such as I am, I place myself in the hands of the Virgin and I pray that she free me from the chains that keep me from uniting with God. (p. 45)
- I have trust that the Virgin will make me like Her, and I also trust in my God… (p. 75)
- Doing so leaves me no room for dreams of self-love. I see myself with nothing good and so I look to Mary and I pray that she makes me live as She does and to participate in her humility. (p. 79)
- A confident desire and hope remain in me that Our Mother of Mercy will renew in us the heroic zeal of those first redeemers… (p. 82
- This solemn blessing touched the community. Later, we sang the Magnificat that has the antiphon of “Redeemer of Captives”. How appropriate that was. (p. 82)
- I contemplate the Incarnation. My poverty and inability illuminate the immenseness of mystery. I continually invoke the Holy Spirit, Father of the poor, and I pay heed to In Her I discover the type of inner life that I want to live. (p. 89)
- …and persuaded that I am incapable of governing aptly, prudently, or intelligently, I place my supervisory responsibilities in the hands of the Virgin so that She might watch over and over this community with the care and tenderness of a mother. (p. 103)
- If we are living in community, it is because we all are looking toward the same goal, and in order to achieve it Mary is opening up horizons that are increasingly clear… (p. 104)
- Mary wants to make us into a very apostolic community. In order to do so, each one of us must believe that the effectiveness of God continue to cast His eyes upon this community in order to make us instruments of His Kingdom and His glory. (p. 112)
- An offering to Jesus, through Mary… ( 23-24)
- With a trust that is more than fraternal he has told me his sorrows. Jesus wants him crucified. My dealings with him, have left me with the desire for humility and love for the (p. 126)
- We celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy by showing our gratitude to our Mother for the many favors that she has always wanted to bestow upon us… (p. 180)
- I’m back home. They welcomed me with incredible affection. They are all so good! In the chapel, we sang a simple Salve Regina and a Magnificat to the Virgin…It was devout and I savored it deeply. (p. 170)
- I feel that the Virgin, our Mother, granted us a very special “gift”, and that our Father gave us one of his best gifts: the spirit of union and charity. (p. 191)
- The Virgin, Mother and foundress of our Order, takes care to pave the way… (p. 209)
- We remembered the goal of the Mercedarian Order, which is the love of captives and of the poor. We remembered the fourth vow of being joyfully prepared to give our lives for their redemption. We remembered our love for Mary… (p. 234)
- During this month of May, my wish is that we all try to live in Mary, so that She might teach us to live in Christ. In order to do that there is nothing better than to imitate Her hidden life in Nazareth. It is an unassuming life, lived with so much love and absorption, and with a continual forgetting of self in order that we only think of the glory of God. And what does the glory of God consist of? It’s my understanding that it lifts and transforms everyone once we allow the fullness of His divine life to enter us. In Mary, everything glorified God: thoughts, desires, memories, and love. (p. 298)
- …We looked toward our Virgin Mother, foundress of the Order, and she pointed us to Jesus who wants the Cross to save all humankind. It could be said that his lips emphasized this earnest request, “My Mercedarian daughter, be redeemers with me”. And from these three glances, at Christ, at His mother, and at the Church, the irresistible desire to become missionaries was born. (p. 247)
- Another very Mercedarian subject that I wanted to mention in my explanation of the Constitutions is the presence of Mary – Mother and Foundress of the Order – in our Institute. We contemplate the greatness of Mary within the salvific plan of God. We contemplate in “Mary, co-redeemer with Christ” and “Mary, Mother of Christianity” … May she accompany us in our journey. (p. 301)