† Quote of the Day "Never be afraid of loving the Blessed Virgin too much. You can never love her more than Jesus did." — St. Maximilian Kolbe Today's Meditation "Write: I am Thrice Holy, and I detest the smallest sin. I cannot love a soul which is stained with sin; but when it repents, there is no limit to My generosity toward it. My mercy embraces and justifies it. With My mercy, I pursue sinners along all their paths, and My Heart rejoices when they return to Me. I forget the bitterness with which they fed My Heart and rejoice at their return. Tell sinners that no one shall escape My Hand; if they run away from My Merciful Heart, they will fall into My Just Hands. Tell sinners that I am always waiting for them, that I listen intently to the beating of their heart . . . when will it beat for Me?" —Jesus to St. Maria Faustina, 1728
An excerpt from Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska - Divine Mercy in My Soul Daily Verse "By faith we understand that the universe was ordered by the word of God, so that what is visible came into being through the invisible." — Hebrews 11:3 | Our Lady Of Guadalupe St. Juan Diego, a humble Aztec peasant, saw the Blessed Virgin Mary on the Hill of Tepeyac near present-day Mexico City on December 9, 1531, the feast of the Immaculate Conception at the time. After a request by the bishop to prove her identity, Our Lady asked Juan Diego to gather the roses which he found growing on the hill, which were neither native to the area nor in season, and take them to the bishop. Juan Diego did so and placed the roses in his tilma (or cloak). Upon opening the tilma to reveal the miraculous roses to the bishop, there was something even more miraculous present—an image of the Virgin Mary dressed as a pregnant Aztec princess. The various design elements on the tilma read like a codex to the Aztecs, revealing to them the truth of the Catholic faith preached by the missionary priests. Millions quickly converted to the Catholic Church as a result. This apparition and image is venerated under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the first Marian apparition in the New World, and the only one where Our Lady produced an image of herself. The perfectly preserved tilma is venerated at her basilica and shrine in Mexico City. Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patroness of the Americas, the New Evangelization, and unborn children. Her feast day is December 12th. | Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe Reading 1 ZEC 2:14-17 Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion!
See, I am coming to dwell among you, says the LORD.
Many nations shall join themselves to the LORD on that day,
and they shall be his people,
and he will dwell among you,
and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you.
The LORD will possess Judah as his portion in the holy land,
and he will again choose Jerusalem.
Silence, all mankind, in the presence of the LORD!
For he stirs forth from his holy dwelling.
or Rv 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab God's temple in heaven was opened,
and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple.
A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun,
with the moon under her feet,
and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth.
Then another sign appeared in the sky;
it was a huge red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns,
and on its heads were seven diadems.
Its tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky
and hurled them down to the earth.
Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth,
to devour her child when she gave birth.
She gave birth to a son, a male child,
destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod.
Her child was caught up to God and his throne.
The woman herself fled into the desert
where she had a place prepared by God.
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
"Now have salvation and power come,
and the Kingdom of our God
and the authority of his Anointed." Responsorial Psalm JUDITH 13:18BCDE, 19 R. (15:9d) You are the highest honor of our race.
Blessed are you, daughter, by the Most High God,
above all the women on earth;
and blessed be the LORD God,
the creator of heaven and earth.
R. You are the highest honor of our race.
Your deed of hope will never be forgotten
by those who tell of the might of God.
R. You are the highest honor of our race. Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are you, holy Virgin Mary, deserving of all praise;
from you rose the sun of justice, Christ our God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel LK 1:26-38 The angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the house of David,
and the virgin's name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said,
"Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you."
But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Then the angel said to her,
"Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his Kingdom there will be no end."
But Mary said to the angel,
"How can this be,
since I have no relations with a man?"
And the angel said to her in reply,
"The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born
will be called holy, the Son of God.
And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,
has also conceived a son in her old age,
and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
for nothing will be impossible for God."
Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word."
Then the angel departed from her.
or Lk 1:39-47 Mary set out
and traveled to the hill country in haste
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
"Most blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled."
And Mary said:
"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my savior."
| Daily Meditation: Zechariah 2:14-17 Many nations shall join themselves to the Lord . . . , and they shall be his people. (Zechariah 2:15) What a wonderful prophecy to ponder on today's feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe! Zechariah foretold that one day, all nations would come to a saving knowledge of the Lord. They would join themselves to him and become his own people. The apparition of Mary to St. Juan Diego shows how God goes about drawing all nations to himself: by winning over their hearts. When the Lord sent his mother to Mexico in 1531, he was inviting the native people into a relationship with himself. He sent her as a young Aztec princess who spoke to Juan Diego, a recent convert to Catholicism, in his own language. Our Lady assured Juan Diego of her maternal care for him, and she asked for a church to be built on the site where she appeared. That way, she could show her love and her son's love for all the people of Mexico. To prove she was real, Mary had Juan Diego gather flowers into his ordinary cloak, or tilma, for the local bishop. When Juan Diego opened the garment, the flowers fell to the floor, revealing an image of Mary emblazoned on the cloth. Amazingly, that image was full of Aztec symbolism, from the royal color of her gown to the ribbon around her waist, from the stars and rays of sun on her mantle to the flowers on her robe. Some of the native people, like Juan Diego himself, had been won over in the decades before Mary's apparition. But after the events at Guadalupe, nine million more converted to Catholicism in the course of just ten years. Clearly, the Lord's message through Mary bore rich fruit—and continues to do so today! As we celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe today, let's pray that all the nations will join themselves to the Lord as his people. Let's ask Mary to bless missionaries all around the world with the wisdom and grace to win over the hearts of those Jesus is calling to himself! "Lord, may all nations be joined to you!" (Psalm) Judith 13:18-19
Luke 1:26-38 | Reflections with Brother Adrian: |  Click to hear Audio | In the Holy Scripture we hear today:
"When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
"Most blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled."
And Mary said:
"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my savior........" end Gospel quote, word of the Lord. | From Bishop Barron:
"Friends, today we celebrate the great feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. What followed the apparition of Mary at Tepeyac is one of the most astounding chapters in the history of Christian evangelism.
Though Franciscan missionaries had been laboring in Mexico for twenty years, they had made little progress. But within ten years of the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe practically the entire Mexican people, nine million strong, had converted to Christianity. Our Lady of Guadalupe had proved a more effective evangelist than Peter, Paul, St. Patrick, and St. Francis Xavier combined! And with that great national conversion, the Aztec practice of human sacrifice came to an end. She had done battle with fallen spirits and had won a culture-changing victory for the God of love.
The challenge for us who honor her today is to join the same fight. We must announce to our culture today the truth of the God of Israel, the God of Jesus Christ, the God of nonviolence and forgiving love. And we ought, like Our Lady of Guadalupe, to be bearers of Jesus to a world that needs him more than ever....." End quote from Bishop Barron.
Our Lady of Guadalupe is our Lady we call in the other apparitions. Like, our Lady of Lourdes, or Our Lady of Fatima, and the list goes on, and another powerful one that we do not hear much is Our Lady of Kibejo. Our Lady of Kibeho is a Catholic title for Mary, the mother of Jesus, based on reported Marian apparitions in Kibeho, Rwanda in the 1980s. The apparitions are the only ones on the African continent to be approved by the Vatican.
She appears dressed differently with a special message. What was the special message in Mexico?
Perhaps you have not read the story in detail, and so it bears to be illuminated, and to hear the very words of our Dear Mother in Heaven that speak direct to the heart and soul. She told him: "You the smallest of my children know and understand that I am the Blessed Virgin Mary- Mother of the True God for whom we live, the Creator through whom all things are made, the Lord of heaven and earth. I ardently desire that you build a church here so that in it I may give my love, compassion, help and defense, to you and all who live on earth, all those who love me; for I am your mother and I desire that you have confidence in me and invoke me. In this place I would like to listen to your cries and remedy all your miseries, pains and sufferings. And in order to accomplish what I am asking for in my clemency, go to the bishop of Mexico and tell him how I am sending you to reveal to him how much I desire that you build a church here on this plane. You will be punctual in telling him all you have seen, admired and heard. Be assured that I will be most grateful, I will pay you well because I will make you happy; and you will truly be worthy of the recompense I will pay you for the work and fatigue which you will endure for the request I have asked of you. You have already heard my command, my son- the smallest one of my children, so go now and put all your effort to fulfill it." End Quote, Blessed Virgin Mother Mary, Mother of God, at our Lady of Guadalupe.
My dad, God rest his soul, I remember he used to walk for miles in the dark and bitter cold morning like today, to sing "Little Mornings" or as it is called "Las Mananitas" and go to Mass to celebrate this day.
Some years, friends and or workers would follow him on the journey, and I remember the last time he went our shop dog "Blue" a blue healer followed them into town as well. How he came back home is a mystery to me, I guess he waited and was not lost.
I say this because I told workers I was at the same singing and going to Mass, and they told me stories of how in Mexico, some people, thousands journey, some as far as a month of walking to make the sacrificial pilgrimage to the site where Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared. We do it to honor the mother of God, and some do it to fulfill a thank you promise. I would say, that our Mother still is lavishing tons of miracles that we never hear about to the tune of millions, why? How? Because, just as the Archangel Gabriel said and declared her to be "Full of Grace". Only someone like her can be full, eternally full of grace. And we all need grace.
When we pray the Holy Rosary, we receive grace. Holy Mass if full of Grace. Confessions, there is sanctifying grace. We need grace to live a life of God, it is then that important ingredient, in the oil of faith and life to give light to the world.
Let us pray to our Lady of Guadalupe, prayers of love to God, celebrating conversions to Christ, conversions that mean salvation.
Because of her, millions upon millions have been saved by God.
Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with Thee. Blessed are you among women.
And most blessed is the fruity of Thy Womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
Amen. |  audio | Random Bible Verse 1
John 15:12–14 12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. | If one day you don't receive these, just visit Going4th.com
God Bless You! Peace | | |
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