Five Reasons We Need the Blessed Mother

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1)  Although we receive the necessary graces for our salvation, we still need special graces to persevere. This is because the process of the decadence of a soul generally follows a pattern.
First, one commits acts of ingratitude that cause a retraction of grace. This causes the person in the state of grace to deteriorate slowly and stand in need of exceptional graces. When graces dwindle, one goes from one abuse to the next, until eventually falling into mortal sin.

2)  Devotion to Our Lady is crucial in obtaining the necessary graces to save the soul from this process.  We need an intercessor who supplements this gap with requests for additional graces, so that we might have sufficient graces for our salvation.

3)  Our Lady obtains for us the graces necessary to attain salvation.  The mere fact that we are devoted to her makes us pleasing to God Who is thus predisposed to answer our requests. However, human nature is so weak that we often abuse grace to such an extent that it is difficult to find those who practice sufficient fidelity to save themselves without Our Lady's intervention.

One might ask if this means that Our Lady is not the Mediatrix of all graces, but only of extraordinary graces. No, she also obtains the minimum of essential graces for us. However, our malice serves to demonstrate that we cannot persevere in the spiritual life without her full support.

Imagine a friend who is in a "state of grace," so to speak, in relation to you. In other words, he is a friend who depends completely on your kindness, and generally acts correctly toward you. However, although this friend does not commit grave faults against you, he nevertheless constantly commits small faults such as lack of courtesy, respect or affection. Of course, to the degree that he insists upon doing this, you gradually withdraw your friendship from him.

If he commits a grave fault, it is understandable that you severe your relationship with him.
This is a bit like the image of a sinner who, without losing the state of grace, almost inevitably, falls into mortal sin at a certain moment. To prevent this fall, the intercession of Our Lady is greatly needed. It is not only greatly needed, but indispensable since after a mortal sin, a person has no claim to obtain forgiveness.

Even if he were to repent, it is doubtful that God would give Heaven to a person in this state of soul without subjecting him to grave trials as a punishment for his attitude.

4)  Some people suppose that death comes as an accident, a disaster outside the ways of Providence, and that God has nothing to do with death.

Man walks along the ways of the spiritual life as he so pleases, and then all of a sudden death comes and interrupts God's plans and the development of his soul. In fact, it is nothing like this at all. No hair drops from our head without God allowing it. Everything is proportional to the orientation of our spiritual life.

In fact, the moment of our death is perfectly chosen with regard to our sins and merits. Without an intercessor with the merits of Our Lady, it would be impossible to remain in the state of grace.
Imagine that a friend commits several small faults toward you, but nothing atrocious. All of a sudden he shows up asking you for a gift. Would you be ready and willing to give it? Depending on the situation, you might refuse any request on his part.

5)  Our spiritual life is not a plateau next to an abyss. It is an inclined ramp, in the middle of which is a line that separates the state of grace from mortal sin. When someone is on the upper part of this ramp, he can go down without falling into mortal sin.

When a person on the upper part of the ramp commits an infidelity, God normally diminishes His graces; and with the dwindling of grace a person can fall into such a state of destitution as to be reduced to strictly indispensable grace.

When one says that venial sin leads to mortal sin, it does not mean that man lacks the sufficient grace not to fall, but that he all too often does not correspond to grace and thus falls.  Human nature has a very strong penchant to abuse grace.

However, in each concrete case, man has the will to react.  Man can only obtain all the necessary and opportune graces not to fall however, if he has recourse to Our Lady.  And that is why we need Our Lady.

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Adapted from a lecture given by Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. It has been translated and edited for publication without his revision. –Ed.
- See more at: http://www.americaneedsfatima.org/Articles/5-reasons-why-we-need-the-blessed-mother.html#sthash.OctFQaUB.dpuf

Nearly 400 Protest Blasphemous Play in New York

Nearly 400 Catholics from 5 states stood across from the Walter Kerr Theater in New York City, Rosaries in hand, at 6:00pm on Monday, April 22.  

Here are some photos from that event.
See report on the blasphemies in “The Testament of Mary” play here: REPORT
 
America Needs Fatima and the American Society for the Defense of Tradition Family & Property (TFP) members in full ceremonial habit carried a statue of Our Lady of Fatima on their shoulders while the group prayed and sang hymns in public reparation proudly defending their faith and comforting Our Lady as her name was being blasphemed within the theater.

Our Lady’s Birth and the Triumph of Her Reign

The Nativity of Our Lady by Andrea di Bartolo

Written by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira 

Everything the Church does is wise. In Her wisdom, She classifies the different levels of honor to be paid to God, Our Lady and the saints. The first level, called latria or adoration, is only for God and Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the Incarnate Word.

The cult of dulia is veneration or mediation, which the Church pays to the saints. However, there is a special category of honor that the Church only pays to Our Lady, called hyperdulia. Our Lady ranks so high above all other saints that the Church had to create a special cult to describe devotion to her. This demonstrates the unique position of Our Lady in all creation.

The Church teaches this in a number of ways. For example: Besides that of Our Lord and Saint John the Baptist, no other birthday is celebrated; no other saint has more than one feast day per year; and while the Church does not allow the same saint to be represented multiple times on the same altar, She permits any number of images of Our Lady to be placed anywhere in a church. Also, the Church celebrates dozens of calendar feasts, liturgical ceremonies and pious practices in Our Lady’s honor.

Among these, Our Lady’s Holy Nativity has a special significance, since it marked a new era in the history of the chosen people.

Since the Old Testament is no more than the account of the wait for the Messias, it can be divided into two phases: The first would be the 4,000-5,000 years before Our Lady’s birth. The second is after that blessed moment in which Providence resolved to bring forth she, whose prayer would bring the Messias.

Her birth was the arrival of that perfect creature who was full of grace before God. Without her, the prayers and sufferings of all humanity would have failed to bring the Incarnation. However with her, the trajectory of history was forever changed. All prayers became more effective and a new manner of blessings and graces began producing sanctity like never before.

Our Lady served as the “Doorway to Heaven” that the hope of the Messias’ coming passed through. Her presence on earth was the occasion for signal graces. The height of her contemplation gave her a force of presence. It made her a fountain of so many and such high graces, that her very existence was an annunciation of Our Lord’s coming.

Thus, the feast of Our Lady’s nativity is very dear. It is the beginning of the Redemption that would eventually defeat the evil powers of paganism and the Gentiles.

There is a profound relationship between Our Lady’s coming and what is occurring in modern society. Once again, Our Lady has taken a pivotal role in history, by raising up souls that burn with the desire for her reign amid the darkness of neo-paganism. They clamor for it and fight for its implantation on earth.

These souls are like Our Lady of the Old Testament. The light has not yet come; neither has the redemption, victory nor liberation from the devil. However, these souls spread graces of hope and determination, in such a way, that they herald the coming victory.

Thus, Our Lady’s nativity is symbolically repeated to prepare the coming of her reign, prophesied by Saint Louis de Montfort and the apparitions of Fatima.

For those who desire Our Lady’s victory, this feast day is especially important. These should pray fervently, for the immediate coming of Her reign, when the long dark night of sin will be eclipsed by her triumph.


The preceding article is taken from an informal lecture Professor Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira gave on September 8, 1966. It has been translated and adapted for publication without his revision. –Ed.
 

Treatise on True Devotion: A “Nuclear” Bomb That Does Not Destroy but Resurrects

Written by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
Providence decided to throw a “nuclear” bomb on the enemies of the Church. The havoc wreaked in Hiroshima and Nagasaki is only a minor fever compared to this bomb. The “nuclear bomb” of Catholicism has been ready to explode for two centuries now. When it does, we will understand the full meaning of the expression from Scripture, "Non est qui se abscondat a calore ejus" [no one can escape its heat].

This bomb has a very sweet name: It is called the Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin. In it, every word, every letter is a treasure. It is the book of the new times that are coming.

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Eighteenth century painting kept in the Hospital of the Daughters of Wisdom in Rennes, France

 In his work, Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort expounds in what perfect slavery of the faithful to Our Lady consists. He shows the fundamental role of the Mother of God in the Mystical Body of Christ and in the spiritual life of every Christian. He teaches us to live our spiritual life in consonance with these truths. And he sets us in motion on the most sweet and absolutely marvelous and perfect path to unite us with the Blessed Mother so completely, as no piece of Christian literature has ever done.

By uniting the world to Our Lady, Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort says, this devotion will unite it with God. The day when men know, appreciate and live this devotion, Our Lady will reign in all hearts and the face of the earth will be renewed.

How? Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort clarified that his book would give rise to unrelenting opposition, would be calumniated, hidden and denied; that his doctrine would be defamed, covered up and persecuted; that it would automatically cause profound hostility in those who do not have the spirit of the Church. But that one day would come when men would finally understand his work. On that day chosen by God, the restoration of the Kingdom of Christ would be assured.

We repeat: this True Devotion is the real nuclear bomb which does not destroy but resurrects; the bomb that God has placed into the hands of the Church, foreseeing the bitter events of this century.

We confide incomparably more in Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort’s “nuclear” bomb and its power, than we fear the devastating action of all human forces. (adapted from Legionário, no. 689, Oct. 21,1945).

May 24 – Our Lady Help of Christians Commemorates Pope's Liberation from Prison

This commemoration was introduced in the liturgical calendar by decree of Pope Pius VII on September 16, 1815, in thanksgiving for his happy return to Rome after a long and painful captivity in Savona and France due to Napoleon’s tyrannical power.

By order of Napoleon, Pius VII was arrested, 5 July, 1808, and detained a prisoner for three years at Savona, and then at Fontainebleau. In January, 1814, after the battle of Leipzig, he was brought back to Savona and set free, 17 March, on the eve of the feast of Our Lady of Mercy, the Patroness of Savona.

The journey to Rome was a veritable triumphal march. The pontiff, attributing the victory of the Church after so much agony and distress to the Blessed Virgin, visited many of her sanctuaries on the way and crowned her images (e.g. the “Madonna del Monte” at Cesena, “della Misericordia” at Treja, “della Colonne” and “della Tempestà” at Tolentino). The people crowded the streets to catch a glimpse of the venerable pontiff who had so bravely withstood the threats of Napoleon. He entered Rome, 24 May, 1814, and was enthusiastically welcomed.  (McCaffrey, “History of the Catholic Church in the Nineteenth Cent.”, 1909, I, 52).

The invocation “Help of the Christians” is very old, having been included in the Litany of Loreto by Pope Saint Pius V in 1571, as a token of gratitude to the Most Holy Virgin, by virtue of Christendom’s’ victory in the famous battle of Lepanto.

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During five years of captivity, Pius VII appealed continuously to Our Lady under the invocation of “Help of Christians”. From 1809 to 1812, the Pontiff remained imprisoned in the Italian city of Savona, then making a vow to crown an image of the Mother of Mercy existing there, should he obtain his freedom.

In 1812, the Pope was taken to Paris, remaining a prisoner in Fontainebleau, where he suffered enormous sufferings and humiliations inflicted by the French tyrant.

But in the course of time, events began providentially to overturn the fortunes of the despot.
In 1814, weakened by losses suffered in several fronts and pressured by public opinion, Napoleon permitted his august prisoner to return to Rome. The Supreme Pontiff took advantage of the journey to honor in a special way the Mother of God, crowning her image in Ancona under the invocation of Queen of All Saints.

And, fulfilling the vow that he made when still prisoner in Savona, he adorned the forehead of the image of the Mother of Mercy with a golden frond as he passed by that city.

The journey continued amid glorious manifestations of reverence on the part of the populace in all the localities where Pius VII passed. And on May 24, he made a triumphant entrance in Rome, being received by the population at large.

As the carriage that transported the Supreme Pontiff advanced with difficulty amid the crowd along the Flavian way, a group of faithful, under the tumultuous applauses of the people, withdrew the horses and went on to pull the vehicle up to the Vatican Basilica.

Pius VII, attributing this great victory of the Church over the Revolution to the powerful intercession of Mary Most Holy, wanted to show his gratitude by means of establishing a feast day of universal scope dedicated to this beautiful Marian invocation.

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Such invocation took a new turn in the Catholic world due to the action of one of the greatest saints of modern times: Saint John Bosco, founder of the Society of Saint Francis of Sales (Salesians) and of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians.

The companions of Saint John Bosco noticed that, from 1860, he began to invoke the Most Holy Virgin under the title of Mary Help of Christians, Maria Auxilium Christianorum.

In December of 1862, the Saint made a resolution to build a church dedicated to that invocation. And he declared, on that occasion: “To the Virgin Most Holy whom we desire to honor with the title of ‘Help of Christians’; the times we are in are so sad that we truly need the Most Holy Virgin to help us in preserving and defending the Christian Faith as in Lepanto, as in Vienna, as in Savona and Rome…. and it will be the mother church of our future Society and the center from where all our works will radiate in behalf of the youth”.

Six years after, on May 21, 1868, the magnificent Church of Mary Help of Christians was solemnly consecrated in Turin by the Archbishop of the city. The dream of Saint Bosco became a reality and since then, that devotion spread specially all over the Catholic world owing, in great measure, to the action of the Salesian Congregation.

Statue of Our Lady Present at Lepanto Just Found!

The statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary that was on board the royal galley commanded by Don John of Austria, half brother of King Philip II of Spain, during the Battle of Lepanto, has been discovered.

Our Lady of the Rosary was offered to Don John of Austria by the Venetians. Back in Spain after this feat of arms witnessed by the statue of the Mother of God, it was donated by Don John of Austria upon his death in 1578 to the Brotherhood of the Galleys in the church of St. John Lateran Port of Santa María in Cádiz.

In 1854 the statue was transferred to the Marine Guards Academy of San Fernando, precursor of the Spanish Naval Academy. It was then passed from hand to hand until it was lost. But recently it was delivered back to the Naval Museum of Madrid, where the statue will be restored and then exposed to the public. Although the statue has lost one eye, it retains all its supernatural presence.

Battle of Lepanto Painted by Tony Stafki http://tonystafki.imagekind.com/

While Pope Pius V prayed in Rome for the victory of the Christians, the flagship of the fleet fought against the Turkish galley of the commander of Ottoman forces, Ali Pasha, who was beheaded soon after. The victory of the Holy League stopped Muslim incursions deeper into Europe, although their attacks to the coast to capture slaves continued. This victory is celebrated annually on the feast of Our Lady of Rosary.

Source: Correspondance Européenne

Scenes and Video From Quito Ecuador - Rosary of the Dawn

Some friends just return from Quito where they said the annual procession of the little copy of Our Lady of Good Success starting at three in the morning was a total success. Over 10,000 parade through the city's central square in the early morning. It was complete with a band, a military escort and fireworks!

The link below is in Spanish but it has some below has some pictures and a charming video that you will be sure to enjoy.

Our Lady of Good Success, Pray for us!

There is the link with the charming video. You will need to scroll down a little to get to the video:

http://www.elcomercio.com/quito/Rosario-Aurora-masivo_0_638936207.html