Recently, when I was struggling in spiritual darkness, I found myself calling out to Jesus and Mary to ease my pain. Suddenly, I felt as if a light was turned on and for a moment, I was able to see things so clearly, and how they were taking care of me even in the darkness.
I wish I could say I did not need these reassurances, that I trusted enough no matter what the situation, but the truth is, all too often, I start sinking on the waters of life.
Praying and looking back over my life I am struck by the fact that I have the world’s best spiritual director. A close relationship that has spanned over thirty years. No one, except God Himself, knows my soul more.
I have, without a doubt, been truly blessed with the gift of some
wonderful human directors, but a realization has come over me, that the constant guardian of my spiritual life through the years has been Mary.
I am often in awe at how good she is to me. I see and feel her everywhere as she continually leads me on the journey to her Son, and even when I do not have any “feeling” of her presence, I trust that she is there always directing my path.
If I had to name one thing that has aided me in my spiritual life more than any other, it would be my consecration to Mary through the treatise of “True Devotion” by St Louis de Montefort. This beautiful way of life has been mine for over thirty years, and although I try, I know I do not live it to its fullness, still, it is part of my daily life.
Mary is with me, leading me:
• In times of joy as I am blessed to be praising God for His goodness to me
• In times of sorrow. As the trials life shake me, she holds me safely beneath her mantle.
• In times of darkness and temptation, trusting she is there giving me the grace and strength to hold on no matter how rough the seas may get.
• In my attentiveness and in my distractions, as I ask her each day to receive and love Jesus in and for me.
• In my all my failing she is there to urge me back to her Son like a mother who seeks out her children, gently teaching.
She is always loving me.
She teaches me to live in their presence so that I may serve them more fully, even though imperfectly. Whatever good I manage to do is a result of her guidance. But this is her promise to those who consecrate themselves to her.
She is with me at prayer, at mass, at communion, adoration and all of my actions.
Countless numbers of saints sing of her aide in their spiritual life assuring us if we belong to her and do our actions with and through her we will not perish in the fires of hell.
No, he can never be lost who recommends himself to thee, my Mother; he alone is lost who does not have recourse to thee.
St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori
O Lady, he who honors thee will be far from damnation.
St. Bonaventure
If you love her, she will shower on you many graces in this life, and be an assurance to you of Heaven hereafter.
St. John Bosco
Would that everyone might know that I would be already damned if it were not for Mary.
St Louis Marie deMontfort
Happy is he who lives under the protection of the Blessed Virgin.
St. John Mary Vianney
He who is devout to the Virgin Mother will certainly never be lost.
St. Ignatius of Constantinople
Rest confidently assured that whoever belongs to her will not be lost.
St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe
On this Feast of Mary, the Mother of God, and our mother, I thank her with all my heart for all that she does for me, and thank Jesus for the gift of her in my life.
I am all Yours and all that I have belongs to You, Oh most loving Jesus, through Mary, Your most Holy Mother!
