An excerpt from “Before the Altar” by Concepción Cabrera de Armida:
What the martyrs suffered is as nothing, compared to the anguish endured by a soul that possesses God and does not feel His presence.
What torture can be compared with that felt by a soul which is possessed of God and is yet apparently abandoned by Him?… How bitter the sorrows unknown to the world and only understood by those who love You!
I know by faith that You are with me, but I do not see You, I do not perceive You, I do not touch You; and darkness and temptations, abandonment and all kinds of bitterness paralyze my soul….
This is called the martyrdom of love, more trying and more painful than all the different kinds of martyrdom put together….
It seems to me that a mountain of ice lies between us, although Your heart could melt in an instant the eternal snows; a thousand clouds surround me and bar the way and prevent me from approaching that Treasure…. A thousand veils envelop me nor can I tear them asunder in order to contemplate You….
Oh Jesus, my heaven, when will daylight come to me?
Have you known the martyrdom, my beloved Mother, of possessing God and not feeling His presence? Ah, yes, I doubt it not for a moment, since You are the Queen of Martyrs, and you have suffered all that can be suffered. Help me to bear this heavy Cross with love and patience!
“Dear children! In this time of grace, I am calling you to prayer with the heart. May your hearts, little children, be raised in prayer towards Heaven, so that your heart may feel the God of love Who heals you and loves you with immeasurable love. That is why I am with you, to lead you on the way of conversion of heart. Thank you for having responded to my call.” -Our Lady of Medjugorje, in private revelation given to Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti, on August 25, 2023
An excerpt from “Mary—My Mother” by Father Joseph Schryvers:
See how the plant in growing throws out deeper and more numerous roots; for the more it develops, the more its “hungry mouth needs press against the earth’s sweet flowing breast.” So you, in growing spiritually, have more need to remain rooted in Mary and to clasp her in the network of your prayers.
But those prayers, those insatiable supplications, must be humble. Recognize your poverty in all simplicity and your absolute dependence upon your Mother.
Then become a child again: humble, helpless, without pretension, diffident of your learning, your virtues, or your merits, and you will climb like the clinging ivy which has no support in itself, but which reaches to the height of the tallest trees. Thus, by clinging to your Mother, you will climb as high as she, and you will have the sweet consolation of being supported by her.
If you were strong and rich and powerful in yourself, you would not need a Mother; but you are poor and feeble and small; therefore you have a child’s title to the charity and generosity of your Mother.
Let your prayer be confident. What have you to fear, little one, when sheltered in the Heart of the best of mothers? Her role is to be good to you, to love you, to watch over you, to give you the life of Jesus. She has received all her wealth and power to communicate it to her children.
For her, to reproduce Jesus in other souls is to be a Mother. And the oftener and more completely she is a Mother in this way, the more her joy and her eternal bliss are augmented. Ask and cease not to ask, pray without interruption and be certain of receiving all you ask. By your confident importunity, you will dilate Mary’s motherly Heart with indescribable joy.
It is not because you are good that your Mother is generous and disposed to give; rather, it is because she herself is good without limit and needs to share her goodness. She is a Mother, and a mother lives only to help her children.
She has consented to serve as the channel of God’s blessings on men. She is conscious that she exists only to transmit the gifts of God.
Then give her the pleasure of realizing that you will accept all benefits from her hand. Permit her to love you as much as she desires, as much as only the Mother of God can love. Put no limits to your confidence in her who knows no limits in doing good.
Permit her the satisfaction of carrying you in her arms, of caring for you, of choosing what is best suited to your needs, be it consolations or aridity, success or failure, health or sickness, rest or labor, life or death. Surely she knows and has the right to decide what is best for your spiritual life without your interfering by dictating your preferences to her.
Finally, let your prayer be an act of filial love. She is your Mother. You may love her as much as you wish without any fear of excess, for in loving her, you love Jesus, Whom she forms in you. You will never reach, by your filial love, the limits of her motherly love. You can always be able to say that you love her far less than she loves you, that your greatest efforts fall far short of rendering the tender gratitude that you owe her.
O good Mother! I desire always to love you and ever to pray to you. What intense joy I experience in knowing that I live in the center of your soul, and that without ceasing, you cause the life of Jesus to flow in me!
“Ah, most sweet Mother! most amiable Mother! thy altars are surrounded by many people who ask of thee, one to be healed of some malady, another to be relieved in his necessities, one prays thee for a good harvest, and another success in some litigation. We ask of thee graces more pleasing to thy Heart. Obtain for us that we may be humble, detached from earth, resigned to the Divine Will. Obtain for us the holy love of God, a good death, and paradise. Oh Lady, change us from sinners to saints. Perform this miracle that will redound more to thy honor, than if thou didst restore sight to a thousand blind persons, or raise a thousand from the dead. Thou art so powerful with God, it is enough to say that thou art His Mother, His most beloved, full of His grace; what can He then deny thee? Oh most lovely Queen, we do not pretend to behold thee on the earth, but we desire to go and see thee in paradise; thou must obtain this for us. Thus we certainly hope. Amen, amen.” –Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori
