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feast for the eyes and for the soul again this book is so very rich as to be quite difficult to write a simple review for it with 52 sections it would be most appropriate for a reader who wishes to do a retreat with mary to take one section each week for the 52 weeks of the year there is absolutely nothing sugary nor overboard about mary in this book nor is it impossible to get through it as long as it is not rushed through nor entered into by someone just beginning their spiritual journey it is quite the journey for the heart and it is by far the best book written this reviewer has read on the holy virgin mary most holy http www amazon com mary mirror church raniero cantalamessa dp 0814620590 posted in catholicism comments off on book review mary mirror of the church raniero cantalamessa o f m cap collegeville mn the liturgical press 1992 214 pp translated by frances lonergan villa mary most holy posted on august 23 2012 by thecarmelite so just what is it that makes mary so holy lumen gentium hereafter referred to as l g makes clear in 53 1 that mary received the word of god in her heart herein is part of what i refer to as a three fold process to holiness receive believe and conceive as just stated mary first received the word of god in her heart be it done unto me according to thy word lk 1 38 her ability to receive and openness to that word allowed her to believe in it blessed is she who believed lk 1 45 having openly received and believed she was ready for the third step mary conceived in her body l g 53 1 in his book entitled jesus a historical portrait fr daniel j harrington describes mary p 54 as one who accepts the word of god believes that it is being fulfilled in her in other words mary first had to conceive of christ in her heart before conceiving him in her womb it is in this three fold process of receive believe and conceive that allows others to grow in imitation of mary the saints certainly did this and did it to a high degree they all knew themselves to be very unworthy of god s favor to them yet each of them replied with all the abandon of a five year old about to ask for a puppy when the word of the lord came to them cf jer 1 4 god was able to do great things in them and through them because of their openness and their faith they also believed greatly in love itself the question to ask then is do we believe in love to this great height do we truly believe that god has a plan for each of us whereby jesus can be made present in the lives of others through us ecce ancilla fiat amen posted in catholicism tagged catholicism mary virgin mary comments off on mary most holy mary the source of our salvation posted on august 12 2012 by thecarmelite for he has looked upon his handmaid s lowliness behold from now on will all ages call me blessed the almighty has done great things for me and holy is his name his mercy is from age to age on those who fear him the almighty has done great things for me has he can you list a few ways in which he has blessed you do you ever acknowledge his blessings acknowledge them to yourself to others to god in prayer let s look at the singular most important reason why god chose mary as his mother to begin with i suppose it would be all too easy to say that god chose mary because of her holiness but that s putting the cart before the horse really rather the young virgin maiden mary was chosen because of her openness to all that god wished to bestow upon her unlike mary when the vast majority of us are offered goodness from god our response is more like that of peter in luke s gospel 5 8 leave me lord for i am a sinful man we greatly emphasize our weakness and then determine that we are not worthy enough to receive from god s bounty eve had the same problem way back in the beginning in truth when the cunning serpent satan tempted eve with the words you will be like god gen 3 5 her answer should have been but we are like god for we have been created in his own image and likeness 1 26 the original sin therefore was in not believing in our own inherent goodness or rather god s goodness in us not so with mary she knew of her own lowliness not in terms of sinfulness of course but in her status a poor young uneducated woman living in a patristic society yet she accepted her role in society with great dignity and humility and she constantly offered her all to god out of love of him she knew of god s goodness and of her own goodness further she allowed the movement of the holy spirit within her the angel gabriel told mary that the holy spirit would come upon her 1 35 those of us here who are baptized and have received the seven fold gifts of the holy spirit in confirmation regardless of how many years ago we too have access to that while it is true that we cannot ever be re confirmed we can at any time renew the commitment that we made back on that day we too can allow the holy spirit to come upon us and work mighty deeds within and through us in his book entitled jesus a historical portrait jesuit father daniel j harrington says that in the various episodes of mary in the life of jesus she is described as one who accepts the word of god and believes that it is being fulfilled in her p 54 it was mary s openness to god s word and her willingness to receive it that led to her holiness and allowed her to grow in grace she was able to recognize that because of god s choice of her in her lowliness to bear his son she was able to proclaim from this day all generations will call me blessed lk 1 48 but again not because of any accomplishment on her part but because of god s great mercy toward her mary s yes however was not for her alone mary had a great love of her people and she knew that they needed a savior thus her yes was primarily for them and not just for herself abraham too undertook all that he did for love of his people and moses did likewise although mary did not have the stain of original sin she still rejoiced in god her savior here the greek for savior is s w t h r soter which means both deliverer as in to deliver from after the fact and preserver as in one who preserves from before the fact unfortunately too many people get caught up in jesus statement in mt 5 48 therefore you shall be perfect just as your father in heaven is perfect the greek translation of this reads you must be brought to perfection which essentially means that all is of god s initiative not our own indeed the original greek uses the word t e l e i o s which does indicate being brought to its end we cannot do anything outside of god in the imagery used in john 15 in his teaching about the vine and branches jesus makes clear that as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine neither can you unless you abide in me v 4 it is god who will lead us if we but make an act of surrender to him and give him our permission like mary did be it done unto me according to thy word lk 1 38 it must become an act of filial surrender out of love not an act of resignation but how can this be we ask it will come about not just by spending time in prayer and in meditating on god s word in our heart but also in frequent reception of the holy eucharist at mass and of the sacrament of reconciliation in time spent in adoration in following the teachings of the church in doing little things with great love as st thérèse of lisieux taught in loving god and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves cf mk 12 31 and in being open to the promptings of the holy spirit the great dominican saint catherine of siena says that the experience of our weakness becomes god s own gift to us since in realizing our poverty we come to know god s infinite goodness to us rather than unfolding to us a self knowledge filled with despair the inner cell of our heart in this way opens us to the truth of our strength and beauty in god those who find this treasure are able to cry out with mary and with all of god s poor ones from this day forward all generations will call me blessed let us with courage then always seek to do whatever he tells you jn 2 5 fatula mary ann o p catherine of siena s way p 80 81 posted in catholicism tagged catholic fiat mary source of our salvation virgin mary comments off on mary the source of our salvation posted on february 12 2012 by thecarmelite so what do these popular tv shows law order and criminal minds have to do with a catholic blog they are my favorite shows for a reason i love the entire lineup of law order svu criminal intent l a u k have you noticed not one of the characters on any of these shows ever needs to end up in bed with a co worker a victim or even a date not one of them zip zilch nada there is no sexual tension or any innuendo nothing implied the 2011 2012 episodes are even bleeping out swears and the raunchier sexual references as a catholic this is how i like my tv shows characters do not need to be in bed or involved sexually in order to be a good cop or investigator it doesn t take away from their role even dr george huang the psychiatrist on svu admitted once to being gay but it is not something he flaunts or even expresses the news came out only once in one episode period this proves that shows of this caliber can indeed be extremely popular without sex how else can there be an original show law order that lasts for so long and end up with a record four spin offs the same goes for criminal minds a real psychological thriller with real good acting that s the way i like my tv congratulations to nbc for being able to show quality tv without needing the sexual exploits of their characters congratulations too to the writers and producers i d love to nominate them for a good catholic version of the emmy s special thanks to actress mariska hargitay who portrays detective olivia benson on law order svu thank you for neither degrading yourself or the role of women on tv you are quite the blessing for the many who long for good acting with a strong female in a lead role without needing to be in bed in order to crack the case or to keep your job as a detective now let s see what hollywood can do with other shows posted in catholicism comments off on so how will you spend your 40 days of lent posted on february 27 2011 by thecarmelite looking for something special to do during lent this year consider joining the great national pro life event called 40 days for life this year s campaign will coincide with the days of lent simply go to this link find a campaign in your area and make a commitment to pray and to fast and save a life or two http www 40daysforlife com you ll be glad you did posted in catholicism comments off on so how will you spend your 40 days of lent commentary on faith in light of hebrews 11 1 2 posted on january 15 2011 by thecarmelite our topic in this writing is on faith your journey of faith and your response to god s call we will look at the biblical passage of hebrews 11 1 2 which states now faith is assurance evidence of things hoped for a conviction evidence of things not seen we will unpack these two verses as experienced by our ancestors in faith we will begin by saying that it was not enough for god to have created you and me in the a reading from the book of wisdom 11 27 that we call god o lover of our souls in his immense love for us he not only created us but chose in freedom to reveal himself to us from there he chose again in freedom to take another step toward greater intimacy with us in calling us to himself calling us to enter into an ever deepening relationship with him faith then is our response to that call to divine intimacy the writer of hebrews goes through a long list of people in the old testament that god had called to himself he begins with abraham revealing to abraham that he is the one true god from there he calls to abraham calls him into a relationship after laying down the basic ground work get out of your country from your family and from your father s house to a land that i will show you gn 12 1 you want me to what lord that s how i would have reacted what did abraham do abram departed as the lord had spoken to him took sarai his wife and all their possessions that they had gathered and the people whom they had acquired in haran and they departed to go to the land of canaan gn 12 4 5 oh and abram was seventy five years old when he departed from haran look at a map sometime and check the distance from haran in what is now iraq to canaan palestine but why on earth would a 75 year old man even consider doing something so well radical we are up to our next step in the call to intimacy god calls and makes a promise of a great blessing i will make you a great nation i will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing gn 12 2 but why sheer gift so god creates god reveals god calls we like abraham respond but the response is not just with our lips we respond with our whole being abraham packed all of his belongings and family and great herds and literally headed south not knowing for quite some time by the way where the so called place was that he was heading to kind of like today s soldiers who get a call and are told to be ready to deploy but then they must await another call to find out where anyway abraham went in faith he had no idea where he was going he knew that he and his wife sarai were both beyond child bearing years and yet he placed his trust in god who assured him count the stars if you are able to number them so shall your descendants be gn 15 5 abraham had to use both his intellect in agreeing to all of this and his affect that is faith in the heart and faith in action did abraham and the others whom the writer of hebrews refers to ever experience any doubts or unbelief i am sure that they did in fact abraham fell on his face with laughter at the thought of a child being born to him at the age of 100 gn 17 17 his wife sarai sarah had laughed too gn 18 12 in fact the name isaac means laughter now imagine abraham s thoughts especially when god called him a second time by further testing abraham s faith take now your son your only son isaac whom you love and go to the land of moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which i shall tell you gn 22 2 again abraham responded in faith hebrews says that he reasoned that god was able to raise him up even from the dead see 11 19 at this point abraham was already familiar with god and knew that god would and did keep his promises let s fast forward to the new testament for a moment let s ponder the great question of mary to the angel gabriel how shall this be seeing i know not a man lk 1 34 it s ok to not have all the answers or complete understanding what matters is that we respond in faith in order to do so we must have humility and trust in the one who calls us to himself all three abraham mary and jesus as well as countless others endured great hardship for love of god and for the sake of their people a people not even yet called into being ...