From the Homily of John Paul II January 1, 2003 - Ending prayer
"May Mary help us discover the face of Jesus,Prince of Peace. May she support and accompany us in this new year;may she obtain for us and the whole world, the desired gift of peace from the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ our Lord!
Feast of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (January 1, 2008)
This feast, closely connected to the feast of Christmas, is the most important and oldest of the major feasts of Mary. It is based on the source of her privileges: her motherhood. Jesus Christ, God's Son " born of a woman," (Galatians 4,4) came to deliver us from sin and make us children of God. He is also Mary's Son, and she, his mother, helps bring his blessings to the world.
Mary was not simply a passive instrument in God's hands; rather she discovered and accepted new dimensions to her motherhood as her life unfolded. Scripture indicates signs of her new unfolding motherhood.
Throughout her life, then, Mary was a follower of her Son. At the foot of the cross, her motherhood reached a new maturity when Mary experienced her Son's redeeming love for the world.
A GOOD CONFESSION
One of the effects of being sinners is that we are blind to our own sins. Satan wants us to believe that there is no evil in what we do. If we fall into this trap, our hearts may become hardened and insensitive to the demands of love. This is why conversion of heart is so important. In fact, it is so important that Jesus has made the symbol of His Sacred
Heart, the greatest manifestation of His love for us and of the love we are to have. "Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: 'If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts... Take heed brethren, lest perhaps there be if any of you with an evil heart of unbelief...'" (Heb. 3).
Memories.
(my friends, Russ and Deb Rentler on The Journey Home last week, Dec. 10)
I swallow hard, just like you, TJ, each time I've watched the show and I ponder once again the immense love of God. How can one not be so moved by so great a love? Love that chooses to humble Himself even more than he did in space and time 2000 years ago; when he came to us as a baby born in a manger! Now he comes to us as mere bread? Can this be? A wafer made of finest ground wheat and placed on my tongue - to eat? A hard saying it is! So hard to hear, that some of your followers left you! But here I am Lord, I come to you at Mass, to eat of your flesh and drink of your blood. To be changed by your grace, even though slowly. To be moved by your compassion and sent out by your love, to extend your mercy to others that you've extended to me.
Eucharist
I am not worthy
to receive you
at this most solemn
sacred meal,
but only say
the word, Lord,
and I know
I shall be healed
What food is this
before me
that I crave now
to receive?
Echoing Saint Thomas
I cry...
My Lord, My God!
It is You!
Yes Lord,
I do believe!
I posted this reply on the CHNetwork.org forum, Fellowship Hall (The Journey Home thread) regarding the recent appearance of Russ and Deborah Rentler on EWTN's The Journey Home. They talked about suffering and how the teaching and doctrine held by the CC drew them back into the Church. The red quote below was what I replied to on the forum thread. Since it got a few laughs, I figured it might get a few here as well. ~ susie
"This particular program was one of the better ones. It also exposed the folly of the "name it, claim it" theology.
I got the hint. That 'name it & claim it' theology never held water for me again! What a brilliant man my husband is! And I'm now in trifocals PRAISING GOD BECAUSE...I CAN SEE!!!!!!!! 
1. One dark night,
fired with love's urgent longings
- ah, the sheer grace! -
I went out unseen,
my house being now all stilled.2. In darkness, and secure,
by the secret ladder, disguised,
- ah, the sheer grace! -
in darkness and concealment,
my house being now all stilled.3. On that glad night
in secret, for no one saw me,
nor did I look at anything
with no other light or guide
than the one that burned in my heart.4. This guided me
more surely than the light of noon
to where he was awaiting me
- him I knew so well -
there in a place where no one appeared.5. O guiding night!
O night more lovely than the dawn!
O night that has united
the Lover with his beloved,
transforming the beloved in her Lover.6. Upon my flowering breast,
which I kept wholly for him alone,
there he lay sleeping,
and I caressing him
there in a breeze from the fanning cedars.7. When the breeze blew from the turret,
as I parted his hair,
it wounded my neck
with its gentle hand,
suspending all my senses.8. I abandoned and forgot myself,
laying my face on my Beloved;
all things ceased; I went out from myself,
leaving my cares
forgotten among the lilies.
Prayer to Mary Immaculate
Mary, Mother of God, your greatness began at the first instant of your existence with the privilege of your Immaculate Conception. After Almighty God and the Sacred Humanity of Jesus, there is no being so great as you. It is true, you are a creature, and, therefore, far beneath the Supreme Being. But you are a creature so holy and so perfect that you are superior to all other creatures. God alone could make you so holy and so beautiful, and He did so to make you worthy of the dignity of being the Mother of Jesus, the Son of God, the Divine Word.
It was fitting that you, a virgin Mother, should conceive the Man who was also the Son of God. It was fitting that you should be adorned with the greatest purity ever possible to a creature. You are the Virgin to whom God the Father decreed to give His only Son – the Divine Word, equal to Himself in all things – that entering the natural order He might become your Son as well as His. You are the immaculate Virgin whom the Son Himself chose to make His mother. You are the immaculate Virgin whom the Holy Spirit willed to make his bride and in whom He would work the tremendous miracle of the Incarnation. The privilege of the Immaculate Conception was suitable to your dignity.
Mary, my immaculate Mother, help me to imitate your sinlessness by keeping my soul free from every willful sin by the faithful observance of God’s commandments. Help me to imitate your fullness of grace by receiving Holy Communion frequently, where I shall obtain the sanctifying grace that will make my soul holy and pleasing to God, and the actual graces I need to practice virtue. Through prayer may grace fill my soul with the life of God and transform me into a living image of Jesus, just as you were.
PrayerFather, You prepared the Virgin Mary to be the worthy Mother of Your Son. You made it possible for her to share beforehand in the salvation Your Son, Jesus Christ, would bring by His death, and kept her without sin from the first moment of her conception. Give us the grace by her prayers ever to live in Your presence without sin. We ask this through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
The above prayer and more can be found here.
FROM A MYSTERIOUS PAINTINGS COMES A DEVOTION TO 'MARY, UNDOER OF KNOTS"
(Michael Brown www.spiritdaily.com)
As Mary once said at a very famous apparition site, "In prayer you shall perceive the greatest joy -- and the way out of every situation that has no exit."
Think of those words. Don't you often find yourself in a situation that "has no exit"? How many times have you run into problems that seem to offer no positive outcome? Have you ever painted yourself into a corner?
There's a fascinating painting that pertains to this and has been venerated in a church in Perlach, Germany, since 1700. It was painted by an unknown artist and apparently inspired by a meditation made by St. Irenaeus -- who once said: "Eve, by her disobedience, tied the knot of disgrace for the human race; to the contrary, Mary, by her obedience, undid it."
There we have it. Mary, Undoer of Knots. Now that's a title for her! Mary, help when there is no way out. And in fact it is the subject of a little novena pamphlet. As the pamphlet explains, the image shows Mary with a crown of 12 stars and a fluttering blue mantle. Around her are angels. Beneath her feet is the serpent -- the one who ensnares and entangles.
The point: when Mary is invoked, she untangles our knots and it is then the serpent [see left] who is tangled (whatever the novena)!
As is also readily observed, one of the angels in the painting holds the ribbon of your life as Mother calmly and easily goes about straightening out all the knots in it.
A mysterious and beautiful image this is! Usually we think of the knots in our lives as particular troubling situations, but they are also problems we have had for years, perhaps deep hurts between husband and wife, anger, resentment, sinful inclinations, the absence of peace and joy at home.
This, apparently, is where Mary Undoer (or "untier") of Knots comes in.
A knot can be a son addicted to drugs. It can be alcoholism. It can be guilt. It can be fear or depression or unemployment.
Ironically, there are those who have claimed a miracle by which rosaries become entwined as if manufactured together (see below). It occurred at the aforementioned apparition site. Is this related?
The point is that Mary comes to our aid in many circumstances.
"Knots are original sin and its consequences in all areas of family, work, and community life," points out this tiny pamphlet. In the painting, we see that while one angel hands the Blessed Mother a knotted ribbon, another to her right is taking the untangled part and perhaps preparing to return to earth below with it.
In the darkness of earth is seen a person who is led by an angel to a church at the top of a mountain. This, says one interpretation, is the Archangel Raphael who accompanies Tobias to meet Sarah, the one chosen to be his wife. Sarah is unburdened from a great "knot" which blocks her happiness. "By the mediation of the Archangel Raphael, God unites Sarah to Tobias, showing us that humility, trust, and faith in God is what moves the Divine Hands in our lives," says the explanation for the mysterious art. "This extraordinary story is present in this painting to show us that 'Mary the Undoer of Knots' grants innumerable graces to matrimony and powerfully intercedes for the reconciliation of families."
When Raphael is involved, there is healing!
Again we hear an echo of the words: "In prayer you shall perceive the greatest joy and the way out of every situation that has no exit."
Think of it: even when intellectually we can't figure out a resolution or means of escape, God can turn things around in such a way that there is a sudden opening and there are angels and we are suddenly saved.
Is the novena infallible, as claimed? Well, perfect faith -- prayer with perfect faith -- is infallible. That much (with perfect certainty) we can say!
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