Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today is the Memorial of St. Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church, and the Gospel with the Alleluia Verse, for today’s Mass continue helping us to hear Jesus’ Words in Chapter 11 of Mathew’s Gospel:
How many times have we read or heard those words from Jesus? Too many times for many of us to recall, and yet, have we taken those words and pondered them often enough? I doubt it judging from my own experience. By God’s Grace, more and more I realize how “self-centered” my thoughts can be, and how again by God’s Grace I pray to remember St. Augustine’s words quoted by St. Louis de Montfort in his “True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin” In paragraphs 219 - 221, he wrote:
Let us rest today in Jesus through Mary, with all the Saints! Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your Faithful. Kindle in us the Fire of Your Love! By casting ourselves into that precious mould of Mary, may we be transformed by Grace, and acquire the likeness of the New Adam in Mary. Amen.
Today is the Memorial of St. Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church, and the Gospel with the Alleluia Verse, for today’s Mass continue helping us to hear Jesus’ Words in Chapter 11 of Mathew’s Gospel:
Alleluia verse - “Come to Me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest, says the Lord.” (Mt 11:28)
Gospel - (Mt 11:28-30)
Jesus said: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For My yoke is easy, and My burden light.”
How many times have we read or heard those words from Jesus? Too many times for many of us to recall, and yet, have we taken those words and pondered them often enough? I doubt it judging from my own experience. By God’s Grace, more and more I realize how “self-centered” my thoughts can be, and how again by God’s Grace I pray to remember St. Augustine’s words quoted by St. Louis de Montfort in his “True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin” In paragraphs 219 - 221, he wrote:
- 219…St. Augustine speaking to our Blessed Lady says, “You are worthy to be called the mould of God.” Mary is a mould capable of forming people into the image of the God-man. Anyone who is cast into this divine mould is quickly shaped and moulded into Jesus and Jesus into him. At little cost and in a short time he will become Christ-like since he is cast into the very same mould that fashioned a God-man.
- 220 - I think I can very well compare some spiritual directors and devout persons to sculptors who wish to produce Jesus in themselves and in others by methods other than this. Many of them rely on their own skill, ingenuity and art and chip away endlessly with mallet and chisel at hard stone or badly-prepared wood, in an effort to produce a likeness of our Lord. At times, they do not manage to produce a recognisable likeness either because they lack knowledge and experience of the person of Jesus or because a clumsy stroke has spoiled the whole work. But those who accept this little-known secret of grace which I offer them can rightly be compared to smelters and moulders who have discovered the beautiful mould of Mary where Jesus was so divinely and so naturally formed. They do not rely on their own skill but on the perfection of the mould. They cast and lose themselves in Mary where they become true models of her Son.
- 221 You may think this a beautiful and convincing comparison. But how many understand it? I would like you, my dear friend, to understand it. But remember that only molten and liquefied substances may be poured into a mould. That means that you must crush and melt down the old Adam in you if you wish to acquire the likeness of the new Adam in Mary.
"…you may say with St. Bonaventure, “Dear Mother of saving grace, I will do everything with confidence and without fear because you are my strength and my boast in the Lord,” or in another place, “I am all yours and all that I have is yours, O glorious Virgin, blessed above all created things. Let me place you as a seal upon my heart, for your love is as strong as death.”
Let us rest today in Jesus through Mary, with all the Saints! Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your Faithful. Kindle in us the Fire of Your Love! By casting ourselves into that precious mould of Mary, may we be transformed by Grace, and acquire the likeness of the New Adam in Mary. Amen.
