Hello dear Friend,

Continuing from before, we are looking at ways which will help us to love the Blessed Virgin Mary more and better.

In the first part we saw that to love someone - to get the fire of love started - we need to get to know them. The more we know them, the more and better we will be able to love them.

In the second part we saw that to keep our love for someone alive - to keep the fire of love burning - we need to think about the person often. The more we think of them, the more and better will we be able to keep our love for them alive.

And now we are investigating how to get our love to grow. We know that love is like a fire. We have gotten the fire started, and have kept it burning by not letting it go out. But now we want to get our love to grow ever brighter, ever warmer. It is time now to put larger and more flammable material on the fire of our love for Our Heavenly Mother.

In nature, everything burns differently - at different temperatures and at different speeds - producing different amounts of heat and light. It is the same with love. So we want to find those things that will cause and help our love for our Blessed Mother to burn much brighter, much warmer, more quickly and much longer. Let’s see what we can do.

After we have spent time thinking about the person that we want to love, we find that we want to make them happy. It is the natural consequence of true love to want to make the person that we love happier than they already are. Real, unselfish love unites us more and more to the person that we love; and our happiness becomes dependent upon their happiness. As their happiness increases, so does ours. As their happiness decreases, so does ours. So we start to look for all the ways that we can make them happy.

Generally, we accomplish this by doing things for them. And even though Mary is the Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven and Earth, and the most perfect creature that God can ever make, God has arranged it so that there are many things that we can do for Her ; things to help Her, things that will console Her in Her sufferings and things to make Her happier and happier.

Now you may be wondering: How can Our Lady need consoling? How can She need children to make Her happier - if She is in Heaven with God?

Well the answer is this: Even though Our Mother Mary is in Heaven, She has certain privileges that no one else - except Jesus - has. For example, She and Jesus are the only human beings in Heaven with Their bodies. Everyone else will be reunited to their bodies at the Resurrection of the Dead, when, at the end of time, God calls all souls to the General Judgement. But for now, only Jesus and Mary are honored with that distinction.

And so, one of the privileges that the Mother of God shares with Her Divine Son, is that They both continue to seek and work for the salvation of souls.

Now, all of the Angels and Saints of Heaven, being the Church Triumphant, are still fighting for souls. But Our Lord and Our Lady take on a more special and crucial role in our salvation. Because of this, though, They both are vulnerable to suffering even though They dwell in the highest part of Heaven. This is easily shown by the countless times that Jesus and Mary have appeared to Saints and others, complaining of the sufferings which They endure because of the indifference, ingratitude and even hatred given to Them by almost everyone on earth.

When Our Lady appeared at La Salette, France, She was crying so forcibly that images depicting Her apparition show Her bent over, with Her most beautiful face buried in Her Hands, sobbing mournfully. How can anyone who loves Our Lady look upon Her suffering like that and not be inspired to share Her pains and relieve Her sufferings? How can anyone see Her so upset and be without compassion? Are there really hearts so cold and hard that the sight of this beautiful young Queen, overcome with grief, does not fill them with pity? Does it not move them to find some way to console Her, to lessen Her pain and assist Her in Her distress?

Is there such a way to help Her? Our Lady, Herself shows us the way.

When She appeared at Fatima, Portugal in 1917, Our Lady revealed to the world that Jesus had sent Her to warn mankind that He was exceedingly angry with the way it was treating His Most Holy Mother. Because of its sins, the world greatly deserved to be destroyed, and God was most justly filled with a vehement anger. But He said that mercy would be shown, if people would make reparation for all of the acts of ingratitude, indifference, blasphemy, sacrilege, and hatred that daily were inflicted upon His Most Loving Mother and Her Immaculate Heart.

Mary warned us, though, that if there was not enough reparation - if people ignored God's message of mercy - then He would have to punish the Church and the world for their sins, especially those sins committed against the Blessed Virgin Mary.

But, on the other hand, we were promised that when enough reparation was offered to atone for the sins, offenses and outrages against the Mother of God, then Russia would be consecrated to Her Immaculate Heart and the entire nation would be converted to the One True Church and a period of peace would be given to the world.

And so, in pursuit of our desire - to make our love for the Blessed Virgin Mary grow - we have discovered that:

• Although She is the Mother of God, and reigning as Queen of all Creation, there are things that yet cause Her great pain and suffering.
  
  
• Her greatest anguish is the offenses against God and the countless loss of so many souls.
  
  
• She came to the world, in 1917, specifying what must be done to appease God’s Just Anger and bring forgiveness for sinners.
  
  
• If we follow Her requests for reparation and penance – the world will be given a period of true peace.

And so, we come to the conclusion: the greatest way that we can make the Blessed Virgin Mary happy is this - to help Her in this work of Salvation. She greatly desires this.

How do we do this? By offering Her our Masses and Holy Communions, our prayers and sacrifices, our thoughts and words, our joys and sufferings; in short, everything! Both everything in general and, most especially, each thing particularly.

To begin with, make sure and consecrate your whole day (and life) to Her. When you wake up, offer Her the day ahead of you and ask Her to join you in such a way that you spend every minute in union with Her. Use whatever words you chose. One example for such a prayer would be:

Then, frequently throughout the day, take a moment and think of Her and ask Her again to unite Herself to you more and better and help you in all that you think and do and say.

Having given Her everything in general, it is important then to focus on specific things to offer Her throughout the day. Little prayers and sacrifices. St. Therese of the Child Jesus said that: "Nothing is too small in the eyes of God. Do all that you do with love!"

Remember, once we truly love someone, we want to prove our love by making sacrifices that help them and increase their happiness.

What kind of sacrifices can you give Our Blessed Mother? The little annoyances and pains and opportunities that come to you every day. Instead of grumbling when you scrape your knee, or have to pick up your sibling's toys - turn to your Blessed Mother and, with a smile, offer the pain and task to Her. And you don't need to wait for something that you don't like to happen. Look for those things that you can do to be more helpful around the house and for your family. Go ahead and do your chore before being asked to and without being nagged to. Offer your help in an unpopular job. And strive, even in the simplest tasks, to do it as well as you possibly can for the love of God and Our Lady.

And when it comes to sacrifices, there are not only things that you can do - but you can offer up not doing things. When dessert is being offered, chose the smallest piece or even go without it, if you can. When tempted to fight with your brother or sister, try to say something nice to them instead. If your friends want to play a good game that you aren't in the mood for, go ahead and play it with them anyway, willingly and happily.

And in all these things make sure, as often as you can, to turn your mind and heart, however briefly, to Our Mother Mary - and dedicate your action to Her. Remember too that if your gifts are intended for Her, they must not be done so that everyone else can see what kind of a sacrifice you are making. As Jesus tells us in the Gospels - If your sacrifice is in secret, then your Father (and Mother) Who sees in secret, will reward you.

Having touched upon the variety of sacrifices available to us in our daily duties, let me write a few words about the prayers that we can say.

First of all, as with our actions, we can put all of our prayers in the hands of our Blessed Mother. St. John Vianney tells us “If we wish to enfragrance our prayers, we should offer them through the hands of the Mother of God to God.” And we can be assured that She will use every prayer we give to Her to obtain the greatest amount of good (especially if we ask Her to).

And so, in addition to the daily prayers that we should say (our Morning Offering, a daily Rosary, a prayer to our Guardian Angel, Evening prayers, etc.), there are prayers that we can offer for specific intentions of helping our Mother Mary’s work of salvation. For example, we can offer prayers of reparation for all the sins committed against Her Immaculate Heart, all of which are sins which too offend the Heart of God. We should pray every day for the conversion of sinners, for the salvation of the dying and for the Poor Souls in Purgatory.

We should also offer up prayers of gratitude to God, Our Lord and Our Lady, and all of the Holy Angels and Saints, for all of the graces and blessings that we have received and that the world has received. Most people, when they receive a gift from God, not only fail to thank Him, but completely ignore if not scorn Him. People who recover from illness go right back to sinning. People with plenty of money share nothing and indulge themselves. The list, sadly, goes on. But we can help make up for this - by offering gratitude in their place.

Now do not think that when you pray all these prayers for different intentions that they need to be long or formal. No indeed, it is often better if they are short and even in your own words. The important thing with prayer is that it is sincere. So offer up what are called ‘aspirations’, short little prayers that you can say throughout the day. There are many beautiful ones already composed by Saints and the Church. Some I’m sure you can find in your prayer books. For example:

“Jesus, Mary, Joseph, I love You! Save all souls!”

“Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death!”

“Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!”

“Blessed be God!”

“Holy Angels, protect for us!”

“Sweet Heart of Mary, be my salvation.”

- are all beautiful and effective ways of give Jesus and Mary honor, love, gratitude, glory, and reparation.

One parting word of advice - ask and allow Mary to help you with everything that you do. If you consciously ask Her, She will especially help you. Your work will be more productive, and your prayer more fruitful. There are so many things, people, and intentions to pray for. Our Blessed Mother knows them all. At the end of your intentions, be sure and always add - “And everyone and everything else, dear Mary, that I should or could pray for!” Do not worry. Mary’s Heart is that basket, wherein we can put our few loaves of prayers and good works. Then, with Christ’s blessing, they will multiply and be distributed for the good of all creation!

Never lose sight of this incredible calling that God has for you. In a world where nearly all of Her children ignore, reject or despise Mary, what an honor it is for us to be among those children of Mary who are called to love our Blessed Mother. We have learned how to light the flame of love in our hearts. Through time, we have striven to keep it burning. And now, by the grace of God, we are being called to an ever nobler end - for the blessed love of Mary to grow within us. Saint after Saint has confirmed for us that the surest and safest path to possessing love of God, is to love His Mother. The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, will Herself prepare our souls and enkindle our hearts with the Fire of His Love. So that, sending forth His Spirit, God will renew the face of the earth - making each one of His faithful children (please God, may we be among them) holy and great Saints!

Thank you again for being a part of the Catholic Kingdom. We are blessed to have you with us.

Until we speak again ...

May Our Lord and Our Lady fill you, and all those you love, with every true peace, blessing and grace ... now and forever.

Please keep everyone in the Catholic Kingdom in your prayers. Always. You are always in ours.

And let us pray that God fills each of us with the love that He desires us to have for Our Most Blessed Mother.

I remain your friend in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate and Sorrowful Heart of Mary,