Behold Your Mother!

The Gospel reading was about the gift of the Lord and the gift of His self-giving. We hear about the world, at the time of Our Lord’s Crucifixion, when the world was not seeing what a gift the Lord was offering. The world was focused on a few garments, small things and missing the larger gift of the Lord.

Only after showing us this in his Gospel, as told to us by St. John, does the scene shift to Jesus looking down at the foot of His Cross at His Blessed Mother and St. John.

In other audios you heard that a relationship with Mary is a Necessity. However, when did Mary become Our Mother? Hear from St. John, through Jesus, when Mary became Our Mother!

Listen to the audio and Behold Your Mother!

The Atonement Rosaries

So why are these Rosaries selected for this week? These Rosaries were captured during mid-summer, not during the Lenten Season.

When Fr. de Montfort preached his missions in the early 1700s, they would often last for several weeks (normally, four weeks). Back then the purpose of the mission series was to prepare people to receive the Blessed Sacrament. People did not receive the Blessed Sacrament on a weekly or even daily basis, so it was important, both then and now, to prepare oneself to receive the Lord. During the weekend of week two or three, Fr. de Montfort gave a service entitled: The Honorable Atonement Service. The service was dedicated to Our Lord to make reparation for the sins committed against Him and to express our sorrow.

Think, in the history of mankind, the number of times we have not considered the Lord when we walk into the holy Church; when we are not reverent before Him during Adoration; when we have not realized the sacrifice of Our Lord when we receive communion and immediately after it; when we pray and do not focus our mind on the Lord. These characteristics of mankind’s actions were prevalent in years past as they are today.

The service was outlined in the writings of St. Louis de Montfort and practiced in the 1700’s after his death. In a Montfort Publications dated in the 1780’s, this outline was recently rediscovered. Written in French, the service likely hasn’t been practiced in France, since the early 1800’s, and with almost complete confidence, it has not previously been given in English.

The media set is not the service itself.  However, as nearly 200 people held vigil adoration, these four sets of Rosaries were said by the community, complete with special meditations. We encourage you to pray each set this week, and meditate on them.