Our Lady holding Jesus as He accepts flowers from the shepherd child

Our Lady holding Jesus as He accepts flowers from the shepherd child

Welcome to our intercessory prayer ministry for families, babies, little ones and those who love them.

In our prayers for families, we pray for the sanctity of all life and for vocations to marriage, the priesthood and consecrated life, which are born and nurtured in families.

The
Prayer of Entrustment to Mary was prayed for this ministry at the icon of the Madonna Salus Populi Romani (Salvation of the Roman People, Our Lady of Good Health) in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (Basilica of Mary Major) in Rome, Italy, in Nossa Senhora do Rosario da Fatima (Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary) in Fatima, Portugal, in Eglise du Sacre-Coeur (Sacred Heart Parish Church), the site of St. Bernadette's baptismal font, in Lourdes, France and at The National Shrine of The Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts at the Shrine of the Holy Innocents before Our Lady of Guadalupe and at Basilica Papale de San Pietro in Vaticano (St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City) at the Tomb of St. John Paul II in Rome, Italy and at the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Basilica of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe) in Mexico City, Mexico.

This ministry is consecrated to Jesus Christ, Wisdom Incarnate, through the hands of Mary and dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary. In our prayers to Mary, we honor and worship her Son Jesus. When He was on the Cross, He gave His Mother to John and she became our Mother as well. "Behold, your Mother." John 19:27

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
For the greater glory of God

March 31, 2011

God's tapestries

Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.
Psalm 139:16




Reflection for 40 Days for Life by Rev. J. Kirk van der Swaagh

Human beings are God's tapestries.

Psalm 139 is a psalm that reveals the enormity and otherness of God. His divine attributes are on display: omniscience, omnipresence, loving-kindness, justice, righteousness, and omnipotence. Yet, when it came to express this last attribute, what example did the psalmist use? God's creation of mountains, seas, or far-flung galaxies? No, he used none of these.

To express the wonder of God's unparalleled creative power the writer mentions the fashioning of the human in the womb. The Hebrew word used to express God's forming of us in the womb, raqam, is the same term for needlework or embroidery.

In other words, we are a tapestry that displays God's artistic mastery.

And, like the artist who knows his creation down to the last detail, God intimately knows us. This reality provokes the writer to awe and wonder. He proclaims, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." What is true for this psalmist is true for each human being. Each is fashioned by God and known by him and we can proclaim on behalf of each, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made."

Through the intercession of Our Lady of the Rosary, we ask that all these babies and little ones be under the protection of your loving care.

March 25, 2011

The Annunciation


Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." Luke 1:38

The image above was painted by Henry Ossawa Tanner of Mary as a young Jewish girl. She appeared thoughtful and reflective of Gabriel’s message, and Gabriel appeared as a beam of light that permeated the room with its glow. The young woman watched the celestial light as she pondered her great responsibility. Gabriel communicated with Mary, and she listened while attempting to comprehend his message. Tanner emphasised Mary’s humanity and ordinariness. Her humanity was contrasted with the figure of Gabriel as a “flood of golden light.” The artist demonstrated this communication between divine and human, seen and unseen. By portraying Mary as ordinary and human, Tanner presented the potential for all humans to have this intimate relationship with the divine.

The Anunciation is very important in the defense of the life of unborn children. God places the highest value on human life. He loved us so much that he became one of us, took on our human nature and became an innocent, completely dependent infant. Let us consecrate all the names we receive through this prayer ministry to Jesus and Mary.

By Mary's obedient Fiat, heaven and earth meet. When we repeat the words of the angel by praying the Hail Mary, the Word of God dwells among us.

The word Angelus means Angel. It is a prayer coming from the Bible calling to mind the Incarnation of Jesus. This is taken from Luke 1:26-38. “The angel of the Lord announced unto Mary.” In Latin it is “Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariæ.” The naming of the prayer and ring of the bell is called Angelus.



In the development of the custom of three rings of the Angelus, the first development was to ring the Angelus at the evening. This ringing was focused on the Incarnation of Jesus which happened in the evening. Later the custom developed to ring the Angelus also in the morning. Here the focus was on Jesus’ resurrection which happened in the morning. As time continued, a third ringing at noon was added. This third ringing was focused on Jesus’ death which happened around noon. During the year the Angelus is said. During Easter time the Regina Caeli (Queen of Heaven) is said.

Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary,for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end."
Luke 1:30-33

March 13, 2011

Our Merciful Mother



Reflections on Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Merciful Mother Sister Ines, O.C.D. December 12, 2010
In every approved Marian apparition, Our Lady has a specific mission. Each one reveals a determined and specific message – a unique and necessary goal. In the Anáhuac Valley of Mexico, on a barren hill called Tepeyac, Our Lady of Guadalupe came as a “merciful Mother,” a healer and restorer of all who are broken in body and in spirit. It is an amazing thought to consider that the “woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars” would place her feet upon the bloodstained sod of a nation’s festering woundedness. Yet, that is precisely what she did and continues to do for our broken humanity.

Our Lady did not stand aloof from the disease, death and despair which assailed the people of Mexico. She did not seek to keep her radiant garments clean and free from the filth of our sins. She did not stand indignantly afar, nor did she wash her hands of us in our brokenness and helplessness.

She came to a nation who was once invincible, yet now a broken and broken-hearted people. And she called herself “your Merciful Mother.” In calling herself thus, our Lady reveals her message of compassion and her solidarity with all of that which is weak, broken and humbled within us. She spares nothing of herself in coming to us: neither her garments nor her skin are spared in this extravagant gesture of love toward her children – a tender embrace wherein we are caught up in the crossing of her arms and in the folds of her mantle. It is here, in her very bosom, where she gathers up all of the scattered fragments of our lives into a single unity in love. In this tender exchange every heart finds solace, strength and renewed hope. Yes, even the most sinful and dejected heart can lay claim to the merciful love of this noble Queen. Thank God! Thank God!

This role of gathering up the broken humanity of Christ has been Mary’s from the beginning. Christ took unto himself the brokenness of all humanity at the Incarnation. As Mary held the vulnerable little body of the Infant Jesus in Bethlehem, our own vulnerable humanity participated and continues to participate in that embrace. The fragmented Body of Christ was the tangible reality of the Eucharist, blessed, broken and given for us, as well as the reality of every broken member of His Mystical Body. These fragments are each of us and all of that which causes us to isolate ourselves from God and from each other. And Mary walks amid this brokenness gathering us into the folds of her mantle, in the crossing of her arms.

It is precisely from this place of embrace, from the very heart of our Lady into which she gathers us up, that Christ receives the offering of our lives. In Mary’s embrace and sure protection, our lives are touched and ennobled with the sweetness of her virtue. Simply to be in her presence is to absorb the fragrance of her pure love for God. In lingering with Mary we take on the luster that radiates from her Immaculate Heart. Mary is the object of God’s overflowing love. Heaven’s entire treasury of grace is continually poured over her. And anyone who comes near her cannot help but get soaked by the torrent which is continually flowing upon her and through her. What a great cause for joy! This thought is a continual source of hope for me. Since even while there is so little merit it me, I need only stand beside our Lady and all will be made well. She will restore me to Christ. May the “woman clothed with the sun” be for every heart the sweet star of hope leading the way through darkness into light.

Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, pray for us and all the babies and little ones for whom we pray.

March 06, 2011

"Whosoever is a little one, let him come to Me." Proverbs 9:4

Excerpt from Homily of Pope Pius XI at the Canonization of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, May 17th, 1925
Saint Thérèse had learned thoroughly this teaching of the Gospels and had translated it into her daily life. Moreover she taught the way of spiritual childhood by word and example to the novices of her monastery. She set it forth clearly in all her writings, which have gone to the ends of the world, and which assuredly no one has read without being charmed thereby, or without reading them again and again with great pleasure and much profit. For this simple child, this flower that blossomed in the walled garden of Carmel, not content with adding to Thérèse the name of the "Child Jesus," retraced in herself His living image, so that it may be said that whosoever honors Thérèse honors the Divine Model she reproduced.

Therefore We nurse the hope today of seeing springing up in the souls of the faithful of Christ a burning desire of leading a life of spiritual childhood. That spirit consists in thinking and acting, under the influence of virtue, as a child feels and acts in the natural order. Little children are not blinded by sin, or disturbed by the passions, and they enjoy in peace the possession of their innocence. Guiltless of malice or pretense, they speak and act as they think, so that they show themselves as they really are. Thus Thérèse appeared more angelic than human in her practice of truth and justice, endowed as she was with the simplicity of a child. The Maid of Lisieux had ever in memory the invitation and the promises of her Spouse: "Whosoever is a little one, let him come to Me." Proverbs 9:4

Conscious of her weakness she abandoned herself entirely to God. In her catechism lessons she drank in the pure doctrine of Faith, from the golden book of The Imitation of Christ she learned asceticism, in the writings of St. John of the Cross she found her mystical theology. Above all, she nourished heart and soul with the inspired Word of God on which she meditated assiduously, and the Spirit of Truth taught her what He hides as a rule from the wise and prudent and reveals to the humble. Indeed, God enriched her with a quite exceptional wisdom, so that she was enabled to trace out for others a sure way of salvation.

That superabundant share of divine light and grace enkindled in Thérèse so ardent a flame of love, that she lived by it alone, rising above all created things, till in the end it consumer her; so much so that shortly before her death she could candidly avow she had never given God anything but Love.

Evidently it was under the influence of that burning charity that the Maid of Lisieux took the resolution of doing all things for love of Jesus, with the sole object of pleasing Him, of consoling His Divine Heart, and of saving a multitude of souls who would love Him eternally. We have proof that on entering into Paradise she began at once, there also, this work among souls, when we see the mystical shower of roses which God permitted her, and still permits her to let fall upon earth, as she had ingenuously foretold.

We, therefore, adopt as our own the prayer of the new Saint Thérèse with which she ends her invaluable autobiography: "O Jesus, we beseech Thee to cast Thy glance upon the vast number of little souls, and to choose in this world a legion of little victims worthy of Thy love." Amen.



Saint Thérèse, send your shower of roses upon these precious babies and little ones.

March 05, 2011

Mary, Seat of Wisdom

Mary, the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of God, is the Seat of Wisdom. Her role in salvation is powerful because it is through Mary that Jesus, our Saviour, entered the world. Through Mary’s guidance and love, Jesus grew into a loving and caring man, who left His parent’s home to do the work God had given Him to do. Throughout His life, Mary was near, rejoicing with Him in all His good works and supporting and comforting Him in His days of doubt and suffering. Mary was Jesus’ first disciple.

In the Litany of Loreto, Mary is called the “Seat of Wisdom.” She is given this title because she gave flesh to Jesus, the Son of God, whom the Scriptures refer to as the Wisdom of God. During Jesus’ early years, she sat Him on her lap and nurtured Him, thus becoming the “seat” of Wisdom. Art renditions of this image show Mary on a throne with the child Jesus in her lap.



Wisdom is a gift from God that helps us understand what God’s plan and purpose for our lives. Wisdom is a gift that needs to be cultivated so that the soil of our hearts can hear God’s voice, as Mary did. Mary’s parents helped her to use her gift of wisdom so that she was ready to understand God’s plan and purpose for her life when the angel came to announce it. The Scriptures tell us that Jesus, too, “grew in wisdom, age and grace” so that He came to understand what God wanted of Him. Wisdom is our gift.

Sirach 51:12 cd-20
I thank the LORD and I praise him; I bless the name of the LORD. When I was young and innocent, I sought wisdom openly in my prayer. I prayed for her before the temple, and I will seek her until the end, and she flourished as a grape soon ripe. My heart delighted in her, My feet kept to the level path because from earliest youth I was familiar with her. In the short time I paid heed, I met with great instruction. Since in this way I have profited, I will give my teacher grateful praise. I became resolutely devoted to her, the good I persistently strove for. My soul was tormented in seeking her, My hand opened her gate and I came to know her secrets. I directed my soul to her, and in cleanness I attained to her.

O Mary, Seat of Wisdom, pray for us and for all the names we receive through this baby prayer ministry.