Deacon Ward's Daily Message 4/3/20

Mater Dei Parish

St. Mary Star of the Sea / St. Edward the Confessor / St. James the Greater  
St. Benedict Labre

Deacon Ward’s Daily Message

Friday April 3, 2020 

Greetings my brothers and sisters in Christ!

"Life and physical health are precious gifts entrusted to us by God. We must take reasonable care of them, taking into account the needs of others and the common good." Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC:) 2288

To all our parishioners and friends...

I have no new news to pass along for today. I remind everyone that Sunday Holy Mass is being live streamed...just go to our Mater Dei website to join!  8:30 AM / 10:00 / 12:00

What has transpired these past couple of weeks is unprecedented; we end the week, I pray, full of hope.

An article (below) appearing from the Catholic News Service brings to us today a request by Pope Francis, encouraging Catholics to contemplate the Seven Sorrows of Mary. 

Following the article, let us honor our Holy Father's wishes by praying the Angelus! 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- On the Friday before Holy Week, Pope Francis asked people to keep a long tradition of Catholic piety by focusing on "the suffering and sorrows of Our Lady."

"Honor Our Lady and say, 'This is my mother,' because she is mother. This is the title that she received from Jesus precisely there, at the cross," the pope said at Mass April 3. Jesus "did not make her prime minister or give her 'functional' titles. Only 'mother.'"

Mary did not ask for any honor or special titles, the pope said. "She didn't ask to be a quasi-redemptrix or a co-redemptrix, no. There is only one redeemer and this title cannot be duplicated."

For decades, some Catholics have been petitioning the popes to recognize Mary as "co-redemptrix" to highlight the essential role she played in redemption.

"Just disciple and mother -- and in that way, as mother, we must think about her, seek her out, pray to her," Pope Francis said. "She is the mother in the church that is mother. In the maternity of Our Lady, we see the maternity of the church, which receives everyone, good and bad, everyone."

The Friday before Palm Sunday is observed in many places as the "Friday of Sorrows," a special day of Marian devotion.

Pope Francis asked Catholics to spend time considering the "seven sorrows" of Mary: Simeon's prophecy that a sword would pierce her heart; the flight into Egypt; the worry when the child Jesus could not be found because he was in the temple; meeting Jesus on the way to Calvary; seeing Jesus on the cross; witnessing Jesus, lifeless, being taken down from the cross; and seeing Jesus being buried in the tomb.

Mary bore those sufferings "with strength, with tears -- it wasn't a fake cry, hers was truly a heart destroyed by pain," the pope said.

Pope Francis said that late in the evening, when he prays the Angelus prayer, he contemplates the seven sorrows and recalls "how the mother of the church, with so much pain, gave birth to all of us."

With the morning Masses from the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae livestreamed during the coronavirus crisis, Pope Francis begins the liturgy with a special thought and prayer intention each day.

"There are people who already are thinking about the 'after,' what happens after the pandemic," the pope said April 3. They already are strategizing ways to alleviate "all the problems that will come -- problems of poverty, jobs, hunger. Let us pray for all the people who are helping today, but also thinking of tomorrow to help all of us."

The Angelus

The Angel of the Lord declared to Mary:  And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Behold the handmaid of the Lord: Be it done unto me according to Thy word.

Hail Mary...

And the Word was made Flesh: And dwelt among us.

Hail Mary...

Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray:

Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord.

Amen.

Until next time...be well, and God Bless!
In His peace.
Deacon Ward