His Footprints in the Footnotes

Footnotes are not the favorite pastime of students. Believe me, a professor in the university classroom! But the footnotes of 33 Days are pure gold! Often the very thing we are struggling with in the text is there. Take, e.g., this business of not praying for our relatives and friends after consecration. In the footnote provided for that (#15 if you're wondering!), a gem of a quotation from St. Louis de Montfort says:

It is not credible that our parents, friends, and benefactors should suffer from the fact of our being devoted and consecrated without exception to the service of Our Lord and His holy Mother. To think this would be to think unworthily of the goodness and power of Jesus and Mary, who know well how to assist our parents, friends, and benefactors out of our own little spiritual revenue or by other ways.

This practice does not hinder us from praying for others, whether dead or living, although the application of our good works depends on the will of our Blessed Lady. On the contrary, it is this very thing which will lead us to pray with more confidence; just as a rich person who has given all his wealth to his prince in order to honor him the more, would beg the prince all the more confidently to give an alms to one of his friends who should ask for it. It would even be a source of pleasure to the prince to be given an occasion of proving his gratitude toward a person who had stripped himself to clothe him, and impoverished himself to honor him. We must say the same of our Blessed Lord and of Our Lady. They will never let themselves be outdone in gratitude.


How many times have we gone to the Marians, our parish office, or another congregation to ask for Masses to be said for our needs, our friends who have lost a family member, or our own family members? We do this because we believe that, in the Mass, the priest at the altar of God is closer to God and may have His "ear." So, too, do we have the ear of Mary as her consecrated ones! She rushes to our side to hear our prayers for others and dips into the "spiritual revenue" we have given her, or goes to the brim-full jars of wedding wine of Jesus to fill our need. "Do not fear, little ones," she says as Our Lady of Guadalupe:

"Hear me and understand well, my son the least, that nothing should frighten or grieve you. Let not your heart be disturbed. Do not fear that sickness, nor any other sickness or anguish. Am I not here, who is your Mother? Are you not under my protection? Am I not your health? Are you not happily within my fold? What else do you wish? Do not grieve nor be disturbed by anything. Do not be afflicted by the illness of your uncle, who will not die now of it. Be assured that he is now cured."

Trust her to take care of everything.

NOLG

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