LCM Motto 2024: Live depending on God….therefore in Hope
1st January reflection: If the office of Motherhood brings such intensity of love and earnestness of purpose with it, even in our poor fallen nature, what can we say of the Motherhood of Mary? (Whitsun Conference)
Hello everyone. It is my privilege to have this opportunity to write this reflection at this time of the year. I have been dwelling on this through all the Christmas “rush” and would like to share some of these thoughts with you.
Let us contemplate on the colours of Christmas: RED and GREEN:
RED – light red, deep red, and crimson red and relate these colours to Jesus’ life, his birth, his life on earth and his crucifixion. Can you meditate on the red you chose and what it means to you at this time in your life.
GREEN – Light green, dark green and the aqua green of the sea. These hues of green can perhaps depict stages in our life and our soul. Find the green that is you today. Entwined with the reds and greens are blue and brown.
BLUE Our Lady’s colour and dear St Joseph’s BROWN robe. I thought of the PINK Advent candle and thought how sweet Our Lady would look in pink. We know St Joseph is rock solid in his caring for Mary and Jesus. They smile tenderly at Jesus in the manger.
Can we smile tenderly at those we meet this year embracing that special love Mary and Joseph have for us?
VENERABLE MARY POTTER at GENAZZANO 1885:
I have always had a strong connection to Venerable Mary Potter’s visit to Genazzano. It is a little village standing at the foothills of the Palestrina mountains. Mary Potter was farewelling the five sisters from Hyson Green to Australia as they were stopping over at Naples. She was determined to make the journey from Rome to Naples to encourage the sisters and insisted on visiting the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Counsel.
Through the storm the carriage made its way over the difficult roads. Mary Potter was very sick and in a state of collapse on arrival. The next morning, she was carried to the shrine for Mass. The sisters accompanied her and all the people in the town prayed for her. Imagine her faith in God and Our Lady and her determination to make this pilgrimage and then the miracle Mary Potter prayed for “happened”. Yes, to our MM Potter!
That evening Mary Potter rose from her bed and began walking in her room. She prayed all night and walked into the church for Mass the next morning.
Everyone who witnessed this said it was “a miracle”. Mary Potter spent long hours praying at the shrine of Our Lady of Good Counsel throughout the week. “You must all come here and learn to love Our Lady better”, she wrote later.
Imagine Mary Potter’s deep relationship with Our Lady and how Our Lady, in her tender love, considered keeping Mary Potter in good health for the next two years to complete her work and to receive her Final Vows. What joy it would have been for her! Can we imagine all this happening in the 1800’s and telling us to love Our Lady better.
Our Lady went through her own difficult journey, travelling on the donkey with St Joseph by her side and not finding a place to stay. She knew exactly what Mary Potter was going through. These days we can make our own pilgrimage to any of the sacred sites of Our Lady’s apparitions. We believe and trust in Our Lady with the utmost pride that we are here on this journey together as her family and the journey of being Associates of the LCM, because of Venerable Mary Potter.
Feast Day 1st January – MARY, THE MOTHER OF GOD
Let us celebrate this beautiful feast day with words from Venerable Mary Potter herself.
“Dear reader, when you understand this union with Jesus, like a little infant in Mary’s bosom, or on Mary’s breast, you will indeed be happy.
How you will love and venerate with our Lord, the Mother heart of Mary that gave Him life. It will be your comfort, your refuge, your anchor of hope.
When in great need for yourself or for others, you will pray with great confidence by presenting to Jesus the Heart of His Mother.
You will tell Him He cannot refuse what you ask, by and in union with the heart that gave Him Human Life, the Precious Blood. He so loves, and most certainly will that prayer draw His good and gentle spirit in a most efficacious manner.
In the sorrows of life which all must have, and which indeed God uses for His favourite servants to try their virtue, you will find yourself comforted as a child from its mother’s heart”.
(The Path of Mary – Pg 33).
To no one could you pour out your trials as to Mary. From no one could you receive such sympathy, such assistance.
Our Lady said: “Pray, pray the Holy Rosary”. Let us venerate Our Lady by praying the Holy Rosary for our hurting world today.