Receive Communion on Mary’s feast days Do I want to honor Mary on her special days? What could honor her more, asks St. Alphonsus, than to unite myself to her Son? We should receive Holy Communion on Our Lady’s feast days, for we cannot honor Mary better than with Jesus. She herself once revealed to a holy soul that we could offer her nothing that was more pleasing to her than Holy Communion. For it’s in this holy Sacrament that... Read more

Celebrate Mary’s feasts by imitating her virtues What’s the best way to celebrate Marian feast days? St. Alphonsus suggests that we practice penance and cultivate a virtue. The best way to celebrate the novenas before Our Lady’s feasts is to prac- tice certain interior penances. For example, we can get alone and observe silence. We can refrain from speaking to others impatiently. We can bear challenges and opposition with grace. All these interior penances can be practiced with less dan-... Read more

The Church calls us to turn to Mary St. Alphonsus points to the Church’s celebration of Marian feasts and devo- tions as clear evidence that she invites the faithful to turn often to Our Lady. Blessed is he who, in the midst of these sorrows, turns often to the com- forter of the world, to the refuge of the unfortunate, to the great Mother of God, and devoutly calls upon her and invokes her! The holy Church carefully teaches us,... Read more

Our Lady provides two friars with lodging St. Alphonsus tells a story of how the Blessed Virgin rewarded the faithful devotion of two religious who served her. Two Franciscan friars were going to visit a sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin, when night overtook them in a great forest. They became bewildered and troubled, but they at last discovered a house. They found the door, knocked, and immediately heard someone inside asking who they were. They replied that they were two... Read more

Help me up when I fall! St. Alphonsus acknowledges the depth of his sin and weakness, but he runs to Mary to reach out her hand and pull him up. Mother of God, behold at your feet a miserable sinner, in bondage to hell, who turns to you and trusts in you. I don’t deserve that you should even look at me. But because you have seen your Son die for the salvation of sinners, I know that you have... Read more

Hands filled with mercy and generosity Don’t hesitate to seek Mary’s help, counsels St. Alphonsus; in her generosity, she’s more eager to grant us graces than we are to receive them! Do we perhaps fear that Mary doesn’t see, or doesn’t feel for, our needs? Not at all! She sees and feels them far better than we do ourselves. “There is not one among all the saints,” says St. Antoninus, “who can ever feel for us in our miseries, both... Read more