Complete Confidence

     “The Blessed Virgin teaches us to believe in our vocation to sanctity, to divine intimacy. We did believe in it when God revealed it to us in the brightness of interior light, and the words of His minister confirmed it; but we should also believe in it when we find ourselves alone, in darkness, amid difficulties that tend to disturb and discourage us. God is faithful, and He does not do things by halves: He will finish His work in us, provided we have complete confidence in Him.”                       Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen


     When Mary said “yes” to God to become the mother of His Son, she was not handed a playbook with all the details her “yes” would entail. Once the angel Gabriel departed, she did not receive any more divine visitations revealing life’s mysteries. Mary lived by faith—as we are called to do—in the ordinary day in and day out events of her life, as they unfolded.

Our Rose Continues to Open

     “I am going to record what the Blessed Virgin told me in this year, 1962. I kept it inside for a long time without daring to write it down. It is a petition of the Blessed Virgin: ‘when you say the prayer that honors me, the Hail Mary, include this petition in the following manner: ‘Hail Mary full of grace. . . Pray for us sinners, spread the effect of grace of thy Flame of Love over all of humanity, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”                                                                                                                       Conversation between Elizabeth Kindelmann and Our Blessed Mother


     Elizabeth received this request from Our Lady in the early part of 1962. She brought the request to the bishop on February 2, and his response to Elizabeth was, “Why the very old Hail Mary should be recited differently?” It is not recorded in her diary what Elizabeth’s response to the bishop was, but she obviously must have spoken to Jesus about her conversation with the bishop. Our Lord reassured Elizabeth by saying: “It is exclusively thanks to the efficacious pleas of the Most Holy Virgin that the Most Holy Trinity granted the effusion of the Flame of Love. By it, ask in the prayer with which you greet My Most Holy Mother: ‘Spread the effect of grace of thy Flame of Love over all of humanity, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.’ So that, by its effect, humanity is converted.”