Visitors Old and New - Gifts of the Spirit

I just have to say, last week was quite a week! A week of new customers from Dallas and California and Ohio and Oregon and probably many other places we were not told, as well as a week of regular customers from in and around Tennessee and Kentucky. A week of people with stories; stories that share the good stuff. And when we share the good stuff, we share Him. His Spirit. His work. His Love. His healing. His goodness. We share faith in Him and hope in our future with Him. And for today, I'm going to share one of those stories.

Thursday, May 31st, the Feast of the Visitation, on my day off, I was at the movies with my youngest and received a text from a long time family friend who's mother has been struggling with her health. She was in town and actually at the hospital close to the store. She had finished 33 Days to Morning Glory or True Devotion to Mary or Preparation for Total Consecration, one of them, and was ready to Consecrate herself with her mom. She needed an image of Mary over at the hospital and asked if someone could run one over. Immediately I could feel goosebumps. I told her to call the store and ask my daughter about the Consecration medal I had found the previous Sunday at none other than the Flea Market. (I thought it was a medal of St. Dominic receiving the rosary or a Scapular medal but after cleaning it, found it to be an old Consecration medal of Mary with the words "True Devotion to Mary" engraved in the book on the front and the back with a large M in a shield with a crown on top and the rosary draped down the side. The medal available now seems to have totus tuus on the reverse.) A minute later she texted and said her father came in so she was headed to the store. My daughter showed her the medal and told her all we knew about it and before it was all said and done she was crying and she had my two daughters and sister crying right along with her. I received a text soon after; "thank you for letting Mary and the Holy Spirit use you today." I thought just the opposite, "thank you for a bringing us the gift of the Spirit." And, thanks to all who visit and call and make our life here at St. Mary's a "gift of the Spirit." We cherish the time.

Our Lady of Fatima

On Sunday, May, 13, 1917, Lucy dos Santos, and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto were pasturing their flocks as usual. It was noon of a clear, sunny day, when suddenly a flash of lightning cut the air -- then another. Fearing a storm, the children quickly gathered the sheep to get them home. Then their glances fell upon a small holm-oak tree directly in their path. A dazzling light hovered over the topmost branches, when -- wonder of wonders -- what should they behold but the form of a lovely lady standing atop the tree in the light, her feet hidden in a shimmering cloud. As Lucy later described her, "She was a lady more brilliant than the sun."

After telling the children not to be frightened, the vision said: "I come from Heaven, I want you to come here at this same hour on the 13th day of each month until October. Then I will tell you who I am and what I want." She also told them to say the Rosary every day, and to bear all the sufferings God would send them. 

In June the Lady appeared again. She told the youngsters that many souls go to Hell because they have no one to pray and make sacrifices for them. She said Francisco and Jacinta would soon leave the world for Heaven. Holding out her heart surrounded by thorns which pierced it from all sides, Our Lady told Lucy: "God wishes you to remain in the world for some time because He wants to use you to establish in the world the devotion to my Immaculate Heart. I promise salvation to those who embrace it, and their souls will be loved by God as flowers placed by myself to adorn His throne."

Feast of St. Louis Grignion de Montfort

Today is the Feast Day of St. Louis de Montfort, founder of the missionary Company of Mary, who promoted Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. "In giving ourselves to Jesus through Mary's hands, we imitate God the Father, who gave us his Son only through Mary, and who imparts his graces to us only through Mary. Likewise we imitate God the Son, who by giving us his example for us to follow, inspires us to go to him using the same means he used in coming to us, that is, through Mary. Again, we imitate the Holy Spirit, who bestows his graces and gifts upon us only through Mary." from today's Magnificat, the words of St. Louis de Montfort