February 2025
Dear Apostles of the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
Every Christian should be an apostle, for a Christian is another Christ, and Christ came to save the world. No one then is a disciple of Christ unless, like Christ, he endeavors to save men.
Charity is the salt of the Christian apostolate. A privileged Child of Mary - a person consecrated to her, has an apostolic obligation that is quite distinct. In order to understand it, we must understand the apostolic mission of Mary in the world. Mary has received a universal apostolic mission from God: as Co-Redemptrix, as Mother, as Distributor of all Graces, as Queen of the Universe.
Every mother is the first apostle of her child; her mission is to preserve from sin this little being to whom she has given life and to make it live a supernatural life. Mary is the most accomplished of mothers and her Motherhood consists precisely in making us live the life of Christ. Her Queenship implies an immense mission of conquest of all the souls redeemed by Christ and, by her, in order to allow them to enter into their heavenly Kingdom. The apostolic mission of Mary is unique in its universality and in its importance. She alone is the Mother of all men; She alone is the Distributor of all Graces; She alone is the sovereign Queen of the Universe.
After Christ and because of Christ,
Mary is, therefore, the truest Apostle!
All other men who bear this title are simply her subordinates, her instruments. Whether they are aware of it or not, they accomplish the work confided by God to them through Mary. They are soldiers or officers fighting in the army of Christ in which the Blessed Mother is the commander-in-chief! In the beginning of the human race, we learn from the mouth of God that “the Woman will crush the serpent’s head.” To crush its head, means to destroy Satan and lead souls to Christ.
In Bethlehem, Mary presented the Savior to the Jews; in the Temple at Jerusalem, She offered Him to the Father in view of His mission; at Cana through her intervention, She strengthened the faith of the first Apostles; on Calvary united to Jesus, She helped redeem the world; in the Cenacle, She prayed with and for the Apostles in order for them to obtain the Holy Spirit Who would make them conquerors of the world.
All the Popes, since Ven. Pius IX through Ven. Pius XII, have proclaimed this mission of Mary and have had recourse to her as the Final Hope in the calamities of our times. This mission of Mary imposes a special apostolic obligation upon her children! Mary needs the collaboration of our prayers, our mortification and our apostolic work. If this collaboration fails, a great number of her children will be lost. For them, as for us, She had suffered an unspeakable martyrdom. She sacrificed her first-born Son for them, our brothers and sisters in Christ. The weapons of the Marian apostolate are those which Our Lord used in His apostolic mission. For the apostle, prayer obtains the grace of touching hearts, persuading and converting others and confirming them in good.
We must make Mary known, loved and served. As soon as we have introduced the Blessed Virgin into another’s life, She will assume the responsibility of forming them into the likeness of Christ. Accompanied by great confidence, our prayers and actions in union with Mary are infallible.
Without Mary, There Will Be no success!
With Mary, There Is no failure!
Let us live the life of this blessed Heart, have her sentiments, enter into her dispositions, follow her inclinations, love what She loves, hate what She hates and nothing else. Desire only what She desires, rejoice only in what She rejoices, fear only what She would fear if She were subject to fear; be saddened by nothing except that which would sadden Mary if She were capable of sadness.
Let us work for the accomplishment of God’s designs and give ourselves ceaselessly to the Spirit which animated her so that this same Spirit may possess us and lead us in all things. May her grace sanctify us, may her charity inflame us, may her love consume us and, above all, may her zeal for the salvation of souls devour us!
Our Lady asks this one thing of us that we forget ourselves and refuse her no sacrifice in order that She may freely act in us and accomplish her mission through us.
"Mary, O My Mother, I Am Thine!"
(Dying words of Blessed Pauline Jaricot)
