Our Lady of the Snows
one
Today, August 5, is the Feast of Our Lady of the Snow. It commemorates a powerful intervention of the Mother of God.
In 352 AD, a Roman aristocrat named Giovanni and his wife, having no children, consecrated their lives and their wealth to the Virgin Mary, asking her what they should do. Mary appeared to Giovanni in a dream on August 4, telling him to build a church in her name on the site where he would find snow the following morning. Bewildered by the dream, he went immediately to tell Pope Liberius. But that same night, Mary had also appeared to the Pope and told him he would find snow on the Esquiline Hill, where he was to outline the dimensions of a new church. On that day, August 5, at the height of the Roman summer, snow fell.
Faithful to the request of Mary, the Pope marked the walls of the Church in the snow, had the architects draw a rendering and Giovanni and his wife paid for the basilica of St. Mary Major to be built.
This miraculous event has come to be known as Our Lady of the Snows which we celebrate by honoring the Church of St. Mary Major.
But this feast is not about a Church building. Its about the miraculous things Mary will do in our lives if we consecrate ourselves entirely to her.
two
Jesus was the 1st Person to Consecrate Himself to Mary
The very first thing the Son of God did to save the world was to give himself, consecrate himself entirely to Mary, to be a helpless embryo in her womb and a little child in her care.
As His mother, what did Mary do for Jesus? Everything…By the power of the Holy Spirit, Mary conceived and gave birth to Jesus. She nourished him, protected and provided for him, educated and formed him, intuited and prompted the beginning of his public ministry at Cana and stood by him at the Cross and laid him in the tomb.
As Christians, what will the Holy Spirit and Mary do for us? Everything…The Holy Spirit and Mary conceive and give birth to the life of Jesus in us through Baptism; they watch over, protect and provide for us; they educate and form us in the likeness of Christ. They walk with us as we carry our cross and support us at the moment of death: “pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”
What should we do if we want to live in imitation of Jesus?
Begin by walking on water, preaching to the multitudes, raising the dead…Begin the way Jesus did and Consecrate oneself entirely to Mary to belong totally to her as her little son or daughter.
three
Mary was the Mold into which the Son of God poured himself so that she could form Him.
In the Secret of Mary Montfort writes:
Mary is…the living mold of God. In her alone the God-man was formed in his human nature…In her alone, by the grace of Jesus Christ, we are made god-like as far as human nature is capable. A sculptor can make a statue in one of two ways: By using his skill, strength, experience and good tools to produce a statue out of hard, shapeless matter; The second way is by making cast of it in a mold. The first way is long and involved and open to all sorts of accidents. It only needs a faulty stroke of the chisel or hammer to ruin the whole work. The second is quick, easy, straightforward, almost effortless and inexpensive, but the mold must be perfect and true to life and the material must… offer no resistance. Mary is the great Mold of God, fashioned by the Holy Spirit…to fashion through grace men who are like God…Everyone who casts himself into it and allows himself to be molded will acquire every feature of Jesus Christ, with little pain or effort, as befits our weak human condition.
Now, you are free to do what you like.
· You can hammer away at yourself all you want trying to make yourself into a copy of Jesus.
· Have at it.
· But I tried that for a long time and made little progress.
· From now on I pour myself into Mary the mold of God.
four
The Secret of Mary is to live the Consecration. How do we do this?
a. Each day renew you consecration to Mary
b. “Mary, I give myself and all that I am responsible for to you.”
c. Cultivate an awareness of her presence at all times
d. Every time you see an image of Mary, let it remind you she is with you
e. Then talk with her. Ask her what to do. Wait for her inspirations and follow them the best you can.
f. You are a little child learning to walk in her presence
g. Ask Mary to replace your thoughts with her thoughts, your feelings with her feelings, your choices with her choices.
h. To live in complete dependence on Mary, is complete dependence upon the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit carries out his mission through her.
five
The Secret of Mary is the Answer to all our problems
Belong to Mary. Seek her counsel continuously. Do what you are responsible for. Entrust the rest to Mary. Do not worry.
There is so much in life we can’t control or fix.
On May 8, 1938, St. Maximilian Kolbe wrote a letter to a friend burdened by worries: The concern is over, isn’t it? But you were worried…I am not surprised my friend that sometimes in weakness your hands fall. My hands also fell. In such case the best thing to do is to commit the matter to the Immaculata, to greatly restrain oneself, and not to interfere with the Immaculata, for difficulties which we have turned over to her are no longer our concern.
I see Mary everywhere. I see difficulties nowhere.