Mary, knowing full well the ploys of satan, begs through some of her
instruments that we go deep, deep, deep into prayer that we get into that
prayer that is sponsored by her Spouse, the prayer of contemplation. She
knows that the winds of immorality are so strong that unless her children
put their roots deep into prayer, they will be blown away and lost forever.
She warns against simply SAYING prayers. She never says that we should
SAY prayers, SAY the rosary. She knows that unless we have the EXPERIENCE
of prayer, wherein we humbly speak from the heart with our Father, and
receive His Words through our hearts, we become easy prey for satan.
Because satan is prince of this world, he uses everything at his disposal
to keep us away from prayer and/or so active in mind with material things,
that we cannot pray without being plagued with distractions. Making use of
his many intriguing ways, he has seen to it that hardly any one speaks of
goodness, that hardly any one speaks of the source of goodness, the will.
Without the use of our will, it is impossible to keep our mind o God even
for a minute. It is the will that has power, and most especially with
grace, to harness the mind and to raise it up to God. It is for this
reason that Our Lady emphasizes that we pray with the HEART. The word
HEART is being used synonymously with the word WILL.
Satan is the essence of evil; Mary is the essence of goodness. Satan
lives and operates in the height and depth, length and width of hatred.
Mary, immersed within the Spirit of Love, will ultimately crush the head of
the Angelic Hater. She asks us to help her in this by converting to her
Son Who teaches us by word and example to love all, even our enemies. As
followers of Jesus, we are to be LOVERS. Satan, on the other hand, strives
with all of his angelic power to keep human beings in the head, i.e., the
mind. He enjoins upon whomever he can, to be SMARTIES. The raging battle,
therefore, is between LOVERS and SMARTIES. Mary teaches us that if we
would become LOVING SMARTIES, wherein both of these qualities flow from our
Divine Guest, the Holy Spirit, we have tremendous power over satan. We
will become aware of his traps; we will help to counteract his hatred with
our love.
All that has been presented above comes under the umbrella of DOCILITY.
Our Heavenly Mother offers this as one of her main directives. To be
docile means to be clear of mind and open of heart to receive the influxes
of the Spirit of God. It is this Spirit Who is the SANCTIFIER. It is He
Who has the responsibility to remind us of all that Jesus taught. It is
He, together with Mary, Who brought Jesus into our midst the first time.
It is He, Who, together with Mary, will bring on the Second Advent of Jesus
into our midst. It is the Divine Indweller Who, abiding within each of
those baptized, will help to make all those of good will, simple as doves,
shrewd as serpents. It is for this reason that Mary is directing us to
look for guidance from her Spouse. She knows how imperative it is for each
one of us to live WITH the Holy Spirit, giving Him a continuous, generous
and free FIAT. Mary pleads with us to LIVE within the Divine Will, so that
we, as her children, will pattern ourselves after her. When we are so
connected with our God, we are in the position to help Mary to expose the
subtleties of satan and to defeat him, first in our own life and through
that, in the lives of our brothers and sisters.
Mary, as "The Handmaid of the Lord," instructs us in humility. She knows
how important it is for each one of us to live in lowliness, in obedience,
to our Heavenly Father. Satan's number one sin is pride. Satan introduced
pride to our first parents and through them to each one of us. It is her
loving concern for her children that she directs us to imitate her. It is
no difficult task for children to imitate their mother. It falls within
the nature of the child. Our humility is a powerful weapon against satan's
usurped power over us. When we imitate Mary in her humility, we disarm
satan of this power.
Finally, Mary never stops asking her children to live in harmony with each
other. Every mother wants her children to get along lovingly and to live
peacefully with each other. When an effort is made, prompted by grace, to
give respect to each PERSON, MADE TO THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF GOD, we
weaken and make dull the sharp points of confusion and disunity that satan
makes use of to keep us at odds with each other, thus being of no help to
Our Mother in her battle against him. Again, it is to the Great Unifier,
the Holy Spirit, to Whom we must resort to be one as Jesus and the Father
are One.
Because the bond between the mother and the child is the greatest bond
known to mankind, the Triune God sent Mary to us to whisk us out of satan's
clutches. If we do not heed her, if we insist on going our own way, we
will be lost. Mary is our Leader against satan. If we fail to follow her,
we will be lost to him. To refrain from making a decision to follow Mary
by placing ourselves under the protection of her Mantle, is to make a
decision to be swallowed u and fall victim to the subtleties of satan.
Mary is the Gift of the merciful Father to each one of His children. While
there is still time we are encouraged to implement her directives in our
daily living.
Let it be known that there are many more directives that Mary gives than
those mentioned. These can be obtained through our life of prayer and
through our life WITH the Holy Spirit. Through our prayer life, prompted
by the Spirit, we will not only become aware of these, but will be assisted
in implementing them into a network of Gospel living.