BLESSING OF DECEMBER 3^RD    2005. FIRST SATURDAY OF MONTH.

AT PRADO NUEVO OF EL ESCORIAL (MADRID)

OUR LADY:

Raise all your objects; all will be blessed for poor sinners.

I bless you, my children, as the Father blesses you, through the Son and with the Holy Spirit.

COMMEMTARY UPON MESSAGES

October 7^th 1982

The Blessed Virgin talks about the value of the Rosary on the Church`s celebration of Our Lady of the Rosary: it comforts those souls in the Purgatory and enlightens men’s hearts; likewise, it is an essential prayer in everyday devotions, the anchor of salvation for Humankind…

            “…Look at the light that enters the purgatory. Each Hail Mary saves souls (…). Look at the light coming from the beads of my rosary (…) I wish, my daughter, that the light of your rosary would be spread around the world. The rosary will be your salvation. Tell all of my children that no day they should go to bed without saying this prayer. It pleases me so much! My child, the rosary saves many souls (…). Say the holy rosary; it’s the anchor of Humankind’s salvation.” (Our Lady)

As Our Lady does, we will not get tired of exalting the values of this beautiful prayer; this time, we regard some saints’ praises:

• “The holy rosary is a powerful weapon. Use it with confidence and you will wonder at the results” ( The Way nº 558, Jose María Escrivá de Balaguer )  
• “Therefore, the rosary of Mary is exalted to the condition of a public and universal prayer to tackle the ordinary and extraordinary necessities of the holy Church, nations and all the world” ( Blessed John XXIII, On the Saying of the Holy Rosary, 29-9-1961)
• “The rosary is a compendium of the Gospel and it will give those who say it the rivers of peace the Holy Scriptures talk about; It is the most beautiful devotion, the richest in grace, the most pleasant to Mary’s Heart. This testament of mine, my children, will remind you of me on  Earth” ( Blessed Pius IX at his death time, to the prelates who were with him)
• Our Lady said to the blessed Alano of La Rupe (1) that, after the Holy Sacrifice of Mass- the first and the most alive memorial of Jesus Christ’s Passion, there is no greater or worthier prayer than the rosary that is somehow a second memorial and representation of  Jesus Christ‘s life and Passion”  ( Saint Louis Mary Grignion of Montfort, El Secreto Admirable de del Santísimo Rosario p.88)
• In this book, Saint Louis Mary tells, “All his life, saint Dominic was especially determined to praise the Blessed Virgin, preach her greatness and encourage everybody to honour her with the rosary. The powerful Queen of Heaven kept on pouring over the saint constant blessings: She crowned his works with thousands of marvels and miracles and God gave him everything he asked with the intercession of the Blessed Virgin” (2) (Ibid. , 26)

“Take a swallow from the cup of sorrow… you’re feeling so much bitterness! It’s the bitterness for Humankind. You have to drink it up, all of it, my child. This is the way to get to me, the way of sorrow”

Along some messages, Luz Amparo is offered to drink the cup of sorrow, a very bitter chalice. Those who have been present in an ecstasy or watching its recorded images have seen her clasping a recipient, invisible to us, and drinking that liquid, whose swallowing can be heard. Sometimes, she has still felt that bitterness even after the ecstasy.

      On August 2^nd 1986, Our Lady told us the effects of this extraordinary drink on Luz Amparo’s soul: it comforts her in sorrow and joins her to Mary’s sorrow and Jesus Christ’s. She said, “It’s necessary that my Son prepares you with this bitterness because you have to suffer a lot. It’ll comfort you though you feel bitterness, my daughter. It’ll strengthen you in sorrow…you have to help us, my child, and it’s necessary that you receive this bitterness. Otherwise, you wouldn’t stand the pain or the sorrow. Then you’ll be comforted, my child (…) Souls chosen by my Son are strengthened by the cup of sorrow and are purified by His Blood so that they join their sorrow to His”

      On the one hand, the biblical “cup of sorrow” (3) appears in passages of the sacred text as a symbol of Yahweh’s wrath; indeed, along the sixteenth chapter of the Revelation, the effects of “the seven cups of the wrath of God” are described (Rev 16, 1). On the other hand, in the history of the Church, this image is also present in other chosen souls’ life. Besides, it has also evangelistic reminiscences (i.e. the prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane). (4)

      Apart from the effects on her, she also drinks it as a victim soul instead of those who should do it as a punishment for their sins. This can be inferred by what the psalmist says, “In the hand of the Lord is a cup of spiced and foaming wine; he pours out for the wicked to drain to the dregs” (Psalm 75, [74], 9)

      However, the sorrow and victimization of Luz Amparo are not useless; from the moment she was chosen by Our Lord to fulfil his mysterious purposes of salvation, her sorrow, joined to Jesus Christ’s, has grown large fruits… like the grain that falls to the earth and dies produces much fruit (cf. Jn 12, 24) and the pain of a mother in childbirth as Our Lord says in the Gospel, “A woman in childbirth is in distress because her time is at hand. But after the child is born, she no longer remembers her suffering because of such great joy: a human being is born into the world” (Jn 16, 21-22) Frequently, people who suffer a lot feel joy, even they are in good humour when they peacefully accept their suffering; this gives them a joy which no one can take away for it comes from God; it is a Gift and one of the fruits of the Holy Ghost.

      Some of these fruits we have talked about above are shown to Luz Amparo in the message, “Look at those souls, because of your prayers they’re going to the abodes prepared for them. Look at the light their bodies emit (5) (she tries to touch them with her hands). You can’t touch them; they won’t see you; Earth is full of sin and homicide; a glorious soul can’t enter the Earth” (6) (Our Lady)