rosary

Kamala Harris is Not Our Friend

I didn’t get a flood of unsubscribe notifications from my last article regarding politics and the U.S. election. I’m going to try my luck again with another political post. There is a lot of hyperbole being thrown around in the media about the presidential candidates, almost entirely in favor of Kamala Harris. Now I haven’t been alive as long as many others, but we seem to be living in an age that matches Communist Soviet Union in terms of media bias. I want to cut through the media’s propaganda and show you all what Harris and the Democratic party really thinks of people of faith.

Historical Reasons for Hating the Faithful

Harris is no friend of Catholics. In fact, she doesn’t seem to know how to relate to anyone of faith. And it’s not just her, but the Democratic party and their media counterparts don’t know how to relate to people who earnestly practice their faith. The Democrats’ problem is that religion teaches that truth lies with something far greater than the government. Politicians hate nothing more than people appealing to a higher power that they cannot control. This is why politicians seek to limit or destroy religious institutions in a misguided attempt to hold a monopoly on what is considered good or evil.

Twisting, denigrating, and trying to destroy religion is as old as the Bible. The Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans all tried fighting God’s chosen people, the Israelites, and all failed. The Jewish and Christian faiths remain. But when was the last time you saw a house of worship for Baal or Zeus?

In modern history, attempts to destroy religion is clearly seen in Communism. One of the first institutions any communist regime tries to destroy is religion. Their system doesn’t work when it has to compete with moral truths and the innate dignity of human beings. Marx, Engels, and Stalin cannot compete with the logic and wisdom of St. Thomas Acquinas or St. John Paul II. And because they can’t compete on moral, ethical, or logical grounds, their only option is to destroy religion.

The Modern Assault on Spirituality

This attempt to destroy religion is taking place right now by the Democratic party. If you listen to Kamala Harris and see what she’s been doing for the past four years, you see a person who hates spiritual people, particularly Catholics. Remember that Harris

Didn’t attend a Catholic fundraising events that all presidential candidates have attended since 1984.
Claimed that a federal district court nominee was unfit to serve because he’s a member of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic charity organization.
Spoke out against a Supreme Court decision in favor of a Christian baker essentially saying that the government should be able to compel people to act in violation of their religious views.
Sponsored the “Equality Act” which would render religious liberty protections guaranteed by the Constitution null and void.
In a recent interview, Harris declared she will remove any religious exemption when it comes to abortion.
Has introduced legislation mandating Catholic hospitals to perform abortions.
When an undercover reporter reported evidence of Planned Parenthood trafficking aborted body parts, she prosecuted the reporter, not Planned Parenthood.
The Biden/Harris DOJ has been actively prosecuting pro-life advocates and handing out multi-year prison sentences for protesting outside abortion clinics.
Since the repeal of Roe vs. Wade, there have been 300+ attacks on churches throughout the country with no response from the Biden/Harris administration.
The Biden/Harris FBI has been circulating memos labelling Catholics as possible terrorists.
The FBI came heavily armed to raid and arrest Mark Houck because he got into an altercation with a pro-abortion activist and was trying to protect his young son.
Let’s not forget our Jewish friends who have been harassed, denied entry, and attacked by pro-Palestinian protestors who have been allowed free reign to create chaos.

Does Harris sound like someone who is a friend of Catholics and religious people? The media is throwing around the word “fascist” lately in every newscast with no context for what it actually means. Fascism advocates for a centralized, authoritarian government led by a dictator, where the state has absolute power. Fascists often suppress opposition through censorship, propaganda, and violence. Look at Harris’ behavior and ask yourself who the real fascist is. And this doesn’t end at Catholics. This behavior will extend to anyone who doesn’t follow the administration lockstep.

JD Vance: Kamala Harris’ prejudice against Catholics

www.post-gazette.com

I think many people have the impression that today’s Democratic party is the same one of Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, or even Barack Obama. It is not! This is not a party that wants to honor the laws, Constitution, and foundations of America. They want to tear it down and remake the country into one that has malleable and flexible foundations that they can manipulate as they see fit. Their one rule is that there should be no rules.

Why We Need to Pray the Rosary

As I write this article and see just a fraction of what a Harris administration might do, I realize that we are at war. As much as I would love more people to achieve sainthood, I would really like to not live through times of persecution and martyrdom. Our Mother Mary is Queen of Victory. The Rosary is the weapon of victory. Take it out and pray it every day! We will need the spiritual strength to persevere through times of persecution or the strength to prevent it (probably just slow it down) by rejecting the Democrats radical agenda with our votes.

“Give Me My Weapon”

catholicexchange.com

The well-known, loved, and admired 50-year stigmatic, Saint Padre Pio, was known to have demanded for something that may have shocked the listener: “Give me my weapon!” Why would such a prayerful, …

Only in Catholicism Can True Balance be Found

We Want a Balanced Life

The goal for so many of us is to live a life of balance and peace. We want to do some meaningful work balanced with a little leisure. We want the occasional friend over for coffee. We look for some satisfying hobbies. And yet, so many people live out of balance. Like a leaf caught in the wind, they are thrown from crisis to crisis or one long meaningless march of toil and sloth. What’s the answer to achieve balance?

I’m sure most of you know what the answer is — the
Catholic Church! In this article on Catholic Exchange, Dr. Donald Demarco provides this insight:

In the Catholic Church we find a paragon of balance. In this regard, She has no peer. Sin is expiated by forgiveness. Chastisement is tempered by mercy. Nature is elevated by grace. Sexuality is made meaningful by responsibility. Rights are counterbalanced with duties; work is crowned by prayer. Will is tethered to reason. Where there are difficulties, there is hope. Where there is doubt, there is faith. Where there is goodness, there is love. Problems are resolved; order is maintained. No other organization offers such a system of balance.

“We need not be diplomatic to present Catholicism in all its balance and wholeness and invite one to examine it for what it is. One can dispense with any concern for choosing any one of Her rivals. She shines on Her own. There really are no competitors.”

catholicexchange.com/if-not-catholicism-then-what/

How the Rosary Teaches Balance

Truly, to us Rosary prayer warriors, we can see this balance play out in the 20 mysteries. The Rosary acts like guardrails to keep us along that narrow path that ultimately leads to Heaven. It balances us as we walk that tightrope of virtue over a chasm of sin. With the Rosary, walking that narrow path becomes a little easier and sure footed because we know we are on the right track.

The roots of the Church’s teachings are found in the Rosary. This is why Our Lady asks us to pray it every day. The Rosary brings out the fullness of Christ’s love for us and God’s plan for humanity. It is through the Rosary that we foster healthy desires that lead to a full and complete life when we strive to obtain them:

Joyful Mysteries

A desire for the love of humility
A desire for charity toward my neighbor
A desire for a love of God
A desire for a spirit of sacrifice
A desire for zeal for the Glory of God

Luminous Mysteries

A desire to live one’s baptismal promises
A desire to do whatever Jesus asks
A desire for God’s forgiveness
A desire for holiness
A desire for the Mass and Eucharist

Sorrowful Mysteries

A desire of repentance for one’s sins
A desire for mortification
A desire for moral courage
A desire to exercise patience
A desire for perseverance

Glorious Mysteries

A desire for strong faith
A desire for an increase in hope
A desire for knowledge and wisdom
A desire for a holy death
A desire for greater love in the Blessed Virgin Mary

These are the fruits of the Rosary. Now imagine the joy and completeness one feels when he realized all these desires. This is what our faith offers. There’s no career, political cause, hobby, or person that can offer us this. In fact, many people or organizations don’t want you to achieve a tiny fraction of what the Church offers. They grab a lot of power and money by making sure your life is unbalanced and full of turmoil so they can sell you a “solution.”

If something feels unbalanced in your life, pick up a Rosary and pray it. Concentrate on the mysteries and their holy fruits. Like a child coming to his mother for help, we come before Mary with our concerns and worries. She will point us to the Rosary as the solution for any and all things in our lives. The Rosary reveals God’s plan for us because it reveals His Church. Everything else is spiritual plate spinning — it will come crashing down eventually.

Improving Your Rosary Prayer with Daily Meditations

A New Way to Love the Rosary

I love finding new ways to embrace the Rosary. I recently came across a podcast series called Daily Rosary Meditations hosted by Dr. Mike Scherschligt. The series is part podcast and part Rosary prayer. Dr. Scherschligt prays the Rosary differently than other Rosary meditations in that he doesn’t pray the Mysteries. Instead, he has a topic that he talks a little about between decades. He has covered stories about the power of the Rosary, the Church teachings on drug use, Purgatory, anxiety, and health.

Dr. Scherschligt does what I’m attempting to do with RosaryMeds — tie everything that the Church teaches and current events to the Rosary. There is nothing that happens to us that the Rosary can’t either help explain or give us the strength to endure. I’ve wanted RosaryMeds to be a treasure trove of ideas fueling Rosary prayer. It looks like Daily Rosary Meditations has done the same.

Some Rosary purists will point out that Daily Rosary Meditations is not Rosary prayer because it lacks the actual Rosary Mysteries. But I think it’s a BYOM Rosary — Bring Your Own Mysteries. There’s nothing preventing someone from listening to Dr. Scherschligt’s stories and teachings and recalling the daily Mysteries while praying the Rosary.

Unlocking the Power of the Rosary

The Sept. 25 episode was particularly powerful. Titled “The Sword“, Dr. Scherschligt tells stories about many of the miraculous events that have occurred because of the Rosary. Powerful armies and dictators have been brought down and dismantled through people coming together in Rosary prayer. If you’re looking for motivation to pray the Rosary, this is a great episode to listen to.

If you have the Amen app from the Augustine Institute installed, then you already have access to Daily Rosary Meditations. You can also listen to it via any podcast app or directly through the website. When I find the time, I will see how I can link to his series from RosaryMeds. It’s that good!

New Video on the Benefits of Rosary Prayer

The pastor of my parish asked me to give a talk about the Rosary on the celebration of Our Lady of the Rosary on Oct. 7, 2022. I focused on Mary’s promised benefits to those who pray the Rosary that she gave to Saint Dominic in a private revelation. It’s a relatively short video with no visuals so you can listen to it if you like.

Someone may ask, “but how do we know those promises are true?” And that’s a valid question. The historical accuracy of these promises is questionable. However, while the origins of these promises may be murky, I believe they are true. Nothing in these promises contradicts Church teachings and they are supported by hundreds of years of popes and saints affirming these promises. But most importantly, if you have a devotion to the Rosary, you will come to know through God speaking to you in your prayers that they are true.

Our Lady of the Rosary

Happy feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary! I’m going to keep this short and sweet. Humbly pray the Rosary without reservation. He will bless you in so many different ways.

The 15 Promises Of The Rosary According To The Virgin Mary –

The Blessed Virgin Mary made these 15 promises of the rosary to Saint Dominic and to all who follow that “Whatever you ask in the Rosary…”

Today we celebrate the many victories in our lives. We celebrate a historical victory on this day, but we also celebrate God’s victory over sin. We celebrate our small daily victories when we choose to follow God and honor Him by living according to His Will.

Fatima and the Importance of Praying for Sinners

This past weekend, I watched Fatima which was released in 2020. It’s worth watching. I really enjoyed this account because it didn’t romanticize what happened at Fatima in 1916. The movie focused not so much on Mary’s messages, but on the hardship these encounters created for the children and their families. They were accused of lying and being misled by Satan, hounded by pilgrims, and interrogated by civil and religious authorities.

One of the most impactful scenes in the movie was when Mary showed Lucia a glimpse of the souls in Hell. The scene portrayed many of the classical depictions of Hell — fire, smoke, devils, and souls screaming in terror. It gave weight to Mary’s message that we all must pray for the conversion of sinners.

FATIMA: The vision of hell from Our Lady’s Blue Army on Vimeo.

The Tragedy of Hell

Our Lord warns us that we will be separated from him if not helpers in their serious needs of the poor and little ones who are his brothers. To die in mortal sin without repentance and without having to accept God’s merciful love means remaining separated from him forever by our own free choice. And it is this state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed, which is designated with the word ‘hell’.
Catechism of the Catholic Church

The sad fact is that there are souls in Hell permanently cut off from God. The Church teaches that all the souls in Hell deliberately rejected God’s laws and His mercy. But it really hit me recently that this is a tragedy not only for the individual rejecting God but also for the universal church for letting people get to that point.

Looking back at the Old Testament, we have a duty to help correct and convert those living in sin. It’s not out of self-righteousness or judgment that we do this, but out of a genuine concern for everyone’s eternal well-being. No matter how you personally feel about someone, we need to remember they are our brother or sister in Christ. And by not helping them, we run the risk of sin through our silence.

¹⁸When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for^[a] their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. ¹⁹But if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their evil ways, they will die for their sin; but you will have saved yourself.
Ezekiel 3:18-19

Maybe it’s because I’ve been steeped in little league baseball for the last two months, but I’ve come to see our faith as a team sport. We succeed and fail as a community. Yes, our faith has an individual and personal aspect to it. We have to do our part in fostering a personal relationship with God. But we are also a community meant to support each other. A person doesn’t fall into mortal sin in a vacuum. I think too many times we turn a blind eye to the mortal sin we witness by taking an “it’s not me” attitude about it. That’s a failure of the community. When we’re not supporting each other, the entire Catholic Church is weaker as a result.

Conversion through the Rosary

Think of the last line of the Hail Mary, “pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.” In a standard Rosary, you will say those words 53 times. The Hail Mary is a short prayer in terms of words (only 42) so the fact that it specifically mentions praying for sinners is significant. It’s that important to Mary, and it should be important to us as well, that we pray for those committing sins (ourselves included).

I know that I often pray the Fatima prayer too casually when I pray the Rosary. But we must remember that sin has real eternal consequences. And we must pray for those who live in sin because their souls are in danger. I understand, we don’t like to think about Hell or the idea that there are people that choose it. Or maybe the problem seems too big for us to solve. But that’s why we pray — to receive help from those in Heaven and on earth. We can ask Jesus for mercy on sinners, Mary to advocate for them, and the Holy Spirit to convert and guide them. We are never alone in this fight. The conversion of sinners is something the entire Church undertakes together.

O My Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell and lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are in most need of Thy mercy.

The Rosary: Spiritual Armor

I may have painted a rather bleak picture in my last few articles about chastisements and politics. After all, what child wants to get into trouble, and what adult wants to be chastised? But the struggle, hardship, and challenges are part of being human and no one is immune to them. Thankfully, we don’t face them alone and have great protection if we take the right steps to accept them. I, of course, am talking about receiving Mary’s protection by praying the Rosary.

When the family (or culture) is attacked, you and I do not fight alone: we are accompanied by the best of soldiers—Jesus Christ, the Blessed Mother, the choirs of angels, and the saints. The challenge is to allow them into our battles, obey their strategies, and follow their lead. In combat, they guide us to know when to move defensively or offensively.
Kathleen Beckman

In her article on Catholic Exchange, Kathleen Beckman talks about how we don’t face challenges alone, whether they be temptations from Satan or chastisements from God. We always have Mary’s protection. Like a commander on the battlefield, she leads us into battle against Satan. Battles are unpleasant, but that’s exactly what we’re engaged in by the fact that we have souls that both Satan and God desire to claim.

The Blessed Mother is perfectly attuned to the spiritual and temporal needs of families. Our gentle and fierce Mother, moved by the weight of divine love, blesses the domestic church with an abundance of grace. Always aware of the exalted role of the family, and knowing the manifold ways that Satan attacks it, Mother Mary watches over us. The Immaculate Heart is compelled to act in holy boldness on our behalf. Adorned with heaven’s endowment, the Virgin Mary is the most powerful warrior in the Lord’s entire army. Never doubt that God has anointed Our Holy Mother for spiritual combat and victory.
Kathleen Beckman

This is why praying the Rosary is so important. We can’t hide from Satan. We don’t stand a chance standing up against Satan alone. We can’t “sit this one out” and not participate. We are all in this battle whether we like it or not. If we have no choice but to fight, we might as well put on our best armor and go to war with a great army.

By praying the Rosary, we call upon Jesus, Mary, saints, and angels to protect us. In fact, one of Mary’s 15 promises uses a war metaphor comparing the Rosary to armor:

The rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.
Mary’s 3rd promise to those who pray the Rosary

We have to pray the Rosary regularly so that we are always prepared to do battle. Preparation is the best protection. While the Rosary is a powerful prayer on its own, its power increases greatly as you build upon it day after day. Like exercise, the first pushup doesn’t transform your body. It’s somewhere between the first and 10,000th pushup that changes you. Similarly, it’s somewhere in the thousands of Rosary prayers that make you strong enough to destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.

When we pray the Rosary, here’s how Mary helps us defeat evil spirits. Take it to heart and explicitly ask for Mary’s intervention the next time you pray the Rosary.

Mary is the vessel — the mediatrix — of God’s grace. God anointed her for spiritual warfare as the most powerful threat to Satan because of her extraordinary union with Jesus.
Because God chose the Virgin Mary to be the New Eve against demons, the name of Mary has a similar impact to the name of Jesus. This is seen during exorcisms. Demons are terrified of the Virgin Mary who always champions a person’s liberation from evil.
Mary’s holy, maternal presence is extraordinarily painful to demons. They know the efficacy of Marian intervention. The Incarnation — the undoing of the devil — was fulfilled in Mary.
Mary’s virtues and union with the Holy Spirit make her a fierce destroyer of diabolical plots and tactics. Her life-giving love and defense of God’s family are infuriating to prideful demons.
Mary, Culture, Family, and Spiritual Warfare

The Rosary: No Black Friday Deals Needed

I woke up last Friday and my email inbox was soaked in Black Friday deals. Every company I’ve done any business with was offering me some limited time, deep discount on their products and services. For me, when everyone is sending me emails on their sales at the same time, I tend to ignore or bulk delete all of them. I just don’t want to spend my limited time and money acquiring stuff that will just sit unused or not bring me much peace and happiness a few months from now.

I’m not offering any type of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, local business Tuesday, giving Wednesday, or large tipping Thursday deals on RosaryMeds. The Rosary doesn’t need it. The Rosary is free to all and provides more value than that new TV on sale.

You don’t need a fancy, gemstone-laden rosary to start praying. I use a cheap plastic one. Initially, people prayed the psalms, a precursor to the Rosary, using pebbles. If you don’t have a rosary, just find any 10-item set of things to count — straws, Lego pieces, coins, etc. When all else fails, you always have your fingers or just use your memory. If you absolutely need a rosary, there are countless free apps you can use (The Holy Rosary – Apps on Google Play) or you can use the Rosary resources on this website.

The full benefits you get out of the Rosary are immeasurable. Why? Because the fullness of God’s grace is infinite and beyond our human comprehension. The joy of Heaven is something we can’t even imagine. But we do have an idea of some of the benefits of the Rosary. Just look at the 15 promises Mary made to those who faithfully prayed the Rosary. As I presented a few years back, these promises are more valuable than winning millions of dollars.

I know for many of us, this Advent will be different and challenging with Covid-19 restrictions and economic uncertainty. But the one thing that you can be certain about is the power of the Rosary and Mary, our Mediatrix. With store-bought gifts, it’s a 50/50 chance whether it will be some useful or something that gets returned or abandoned in a closet. But the Rosary is a gift that rewards everyone who prays it. This Advent, give yourself and your loved ones (heck, even your enemies) the gift of Rosary Prayer.

Pray the Rosary this October

Yeah! October is finally here. Besides the prospect of Holloween candy at the end of the month (Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups!), October is the month of the Rosary.

I’ve been on a bit of a Fatima kick lately. I’ve listened to an audiobook on it as well as watching a children’s series on Formed.org. And I’m going to watch the recently-released Fatima movie. What all of these accounts have in common is the focus on the Rosary.

When Mary appeared to the children at Fatima, she told them to pray the Rosary every day. Think about the weight of this request. This is coming from the mouth of the Queen of Heaven. Mary is the Mother of God. When she asks us to do something, it’s important and we better do what our Heavenly Mother tells us.

This October, pray the Rosary every day. It’s what Mary wants from us so that we can keep Jesus close to our hearts. I’ve collected Rosary resources from across the web on this website that can help you keep the Rosary fresh and engaging. If you need more of a reason than our Heavenly Mother requesting that you pray the Rosary, also consider the many benefits of praying the Rosary:

Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive signal graces.
I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.
The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.
The Rosary will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire for eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.
The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall not perish.
Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its sacred mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life.
Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church.
Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plentitude of His graces; at the moment of death, they shall participate in the merits of the saints in paradise.
I shall deliver from Purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.
The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in Heaven.
You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary.
All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.
I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death.
All who recite the Rosary are my sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters of my only Son Jesus Christ.
The devotion of my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.

Reprioritizing Rosary Prayer

As much as I would like life to go back to normal, we are still far off from returning to any form of normalcy. Many of us have seen drastic changes to our educational, social, professional, and family lives throughout 2020. It will take time for society to return to 2019 norms. And while this may not have made headlines, the largest disruption of 2020 for many of us was to our prayer lives.

There is a lot of depressing news out there. Of course, COVID 19 is the leading headline. But there are also racial, political, economic, societal, and climate concerns. Personally, because of poor air quality due to fires in my area, I haven’t been able to go outside for any meaningful length of time. That has taken a toll on my mental state. These headlines can become all-consuming because they are the only view into the world many of us have if we’re sheltering in place.

I think the reason news headlines affect our moods more than ever is that practicing our faith has become disrupted. Many of us can’t go to Mass or receive the sacraments. We start to digest all this news with a lack of spiritual perspective that usually comes through prayer. It’s God who helps us face this often cruel and challenging world with words of hope. He tells us through prayer that everything will be okay if we put faith in His divine plan. When we don’t see things through this spiritual lens, everything starts to look more hopeless and pointless.

I’m not proud of this, but my Rosary prayer hasn’t been very consistent in the last few months. I took a summer vacation from praying. My summer wasn’t great; it was a large slog of work and parenting. We didn’t have any exciting vacations and my kids didn’t have their usual camps. My anxieties were only amplified by the lack of daily prayer. I dwelled on things that I would normally shake off as no big deal. Because I wasn’t grounded in prayer, my wellbeing was at the mercy of the latest headline.

Starting last week, I rebooted my Rosary prayer routine. Now that my kids are back in school (remotely), I’ve arranged my schedule so that there is time in the morning to pray the Rosary. I integrate light exercise and stretches between decades followed with a cup of fresh coffee to wake me up. I start the day in a much better state when I’ve had some exercise, coffee, and the Rosary.

I had a choice. I could either lament the state of the world or I could change my routine. I chose the latter and that has made a difference. Of course, my day is still challenging. But I’m slowly finding that physical, mental, and spiritual energy to face those challenges. Restarting Rosary prayer hasn’t been a silver bullet, but it helps. And from the “silver linings” department, because of COVID, my parish has started live streaming all Masses, including daily ones. I’ve started participating in those daily online Masses increasing my spiritual reserves for the day.

As we approach October, the month of the Rosary, I suggest changing your routine to include the Rosary if you aren’t already praying it daily. It might make all the difference for you and those around you to include Mary and her son, Jesus Christ, in your day. Like a trusted friend, lay forth all your anxieties at Mary’s feet and ask for her intercession. You will be amazed at what she will do if you approach her humbly asking for help.