TWENTY-EIGHTH DAY
ARCHANGEL SAINT GABRIEL
MONTH OF OCTOBER
Consecrated
TO THE HOLY ANGELS
IN WHICH THEIR EXCELLENCES, PREROGATIVES AND OFFICES ARE EXPOSED, ACCORDING TO THE TEACHINGS OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE, THE HOLY FATHERS AND DOCTORS OF THE CHURCH
By Alejo Romero, Presbyter
TO START EVERY DAY
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PREPARATORY PRAYER
Sovereign Lord of the world, before whom all the creatures of heaven, earth and hell bend their knees reverently; look at us here prostrate in your divine presence to give you the tributes of love, adoration and respect that are due to your exalted majesty and high greatness. We come to contemplate during this month the excellences, prerogatives and offices with which you have enriched for our benefit those sublime spirits that, like burning lamps, are eternally around your throne, making your divine perfections shine. O beautiful Sun of intelligences, who fill all the empyreum with immense radiance, cast on our souls a flash of those flashes, so that, knowing the deep malice of sin, we may hate it with all our strength, and the living flame of divine love may be lit in our hearts, so that we may walk along the paths of virtue, until we reach heavenly Jerusalem, where we will join our praises to those of the angelic spirits and blessed, to glorify them for all eternity. Amen.
TWENTY-EIGHTH DAY
ARCHANGEL SAINT GABRIEL
Meditation
POINT 1º. Consider, my soul, that after having sinned Adam, God Our Lord notified him of the terrible and eternal punishment he incurred for his disobedience; but at the same time, by a trait of his infinite Mercy, justified in that Adam and Eve had not fallen into evil but by the suggestion of the devil, he did not want to abandon our first parents and all their descendants to despair; and for this he promised them that a Redeemer would be born of his race that would erase his fault and reopen the gates of heaven for them. For the fulfillment of this promise God set a deadline, which once expired, sent an Angel to the woman who had resolved to associate this great work to announce it to her and ask for her consent. Let us contemplate, then, the Archangel Gabriel fulfilling his divine mission near the Blessed Virgin. Of all the messages that God had previously entrusted to the Angels, none was so high, holy and so important as this one, because it was nothing less than to announce the Incarnation of the divine Verb, of the Son of the eternal Father in the virginal womb of Mary, by whose mystery a Man-God would be conceived who would atone in his person with the cruelest torments and death itself the crimes of mankind. Among the millions of Angels who form the heavenly court, Gabriel was chosen for this great embassy. As soon as this Angel receives the order of the Most High, he flies down to Galilee, goes to Nazareth, enters the house of the Virgin filling it all with the most vivid glows and begins to greet Mary with these words: "I greet you, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among all women." But Mary, hearing him speak like this, is troubled and asks what this greeting means, and the Angel hastens to announce the object of his mission in these terms: "Do not be afraid, Mary, because you have found grace before God, behold, you will conceive and give birth to a Son, whom you will call Jesus. He will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David, his father; he will reign eternally in the house of Jacob, and his reign will not end." What an impression this announcement must not have made on Maria's soul! However, as soon as he gives his consent, the great prodigy is worked in his purest bowels and the redemption of man begins.
POINT 2º. Consider that although God himself could address Mary directly, as he had already done with Adam in the earthly paradise and later with numerous characters of the ancient law; however, he has not wanted to deal with this great matter with the Blessed Virgin, but through the mediation of the Angel, and this for several reasons pointed out by the Holy Fathers of the Church: because God, in the order of the economy of our salvation, governs men by the ministry of the Angels who are his superiors; because the Son of God wanting to repair the ruin of the Angels, replacing them With men, it was convenient to use his ministry, and entrust them with this office; because having been the man seduced by the language of the serpent, that is, of the rebellious angel, it was right that he was also instructed by the word of an Angel; because, finally, as chastity has a lot of relationship and alliance with the Angels, it corresponded to the dignity of the Queen of Angels, to send her one who would communicate the happy news of her divine motherhood without detraining her virginal integrity. God has sent the Archangel Gabriel rather than St. Raphael or St. Michael or any other Angel for the fulfillment of this most noble mission, because Gabriel was the Angel who had previously announced to the prophet Daniel the date of the Incarnation. Also because the meaning of his name is very adapted to this mission, because according to some, it means God and man and therefore that he announced that God would become man; according to others, Gabriel means the strength of God and the work of the incarnation is, in fact, a work par excellence of divine strength, because what power was not necessary for God to make a fertile virgin, to enclose the Infinite in the bosom of a woman, to unite so closely two natures, the divine and the human, that they formed no more than a person and so many others Prodigies as they are in the Incarnation! For this same reason, because Gabriel was "force of God" he was sent to St. Joseph to enlighten and strengthen him in his doubts during Mary's pregnancy, he was also sent to fortify Jesus in the Garden of Olives. For all these reasons, let us have a sincere devotion to this admirable Angel and a complete trust in his help.
Glorious Archangel Saint Gabriel, deign to reach me from the Lord the strength of grace to dominate my passions and overcome the enemies of my salvation.
Practice
Get used to offering the prayer of the Hail Mary through the Archangel St. Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin, joining your intention to the one that this heavenly prince had when he greeted the Virgin Mary herself.
Three Our Fathers and three Hail Marys with Gloria Patri are prayed and offered with the following:
Prayer
Most faithful spirit, blessed Archangel Saint Gabriel, that you were chosen by God to announce to the purest and most holy of creatures, the most high mystery of the divine Incarnation, the masterpiece of infinite power; we beg you with all the strength of our souls, that you weaken the efforts of the devil, take away the fear of men, making us brave and intrepid on occasions when the glory of God is interested, and, finally, that you help us to collect and take advantage of the fruits of the Incarnation of the divine Word, of which you had the glory of being most happy Herald. Amen.
Example
In the twelfth century, a shepherd boy named Benito lived near Avignon, to whom the Lord appeared to him, instructing him to build a bridge over the Rhone, after assuring him that he would take care of the sheep and that he would give him a guide to accompany him on the way. Penetrated Benitico of admiration and full of confidence left the sheep on point and set off. A few steps away he saw next to him a gallant young man in a walker's suit, who told him he would come to take him to the Rhone until he put him in the place where God wanted him to make the bridge. Although there were three days on the road, they arrived in less than three hours. Seeing Benitico already on the banks of the Rhone in front of Avignon considering the extension and speed of the river, he exclaimed in amazement: "Here it is impossible to build a bridge." But the Angel replied: "Do not be afraid, do what God commands you, that this Lord never commands impossible things, and you will soon experience it." Pass the boat, introduce yourself to the Bishop of Avignon and tell him the commission you have. Saying this, the Angel disappeared, leaving the boy animated by a new breath and with so much confidence, that to prove that his mission was divine, at the behest of the city'st who tried to mock him, he threw himself a huge rock that could barely move thirty men, and walked with it, accompanied by the Bishop, the clergy, the nobility and the people, to the place where the bridge was to be built in the midst of the most vivid demonstrations of veneration and respect.
It is read about every day.
FINAL SENTENCE
TO THE QUEEN OF LOS ANGELES
Oh, Mary, the purest of virgins, who, by your great humility and heroic virtues, you deserved to be the Mother of the Redeemer of the world, and for this very reason to be constituted Queen of the universe and placed on a majestic throne, from where tender and compassionate you look at the misfortunes of humanity, to remedy them with maternal request; pity, August Mother, of our great misadventures. The world has left in us nothing but sad disappointments and bitter disappointments; in vain we have run in pursuit of the lying happiness that promises to its worshipers, because we have tasted nothing other than the bitter gall of remorse, and our eyes have shed abundant tears that our brothers have not been able to wipe. Everywhere infernal legions pursue us inciting us to evil, and we have no other shelter than to take refuge under the folds of your virginal mantle, as the chicks pursued by the sean have no other asylum than to gather under the wings of the bird that gave them the being. For this, from the bottom of our bitterness we cry out to You to send to us and for our defense the angelic spirits, of whom you are the Queen and Sovereign, so that they free us from their cunning ambushs and guide us along the right path of happiness. Amen
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Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in you.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, be my salvation.
Glorious Patriarch Saint Joseph, pray for us.
Saint Michael, pray for us.
San Rafael, pray for us.
Saint Gabriel, pray for us.
Holy Guardian Angels, pray for us.
All the angels and saints of God, pray for us.
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Dear brother, if you liked this exercise in honor of the holy angels, share it with your family and friends!
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Hail Mary Most Pure, conceived without sin.
Church of the Savior of Toledo at 21:00:00
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