Medal
‘The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are
folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually
discerned”
1 Corinthians 2, 14
Her image
You show Yourself dear Mother, radiant and full of splendor, Your mantle represents purity, the sublime virtue with which God has rewarded You. Your smile reflects the joyous expression of one who welcomes the Divine Will with love and freedom. Your open arms, as a sign of praise, accompany the joy of welcoming the Father’s will. Your Son Jesus, close to your lap, shows us the trust that we place in you as our heavenly mother and model of discernment, to draw us closer to Him and to our Father. Your foot and Your Son’s, crush with force the head of the serpent, the evil spirit that leads us to sin and twists our desire for God. At your feet, kind Mother, a path is shown that is unseen on the horizon, this path is our life. Help us then, as You did, to get going, so that our life is not infertile, so that on that horizon we find the reason for our life, to find God.
Our Lady of Discernment, you are walking, with the palms of your hands in front of you, keeping a posture of balance, of discernment, of not being afraid. Your poise tells us that we must make a stop in our lives to fill ourselves with courage in the face of adversity and face tenaciously, as you did in the most difficult times, the adversities that make us lose our way and darken our horizon.
Our Lady of Discernment is an important leader for our present time; it is She who, from Her low profile, loving, observant and reflective, discerns and gives an opportunity to this Godless, wounded and bewildered humanity. It was She who summoned the First Church and encouraged it to remain united despite darkness and adversities. She comes to us today to illuminate us in the current human uncertainty.
Mary is the lighthouse for the Church.
23rd International Mariological Congress. September 9, 2012.
Pope Benedict XVI noted that the Mother of the Savior is the luminous lighthouse of the Church from which Christians can draw the enthusiasm and joy to live a coherent Christian life.
“Mary’s faith precedes and accompanies us as a lighthouse and a model of Christian maturity, to which we may look with trust and from which we may draw enthusiasm and joy in order to live with ever greater commitment and consistency our vocation as children of God, brothers and sisters in Christ, and living members of His Body which is the Church”.
“Ask the Blessed Virgin to be your guide: to be the star, the lighthouse that shines in the midst of the darkness of life”. Saint Teresa of the Andes.
Meaning of the eyes of Our Lady of Discernment:
Her motherly and merciful eyes are receptors of the grateful and pleading gazes of Her children, as well as transmitters of love and maternal help. Her eyes are like a lighthouse that illuminate our paths. – Pope Francis.
Mary, attentive at the suffering of the people, gives us new eyes and heart for compassion. Mary, as a luminous light, guides our steps toward Jesus. Mary, joyful experience of Jesus, draws the Gospel into our lives.
The 7 flames of fire above the head of Our Lady of Discernment symbolize the illumination of conscience – a new birth in God. It is The Holy Spirit Who with His seven gifts, brings the grace to have Discernment, balance, and availability to enter into our interior and accept the light of a new beginning: conversion. Mary Most Holy exporter of light par excellence shall govern the acts of the Holy Spirit over Her children. It is the beginning of a New Era of light, where our consciences are purified by the fire of the Holy Spirit of God walking hand in hand with the Good Mother of Discernment.
The white halo symbolizes, the new creature in Christ, the purity of the heart acquired by the illumination of the Conscience on our condition of sin. it is the birth to eternity, which, by the change of Mentality effected by the Holy Spirit, we long to reach the Kingdom of God. The requirement? The soul must be pure. Mary is the Full of Grace and the example, the guide and the mediator to continue in Discernment. Whoever prays discerns, and who discerns is saved.
The blue scapular, worn by Our Lady of Discernment, represents the Mantle with which She protects Her children, serves God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and Her most chaste spouse, Saint Joseph.
It is the armor and shield that She gives us to act righteously, and to protect us from the snares of the enemy.
Her Scapular moves us, by a burning desire, to live and die under the Blue Mantle of Her Purity and Virginity.
Her white robe symbolizes the discernment, purity and cleanliness that we must preserve our souls, to reach the Kingdom of God. It symbolizes the sacrifice and the love that we must make in order to become saints pure of heart, and thus, achieve our interior conversion in a genuine search for God.
Explanation of the lighthouse
The port, the lighthouse and the captain’s steering wheel are very closely linked to the Holy Trinity. The captain is the Holy Spirit! To obtain the presence of God in our lives, the Holy Spirit is The One who indicates to us the port to which we are heading and the paths we will find on our journey. It is He who allows us to take the steering wheel of our lives in silence and prayer. What a blessing it is to listen to His advice during storms, darkness and fog!
The Lighthouse represents Jesus with His Blessed Mother. They are the light that guides our journey with their Words. Their teachings are a sure light to stay on course. Powerful light that pierces the night of our lives to provide us with reliable direction to advance towards the port.
The port is the Father, the origin of everything. Towards Him, we go forth and from Him we depart. In Him we find the comfort to settle and draw strength. It is Him Whom we will be happy to see at the dusk of our journey from this earth. It is He, through His Son Jesus, Who offers us the Sacraments to enable us to support the sea of our lives, and to move forward, without getting lost, in the midst of unbridled seas and devouring winds!
With The Eternal Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and Our Blessed Mother, we can embark with confidence.
That luminous lighthouse is also the Universal Church that, like Our Lady of Discernment, we can see and approach as a lighthouse of health and shelter in the tempests of life.
The 2 windows of the lighthouse, represent two main moments in the life of Our Blessed Mother Mary, in which the Holy Spirit assisted Her: The Annunciation and The Incarnation.
The light at the top is Our Blessed Mother Mary’s discernment. That discernment is in communion with and moved by the Holy Spirit. In The Annunciation and in The Incarnation, in which the Holy Spirit actively participates, Mary understands that Her mission is to be the Mother of the Son of God, and that desire is moved by the Divine Will, not by Her personal desire. That’s the key to discernment.
The door with the Cross. On the cross is salvation, on the cross is life, on the cross is the repulsion of the enemy, on the cross is the strength of the heart, on the cross is the joy of the spirit, on the cross is the ultimate virtue, on the cross is the perfection of holiness.
It is only on the Cross that we find health for the soul and hope for eternal life.
Everything is in the Cross and dying on it.
There is no other way to life and to true endearing peace but the way of the holy cross and continuous mortification. That is why we have to go through the gate of the cross in the lighthouse.
The way of the holy cross, the way of Discernment, is the holy beam of light that illuminates our lives.
Act according to your own will and you will always find uninvited affliction. Patience is required if we want to have inner peace to deserve the perpetual crown. Let’s seek the Mother of Discernment.
“The Cross of Christ is like a lighthouse that indicates the port to ships that are still in the stormy sea. It is the sign of hope that does not disappoint and that tells us that not even a tear, not even a lament is lost in God’s plan of salvation”. –Pope Francis.
The 7 handles of the helm of the ship, represent the Theological and Cardinal virtues. (The Cardinal virtues are 4: Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance. The Theological virtues are 3: Faith, Hope, and Charity).
Mary lived those virtues in Her life.
The Projection of Our Lady of Discernment's charism
Mary pays attention to Her interior life… discerns, lives inner silence.
She looks at Jesus who holds Her… She is surprised.
Her smile and Her face are a spring of falling water that overflows with grace.
“He who believes in me, rivers of living water will flow from within him.” (Jn 7:38-39)
The eyes of the Blessed Mother of Discernment are large and deep.
Her peaceful gaze reflects security and balance. She looks beyond and at the same time focuses on each one of us.
Mary is, like Her Son, contemplative in action and active in contemplation.
Discernment pays attention to what hurts us and separates us from God.
This person can be you.
Get closer to discernment.
Mute all noises.
Caress your wounds with sweetness.
Interiorize without fear.
Turn away from evil, destroy temptations.
Replace human thought with the Divine Thought.
She asks us to be balanced, to be silent, to live in total Discernment, because Who speaks is Jesus.
Thus, Discernment and Balance give us the readiness to raise our hands and avoid evil.
