Consecration to Mary and the USMLE and the Immaculate Conception!

Today I renew my total Consecration to Jesus through Mary! Says Pope Pius XII,

Consecration to the Mother of God is a total gift of self, for the whole of life and for all eternity; and a gift which is not a mere formality or sentimentality, but effectual, comprising the full intensity of the Christian life - Marian life. [This consecration] tends essentially to union with Jesus, under the guidance of Mary.

Today is also marked by the formal beginning of my preparation for Step 1 of the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE). We now interrupt this announcement for a brief rant.

Medical testing is expensive. The USMLE has three "Steps." I will take Step 1 this June, I will take Step 2 after third year, and Step 3 in residency. And these are some pretty pricy steps to take. I am about to pay $560.00 to take Step 1, which is seven hours (excluding breaks) of multiple choice questions. Step 2 has a multiple-choice component (eight hours) called "Clinical Knowledge" (CK) and a clinical component (eight hours of seeing standardized patients) called "Clinical Skills" (CS). Step 2 CK costs another $560, and Step 2 CS costs $1200 and can only be taken in five locations nationwide.

I thought the MCAT was a big test, but looking back, the MCAT cost $270 and was only five hours long (excluding breaks). However, there will be no inorganic chemistry, plant biology, or irrelevant physics on the USMLE. So I am happy. End of rant.

Traditionally, Christmas break of the second year is the time to begin studying for Step 1. I am especially fond of doing things traditionally, plus we have a practice Step 1 next Thursday; therefore, today I will begin earnestly reviewing and practicing for the USMLE. Since the formal beginning of the preparation for Step 1 and the feast of the Immaculate Conception coincide, I am going to do something rather special.

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I here consecrate all my studying for this largest test of my life to my Mother, Mary.

By this consecration I promise to become dependent on Mary in all my studies: to offer all my effort and time to God through Mary, and to seek every gift from God through Mary. 

And I do this with the greatest confidence. Since she is my mother, she knows my needs better than I; and since she is Queen of Heaven, she has immediate access to the infinite treasury of graces in the Kingdom of her Divine Son. 

I beseech her, with St. Joseph, my guardian angel and my patron saints, and all the host of heaven to intercede for me in this endeavor and in my perseverance in the imitation of our Lord Jesus unto my death. Amen.†

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An exciting period of my life has begun! Happy feast day to everyone!

† I took some of the text from my little consecration of USMLE prep from here.

The Picture of Our Country

Our patroness is watchful even as we're razed nearly to the ground. 

Pray to maintain your hope, then pray for the nation.

Jesus, we trust in You!

Trading Stress for Calm

During the first few weeks of this year I felt completely crushed by the onslaught of school and the pressure to lead two student groups (MedSFL and CMA-SS) into a successful year. 

I'm slowly being helped to have more resignation by a collection of Pope Benedict's reflections on Mary. It's been a great help to think about Our Lady's perfect cooperation and calm with God's will.

So what if no one joins the CMA? So what if MedSFL offends some a lot of people? Who cares? God loves, and I belong to Him.

Total Consecration to Jesus, through Mary

I began my fifth year of total consecration this past Thursday. It's hard for me to explain, so I'll let St. Louis-Marie de Montfort do it for me. (Emphasis mine; I added it because the quote is long and I tend to skim the latter half of long quotes.)

St. Louis de Montfort noticed that the saints

stay at home with their mother—that is, they have an esteem for quietness, love the interior life and are assiduous in prayer. They always remain in the company of the Blessed Virgin, their Mother and Model, whose glory is wholly interior and who during her whole life dearly loved seclusion and prayer. It is true, at times they do venture out into the world, but only to fulfill the duties of their state of life, in obedience to the will of God and the will of their Mother.

No matter how great their accomplishments may appear to others, they attach far more importance to what they do within themselves in their interior life, in the company of the Blessed Virgin. For there they work at the great task of perfection, compared to which all other work is mere child's play. At times their brothers and sisters are working outside with great energy, skill and success, and win the praise and approbation of the world. But they [the saints] know by the light of the Holy Spirit, that there is far more good, more glory and more joy in remaining hidden and recollected with our Lord, in complete and perfect submission to Mary, than there is in performing by themselves marvelous works of nature and grace in the world....

Lord Jesus, how lovely is your dwelling place!¹

In this consecration, I give all my possessions—corporeal and spiritual, present and future—to Mary, so that she may dispose of them as she wishes. In this way, I make her my superior in life. Mary, not to be outdone in generosity, lends me her virtues, and molds me perfectly to Jesus. (I remember reading the biography of a Carmelite nun; on the first day of her postulancy the superior took her to the foot of a statue of Mary and said, "ask her to make you a perfect spouse of Christ." This is what this little consecration is.)

Examine this verse (a favorite at this time of year):

...and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.²

The inn is the world, and there is no room for Christ in a heart full of worldliness.^{3, 4} Instead, Our Lady lays Jesus in the wood of the manger which, like the wood of Noah's ark, is a symbol of the Church. The Church, empty of all other glory, is able to receive Him.⁵ This consecration enables a soul to be empty, so that Christ can enter as He ordained: at the hands of Mary.

Please contact me with any questions about this devotion! Footnotes are after the jump.

Breast Cancer/Abortion

I'm still really interested in this.... Here are two links I found today:

• Abortion Nearly Triples Breast Cancer Risk, New Study Finds
• Epidemiologic Studies: Induced Abortion and BC Risk 1957-2011

Interesting. Listening, AMA?

Two other cool tidbits about motherhood:

• Breastfeeding lowers infants' risk of ear infections! (We did oral cavity and Eustachian tubes today, and I'm sad the lecturer missed this point. There are so many plusses to lactation I can't control my enthusiasm.) 
• This picture of Our Lady (right) is the third result when I google "mother." (I'm searching for reusable images with safesearch.)

The Fence

I have a lot of favorite professors, but this post is about one of them in particular. He more than other professors reminds me of a TAC tutor—he loves his science, loves teaching, and doesn't mind what the world thinks of him. He is very polished and thoughtful. His lectures are a little scatterbrained, but that's also endearing and reminiscent of a few TAC faculty I admire. I sit in the front row and I feel like I got to know him. (I silently notify him when his microphone turns off; I answer questions, I make eye contact.) I wish I could tell you more, but I shouldn't give identifying information.

This past week, he presented the female reproductive system as his last lecture to us. We clapped when he finished; mine was an applause of gratitude and recognition of excellence.

Iconography

Our Lady of Częstochowa

I love icons: I have a diptych in my study carrel at school, and a Russian nicopeia in my bedroom. I've often wanted to write icons, especially when I am reading about a favorite saint. However,  I'm woefully ignorant, so I am reading about iconography on my weekend off. (I had an exam last Friday and won't have another one for two weeks!)

I found rich quotes from the Catholic Encyclopedia and an insightful interview with iconographer Marek Czarnecki. I was most impressed with two points: the powerful, subtle way icons teach and the remarkable mentality of iconcographers.

First point: icons are designed to teach through every detail. Czarnecki had this to say:

We can compare an icon to a carefully constructed poem. Indeed, this is why we call it icon ‘writing’ instead of ‘painting.’ Every ‘word’ or element of it fits very concisely and precisely to contribute to the overall meaning and integrity of the whole.

He called iconography an "eternal language," providing a way to depict the Church's saints until the end of time. "Iconography is called, rightly so, a liturgical art. Just like a priest has a rite for saying Mass, so we also have our guidelines...the consensus and example of tradition." He also informed me about the importance of icons in our human lives:

In the eighth century, an ecumenical council was convened. At that time, St. John of Damascus determined that icons were not an ‘option,’ but rather a necessity in explaining the Incarnation of Christ. To not have icons would be a denial of the Incarnation itself.

It reminds me of the importance of the beauty of architecture, which I realized when TAC dedicated the Chapel my sophomore year. It was designed to be a church that teaches, so that the marbles used and the positions of the materials impressed on TACers truths of the faith. In the same way, shapes and colors on the wood of an icon impress us with truths. I've seen that the richest lessons are the ones I learn gradually and gently, unfolding day by day. The icons in my life do this.

At Knock: Our Lady of Silence - Vultus Christi

I enjoyed this article about Our Lady of Knock. One doesn't hear much about this apparition, but this message (holy silence gazing on God) is sorely needed for salvation. Mary teaches us this in the Gospels, and in this apparition she shows us again.