Since very early Father Molina was already preaching about Mary as the place for the Encounter with God: “On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh” (Mt 2,11). Sin brought the demise of God. But God shines again, He again appears. And man reencounters God. This is the Adoration of the three Wise Men: the reencounter of man with God. And all of this process is made through MARY: to conceive is to bear fruit. Mary gives me God that is hers. Oh, excellent dignity! And I claim that Fruit in Mary” (22-9-1977)
“In the same manner that no one comes to the Eternal Father except through the Son, nobody can approach Christ, the Son, but through Mary. Let us cultivate the devotion to Mary, let us turn to Mary in order to find God. God cannot be found but through the Lady that is the door, the pathway to God to enter the world of man and the entrance of man to the realm of God” (23-5-1981).
Brief history
This image of Mary took a visible face when in April 1994 a Spaniard married couple in Villanueva de los Infantes, Mr. Loreto Rodríguez (r.i.p.) and Mrs. Paquita Sánchez Remiro, offered Father Molina a small figure of the Virgin Mary with the child in her arms, one that the town’s priest D. Luis Gallego, had enthroned in his parish because he considered Holy Mary as an effective mediator in his last moments and as such he wanted to instill that belief in the parishioners. Even though it was not yet decided a name for the image, after it was discussed with the pious marriage Loreto suggested the name Encounter: Our Lady of the Encounter.
Loreto and Paquita offer Father Molina the new image. The coincidence about the name and the idea of mediation, make Father Molina, as someone who finds the Lady and Owner of his heart, he fell surrendered to his feet and accepted this generous offer.
Right away an artist paints the portrait in oil painting from the primitive ceramic following the indications suggested by Father Molina himself.
To “Our Lady of the Encounter” Father Molina adds “with God” and the notion of an intervention circumscribe to the moment of death is enriched with the comforting understanding of a maternal and universal intervention of all graces. Intervention is truly the main purpose of Mary as a Mother.
Fr. Molina said: “Mary leads us to God. To have an Immaculate Mother is a treasure that is never praised enough. Place yourself under Mary’s guidance: the path that She points out is the straightest and surest for the encounter with God.”
Father Molina left Our Lady of the Encounter with God as Mother and patroness of all his apostolic works and endeavors and She is patroness of the Queenship of Mary. The feast day is the same as Our Lady of the Rosary, on October 7th.
Consecration to Our Lady
“To consecrate oneself to Holy Mary is a voluntary confirmation of the baptismal promises, an act of trust and a willingness of reparation for our sins. It is not the mere declamation of a formula, nor to feel a great relief just by saying it.”
Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort invites us to fully give ourselves to the Blessed Virgen as slaves to be all of Jesus Christ through Her. That the soul, relies entirely on the Virgin, in such a way that is no longer the soul which lives, but Mary who lives in it. And furthermore, Saint Louis-Marie asks that we lead an effective Marian life by doing all things with Mary, in Mary, by Mary, and for Mary.
Father Molina used to teach: “through the consecration I come to be deed, possession and property of the Holy Mary, in the same way a child is deed, possession and property of his mother. By announcing my Marian CONSECRATION I remove all obstacles that oppose to Her carrying out in me all Her might, which She can fulfill on behalf of God, to conceive me as She conceived my mind: Christ; and Her making me her possession automatically, Her property as whole as a child is possession and whole property of his mother, so She can do in me His will, in my soul and my body; in my life and my death, in my eternity.”
Consecration Formula to Our Lady of the Encounter with God
O Blessed Mother of God and tender Mother of Mine!
To Thee I turn, Virgin of Immaculate Heart, Our Lady who leads us to the Encounter with God. Thou art both Mighty Lady and Mother of the small, forgotten and miserable. I confess Thou maternal Intercessor of all the graces. Co-Redemptrix in the pain of compassion, compassionate Mother of Thy helpless children. To Thee God wanted to entrust the entire economy of Mercy, where Thou enter, Thou obtain the grace of conversion and of the sanctification.
Animated with this confidence in such a Kind Mother, acknowledging myself a sinner, full of misery and in need of the grace and mercy that Thou possess, I kneel at Thy feet, I renew and confirm today in Thy hands the promises of my Baptism; I renounce forever Satan, his pomp and evil works and, I freely consecrate myself to Thee, Our Lady of the Encounter with God, I consecrate myself to Thy Immaculate Heart, so that Thou be my loving Mother: life, delight and hope, heart of my heart. Yes, Mother, make me Thy son as Thou wish, shape me according to Thine Immaculate Heart. I proclaim Thou my Owner, my Queen and Lady, my Teacher and Counselor. You will be irrevocably the one who leads me to the blissful Encounter with the God of my life.
Mother, make me persevere in this holy love that Thou have inspired me with today. I need to lose and abandon myself with confidence in Thou, unconditionally and irrevocably. And may everything I do in Thou, Mary, with Thou, from Thou, for Thou and for eternal praise of the Holy Trinity. One and Triune God Whom I adore and love, I believe in His Love, and I hope in His Mercy to sing with Thou, oh Mary! – forever – the praises of his Glory. Amen.
