Recently in Blessed Virgin Mary Category

The dogma of Mary's Immaculate Conception was given to us by Pope Pius IX and proclaimed in the document, Ineffabilis Deus

We take this occasion, brethren, to communicate to you the determination, unanimously adopted by us, to place ourselves and all entrusted to our charge throughout the United States, under the special patronage of the holy Mother of God, whose Immaculate Conception is venerated by the piety of the faithful throughout the Catholic Church.

By the aid of her prayers, we entertain the confident hope that we will be strengthened to perform the arduous duties of our ministry, and that you will be enabled to practice the sublime virtues, of which her life presents the most perfect example.

Today we celebrate the Feast Day of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal.  On this day, November 27th, in 1830, the Immaculate Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Catherine Laboure in the chapel of the motherhouse of the Daughters of Charity in Paris. 

At one point during the apparition Catherine saw Our Lady standing on a globe, with dazzling rays of light streaming from her outstretched hands. Framing the figure was an inscription: O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. 

Mary spoke to Catherine: "Have a medal struck upon this model. Those who wear it will receive great graces."  The Medal of the Blessed Virgin Mary, popularly known as the Miraculous Medal, was approved by Pope Leo XIII on July 23, 1894.

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Why the Sorrowful Mother?  Why do Catholics honor Mary, the Mother of God with the title of "Sorrows"? Is it an honor to be called such? Some good questions, I think. Mark Miravalle answers the question this way:

We could just as well ask St. Paul why he instructs all Christians to "make up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his body, which is the Church" (Colossians 1:24).

We Christians, too, will suffer and do suffer. Our suffering has the capacity to release a portion of the infinite graces merited by Jesus at Calvary, what theologians call "objective redemption." But as these redemptive graces of Jesus must be personally received by the human heart, every Christian has a role in this mysterious release and reception of grace which theologians call "subjective redemption."

Mary alone, as the "New Eve" with Jesus the "New Adam," participates in both objective and subjective redemption: both in the historic acquisition of redemptive grace and in the providential release of redemptive grace. Blessed John Paul would teach of his mother and ours that Mary's intensity of suffering at Calvary was a "contribution to the redemption of all" (Salvifici Doloris, 25).