Blessed Virgin Mary – Page 16

Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary

My heart will rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, who has been bountiful with me.

(Entrance ant. Ps. 13)

With Mother Church we pray,

O God, who has prepared a fit dwelling place for the Holy Spirit in the Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, graciously grant that through her intercession we may be a worthy temple of your glory.

The solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is directly followed by the memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the supreme human vessel of the Holy Spirit. In days following the feast of Pentecost the Church offers us an opportunity to dedicate our lives once again to the love and work of Divine Providence today. As we move through summer and then into the autumn we need a focus and the Hearts of Jesus and Mary are just the focus we need.

If you read the Litany to the Immaculate Heart of Mary you notice the characteristics the Church believes are part of Mary’s witness to Divine Providence, and which ought to be a part of our lives, too. The Litany keeps the recognition of the Mystery alive; it awakens within us our destiny in Christ. Therefore, what is said of Mary ought to be said of us (with God’s grace, of course). Let me note a few of the characteristcs that we ought to have: a heart like God’s, a heart united to Jesus’, an instrument of the Holy Spirit, a sanctuary of the Blessed Trinity, a tabernacle of the Incarnation, etc. Find the Litany of the Immaculate Heart and meditate on it today. It will be a invitation to conversion.

In August, the month dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we’ll return to a way of living in the purity of intention and love found in Mary.

The Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth

The Word of God is not a literary expression, but is the indication of an event, it is always a fact: the Word of God is Christ. His word starts from the promise of an event. The figure of the Virgin is completely filled with memory, the word of her people, stretching completely toward the meaning of these events (the Angel’s announcement, Elizabeth’s greeting). This is why Elizabeth used the highest form of address: ‘Blessed is she who believed in the fulfillment of the Word of the Lord.’

Monsignor Luigi Giussani

Portsmouth Abbey monks dedicate Lourdes Grotto

Magnificat, anima mea Dominum!

Earlier today my friend Peter and I journeyed to Portsmouth Abbey and School for the blessing of the Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto. An outdoor shrine to dedicated to the Virgin Mary who appeared in Lourdes France in the 19th century. Abbot Caedmon led the blessing and School choir sang the traditional hymns to Our Lady.

Abbot Caedmon drew our attention to the humility of Mary appearing to Saint Bernadette asking her to tell the world of the need for prayer and penance. A message clearly consistent with the Gospel of Christ. It is Mary, the Mother of God, Mother of the Church who calls us to greater fidelity to her Son and Our Savior, Jesus. And so the Gospel and Our Lady of Lourdes, so with us today.

The Grotto dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes on the west side of the Portsmouth Abbey campus is the generous gift of an anonymous former student and benefactor of Portsmouth. The generosity of this man is borne of his desire to make the Virgin Mary of Lourdes known and to inspire among those connected with Portsmouth the enduring commitment of faith, reason and service for one’s salvation and the salvation of the world. A significant example of this witness is that the Abbey School, for the last 34 years, has joined with the Ampleforth Abbey Pilgrimage (England) for a service to trip to assist the sick on pilgrimage seeking a divine healing and cure at the great Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in southern France in July.

The stone for the Grotto was harvested from the Abbey property (as was the stone used for the Abbey Church) and a local landscaping crew did the labor. Benedictine Brother Joseph contributed his expertise to the project.

Continue reading Portsmouth Abbey monks dedicate Lourdes Grotto

The Golden Rose given to Our Lady of Charity of Cobre, Cuba

A rose among thorns. Well, almost. Man and woman
always want to give an expression of love and affection to another. In the
course of history you will notice the gifts of love’s sentiment and reality
given to God, the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints. Visit a shrine where
healings are reported and you’ll notice tokens of gratitude: lockets, flowers, chalices, artwork, and the like. One beautiful gift of
love was given by Pope Benedict Monday evening to the Virgen de la Caridad de
Cobre in Cuba: a golden rose. The papal gift of a golden rose dates back to the
middle ages when a pope held a golden rose in a procession on Laetare Sunday,
the fourth Sunday of Lent. It was Pope Eugene III who called the rose a sign of
Christ’s passion: the gold symbolizing the resurrection and the thorns the
suffering.

Over time the golden rose was given to Church dignitaries thus
expanding the meaning: a personal honor and a reminder: do not forget the
responsibilities and duties that come with being a Christian. Beyond the human
honor given to royalty, the rose was given to abbeys and sanctuaries of the
Virgin Mary. Pope John Paul II gave a few these roses to shrines and Pope
Benedict XVI is fond of the custom and so he’s given roses to Altötting, Mariazell,
Fatima, Aparecida, USA and now to Cuba.

The Annunciation of the Lord

The mystery of the annunciation to Mary is not just a
mystery of silence. It is above and beyond all that a mystery of grace.

We
feel compelled to ask ourselves: Why did Christ really want to be born of a
virgin? It was certainly possible for him to have been born of a normal
marriage. That would not have affected his divine Sonship, which was not
dependent on his virgin birth and could equally well have been combined with
another kind of birth. There is no question here of a downgrading of marriage
or of the marriage relationship; nor is it a question of better safeguarding
the divine Sonship. Why then?

We find the answer when we open the Old Testament
and see that the mystery of Mary is prepared for at every important stage in
salvation history. It begins with Sarah, the mother of Isaac, who had been
barren, but when she was well on in years and had lost the power of giving life,
became, by the power of God, the mother of Isaac and so of the chosen people.

The
process continues with Anna, the mother of Samuel, who was likewise barren, but
eventually gave birth; with the mother of Samson, or again with Elizabeth, the
mother of John the Baptizer. The meaning of all these events is the same: that
salvation comes, not from human beings and their powers, but solely from
God–from an act of his grace.

Joseph Ratzinger

Co-Workers of the Truth Meditations
for Every Day of the Year (1992), 99-100.

Annunciation of the Lord

Mary would never see the world in the same way again because she had conceived beneath her heart, The Word, the Son of God made flesh within her. The Word from the mind of God now in her being…She would now have to see everything through the eyes of that Word and everything would change. “Nothing would again be causal and small, but everything with light invested,” (J. Duffy, “The Annunciation”). Christ, the Light of the World.

That’s what happens when we come to know Christ, to possess Christ, to bring Christ into our very being, flesh of our flesh, blood of our blood. When our heart beats with Christ’s heart we see the whole world differently. We look into the womb of every mother and see the image of the Son of God.

John Joseph Cardinal O’Connor

8th Archbishop of New York, 1984-2000

The Visitation as a model for Christian life

Advent is moving us closer and closer to the Incarnation of the Eternal Word of God–Jesus. Among the rich readings of sacred Scripture we have in the Liturgy, there is today’s that recalls for us Mary’s visiting her cousin Elizabeth who is pregnant with John the Baptist. The Visitation is the second of the Joyful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary.

Looking at what is given to us to meditate on, the vocation of woman is brought out. Looking around us the culture does’t offer too many exceptional models of woman for us to take inspiration.

This morning we prayed the Sacrifice of the Mass with the young women of New York’s Dominican Academy, Dominican Father Ignatius Schweitzer said he noticed six characteristics which portray Mary, the Mother of Jesus, as a fitting role model for all people, but noteworthy of women. While Mary may be a little removed from some Christians real experience, I think the lack is filled with Mass readings today.

The six characteristics are:

1. Mary is a woman of faith;

2. Mary puts her faith into action;

3. Mary takes the initiative;

4. Mary brings joy to Elizabeth;

5. Mary is a community-builder;

6. Mary is a caring mother.

It is up to us to flesh out the details of these characteristics because TODAY the Savior is recognized.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Partroness of America

A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars

(Rev.12:1).

O God, Father of mercies, who placed your people under the singular protection of your Son’s most holy Mother, grant that all who invoke the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe may seek with ever more lively faith the progress of peoples in the ways of justice and of peace.

Why is the Immaculate Conception important?

What did we hear today from the sacred Liturgy about the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary? How close to did you pay attention to the priest praying the Mass prayers on your behalf? What’s the import of the feast? To know the answers we have to look at the texts of today’s Liturgy. Did you notice when the priest prayed:

1. God preserved Mary from every stain of sin by foreseeing the death of His Son Jesus, and so we pray too, that is, we hope to be cleansed of sin and admitted to communion with Him;

2. we profess belief in God’s prevenient grace given to Mary and we hope that He will deliver us from sin;

3. in the Preface, the priest prays that in Mary who was “endowed with the rich fullness of your [God’s] grace … [there is] a worthy Mother for your Son and [which] signify the beginning of the Church; As Pope Benedict said today, “Mary, on the other hand,” he continued, “is Immaculate, free from all stain of sin. The Church is holy, but at the same time marked by our sins.”

4. in her yes to God’s invitation to be the Mother of Jesus, we have the “Lamb would wipe away our offenses”;

5. we pray that the singular grace given to Mary may also be given to us.

This Liturgy is a mix of liturgical, dogmatic and systematic theology. BTW, this is fitting way to celebrate the graces given to our nation.

Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The dogma of Mary’s Immaculate Conception was given to us by Pope Pius IX and proclaimed in the document, Ineffabilis Deus (1854), solemnly defining a clear and consistent teaching of the Church since 33 AD.

If you ask the question: What can you tell me about Mary as Patroness of America? Boston’s Archbishop (later Cardinal) Richard Cushing wrote an answer.

Famously, the 23 US bishops in 1846 (note: nearly a decade before the dogma’s definition) wrote to the Pope asking for Mary under the title of the Immaculate Conception to be bestowed on the country’s young Church. The bishops wrote:

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.

Pastoral Letter of the Bishops of the United States
Sixth Provincial Council, Baltimore, 5 May 1846