Blessed Virgin Mary – Page 3

Mary’s transitus to heaven

The perfect union of the Blessed Virgin Mary with God
Mid-August finds a good many of the Eastern and Western churches commemorating the move of Mary to heaven. In the East the feast is called the Dormition (koímesis); in the West it is called the Assumption (assumptio). This is a favorite feast for me.

St. Germanus of Constantinople preached: “You, O Mother, are close to all and protect all, and though our eyes cannot see you, we know, O Most Holy One, that you dwell among us and make yourself present in the most varied ways… Your virginal body is entirely holy, entirely chaste, entirely God’s dwelling place so for this reason it is absolutely incorruptible. It is unchangeable since what was human in it has been taken up in incorruptibility, remaining alive and absolutely glorious, undamaged, and sharing in perfect life. Indeed, it was impossible that the one who had become the vase of God and the living temple of the most holy divinity of the Only Begotten One be enclosed in a tomb of the dead. Rather, we certainly believe you continue to walk with us.”

The observance of the feast dates back to the first millennium and defined in the 20th century. Mary is a figure of the heavenly Jerusalem!

We know from liturgical historical scholarship that Several Armenian lectionaries found in Jerusalem witness to a celebration of Mary as Theotókos on August 15; the documents tell us this feast arose in the fifth century, probably after the Council of Ephesus in 431. The Eastern feast was imposed on the entire Byzantine Empire by the Emperor Mauritius at the end of the sixth century. It spread to the West and since the eighth century it has been known as the “assumption” of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In comparison, the Coptic Church liturgically commemorates the Virgin’s death and assumption on two different days. You will recall that the Catholic official teaching –definitely defined– happened not in the early centuries of Church history, but on November 1, 1950. Pope Pius XII taught that according to the tradition Mary was raised body and soul to the glory of heaven was proclaimed a dogma.

The 4 canonical Gospels do not speak of Mary’s later years. But it’s the apocryphal Gospels which speak of Mary dying with the apostles gathered around her, and of her later appearing to them as they celebrate the Eucharistic sacrifice. What do we have about Mary’s ultimate existence on earth? The Church uses the apocryphal Gospels together with the fact that no certain relic of Mary’s body exists thus giving the Church room to contemplate the last moments of Mary’s life on earth in the light of Christ’s victory over death. Hence, we bless flowers and herbs on this feast (indicating no mortal remains was left in the tomb carved for Mary) and we teach that what was gifted to Mary is gifted by the Savior to us who believe in Him.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

O most beautiful flower of Mt. Carmel, fruitful vine, splendour of Heaven, Blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in my necessity. O Star of the Sea, help me and show me you are my Mother. O Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and earth, I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to succour me in this necessity (make request). There are none that can withstand your power. O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Sweet Mother I place this cause in your hands. Amen.

Intimately connected with Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the Brown Scapular. Why not read a brief article on the scapular, a rather influential sacramental.

Our hope comes through Mary

The Lord has placed in Mary the fullness of all good. So that if there is anything of hope in us, if anything of grace, if anything of salvation, we may rest assured it has overflowed into us from her. With every fiber of our being, every feeling of our hearts, with all affections of our minds, and with all the ardor of our souls let us honor Mary because this is the will of God, who would have us obtain everything through her hands.

–Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermon 6: For the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The plan of God

“The plan of God is absolutely beyond us, always; it cannot be narrowed or imprisoned within the limits of our imagination. But one who is always willing to change everything according to what God wants–and mark these words, what God wants through the circumstances, because, for Our Lady, three minutes, a minute before, it wasn’t even imaginable that the Annunciation could happen–circumstances, especially those that vex us the most, that are inevitable circumstances, these are precisely the ones that mark the road of God; the person who is open to this is not attached to anything of his own, and he’s free. So the first consequence is that he is attentive, extremely attentive to the needs of others. In fact, as soon as the Angel left, Our Lady decided right away, a girl of fourteen or fifteen years, to travel that very long journey–one that when you go to Palestine you usually do by bus or by car–of over 60 miles in the midst of that stony land, to go visit her cousin Elizabeth, because the Angel had told her that she was six months along with the child in her womb. The first thing she did was to share the need and the toil of her cousin Elizabeth, at very great sacrifice. When are you free? You’re free when you’re willing to do what God wants. Before the Infinite, only before the Infinite is man free, detached from himself. When you’re like this, you’re immediately ready to feel and meet the needs of others. What a lesson for us! These are the first characteristics of a man who lives life as a pilgrimage.”

Luigi Giussani, from “Mary: Faith and Faithfulness”

Our Lady of La Salette

Knowing the Virgin Mother under the title of Our Lady of LaSalette may not be very familiar with many Catholics and yet the title that Mary carries is not only an interesting one, it is essential. Mary, please recall, always points to her Son as Lord and Savior. The Mother of God invites us all to greater freedom in Christ Jesus through our ongoing conversion.

The LaSalette Congregation of Fathers and Brothers has their provincial house in the Archdiocese of Hartford; they’ve also ministered through a Shrine dedicated the Mother of God in Attleboro, MA, for many years.

On September 19, 1846, the Mother of God appeared to two young shepherds, Melanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud, on the heights of the mountain of La Salette in France. There She dictated to them a public message which She asked to make known to all Her people. And to each little shepherd privately She confided a secret, concerning which She gave special directives. Our text for the feast of Blessed Maximin Giraud, September 20th, gives in his own words a brief description of the apparition. And we summarize [tomorrow] the public message, with its warnings and predictions, all of which have already been fulfilled. Blessed Melanie Calvat was invested with the mission of founding a new religious Order, the Order of the Mother of God, which would associate under one single common rule more than one community, and would include the Apostles of the Latter Times announced by Saint Louis Mary de Montfort in his Prophetic Prayer.

Blessed Melanie was told by the Mother of God to make known her secret after the year 1858, and she published it herself in the face of great difficulties. It was important, and remains important, for the Church to be aware of its contents. We therefore will summarize today, briefly, the secret of La Salette for those who may not yet know it, or even of it.

The Blessed Virgin announced that it was primarily the defections of the Church which will bring down on the world the exemplary chastisement:

God is going to strike in an unprecedented manner. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth! God is going to exhaust His wrath, and no one will be able to resist so many concerted woes… Many will abandon the faith, and the number of priests and religious who will dissociate themselves from the true religion will be great… Many religious institutes will lose the faith entirely and will cause the loss of many souls. The Church will pass through a frightful crisis… The Holy Father will suffer greatly. I will be with him to the end to receive his sacrifice… For a time God will not remember France or Italy because the Gospel of Jesus Christ is no longer known… [But the] prayers, penance and tears of the just will ascend to heaven, and the entire people of God will beg for pardon and mercy and will ask My assistance and My intercession. Then Jesus Christ, by an act of His justice and His great mercy toward the just [will intervene and] then there will be peace, the reconciliation of God with men… Charity will flourish everywhere.. The Gospel will be preached everywhere, and men will make great progress in the faith, because there will be unity among the workers of Jesus Christ and men will live in the fear of God.

She foretells: Rome will lose the faith and will become the seat of Antichrist. To call Her children to combat for God in the days of darkness and sin, the Mother of God concludes:

I address an urgent appeal to the earth: I summon the true disciples of God who lives and reigns in heaven; I summon the true imitators of Christ made man, the one true Saviour of men; I summon My children, My true devotees, those who have given themselves to Me so that I might lead them to My divine Son, those whom I carry, so to speak, in My arms, those who have lived according to My spirit; finally, I summon the Apostles of the Latter Times, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ who have lived in scorn of the world and of themselves, in poverty and in humility, in contempt and in silence, in prayer and in mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering and unknown to the world. It is time for them to arise and come forth to enlighten the earth.

Go, and show yourselves as My cherished children; I am with you and in you, provided that your faith be the light that enlightens you in these days of woe. May your zeal cause you to be as famished for the glory and honor of Jesus Christ. Fight, children of light, you little number who see; for behold the time of times, the end of ends.

The Apparition of the Blessed Virgin on the Mountain of La Salette (Editions Magnificat: Mont-Tremblant (St. Jovite), Québec, Canada, 1973).

Holy Name of Mary

With the Church we pray,

Grant, we, pray, almighty God, that your faithful, who are gladdened by the Name and protection of the most holy Virgin Mary, may by her loving intercession be freed from all evils on earth, and merit to attain eternal joys in heaven.

This feast was established by Pope Innocent XI in 1683, that the faithful may in a particular manner recommend to God on this day, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, the necessities of His Church, and return Him thanks for His gracious protection and numberless mercies.

What gave occasion to the institution of this feast was the desire of all Christendom for a solemn thanksgiving which would commemorate the deliverance of Vienna, obtained through the intercession of Our Lady, when the city was besieged by the Turks in 1683. An army of 550,000 invaders had reached the city walls and was threatening all of Europe. John Sobieski, King of Poland, came with a much smaller army to assist the besieged city during the octave of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, and made ready for a great battle. This religious prince began by having a Mass celebrated, which he himself desired to serve, his arms in a cross. After receiving Communion with fervor, he rose at the close of the sacrifice and cried out: Let us march with confidence under the protection of Heaven and with the aid of the Most Holy Virgin! His hope was not disappointed; the Turks were struck with a sudden panic and fled in disorder. From that time the feast day has been celebrated during the octave of the Nativity of Our Lady.

Reflection: If we, like the Christians of Europe in the 17th century, desire to appease by our prayers the divine anger which our sins have justly provoked, we must join the tears of sincere compunction to a perfect conversion of our habits. The first grace we should beg of God is that He will dispose us to maintain at all times a spirit of worthy penance. And to the invocation of Jesus it is a pious and wholesome practice to join our recourse to the Blessed Virgin, that, through Her intercession, we may more readily obtain the effects of our petitions. For this reason devout souls, with great affection and confidence, honor the Holy Hearts and invoke the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary.

Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l’année, by Abbé L. Jaud (Mame: Tours, 1950); Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on Butler’s Lives of the Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894).

September’s Marian Devotion – Our Lady of Sorrows

The Seven Sorrows of Mary is September’s Marian devotion.

The Marian side of the Catholic Church helps us to see the human aspect of the act of faith: do we comfort the sorrowing as they grieve the death of a loved one? Always a mother, the Church directs our attention to the seven sorrows suffered by Mary, who witnessed her Son’s death for us on the cross.

A short prayer that we can offer: Mary most sorrowful, Mother of Christians, pray for us!

The feast day of Our Lady of Sorrows on September 15 which follows feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is September 14. The Seven Sorrows unites us to Passion of the Lord on Calvary by having a Marian feast that uses the sorrows of to point to the salvific work of the Lord.

The famous Passionist Saint Gabriel of The Sorrowful Mother, said he was never denied any petition that he confided to the Mater Dolorosa (Mother of Sorrows).

In 1815, Pope Pius VII approved of the Seven Dolors of Mary but it was well used and promoted by the Servite Order since 1668 when a feast formally approved. The Servite Order dates back to 1239. The Seven Sorrows of Mary, taken from Scripture, are:

The prophecy of Simeon. (Luke 2: 34, 35)
The flight into Egypt. (Matthew 2:13-14)
The loss of the Child Jesus in the temple. (Luke 3: 43-45)
The meeting of Jesus and Mary on the Way of the Cross. (John 19:1; Luke 23:26-32)
The Crucifixion. (Mark 15:22; John 19:18, 25-27; Mark 15:34; Luke 23:46)
The taking down of the Body of Jesus from the Cross. (John 19:31-34, 38; Lamentations 1:12)
The burial of Jesus. (Matthew 27:59; John 19:38-42; Mark 15:46; Luke 27:55-56)

Mary Immaculate, Queen of heaven and earth

The Latin Church using the Novus Ordo Mass honors Mary today under the title of the Queen; those praying the Missal of St John XXIII would be celebrating feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Either way, we are at the 8th day since the great solemnity of the Assumption.

The teaching is that Jesus, the King, Second Person of the Trinity, the human face of the Invisible God, exercises His kingship –given Him by God the Father– over the cosmos as servant, teacher, mediator, healer, Savior of the world. There are more Christological images to note which are quite beautiful and necessary to understand the complete package of what it means to be an adopted Son and Daughter of God through Baptism. Recall, what is said of Mary reflects directly back to her Jesus.

Jesus is Lord, His mother is Queen. We follow.

In a democratic and ideological society such as ours, regal images are hard to accept for some people with good reason. Yet, in the spiritual realm, the noble images given in our Liturgy are not crowns of money, power and fame but of a spiritual nature: service, love and humility. Because of the inheritance given in Baptism we share squarely in the divine life. Sacred Scripture reveals to us that adhering to Jesus till the end we will receive a crown of glory (1 Peter 5:4); crowns of gold will be given to “the 24 ancients (Rev 4:4).”

Mary is the new Eve, the Mother of God, Mother of the Church, Refuge of Sinners, and thus Queen above all queens. Mary as the Queen Mother wear a crown like no other. Her crown is not made of gold and precious stones; no her crown is a crown of twelve stars (Rev. 12:1), and the only crown made up of stars mentioned in the Bible.

What is the crown of stars? The tradition tells us that her crown is given directly by God Himself: the Divine Majesty bestowing on His creature a crown of stars with cosmic importance reflecting the brilliance of God Himself. Hence we believe that the stars of the crown guide in the darkness of night, and through the dark times in our lives.

We Christians think biblically: we have 12 gates of the Temple, 12 tribes of Israel, and 12 apostles. Mary, given to the Church by the Lord from the Cross. The Queenship means for us that she the Queen of the Church: the Church Militant (on earth), the Church Suffering (in purgatory) and the Church Triumphant (in heaven). BUT this power exercised in relation to what God has given.

Mary as Queen intercedes for us with her Son, the King.

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The summer feast of Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary is known also as Marymass. The feast is about the fulfillment of the promise God made to us: to live fully and wholly with Him in heaven, to be united with Him body and soul. Neither sin nor death would grasp her being.

So, we believe that Mary, the Mother of the Incarnate Word, Jesus, did not suffer the indignity of the decomposition of the human body. In defining the dogma of the Assumption in 1950, Pope Pius XII left as an open question as to whether or not Mary died. The Greek Church calls this feast the Falling Asleep –the Dormition of Mary– pointing to the notion that Mary died and yet at that very moment she was called by her Son to the fullness of Life Eternal without delay and decay. Here is reflection by Saint John Damascene:

“It was fitting that she who had preserved her virginity inviolate in childbirth should also have her body kept free from all corruption after death. It was fitting that she who had carried the Creator as a child on her breast should dwell in the tabernacles of God. It was fitting that the bride espoused by the Father should make her home in the bridal chambers of heaven. It was fitting that she, who had gazed on her crucified Son and been pierced in the heart by the sword of sorrow which she had escaped in giving him birth, should contemplate him seated with the Father. It was fitting that the Mother of God should share the possessions of her Son, and be venerated by every creature as the Mother and handmaid of God.”

May we enter into deeper communion with the Holy Trinity so that we, like the great Mother of God, live body and soul at the end of time. Our Lady of the Assumption, pray for us.

The American Czestochowa

A look at the influence of our devotion to Mary, the Mother of God under the title of Our Lady of Czestochowa. She is not only the Queen of Poland, but the Queen in America.

Here is a terrific documentary produced in 2005, the “American Czestochowa.”

If you can make it to Jasna Gora, going to the National Shrine in Doylestown, PA, is a wonderful way to honor the Mother of God.

Our Lady of Czestochowa’s feast day is August 26.