A Moment with Mary

June 2 - Our Lady of the Dimple (Italy)

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 04:39:00 +0200

All Holy Vessel of Honor (I)

Saints are not divine, except in the sense that all Christians are divinized (cf. Pet 1:4). They deserve reverence insofar as they are vessels of God's holiness. (...)

Mary holds a unique place in the Communion of Saints. God gave her a pivotal role in history, as He became incarnate in her womb. He allowed the course of redemption to turn on her consent. He ordained that her life, interwoven as it was with the life of Jesus, should fulfil many of the foreshadowings of the Old Testament.

No one can deny that Mary bore a blessing that was singular since the beginning of the world. In Revelation, God proclaims, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." Yet Mary is blessed at the very moment we encounter her in the pages of the Gospel (see Lk 1:42).

Excerpts from Scott Hahn, Reasons To Believe, Darton, Longmont and Todd Ltd, 2007, pp. 101-102

June 1st - Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus - Our Lady of the Star (Aquiles, Italy)

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 04:39:00 +0200

The Divine Praises

Blessed be God.

Blessed be His holy name.

Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true man.

Blessed be the name of Jesus.

Blessed be His most Sacred Heart.

Blessed be His most Precious Blood.

Blessed be Jesus in the most holy sacrament of the altar.

Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.

Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most holy.

Blessed be her holy and Immaculate Conception.

Blessed be her glorious Assumption.

Blessed be the name of Mary, virgin and Mother.

Blessed be Saint Joseph, her most chaste spouse.

Blessed be God in His angels and in His saints.

Amen.

Saint Maximilien Kolbe
Conférence du 20-6-1937

Lire aussi :
St Maximilien Kolbe (1894-1941)

May 31 - Feast of the Visitation - Our Lady of the Sacred Heart

Thu, 31 May 2012 04:39:00 +0200

Now Mary Said (II)

Now Mary said: "You see before you the Lord's servant, let it happen to me as you have said."

A humble Mary is part of the new creation: "You see before you the Lord's servant, let it happen to me as you have said." For her faith, she was exalted by God Himself. She believed in the new life that would come from the "dead" womb of Elizabeth, of whom Sara, the wife of Abraham, was a previous figure. Mary believed unconditionally in the possibility of motherhood sprung from a virginal womb. And on Good Friday, she kept relying unshakably in the divine possibilities of Jesus, who lay dead on her lap, but who would three days later resurrect from the dead.

All that mankind may achieve in technological advances proceeds from this new creation in Jesus, who is the source of all wisdom and science. But still this is just a shadow of the unlimited possibilities, which God has laid down in His creation. Simply by believing, one can experience: "Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard what God has prepared for those who love him."

By Nicolaas Maria Peeters (artist, 2002).

May 30 - Our Lady of Europe (Gibraltar)

Wed, 30 May 2012 04:39:00 +0200

Now Mary Said (I)

Now Mary said: "You see before you the Lord's servant, let it happen to me as you have said."

The inner calm of Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, proceeds from her unconditional surrender to God. Her whole being concentrates on Him as Creator and Redeemer, just as she exults in the Magnificat: "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; because He has looked upon the humiliation of his servant."

That is Mary all over: in her awareness of her littleness expecting all from God with a boundless confidence. A deep, imperturbable silence flows through her, because she has given full space to God to solemnize the immense miracle of the incarnation of His Son in her virginal womb. I use the word 'solemnize' rather than 'execute' for its deeper meaning, because the word is used for espousals. In fact Mary is the bride of the Holy Spirit. She wondered, however, how this would come about, to which the angel answered: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. And I tell you this too: your cousin Elizabeth also, in her old age, has conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God." The same Elizabeth calls her blessed, because: "(...) blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled."

By Nicolaas Maria Peeters (artist, 2002).

May 29 - Our Lady of the Ardents (Arras, France, 1095)

Tue, 29 May 2012 04:39:00 +0200

Warn the People to Change Their Lives (II)

The apparition added that the four women responsible for the public disorder must do penance. She asked John to leave his spade near the fountain where she assured him that the water would be good. When he came back to recuperate it, he would find a "sign" on the end of the handle. John ran quickly home to the farm and asked his brother and sister to go back and retrieve his spade. The youngsters found it "standing straight up with three cross-shaped oak leaves coming out of the top of the handle." The four women made reparation for their wrongs and people went in procession to the place of the miracle.

In early July, the Virgin appeared a second time to John, in his bedroom. "You did what I asked you to do well, and the fountain will be good; the people have corrected themselves well," she told him.

A commission of inquiry has identified twenty-eight cures from the water of the fountain. In October 1686, a second inquiry mentioned seven new cases. The chapel of Pla-Rouzaud was built by the poor villagers and blessed on September 8, 1695 by Monsignor de Verthamon. The renown of the shrine Our Lady of Celles spread widely and attracted believers from the entire region and even from Spain. The pilgrimage, which takes place to this day at the restored shrine on the third Sunday of July, is marked by evangelical simplicity and Marian humility.

According to Dictionnaire des Apparitions
Fr. Rene Laurentin, Fayard 2007

May 28 - Our Lady of Carmine (Italy, 663)

Mon, 28 May 2012 04:39:00 +0200

Warn the People to Change Their Lives (I)

In 1686, a curious happening shook up the village of Celles in the region of Ariege, near Foix: four women violently beat a priest. The priest took the case to court and obtained justice. On May 28, 1686, between eight and nine o'clock in the morning, a young peasant boy named John Courdil was coming back from the fields reciting the rosary. He suddenly saw a white pigeon in front of him. As the bird got closer to the boy's farm, near a fountain, it changed into "a six or seven-year old girl dressed in white" (statement of July 21, 1686).

In his second statement (July 28, 1686), John said that he first saw the pigeon "three times in front of him," then the girl just "five or six feet from him." John was afraid and he tried to flee. "Do not be afraid, my child," he heard a voice say, "I am the Holy Virgin." He knelt down, the apparition did the same. "Warn the people to change their lives and make eight processions so that the people convert. Otherwise, all is lost [...]. Continue to serve your father and your mother as you have always done."

According to Dictionnaire des Apparitions
Fr. Rene Laurentin, Fayard 2007

May 27 - Our Lady of Naples (Italy, 533)

Sun, 27 May 2012 04:39:00 +0200

Everyone Should Have a Genuine Devotion to Her

Perfect model of this apostolic spiritual life is the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Apostles. While on earth her life was like that of any other, filled with labours and the cares of the home; always, however, she remained intimately united to her Son and cooperated in an entirely unique way in the Savior's work.

And now, assumed into heaven, "her motherly love keeps her attentive to her Son's brothers still on pilgrimage amid the dangers and difficulties of life, until they arrive at the happiness of the fatherland." Everyone should have a genuine devotion to her and entrust his life to her motherly care.

Decree On The Apostolate Of Lay People - Apostolicam Actuositatem,
Vatican II Council, November 18, 1965.

May 26 - Our Lady of Caravaggio (Italy, 1432) - St Philip Neri (d. 1594)

Sat, 26 May 2012 04:39:00 +0200

Would you like to know if this is the Virgin Mary?

Saint Philip Neri was often consulted by bishops to judge the authenticity of mystics. The practice of humility and obedience allowed him to infallibly test false mystics, because the devil is proud and independent. One day in 1560, the cardinals were divided about a nun who was having visions. Since they sought his opinion, Philip went to see the young sister. He looked at her warmly and said, "Sister, I didn't want to see you, I wanted to see the saint." And the nun replied, "But I am the saint!" Philip turned on his heels, retorting, "Ah, you're the saint? Thank you." And the verdict he gave the Cardinals was, "It's not from God..."

Another time, one of his penitents confided to him that the Virgin had come in the night in her room, filling it with joy and light! So Philip said, "Listen, the next time she comes you should spit in her face." The following night, the apparition spoke to her of God, but remembering the promise she had made to her spiritual director she spat in her face. The apparition immediately disappeared in a cloud of sulphur smoke: it was the devil. That same night, she awoke in the room full of light with a new apparition that smiled at her. This time the figure was not sitting on her bed, she standing in a corner of the room. The seer went over to spit again, but the apparition just said, "You can spit if you want." The apparition was too far to spit on, but she congratulated her for her obedience to her spiritual director!

And Father Neri told her that that time it was the Virgin Mary.

From the magazine the Etoile Notre Dame, October 2006.

May 25 - Our Lady of the New Jerusalem (530)

Fri, 25 May 2012 04:39:00 +0200

Who Are You, My Queen?

Who are you, my Queen? Who are you, Immaculate? I cannot understand what it means to be a creature of God.

Immaculate ... I turn to you in a humble prayer: Grant me the gift to praise you, Blessed Virgin ... Help me understand and express what God prepared in you and through you.

Immaculate, Queen of heaven and earth, I know I am unworthy to approach you, to fall on my knees in front of you, but since I love you so much, let me ask you, you who are so good, to tell me who you are, because I have the desire to know you more and more, without limits, and to love you with increasing fervor.

Grant me the gift to praise you, Blessed Virgin.

Let me glorify you by my sacrifice.

May I live, work, suffer, be consumed and die for you and you alone!

Prayer to the Immaculate by Father Maximilian Kolbe
Quoted in the Revue du Rosaire, February 1973.

May 24 - Our Lady of China

Thu, 24 May 2012 04:39:00 +0200

Our Lady of China

In 1900 the village of Tong Lu near Peiping was attacked by about ten thousand rioters during the Boxer Rebellion. In their rage they started to shoot skyward where a woman dressed in white had appeared, but her apparition did not fade. The crazed mob was put to flight at the appearance of a strange horseman.

Father Wu, a Chinese priest, admitted having prayed to Mary for help. A church was built on the site, honoring a picture of Mary and the Christ Child which was placed over the main altar. During the progress of the Red Revolution, the people had the treasured painting copied, and when the Chinese Communists destroyed the Tong Lu church the copy was burned. But the original picture known as Our Lady of China had been hidden and is now thought to be in the possession of some faithful priests living in disguise.

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J.