Blessed Virgin Mary Archives

Our Lady of Lourdes – Prayer, Penance, Spiritual & Physical Healing

From the official Lourdes website (visit it …. it’s fantastic!)

On 11th. February 1858 Bernadette, her sister Toinette and a friend of theirs, Jeanne, went looking for wood on the meadows and led towards “the place where the canal rejoins the River Gave”. They were in front of the Grotto of Massabielle. Toinette and Jeanne crossed the icy water, crying out with the cold; Bernadette hesitated to do this because of her chronic asthma. She heard “a noise like a gust of wind”, but “none of the trees were moving”. “Raising her head, she saw, in a hollow of the rock a small young lady, who looked at her and who smiled at her. This was the first Apparition of the Virgin Mary

Our Lady of Guadalupe “Do you not know that I am your Mother” – a reflection with Msgr. John Esseff – Discerning Hearts

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“Do you not know I am your Mother?” Msgr. Esseff reflects on the Great Mother of God, Mary Most Holy…Our Lady of Guadalupe. First, he discusses the image itself that was left for all of us. Then he talks about our relationship with her today!

Ps 1:1Rv 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab

God’s temple in heaven was opened,
and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple.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.
She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth.
Then another sign appeared in the sky;
it was a huge red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns,
and on its heads were seven diadems.
Its tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky
and hurled them down to the earth.
Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth,

to devour her child when she gave birth.
She gave birth to a son, a male child,
destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod.
Her child was caught up to God and his throne.
The woman herself fled into the desert
where she had a place prepared by God.Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
“Now have salvation and power come,
and the Kingdom of our God
and the authority of his Anointed.”

Saint Juan Diego – “I am a nobody, I am a small rope, a tiny ladder, the tail end, a leaf.”

“I am a nobody, I am a small rope, a tiny ladder, the tail end, a leaf.” – Saint Juan Diego

CNA – Born in 1474 in Cuauhtitlán, Mexico, to an Aztec tribe given the name Cuauhtlatoatzin, or “talking eagle.” He belonged to the poorest and most numerous class of the Aztecs, besides that of the slaves. He worked the land and wove mats for a living, and was married although he and his wife had no children.

He converted to Christianity in 1524 and was baptized along with his wife and took the name Juan Diego. He had already been of a mystical character before his baptism, spending long periods of time alone in contemplation.

In 1531, two years after the death of his wife, Maria Lucia, Juan Diego began receiving the famous apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patron of the Americas, who spoke to him in his native tongue, Nahuatl, and imprinted an image of Herself on his tilma – a poor indian’s cape, and instructed him to have the bishop build a church on the site of the apparition – now the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the most visited church in the world, after Saint Peter’s in Rome.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, with Juan Diego’s cooperation, is said to be directly responsible for the 9 million or so conversions to Catholicism by the native Mexican only 20 years after Christianity was introduced to the land by the Spanish.

He died on May 30, 1548 and was canonized by Pope John Paul II in Mexico City on July 31, 2002 – CNA

The story of the Immaculate Conception reflected in Vatican Museum frescoes

The Immaculate Conception Room, located in the heart of the Vatican Museums, regained its glory in 2007, after an extensive restoration. Now, just years later, the spotlight returns for the publication of an spectacular book about its frescoes.

Blessed John Duns Scotus…”the cantor of the incarnate Word and defender of the Immaculate Conception of Mary”

Blessed John Duns Scotus, the teacher of “God’s closeness”. I love the homily below on this great theologian and lover of the Blessed Mother.

CNA- Pope Benedict XVI taught about Franciscan priest and teacher Blessed John Duns Scotus, in one of his Wednesday audiences in July of 2010. The Holy Father remembered his loyalty and devotion to Christ, the Church and the Successor of St. Peter, as well as his contributions to Christian thought.

During his catechesis, the Pope recalled the life of the medieval Scottish priest and theologian, Blessed John Duns Scotus. He spoke of how the Franciscan, who taught at Oxford, Cambridge, and later in Paris, left France instead of betraying Pope Boniface VIII who was in conflict with King Phillip IV.

This fact, said the Pope, “invites us to remember how many times in the history of the Church, believers have found hostility and promptly even persecution because of their loyalty and devotion to Christ, to the Church and to the Pope.

“We all look with admiration to these Christians, that teach us to protect as a precious inheritance the faith in Christ and the communion with the Successor of Peter and, therefore, with the Universal Church.”

Continuing on the life of the 13th century Franciscan, the Pope said that Blessed Scotus provided three major contributions to Christian thought. The first gift is his “great Christocentric vision” that in the Incarnation “every creature, in and through Christ, is called to be perfected in grace and to glorify God forever.” The second contribution is the theory which led to the dogma “that Our Lady’s preservation from original sin was a privilege granted in view of her Son’s redemptive passion and death.” And finally, Pope Benedict noted his “great attention to the issue of human freedom”as one of his gifts to Christian thought.

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The Day the Sun Danced…the sixth and final apparition of Our Lady of Fatima – Discerning Hearts

How can you pack the richness of Fatima into a little ol’blog post here?

I discerned….you can’t. There is just so much for us to take in and ponder. For a fuller explanation of the approved private revelation I found this wikipedia article gives a fairly balanced presentation – Our Lady of Fatima.

The year is 1917: a dancing sun, an abundance of miracles, and so much more, were all given to wake up an aching world to the consequences of sin and the need to return to the heart and love of the Father, through the beautiful Immaculate Heart of Our Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. A message was given to 3 shepherd children…a message basically consisting of prayer, penance and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. If we can enter into these basic of all practices, our hearts would ultimately find their way “home”…to heaven and to the embrace of our loving Father. Practice of the first five Saturday devotion, frequent recitation of Our Lady’s rosary, and devotion to the Eucharist are all central elements to the experience of Fatima.

Many Roman Catholics recite prayers based on Our Lady of Fátima. Lucia later revealed that she and her cousins had had several visions of an angel in 1916. Calling himself the “Angel of Portugal” and the “Angel of Peace,” he taught them to bow with their heads to the ground and to say “O God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love you. I ask pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love you.” Lucia later set this prayer to music and a recording exists of her singing it. Sometime later he returned and taught them a Eucharistic devotion now known as the Angel Prayer.

Lucia said that the Lady emphasized Acts of Reparation and prayers to console Jesus for the sins of the world. Lucia said Mary’s words were “When you make some sacrifice, say ‘O Jesus, it is for your love, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.‘” At the first apparition, Lucia wrote, the children were so moved by the radiance they perceived that they involuntarily said “Most Holy Trinity, I adore you! My God, my God, I love you in the Most Blessed Sacrament.”Lucia also heard Mary ask for these words to be added to the Rosary, after the Gloria Patri prayer: “O my Jesus, pardon us, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need.”

In the tradition of Marian visitations, the “conversion of sinners” is not necessarily religious conversion to the Roman Catholic Church, but general repentance and attempt to amend one’s life according to the teachings of Jesus.Lucia wrote that she and her cousins defined “sinners” not as non-Catholics but as those who had fallen away from the Church or, more specifically, willfully indulged in sinful activity, particularly “sins of the flesh” and “acts of injustice and a lack of charity towards the poor, widows and orphans, the ignorant and the helpless” which she saidwere even worse than sins of impurity. – wikipedia

How much the Father loves us all! To allow, through the action of the Holy Spirit, an encounter with Our Blessed Mother, especially one that is so loving and nurturing. Praise God for the grace of courage, perseverance, fortitude and so much more, poured out to those 3 little children who communicated that message to the world. I am reminded of what Jesus once conveyed to St. Catherine of Siena, Doctor of the Church…that He uses the humble (like uneducated fisherman, simple women and little children) to communicate a message from heaven in order to confound the arrogant and to bring an opportunity of humility to us all.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us My favorite movie surrounding the mystical experience of Fatima is “The 13th Day” distributed by Ignatius Press. Here is another video. film “The Miracle of Fatima”

The Day the Sun Danced…the sixth and final apparition of Our Lady of Fatima

How can you pack the richness of Fatima into a little ol’blog post here?

IP#171 Fr. Michael Gaitley – Consoling the Heart of Jesus on Inside the Pages

What a joy to have the opportunity to talk once again with Fr. Michael Gaitley at the 2012 CMN Trade Show in Dallas, TX. We discuss the Year of Faith, “Consoling the Heart of Jesus” and his new book coming soon…”The One Thing is Three”. We talk about how the New Evangelization and the role model that Bl. John Paul II was to all of us. We all discuss “All Hearts a Fire” the new parish based program which is absolutely FANTASTIC! Be sure to check it out and pass it on!

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You can find the book here

Michael Gaitley, MIC’s book is a form of a weekend retreat accessible to those at the beginning stages of a simple way to holiness. While reading this book, I wished I could have had it in conversing with people of little or practically no faith who yet had a longing for the faith that lies at the core of human existence. These hearts are restless until they rest in Thee, Lord and this book guides them on a journey to resting in God. –Fr. Mitch Pacwa

The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary – reflections by Msgr. Esseff – Discerning Hearts

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Msgr. Esseff reflects on the birth of the Virgin Mary. But even more than that, he ponder

s the importance of the Blessed Mother in our lives. The gift of her presence in the action of salvation history and role is the “Mother” of us all.

Be sure to visit Msgr. Esseff’s website “Building A Kingdom of Love”

The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Mother

I LOVE it…the birthday of the mother of all “moms”! Happy Birthday to the dearest Mother of all. The Church celebrates 3 birthdays on the calendar…Jesus, John the Baptist, and the great Mother of God, Mary Most Holy. We celebrate the day the Immaculate Conception was brought through birth into the world.

From The Catholic News Agency –
“The Catholic Church will soon celebrate the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary on its traditional fixed date of September 8, nine months after the December 8 celebration of her Immaculate Conception as the child of Saints Joachim and Anna.

The circumstances of the Virgin Mary’s infancy and early life are not directly recorded in the Bible, but other documents and traditions describing the circumstances of her birth are cited by some of the earliest Christian writers from the first centuries of the Church.

These accounts, although not considered authoritative in the same manner as the Bible, outline some of the Church’s traditional beliefs about the birth of Mary.

The “Protoevangelium of James,” which was probably put into its final written form in the early second century, describes Mary’s father Joachim as a wealthy member of one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Joachim was deeply grieved, along with his wife Anna, by their childlessness. “He called to mind Abraham,” the early Christian writing says, “that in the last day God gave him a son Isaac.”

Joachim and Anna began to devote themselves extensively and rigorously to prayer and fasting, initially wondering whether their inability to conceive a child might signify God’s displeasure with them.

As it turned out, however, the couple were to be blessed even more abundantly than Abraham and Sarah, as an angel revealed to Anna when he appeared to her and prophesied that all generations would honor their future child: “The Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive, and shall bring forth; and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world.”

After Mary’s birth, according to the Protoevangelium of James, Anna “made a sanctuary” in the infant girl’s room, and “allowed nothing common or unclean” on account of the special holiness of the child. The same writing records that when she was one year old, her father “made a great feast, and invited the priests, and the scribes, and the elders, and all the people of Israel.”

“And Joachim brought the child to the priests,” the account continues, “and they blessed her, saying: ‘O God of our fathers, bless this child, and give her an everlasting name to be named in all generations’ . . . And he brought her to the chief priests; and they blessed her, saying: ‘O God most high, look upon this child, and bless her with the utmost blessing, which shall be for ever.’”

The protoevangelium goes on to describe how Mary’s parents, along with the temple priests, subsequently decided that she would be offered to God as a consecrated Virgin for the rest of her life, and enter a chaste marriage with the carpenter Joseph.

Saint Augustine described the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary as an event of cosmic and historic significance, and an appropriate prelude to the birth of Jesus Christ. “She is the flower of the field from whom bloomed the precious lily of the valley,” he said.

The fourth-century bishop, whose theology profoundly shaped the Western Church’s understanding of sin and human nature, affirmed that “through her birth, the nature inherited from our first parents is changed.” – CNA