The feast of the Holy Name of Mary reestablished after the terrorist attacks

To remind Catholics that they should always seek the intercession of Our Lady, as the story of the Wedding at Cana and the words of Christ from the Cross, "Behold your Mother" teach us, the feast of the Holy Name of Mary has been inscribed in the octave of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary.

This feast had disappeared from the liturgical calendar in 1970 after the revisions favoring historical rigor that followed Vatican II. But since it marked an important historical event, Saint John Paul II reestablished it after the attacks of September 11, 2001, following the inter-religious peace meeting in Assisi on January 2002.

The day after the attacks on September 12, 2001, Pope Saint John Paul II delivered a prayer for peace at the General Audience, entrusting the world to the Virgin Mary: "Let us implore the Lord so that the spiral of hatred and violence does not prevail. May the Blessed Virgin, Mother of Mercy, awaken in everybody’s hearts thoughts of wisdom and peaceful intentions."

Adapted from an article by Anita Bourdin

September 11, 2014 (Zenit.org)