Our Lady of Dijon (France) Mary crowned her, and took her soul with her to paradise Around the year 1580, a poor shepherdess in Flanders (northern region of Belgium), loved Mary so much that she delighted [...] saw Mary, with a crown in her hand by the side of the dying girl, consoling her. Then those holy virgins began to sing, and with that sweet music the blessed soul was released from the body. Mary crowned [...] feeding, conversed with her beloved mother and paid her devotion to her. When she saw that the figure of Mary, in relief, was unadorned, she began, by the poor labor of her hands, to make a drapery for it. Having
January 14 – Our Lady of the Lamp (Rome, Italy) Throughout her life, Mary's love was put to the test The life of the Holy Family continued peacefully in Nazareth, both in an ordinary and hidden way. Yet [...] Infant Jesus in his arms during his Presentation at the Temple, announced the trials ahead. He said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be [...] and you, a sword will pierce your soul." Right from manger, the Cross loomed. Throughout her life, Mary’s love was tested—the poverty of the manger, the flight into Egypt, the loss of Jesus as a boy in Jerusalem
January 7 – Our Lady of Charity (Rumilly, France, 1856) I came to the king from the Blessed Virgin Mary French heroine Saint Joan of Arc (1412-1431) led a war of liberation to free her country from the [...] been raising up to Heaven for a whole century! "I came to the King of France from the Blessed Virgin Mary," she told her judges. To this day the place of the delights of her childhood is a rustic local shrine [...] near Domrémy. Marquis de la Franquerie Adapted from Our Lady in the History of France ( La Vierge Marie dans l’Histoire de France)
- The Adoration of the Kings — Feast of the Epiphany What Mary prophesied in her Magnificat "Entering the house, they saw the Child with Mary his mother, and, falling on their knees, prostrated themselves [...] come and bow down before the "Child," this infant who is different from other children and besides Mary, Joseph knows this better than anyone else. The religious authorities of Jerusalem do not come to [...] the shepherds and the Wise Men represent those poor and humble ones, the "hungry." Isn’t this what Mary had prophesied in her Magnificat? "He has scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He has
Fatima asked Sister Lucia to write down the Third Secret of Fatima (1944) Under the protection of Mary, Mother of God, to protect the country’s unity Devotion to Our Lady among Indonesian Catholics has [...] January 2018, a time characterized by tensions and Islamist pressures , Mgr Suharyo adopted the image of Mary Mother of all ethnic groups as a symbol of national unity . The Garuda Pancasila (Indonesia’s national
December 14 – End of the Marian apparitions in L'Ile Bouchard (France, 1947) Mary and the European flag The number of stars on the European flag is not accidental. It is a symbol of unity and stability [...] Second World War. Its creator, Arsène Heitz, affirmed to have taken his inspiration from the Virgin Mary in his sketches. The mother of Jesus is often represented with a crown of twelve stars, a reference [...] religious connotation is present: the color of the Virgin is blue. In the book of Revelation (21:19), Mary has a blue mantle and a stone, a blue sapphire, which "supports the foundations of the walls of New
Innocents, martyrs – Death of Benedicta Rencurel, visionary of Our Lady of Laus (France, 1647) Let Mary to pull you through! The Rosary simultaneously manages to be one of the easiest and the most difficult [...] because it was developed to simplify the Gospels and contains the most commonly known prayers, the Hail Mary and Our Father. Difficult because it is so easy to get distracted while repeating the same prayers [...] would lead us through the swarm of people and other obstacles and dangers. When we pray the Rosary, Mary does the exact same thing. She leads us not through the crowds at the stadium but rather through life
Panagia Portaitissa (Holy Keeper of the Gate) This hardened sinner had always preserved in devotion to Mary’s sorrows There was once a lord as noble by birth as he was low and sinful in his habits. He had given [...] devotion to her sorrows, whenever he remembered them he pitied her. St Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary, 535
(d. 1876) Mary invites us to enter the New Year with confidence On January 1st, the Church celebrates Mary, Mother of God. I find it very beautiful to enter a new year with the Virgin Mary. Mary invites [...] invites us to enter it with both trust and alertness. Mary faces the future confidently. As a daughter of Israel, she has faith in the Lord and knows that God always keeps his promises. She lives in his presence [...] Elizabeth said, she is the one who believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her (Lk 1:45). Mary's trust is contagious. With her, we really learn to trust. Trust is not optimism. The latter is human--it
Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ The Virgin Mary tells the story of the Nativity (II) In The Gospel as Revealed to Me , by Maria Valtorta, the Virgin Mary returned to the grotto of Bethlehem many years [...] "Silence and sleep then enveloped the Just ... I heard another voice from the earth: Are you sleeping, Mary? But it was so distant ... An echo, a memory of the earth, so weak that it didn’t reach the soul.
