February 5 - Dedication of First Church of Our Lady by Saint Peter (Tortosa, Italy) Mary Did Her Part (I) The holiness of the Old Testament saints, and indeed that of St Joseph and the Blessed Virgin, [...] obedience to God’s will. […] This was the hidden motive behind Mary’s behavior. She was the simplest of humans and the one who made the most complete surrender of herself to God. Her laconic reply to the angel [...] angel - “Let it happen to me as you have said” (Lk 1:38) - embodies all the mystical theology of her ancestors. This, then as now, meant the most direct and wholehearted surrender to God’s will, however it
shines. As the Virgin of Holy Saturday, she doesn’t need our words to understand us. A simple glance, a single movement of the heart, is enough for her to notice. In the light of God she can detect the [...] allowed all chaos to be transformed into a gestation of life. When we are deeply miserable, we may be closer to her than ever. Is everything collapsing around you? Now is the time to turn to God. It is through [...] that He becomes weak so as to share our own weakness, in everything except sin. Mary is the Mother of Mercy. She is not scandalized by our sins—she lets her heart be torn open to bring us more life. Rt. Rev
important to underscore the central place of faith in the Virgin's life, because original sin has to do with faith before having to do with transgression and punishable acts. In the story of the fall of Adam [...] remains the Father of Israel and of all humanity. She never doubted his fundamental goodness, simply because she remained untouched by the fallout of original sin. Thus, praying to Our Lady is praying with [...] Father full of love and attention. On the other hand, a new era of human history began with Mary, because she, who became the mother of Jesus, Son of the promise, believed in the promises of God delivered
April16 - Our Lady of Victories in the Church of St Mark (Venice, Italy) At Notre-Dame des Victoires During her pilgrimage to Rome, St Therese of Lisieux experienced Mary’s faithful tenderness, through [...] des Victoires (Our Lady of Victories): "The graces that she granted to me moved me so deeply and I was so happy, I cried like on the day of my First Communion. The Blessed Virgin led me to believe that it [...] seemed to me so much tenderer than that of “Mother”. With what enthusiasm did I pray her to always keep me with her and to fulfill my dream by hiding me under her virginal cloak! Ah! This was one of my first
April 16 - Our Lady of Victories in the Church of St Mark (Venice, Italy) At Notre-Dame des Victoires During her pilgrimage to Rome, St Therese of Lisieux experienced Mary's faithful tenderness, through [...] des Victoires (Our Lady of Victories): "The graces that she granted to me moved me so deeply and I was so happy, I cried like on the day of my First Communion. The Blessed Virgin led me to believe that it [...] seemed to me so much tenderer than that of "Mother". With what enthusiasm did I pray her to always keep me with her and to fulfill my dream by hiding me under her virginal cloak! Ah! This was one of my first
March 5 – Our Lady of the Miracle (Italy, 1440) - Max Jacob (French poet, painter, writer, and critic; Catholic convert. d. 1944) – Public apparition of the Virgin Mary in Zeitoun (Egypt, 1970) Virgin [...] painter, agreed to be his godfather. From 1921 to 1927, Jacob retired from Parisian life and moved to Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire (Loiret, central France). In 1944, the Gestapo arrested him on account of his Jewish [...] transferred to the Drancy internment camp, where he died on March 5th, 1944. Among the poems he wrote is this beautiful prayer to Mary: "Praise be to this little country girl, who merited to be the mother
November 4 - Saint Charles Borromeo, cardinal, bishop of Milan (d. 1584) - Our Lady of Pötsch (Mariapocs, Hungary) Blessed Mother, what else can I say except “Thank you!” Blessed Mother, what else can [...] and find one for me, because I really wanted to go. After all, are you not the one who wants us to lay our burdens at your feet so that you can take care of everything? I did just that, and you did a fantastic [...] one of my many little miracles, as I like to call them... and a beautiful lesson I received from my heavenly Mother who always provides for those who ask her. Mickaëlle S Testimonial sent to Mary of Nazareth
lighter than a piece of confetti!" Of his entire group of resistance fighters, he was the only one to come back alive (this is why I am here today!). Needless to say, my father never failed to pray his rosary [...] group of 10 resistance fighters. As a great lover of the Virgin Mary, he prayed his rosary a lot. His mother, of whom he was the only son, had no news of him but, trusting in Mary, she continued to believe [...] commanded the prisoners to carry stones from a quarry to the place where they planned to construct a building. Each prisoner was given a stone to carry. When my father saw the stone assigned to him, he knew that
April 21 – Our Lady of the Slap (Italy, 1200) – Feast of St Anselm One day, Saint Anselm was rapt in ecstasy In the book “Preparation for Total Consecration According to Saint Louis de Montfort” (1), who [...] who recommended taking 30 days to prepare for this act of consecration and 9 to say "Goodbye to the world," we find this passage on Saint Anselm that sheds light on what "the world" is: "One day, Saint [...] fast current, carrying the filth of the whole universe. Nothing was more hideous than these foul and muddy waters. But what astonished the saint most was to see multitudes of men, women, and children who
as the model of all virtues: “The followers of Christ still strive to increase in holiness by conquering sin. And so they turn their eyes to Mary who shines forth to the whole community of the elect as [...] perspective of virginity and motherhood, and completed this parallel from the standpoint of Mary's holiness, a reflection of the Church's holiness. Because of this, Marian devotion constitutes a path to holiness [...] September 17 - Our Lady of the Virtues and Grandeurs of Mary (La Flèche, France) Mary's virtues: a model for the Church The Second Vatican Council already drew a parallel between the Virgin Mary and the
