abandon us. I would like our country (France) to look at Mary as a mother, as a river looks at its source, to find inspiration and momentum. Mary expresses the heart of her vocation from the first words [...] August 15 - Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary – National holiday in France since 1638 (King Louis XIII’s vow) France, what if it were the time of your awakening? Indeed, the feast of the Assumption [...] Assumption is a source of great hope. As the Virgin Mary, the first one to do so after Jesus, experiences the joy of the resurrection, we are strengthened in the certainty that God keeps his promises and that he
August 3 - Act of Consecration to Mary inspired by St. Peter Damien and approved by the Archbishop of Cambrai (France, 1626) Why address our prayers to Mary instead of directly to God? Cardinal Suenens [...] her a bouquet of flowers. "Since that day, I have understood Marian devotion better. When we turn to Mary, we can make Jesus very happy; it is a way to love him even more." The future primate of Belgium had [...] their gesture is generous, but their bouquet is often poorly composed. If we entrust our prayers to Mary, she is like a mother who takes our bouquet and in the blink of an eye transforms it into a magnificent
July 26 – Saints Anne and Joachim, parents of the Virgin Mary The Amazing Story of Ferruzzi’s Madonnina It is called the Restful Madonna, or Madonna and sleeping child or even the Street Madonna. Whatever [...] full of sweetness and the sleeping baby in her arms, the girl is undeniably reminiscent of the Virgin Mary. Very quickly, it was ‘baptized’ the "Madonnina"! Building on this success, the painter sold the copyright [...] herself committed to a psychiatric facility where she died in 1972. Among her ten children, a daughter, Mary, became a nun and took the name Sister Angela Maria. Eager to learn more about her family and her
July 28 – Hodegitria Icon : Mary Who Shows the Way (Smolensk, Russia) This Marian icon accompanied the Russian army to the battlefields during the war against Napoleon In a Hodegitria icon ("She who shows [...] the way"), our Holy Mother points with her hand to the only way to follow: Christ. Like all icons of Mary, it bears the inscription "Mother of God" (Theotokos). On her forehead and shoulders, the three shining [...] it was brought to Russia, and finally placed in the Smolensk Cathedral of the Assumption in 1101. Mary Hodegitria was invoked to obtain advice and help. In particular, she helped Emperor Vladimir Monomachus
July 27 – Canonization of Catherine Labouré by Pius XII attended by 10.000 Children of Mary dressed in white (1947) "In a time of great sorrow, I remembered the heart of the Mother of Perpetual Help" In
Church: Feast of the Densata (Conception of Mary) Mary, a personal figure of the Church-Mediatrix of all grace For Ignatius of Loyola, the Risen Christ appeared to Mary in her quality as the figure and personal [...] Church. It is important to remember that Mary offered Jesus a virginal and immaculate space where his glorious body could grow without encountering any obstacle. In Mary, Jesus finds his glorious Body. He can [...] help and mediation of his Bride, the Church. I.-M. Hennaux, S.J. In "En apparaissant à la Vierge Marie, le Christ ressuscité a fondé son Église", Nouvelle revue théologique, vol. 126/ n.1, jan-mar 2004
) - Feast of Mary Mediatrix (Maronite and Syriac liturgies) Victory over evil through the New Adam and the New Eve St. Bonaventure emphasized the traditional parallel between Eve and Mary, and explained [...] explained how both Jesus and Mary repaired the sin of Adam and Eve: "As the fall happened through both sexes – the sin was initiated by the woman, and consumed by the man – so in the mystery of reparation, the [...] cross." (in III Sententiarum , d 12, a 3). St. Bonaventure pushes further the parallel between Eve and Mary with a parallel between Eve and the Church: "As Abel and his descendants were formed from Adam and
July 17 – Feast of Mary’s Humility Mary proclaimed herself the handmaid of God while she became His Mother "The Virgin Mary passed her life in obscurity, in a humble town, in a home humbler still, the
July 7 – Pius XII consecrates Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Before Mary, we are family As a young seminarian on a summer internship at the Shrine of Lourdes, I helped with the preparation of the [...] there were a great number of pilgrims from many countries. We had the idea of providing the Hail Mary in all the languages spoken by the pilgrims. I was in charge of collecting as many versions as possible [...] minutes before she finally gave me back my sheets of paper, filled with something other than the Hail Mary in Italian, I knew that. What had she written? I found out later, when an Italian priest translated
July 13 - Mary Mother of God (Bistrica, Croatia) - 3rd apparition at Fatima: the vision of hell (Portugal, 1917) The shrine of Mary's prodigies A Virgin and Child was venerated in this place in Marija
