December 10--Our Lady of Loreto

The Miracle of the Holy House of Loreto by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo licensed under public domain.

Our Lady of Loreto actually refers to the house in which Mary was born and lived! Tradition holds that it is where she experienced the Annunciation and where the Holy Family dwelled. Veneration of the Sancta Casa, or Holy House, in Nazareth is ancient. However, Loreto is located near the Adriatic Sea northeast of Rome. How, may we ask, did the Holy House get from Nazareth to Italy? This is where the story gets interesting!

According to one story angels carried the house from Galilee to Italy. However, some theorize that this actually refers to a medieval family called the Angelos, which is translated as “angels”. This makes sense in that it appears in Loreto in the late 13th century, around the time of the last of the Crusades. So why is there a feast celebrating a house and why is it called Our Lady of Loreto?

The house is important because it connects with Mary and the Incarnation of Christ. In 1995, St. John Paul II stated in a homily: “The threads of the history of the whole of humankind are tied anew in that house. It is the Shrine of the House of Nazareth, to which the Church that is in Italy is tied by providence, that the latter rediscovers a quickening reminder of the mystery of the Incarnation, thanks to which each man is called to the dignity of the Son of God.”

In 2019, Pope Francis directed this optional memorial to be celebrated and Cardinal Sarah wrote in the declaration: “This celebration will help all people, especially families, youth and religious to imitate the virtues of that perfect disciple of the Gospel, the Virgin Mother, who, in conceiving the Head of the Church also accepted us as her own.” Our Lady of Loreto, pray for us.

March 25--The Feast of the Annunciation

March 25—The Feast of the Annunciation

When the Feast of the Annunciation falls during Holy Week or Easter Week it is moved to another date; this year on April 8.  The Feast of the Annunciation is the great invitation to Mary to receive the gift of the Incarnation within her womb.  It is also the amazing response of a young woman to totally acquiesce to the will of God when she said, “Yes”.  The angel Gabriel greets Mary and proclaims to her the Good News of God’s salvation offered to all humanity through Incarnation of the second person of the Trinity, our Lord, Jesus Christ.  There is so much contained in this short passage (Luke 1:26-38):  The greeting to Mary who is full of grace and thus without Original Sin, the confusion that Mary felt about conceiving a child in a virginal state, followed by the calming revelation by Gabriel of God’s great plan, and the complete acceptance and decision to serve her cousin, Elizabeth.

The whole plan is similar to how we are called, proclaimed the Good News, and sent to go forth in mission.  We are called from our mothers’ wombs by the good and loving Lord that created us and knows us.  We then receive the call to faith in Baptism.  Then the Good News is proclaimed and explained to us throughout our youth and adulthood.  God never forces us to answer yes, but he does give us grace so that we may respond as Mary did.  Our positive response is then turned into a commission to spread the Good News to others and to serve others with the same love that we have been given.  Mary is the first disciple of Christ.  We are her children and are called to imitate her total sacrifice in love.