January 1--Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God

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Merry Christmas!  The feast of Mary, Mother of God is the eighth day of the Octave of Christmas.  January 1 was originally the Feast of the Circumcision, when Jesus was given his name in the Temple, as was the custom of the Jewish people going back to Abraham.  It shows that Jesus, the Son of God, is truly, man, the New Adam, son of a woman, the New Eve.  In 1960, January 1 was simply part of the Octave of the Nativity.  But in 1969, with the revision of the Roman calendar, January 1 became the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God.

So why all the changes and why is the feast about Mary and not Jesus?  Well, the feast IS about Jesus.  It is still the Octave of Christmas.  We celebrate Mary because she is the Mother of God!  In the fifth century a heresy was proposed that Mary was the mother of Jesus, and was the mother of the Messiah,  but NOT that she was the mother of God.  The reasoning of the heresy, Nestorianism, was that Mary could not be the mother of the God who created her.  In other words, the logic of human procreation was applied to the Incarnation of Jesus, which was NOT human procreation!  That is NOT the faith of the Church!

The Church taught that since Jesus IS truly God, the Son of God and IS truly man, the son of Mary; then Mary, his mother, IS truly the Mother of God!  The word used in Greek is Theotokos, or "God-bearer".  So, we celebrate January 1, the eighth day of the Octave of Christmas, the day on which Jesus was circumcised into the Jewish covenant, as the day of the maternity of Mary, who was the Ark of the New Covenant, the MOTHER OF GOD, JESUS!

* https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1174875  

Monday after Pentecost--Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church

Last spring, Pope Francis decreed that “the ancient devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, under the title of Mother of the Church, be inserted into the Roman Calendar” on the Monday after Pentecost. Cardinal Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, said “the Pope’s decision took account of the tradition surrounding the devotion to Mary as Mother of the Church.” The Holy Father “wishes to promote this devotion in order to ‘encourage the growth of the maternal sense of the Church in the pastors, religious and faithful, as well as a growth of genuine Marian piety.’”

The Scriptures for the day include either Gn. 3:9-15, 20, which is the promise to Adam and Eve that God will save them through the New Adam, son of the New Eve, Mary, or Acts 1:12-14, which mentions Mary as the mother of Jesus after the Ascension and before the Pentecost. The Gospel is from Jn 19:25-34, where Jesus gives his mother to the beloved disciple: “‘Woman, behold, your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother.’”

The Tradition that Mary is the Mother of the Church goes all the way back to Jesus and has been developed more fully through the ages. In 1964, “Pope Paul VI ‘declared the Blessed Virgin Mary as “Mother of the Church, that is to say of all Christian people, the faithful as well as the pastors, who call her the most loving Mother” and established that “the Mother of God should be further honoured and invoked by the entire Christian people by this tenderest of titles”’”. As our mother, Mary intercedes on our behalf to her Son, Jesus Christ. We are blessed with such a gracious, loving mother! Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us.

August 22--The Queenship of Mary

The fifth Glorious Mystery celebrates Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth. We may wonder why this is so, since in contemporary kingdoms a queen is the consort of the king. However, in ancient Israel the queen was not the consort of the king, but rather his mother! The Hebrew word was Gebirah, “Queen Mother” or “Great Lady”. The queen mother played an important role in establishing her son on the throne, such as Bathsheba did for Solomon. However, Mary did not seek the throne for Jesus. She serves Jesus and points to Jesus as the true king.

The Gebirah also influenced the kingdom because of her status as queen mother. In Israel, the queen mother would sometimes rule in the place of her son. Our Queen Mother, Mary, never rules in place of Jesus, but he does follow her wishes, as he did at the wedding feast at Cana, when Mary commanded the servants to, “Do whatever he tells you.” (Jn. 2:5) The queen mother also interceded on behalf of the subjects of the kingdom. She was their advocate. Mary, THE Queen Mother, is our advocate as well, interceding on our behalf. We pray in the Hail Mary: “Pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death.” 

Mary is acknowledged as Queen of Heaven and Earth because of her role as Mother of God. She was the first disciple of Jesus. She leads us to him. Jesus honors her as his mother and gave her to us to be our mother: “Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother.’” (Jn. 19:27) Just as John took Mary into his home, we need to take Mary into our homes, so she may bring us to her son, the King. Mary, our Queen, pray for us.

August 15--Feast of the Assumption of Mary

Praise be to God for our Blessed Mother Mary, who, because of her role as Mother of God, first disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ, was assumed body and soul into heaven at the end of her life!

This dogma was defined on November 1, 1950 by the Venerable Pope Pius XII: “By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”

As evil came into the world through the sin of Eve, salvation came into the world through the obedience of the New Eve, Mary. It was through Mary’s cooperation that God effected salvation. She proclaimed the grace of salvation when she visited her cousin Elizabeth:

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me and holy is his name. His mercy is from age to age to those who fear him. He has shown might with his arm, dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart. He has thrown down the rulers from their throne but lifted up the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped Israel his servant, remembering his mercy, according to his promise to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” (Lk 1:46-55)

November 21--The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Presentation of Mary is based not on Scripture, but on the Protoevangelium of James, a document that is not accepted as revealed, written about AD 145. Some may object to having a non-canonical source for a liturgical celebration, but its heritage is ancient, going all the way back to AD 543 with the dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary the New under Emperor Justinian I in Jerusalem. It was introduced into the Latin Church in the 14th century. Bl. Pope Paul VI reaffirmed in his Apostolic Exhortation, Maria cultus, “For the Right Ordering and Development of Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary,” that some feasts “apart from their apocryphal content, present lofty and exemplary values and carry on venerable traditions having their origin especially in the East” (para. 8).

This is true of the Presentation of Mary, which is about the tradition of how “Mary as a small child was presented to the Lord by her parents in the Temple.” This matters because it shows how Mary was dedicated to God from the very beginning of her life. This continues the chain of events in Mary’s life beginning with her Immaculate Conception, leading to the Annunciation and birth of Christ. Mary is the disciple above all others. She shows us how to live our lives by her selfless devotion to God.

We are called to be disciples. We are called to be holy. We are called to the Kingdom of God. We can best give ourselves over to Jesus by following Mary’s example. We were taught as children to love Jesus. We are the children of God and the children of Mary. Let us invoke Mary to pray for us “now, and at the hour of our death. Amen.”

September 15: Our Lady of Sorrows

Mary has more feasts dedicated to her than any other saint. That is due to her perfection in loving and obeying the will of God in her role as Mother of God. But we must not forget that before her Assumption into Heaven, she dealt with the evils that beset her Son, and transformed them by the grace of God into gifts that she presented to God the Father. She is Our Lady of Sorrows. There are seven sorrows attributed to Mary: 1. The Prophecy of Simeon in Luke 2:34-35; 2. The Flight into Egypt in Matthew 2:13; 3. The Loss of the Child Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem in Luke 2:43-45; 4. The meeting of Mary and Jesus on the road to Calvary (not in Scripture); 5. The Crucifixion of Jesus in John 19:25; 6. The Descent from the Cross in Matthew 27:57-59; and 7. The Burial of Jesus in John 19:40-42.

Each of these events caused great suffering to Mary, but she bore it uniting it to the suffering that her Son would, and did, undergo. At the visit of the shepherds Luke comments: “And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart” (Lk 1:19). Suffering happens to us all. But Jesus transformed suffering into joy; his Passion and Death into Resurrection and Ascension. And just as the Mother of God joined her suffering to her Son, so too may “we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears” to her and through her to her Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ. We suffer pain, turmoil, rejection, illness, abandonment, separation, misunderstanding, fear, and eventually death. But these do not have the final say! Jesus Christ is our salvation! Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us.

September 8: Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

There are only three births that are celebrated in the liturgical year: Jesus’ on December 25, John the Baptist on June 24, and Mary’s on September 8, which is nine months after the celebration of the Immaculate Conception on December 8. Joy is the immediate expression we have upon the birth of any baby, but the joy of the birth of the Blessed Virgin is even more delightful. We can’t honor Mary enough for her life, her “yes” to the angel Gabriel, her faithfulness to her Son, her discipleship as the first follower of Jesus. She is the Mother of God and it is fitting that we celebrate her birthday.

Every day is somebody’s birthday! The miracle of birth is truly God’s way of giving us hope for the future. Everyone is a child of God, even those who don’t get to celebrate a birthday. According to numberofabortions.com there have been over 59 million surgical abortions in America since Roe v. Wade in 1973. According to Pharmacists for Life (pfli.org)there have been approximately 250 million babies aborted chemically since 1973 in the U.S. Plus, every embryo, that is, every human being, that has been experimented upon in the name of science and future cures for current ills has been aborted.

Mary, under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patroness of the unborn. The image left on the tilma of St. Juan Diego shows her as a pregnant woman, pregnant with the unborn Son of God. We pray that all unborn human beings be allowed to be born; that they may be accepted lovingly as gifts from God no matter the circumstances of their conceptions. That may be an appropriate birthday wish for our mother Mary. Happy birthday Mom.

July 16--Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Besides being saints and blesseds, what do St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, St. Simon Stock, and St. Elizabeth of the Trinity have in common? They are all Carmelites, or members of the Order of Mt. Carmel. When hermits lived in a cave on Mt. Carmel in northern Israel in the 12th century, they dedicated a chapel to Our Lady. By the next century they became known as the Brothers of Our Lady Of Mount Carmel.

The order spread to Spain where St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross reformed the order in the 16th century. Both are Doctors of the Church. St. Therese of Lisieux is also a Doctor of the Church and was a member in 19th century France. St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was a member in 20th century Germany and an esteemed philosopher before she was martyred by the Nazis. St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi was a 16th century Italian mystic; St. Simon Stock was a 13th century Englishman who was an early leader of the order; and St. Elizabeth of the Trinity was a 20th century French mystic.

Although we do not necessarily belong to the Order of Mt. Carmel, we still have the same powerful patroness as they do, the Blessed Virgin Mary. We can follow the Carmelites, who honor Mary, who worships Jesus, who is our Lord and Savior. We share with them the joy that the Holy Spirit gives us when we profess our faith, witness to our hope, and live our love of God.

May 31--The Visitation

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant." The Virgin Mary spoke these words in response to her cousin Elizabeth's greeting on the day that Mary visited her, which we celebrate today. Mary gave glory to God in recognition of the grace that God had given to her in being the Mother of God. When Mary had agreed, the angel Gabriel told her of Elizabeth's pregnancy. Mary immediately set out to help her.

When Elizabeth heard Mary, her son John leapt in her womb for joy. John the Baptist was filled with joy, Elizabeth was filled with joy, Mary was filled with joy. Mary, in her humility, knew her role: "From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name."

What is our role? To be filled with joy! Even in our griefs and anxieties we can remain joyful for God has done great things for us! "He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit." We know that Jesus saves us! "He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly." We know that heaven awaits us! "He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty." We know that God takes care of us! "He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children for ever." We know that God keeps his promise! We can rejoice with our Blessed Mother.

October 18--St. Luke, Evangelist

                                     

Of the four evangelists, Luke was the only Gentile, or non-Jew.  He was a convert and disciple of St. Paul.  He even accompanied St. Paul on his missionary journeys.  He was a doctor and, according to legend, a painter.  He also gave us some of the clearest insights to the Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus as a youth.

We know of the Annunciation from Luke, as well as the conception of John the Baptist, the Visitation, the Birth of Jesus, the visit of the shepherds, the Presentation in the Temple, and the Finding in the Temple; all from Luke.  He also gave us the great songs of the New Testament that are prayed every day in the Liturgy of the Hours:  the Canticle of Zachariah in Morning Prayer, the Magnificat of Mary in Evening Prayer, and the Canticle of Simeon in Night Prayer.

The Gospel of Luke has great value as literature, but even greater value as the Word of the Lord.  With Mary we can sing, "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God, my savior."

September 12--Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary

                                        

"What's in a name.  That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet...."  At least that is what Shakespeare wrote.  But is he correct?  Is Jesus just another name?  It means, "God saves."  What about Yahweh?  It means, "I am who I am."  These are not just any names.  They are the names of God.  Mary's name is also revered by Christians.  The feast of the Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary has been a part of the Roman calendar since 1684.  It was suppressed in the 1969 reform of the Roman calendar, but reestablished in 2002 by Pope St. John Paul II, who was extremely devoted to the Blessed Mother.

The name Mary comes from the Hebrew word "Miryam", meaning "bitter".  Moses' sister was also named Miriam.  She is called a prophet.  The Song of Miriam is a part of the victory song after passing through the Red Sea (Ex.  15:21).  The Aramaic form of the word was "Maryam", which was eventually transformed into Greek "Mariam" or "Maria".  The origin of Mary's name does not give any indication as to her importance.  Rather, her name is important because she is the Mother of God!

Names indicate who we are.  They express our identity.  We are known by our names.  They show our relationships to oner another.  So, Mary is our Mother, the Mother of the Church, the Mother of God.  We give her name honor above every other name, save for God's.  Shakespeare was a brilliant poet, but an even greater poet wrote:  "A good name is more desirable than great riches, and high esteem, than gold and riches."  He happened to be inspired to write that line by God in Proverbs 22:1.

February 11—Our Lady of Lourdes

What would you do if someone told you to dig in the ground and drink water?  Would you do it?  Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year old girl, did precisely that at a grotto a mile from Lourdes, France.  A spring did come from the ground and many have been healed by its waters.  But it is not the waters that are important.  "One must have faith and pray; the water will have no virtue without faith,” as St. Bernadette herself said.  What is more important is the person who told her to do the digging, Mary, the Immaculate Conception.

The Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette numerous times, starting on this date in 1858 and eventually called herself the Immaculate Conception.  Only four year earlier, Pope Pius IX dogmatically defined that Mary was conceived without original sin.  This dogma holds that Mary was never touched by original sin, which is the lot of the rest of humanity since the time of Adam and Eve.  God chose her to be the Mother of God and she accepted that calling when the Archangel Gabriel proclaimed to her, “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you,” (Lk. 1:28) or as we say in the Hail Mary: “Hail Mary, full of grace.  The Lord is with thee.  Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.”

St. Bernadette prayed the rosary with Mary when they were together.  We invoke Mary’s intercession when we complete each Hail Mary:  “Holy Mary, Mother of God.  Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”  We know that we need God’s grace in our daily lives and we pray for the grace of final perseverance so that we may eventually be with Jesus, and Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes, in heaven.

December 12—Our Lady of Guadalupe

How does one go about converting a nation of unbelievers?  By sending Mary!  That is what happened on December 9, 1531 when Mary appeared to St. Juan Diego, an Aztec convert.  She asked that he go to the bishop and request that a chapel be built in her honor.  When the bishop requested a sign, the Virgin arranged some roses in his cloak to show the bishop.  When the cloak was opened a miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared.

The image shows Mary as a mestiza, a woman who is both Aztec and Spanish, with her eyes downcast, which is opposed to the way Aztec gods and goddesses looked out at the person.  She covers the sun so that only the rays appeared behind her.  She is standing on a crescent moon.  Her hands are in prayer and she is covered in a turquoise mantel, which was reserved to the Aztec gods and goddesses.  Furthermore, her mantel has stars on it and her dress has native flower designs.  Around her waist is a maternity band indicating that she is pregnant.  So to an Aztec she would be a woman who is greater than their gods, but pointing to the child inside her as even greater.  The Spaniards were already familiar with a shrine named after Our Lady of Guadalupe in Spain, so they would have recognized her as well.

Mary leads us to Jesus just as she led St. Juan Diego and the Aztec people to him.  Our Lady of Guadalupe showed the Spaniards that the native peoples that they had just conquered were children of God and worthy of respect and evangelization.  We need to show respect to all our brothers and sisters, no matter what they believe and lead them to Jesus just as Our Lady of Guadalupe did and evangelize them with our words and our love.

October 7—Our Lady of the Rosary

The entire month of October is dedicated to Our Lady and also to the rosary.  On this feast day we celebrate both together!  This memorial was originally founded in 1573 to commemorate a victory over the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, which was credited to praying the rosary.  The rosary itself is an ancient custom in which 150 Hail Marys were substituted for praying the 150 psalms, which the monks and nuns sang weekly in the monasteries.

The use of the rosary as a means of prayer is an excellent devotion.  There are 20 mysteries focusing on the childhood, ministry, passion, and exultation of Jesus.  Pope John Paul the Great added the five Luminous Mysteries in 2002 dedicated to the ministry of Jesus including:  The Baptism of Christ; The Wedding Feast at Cana; The Proclamation of the Gospel; The Transfiguration; and The Institution of the Eucharist.  

The rosary contains the essential elements of the Gospel message of Good News.  By meditating on the mysteries and praying the Hail Mary, the Our Father, and the Glory Be we are uniting ourselves to God’s will.  We are praying for the intercession of Mary in our lives and the lives of our loved ones.  We are also giving praise to God, the Trinity.  The prayers are scriptural; the first part of the Hail Mary comes from the Gospel of Luke and the Our Father is from the Gospel of Matthew.  The repetition of the prayers helps focus our entire being on Jesus.  It is a Marian prayer in that we go to Jesus through Mary, Our Mother.  What better prayer to share with our children than the prayer that unites our hearts to Mary’s Immaculate Heart to Jesus’ Sacred Heart!

August 20—St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Abbot and Doctor of the Church

St. Bernard of Clairvaux was the most famous man of the 12th century. When he was about 23 he joined the monastery at Citeaux with thirty other young noblemen. However, three years later he was sent out to establish a new monastery, at Clairvaux, whereupon he was chosen abbot. He became known as a persuasive writer and speaker even to the point that he was asked by the bishops of France to judge between two rival claimants to the papacy. St. Bernard decided that Innocent II was the legitimate pope and succeeded in helping Innocent be recognized as such. He even counseled the successor to Innocent, Eugenius III on how to be a good pope. Pope Eugenius had previously been a follower of St. Bernard. He also asked St. Bernard to preach the Second Crusade. After its failure, many blamed St. Bernard, but he attributed the failure to the sins of the crusaders. St. Bernard is called the last of the Church Fathers, a group of men who taught theology based on Scripture from the time of the early Church. He was also named Doctor Mellifluous, or “Honey-voiced” Doctor due to his eloquence in speaking and writing truths of the faith.

We have much to be thankful for regarding St. Bernard. He had a great devotion to Our Lady and composed the Memorare. He wrote many volumes on Scripture, especially about the Song of Songs, in which he saw the main characters as allegories, or symbols, of Jesus and the Church. The love shared between the two is the same as the love of Christ for his Church. St. Bernard was no stranger to controversy, pointing out error where he saw it. He also founded 163 monasteries which, by the time of his death, had expanded to number 343. We can look to St. Bernard as a saint who was deeply in love with God and deeply involved in the affairs of man for the sake of God. We need to be as deeply in love with God as he was and as willing to be involved in making our society holier.

July 26—Sts. Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Just like everyone else, Mary had parents, and Jesus had grandparents.  We know them as Sts. Joachim and Anne.  Although not mentioned in Scripture, their legend comes from a second century document, the Protoevangelium of James.  Regardless of the lack of historical evidence, we can say that Mary’s parents were the first teachers of Mary.  Through a special grace of God, they conceived Mary without original sin.  They were the ones who instilled in her the habits and virtues that enabled her to respond with loving obedience to God’s request to be the Mother of the Son of God, Jesus Incarnate.  Joachim and Anne were faithful Jews who taught Mary to be a faithful Jew who taught Jesus to be a faithful Jew.  They were the ones who set the tone for the raising of Jesus.  

Grandparents do set the tone for future generations.  Their examples guide the parents of grandchildren.  Their faith and hope and love and perseverance give strength to those who come after them.  We remember our grandparents for their holiness and for their love of us.  As grandparents, we can do the same for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  We are called to be loving, prayerful, and perseverant, so that when we are called home our descendants may remember us as loving them for the sake of loving God.  Sts. Joachim and Anne, patron saints of grandparents, set the bar high, but with God’s grace, we too can show future generations the benefits of a constant love, the love of Christ.

May 13--Our Lady of Fatima

May 13—Our Lady of Fatima

Mary is honored throughout the liturgical year.  Her appearance to three children in Fatima, Portugal in 1917 is celebrated this month.  Her message to them and to us was simple:  Pray!  Pray the rosary for world peace, the end of WWI, sinners, and the conversion of Russia.  May 13 was also the date when Blessed John Paul II was attacked by a would-be assassin’s bullets in 1981.  He attributed the saving of his life to the intervention of Mary and gave one of the bullets to the bishop of Leira-Fátima, who had it placed in the crown of the statue of Mary.

Mary leads us to Jesus.  She has always led us to Jesus, whether it was at Cana, at the foot of the cross on Calvary, or in appearing to three children at Fatima.  She is our mother and she wants only what is best for us, Jesus.  If we listen to her and pray for her intercession, we will find the reward that has already been given to us, salvation through Jesus Christ.  May we remember to pray to Mary and through Mary to Jesus this May.