An initiative of the Mary of Nazareth Association December 31 – Holy Mary Odigitria (Italy) – Saint Catherine Labouré (d.1876) 63 children gathered to recite the Litany of Our Lady [Wikipedia] Catherine Labouré was born in 1806 into a large family of well-to-do farmers from Burgundy, in France. Around the age of 14 she began to consider a religious vocation, but had to face the persistent opposition of her father. She was eventually able to enter the Daughters of Charity at the age of 23. In April 1830, Catherine arrived at the mother house of the Rue du Bac in Paris to start her novitiate. As early as July 1830, she revealed to her confessor that she had received apparitions of Our Lady: the Virgin Mary appeared to her, with beams of light flowing out of her open hands, illuminating the globe on which she stood. She asked Catherine to have a medal made and distributed everywhere, bearing her image and the special invocation: "O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." On the day she died Catherine asked to have 63 children recite each invocation of the Litany of Our Lady from the Office of the Immaculate Conception, at her bedside... Catherine saw in the number 63 an illustration of the oral tradition that gave the age of 63 to the Virgin: fifteen years before and after the thirty-three years of Christ's life. The Mary of Nazareth Team The uncorrupted body of Saint Catherine [Wikipedia] Saint Catherine Laboure Let’s pray together Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of death. Amen.

These Stone Walls: Hits and Misses of 2015

Eric Metaxas, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Pornchai Moontri, Fr George David Byers, Fr Andrew Pinsent, Fr Georges Lemaitre. These and more are TSW’s Hits and Misses of 2015.

Please, read and share: "These Stone Walls: The Hits and Misses of 2015."

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An initiative of the Mary of Nazareth Association December 30 – Holy Mary near San Celso (Italy, 1485) Suddenly, the Virgin began to move Image from http://forosdelavirgen.org/ Santa Maria presso San Celso (Holy Mary near San Celso) is the most popular shrine in Milan, Italy. It became well-known in 395, when the body of the martyr Saint Nazarius was found intact in Tre Mori Cemetery near Milan. The bishop himself carried the body to the new basilica, then he returned to Tre Mori to pray at the place where, according to tradition, another martyr named Celsus was buried. Celsus was a young lad from Nice who chose to follow Nazarius. He was killed at the same time as Nazarius during the persecutions of Nero (d.68). The martyr’s tomb was placed under the altar—the fourth-century sarcophagus is still kept in the shrine. Later, the bishop had an image of the Madonna and Child painted in a niche at the back of the church, protected by a metal screen. In 1485, on December 30th, a priest named Father Pietro Porro was celebrating Mass in the packed church, when the image of the Virgin began to move. She lifted her veil, opened her arms and clasped her hands together. The Child Jesus also appeared to be making a gesture of blessing towards the faithful. The numerous testimonies, still conserved in the archives of the shrine, allowed for ecclesiastical approval to be granted within a few months of this event. Giuseppe Frangi www.30giorni.it Image from http://forosdelavirgen.org/ www.mariedenazareth.com Let’s pray together Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of death. Amen.

Our Blessed Mother and the Christmas Mystery

The 5th Marian Dogma and Peace in the World – May 31, 1954 message In this May 31, 1954 message from the Lady of All Nations (ecclesiastical approval, May 31, 2002, see “Church Approves Apparitions of the Lady of All Nations” article), Our Lady calls both theologians, bishops and the faithful to “work and ask for this dogma. You should petition the Holy Father for this dogma.” She also explains that the titles Co-redemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate are “three concepts in one,” that is three aspects of her one role as spiritual Mother of all humanity. Our Lady then gives the seer a vision of the proclamation of the dogma by the Holy Father in St. Peter’s Basilica and states “my prophecy that ‘all generations will call me blessed’ will be fulfilled more than ever once the Dogma has been proclaimed.” – Ed. “Here I am again. The Co-redemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate is now standing before you. I have chosen this day—on this day the Lady will be crowned. Theologians and apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, listen carefully. I have given you the explanation of the dogma. Work and ask for this dogma. You should petition the Holy Father for this dogma. The Lord Jesus Christ has done great things and will give all of you even more in this time, in this twentieth century.” Read more   The Flight into Egypt: Jesus, the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Our Blessed Mother and the Christmas Mystery The great Jesuit theologian Father John Anthony Hardon (1914-2000) related that one Christmas, at the moment of the consecration of the bread during Midnight Mass, the mystery of the Incarnation—Jesus taking flesh and living with us as one of us—struck him with special profundity when he thought to himself: “I am holding in my hands the same Jesus that Our Blessed Lady held in her pure hands in the stable of Bethlehem.” Such a precious insight can only but help all of us to focus more intently on Mary’s undeniable and essential role in that incredible, unrepeatable action: the Logos (Word)—the Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity—becoming flesh and pitching His tent among us. Mary accepted that Word…embraced that Word…loved that Word…and learned from that Word. And this Real Presence of Christ enjoyed by His sinless Mother and chaste foster-father Saint Joseph is effected and continued today—and will be until Jesus comes again—by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which would not exist without the Incarnation. Read more...   Time to Return to the Infant Jesus “Have pity on me, and I will have pity on you.” “Give me my hands, and I will give you peace.” “The more you honor me, the more I will bless you.” These are the extraordinary supernatural pledges made by the Infant Jesus to the priest who found the miraculous statue which was buried under the rubble of a partially destroyed Carmelite Church in Prague. And the Infant Child of Prague makes the same extraordinary pledges to us today. It is time for families to return to a truly heartfelt devotion to the Infant Jesus, who wishes to bestow countless blessings upon families of the third millennium; but they will have to open their homes and their hearts to his sacred image. Read more...   The Gift The following is a true story. Some of the names have been changed to protect the privacy of people involved. Our friend, Father Brian, died in Austria two years ago while giving a retreat on Divine Mercy. The children are lying on the living room rug, their stomachs distended with turkey and Christmas cake. Our guest, Father Brian, turns a beaming smile on them, lights his pipe, and seats himself with a sigh on the old rocking chair beside the wood-stove. He is content just to soak up the family atmosphere and listen to our children’s after-dinner banter. “Tell us a story, Father,” they cry before long. The priest has a reputation for stories. More than that, he has all the time in the world for children. “What kind of a story?” he asks. Read more...   English: Holy Family, Mary, Joseph, and child Jesus (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Visit with the Holy Family, December 31, 1995 Mrs. Janie Garza is a visionary located in Austin, Texas. For over twenty years, she has received messages and visions from Our Lady under the title, “Mother of Compassion and Love”, with special emphasis on the restoration of family life through the model of the Holy Family, as well as messages from St. Joseph, St. Philomena, the Three Archangels, and several other saints. She has also received numerous messages and suffered extensively as a victim soul for the proclamation of the Dogma of Mary, Co-redemptrix, Mediatrix of all graces and Advocate. Mrs. Garza has received permission from her local bishop to spread her messages and relay her experiences, not only locally, but also internationally, as communicated to her spiritual director, Fr. Henry Bordeaux, ocd. –Assistant Ed. Janie: Beloved St. Joseph, do you have holy instructions to give to the family to help us? St. Joseph: My little one, write what I tell you. To all families, I, St. Joseph, Protector of the Holy Family, invite you as a family, to follow and live the order that God gave you to live according to His Divine Will. This is that order: God put the father as head of the household. He sets the father in honor of his children, the mother is under the authority of the father, the children are under the authority of their parents. Read more...   The Dogma of Mary’s Motherhood of God The doctrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary reveals the role of the Mother of Jesus in relation to Christ and his Church. Authentic doctrine regarding Mary is, in fact, a revelation of the person of Mary herself. That is why by truly understanding what Mary’s role is in God’s work of Redemption, we can know better who Mary is. Authentic love of Mary must be based on the truth about Mary. This matter of Mary’s self-revelation is exemplified at Lourdes during her apparitions in 1858. To Bernadette’s question concerning who she was, Mary responded, “I am the Immaculate Conception.” In this article we will look at the central Catholic truth, known as “dogma,” regarding the Blessed Virgin Mary’s Motherhood of God. A dogma is a Church doctrine that has been solemnly defined as constituting the highest level of revealed truth and something directly revealed by God, whether by an infallible declaration by a pope, or by an ecumenical council confirmed by the Roman Pontiff. Read more... The Mother of God The first and foremost revealed truth about the Virgin Mary from which all her other roles and all her other honors flow, is her providential role as the Mother of God. This dogma proclaims that the Virgin Mary is true Mother of Jesus Christ, who is God the Son made man. The dogma of Mary’s Divine Motherhood, as it is commonly referred to, was solemnly defined at the third ecumenical council of Ephesus (431 A.D.). Mary’s role as the Mother of God is revealed in Sacred Scripture. At the Annunciation, the Angel Gabriel declares to Mary: “Behold, you shall conceive in your womb and shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus… therefore, the holy one who shall be born of you shall be called Son of God” (Lk 1:31; Lk 1:35). Read More...   The Theotokos of Vladimir, one of the most venerated of Orthodox Christian icons of the Virgin Mary. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) “Theotokos”: Mary, the Mother of God Let us…turn to the realization, in point of time, of the unique mission assigned to (Our Blessed Lady) by the Almighty, namely, to be the worthy Mother of the Son of God. (1) In treating this subject we will discuss briefly: I. The errors in this connection; II. The official teaching of the Church; III. The argument from Sacred Scripture; IV. The teaching of Tradition; V. The theological explanation of the Catholic dogma; VI. The objective dignity resulting from it. Read More...   The Perpetual Virginity of the Mother of God, Part I Our Blessed Lady’s virginity is intimately connected with her sublime prerogative as Mother of God. Indeed, as St. Bernard so forcefully pointed out, Mary’s motherhood is gloriously singular and unique precisely because it is virginal. (1) Far from being merely a passing prerogative, Mary’s virginity was and is everlasting, pervading every stage of her life, and particularly the sacred moments in which she became the Mother of God in Nazareth and brought Him forth in the cave of Bethlehem. The dogma of Mary’s perpetual virginity means precisely this: 1. that she conceived the Son of God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, virginally; 2. gave birth to Him virginally; 3. remained a virgin throughout her earthly life, and, consequently, now and forever reigns gloriously as the Virgin of Virgins, Queen of Heaven. Read More...

An initiative of the Mary of Nazareth Association Decembre 29 – Our Lady of Flowers (1336) An expression of surprise tinged with admiration Annunciation by Murillo, 1655 (Wikipedia) The Church celebrates Our Lady of the Rosary in early October and offers us a reading from Saint Luke that illuminates the traditional story found in the Rosary. This is the episode when the Angel greets the Virgin Mary, immortalized in one of the simplest and most famous Catholic prayers, the Hail Mary. This passage in Luke is unique. It is the only one in all Scripture where an angel humbly salutes a human being in a laudatory manner. Except for this passage, all the other biblical stories present an angel that attracts the attention of men, often to warn them, but never to greet anyone in this way. The evangelist depicts the Archangel Gabriel addressing the Virgin Mary as "full of grace." He finally finds a creature among men who loves God more than he himself was able to love. Hence the surprise, tinged with admiration, that the Angel’s words imply, which is reflected in his encounter with a creature whose love filled her with graces. (Wikipedia Image) Father Paulo Ricardo fr.aleteia.org www.mariedenazareth.com Let’s pray together Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of death. Amen.