* July 31 – Ethiopian Church: Feast of the Densata (Conception of Mary) - Saint Ignatius of Loyola * He felt two strong hands helping him up --- An initiative of the Association Mary of Nazareth  July 31 – Ethiopian Church: Feast of the Densata (Conception of Mary) - Saint Ignatius of Loyola He felt two strong hands helping him up English: Title: Ms. 3 Weddasé Māryām, Anqaṣa Berhān, Yewédeswā Malā’ekt, Mālk’ā Māryām, Malek’ā Eyasus Project : Ethiopic Manuscripts Content Type : Manuscript (Photo credit: Wikipedia) In the 1980s, Nasser, a young Muslim paratrooper in the Jordanian army in Amman, displaced one of his vertebrae during a jump, and could no longer stand up on his feet. The doctors were able to do nothing for him. He was engaged to a young Muslim girl, a student at the school of the Sisters of the Rosary. The betrothed were both devastated. Nasser was sent to London where, after an unfortunate injection, he returned paralyzed for life. Back in Amman, the parents of the bride wanted the girl to break the engagement and Nasser himself agreed with them. However, a friend of the girl, Sister L. of the Rosary, came to visit Nasser, and moved by the Holy Spirit, gave him a Miraculous Medal. Nasser kissed it and put it around his neck. Sister L. said, "What doctors cannot do, God will do, and he will heal you." That night, Nasser heard a voice within him: "Nasser, I am the Mother of Jesus, in His name, I have healed you, get up." At the same time, he felt two strong hands helping him up. He was cured. He awoke in the hospital bursting with joy and fully healed, to the amazement of the medical staff. Nasser became a defender of Mary. Bishop Sinnaan, the bishop of Amman, was informed of the inexplicable healing and received Nasser’s request to become a Christian.  Article from Message et Messagers, issue #163, December 1984 Story told in the Recueil marial – 1986, by Brother Albert Pfleger, Marist 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.   .  Share A Moment with Mary and give your loved ones the opportunity to discover a new aspect of the mystery of the Mother of God each day.

An initiative of the Association Mary of Nazareth July 30 – Our Lady Promoter of Peace  (Le Puy, France) – Saint Peter Chrysologus (d. 451) Cannons for Our Lady Promoter of Peace Dedicated to Our Lady of the Annunciation, the Shrine of the Puy-en-Velay (France) is one of the oldest in Europe. In the 5th century a woman was miraculously cured by the Virgin Mary there. In the 13th century, upon his return from the crusade, King Saint Louis gave a Black Madonna to the shrine and for centuries pilgrims flocked there. But there is another famous image of the Virgin Mary in Le Puy, venerated under the name of Our Lady of France, born from the desire to pay tribute to Mary and to her Immaculate Conception, a dogma proclaimed in 1854. This cast iron statue is sixteen meters high, and dominates the area from the Corneille Rock. To cast the statue, Napoleon III (nephew of Napoleon I and first president of the French Republic) donated 150,000 kilos of cast iron cannons captured from the Russians during the Crimean War at the victory of Sevastopol in 1855. These are the famous guns of victory, “an instrument of war transformed into an instrument of peace,” they say at the diocesan head office. The statue of Our Lady of France was inaugurated in 1860. “Our Lady of France,” says Sister Marie-Aimée from the Community of Saint John, “is the mother who protects. She is there for everyone.” www.pelerin.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. . Share A Moment with Mary and give your loved ones the opportunity to discover a new aspect of the mystery of the Mother of God each day.

* July 28 – Icon of the Hodigitria, “she who leads the way” (Smolensk, Russia)   * The icon was carried across the battlefields  --- An initiative of the Association Mary of Nazareth  July 28 – Icon of the Hodigitria, “she who leads the way” (Smolensk, Russia)   The icon was carried across the battlefields  Icon image from http://www.iconkuznetsov.com/ The Smolensk icon is a Hodigitria Virgin "she who leads the way," the only way forward that is to Christ. The icon was painted by Saint Luke for the community of Antioch. It was subsequently venerated in Constantinople (today’s Istanbul, Turkey) in the church of Blachernae. It was probably brought to Russia in 1046, and placed in Smolensk’s Cathedral of the Assumption in 1101. This Virgin is invoked to obtain guidance and assistance. In particular, she helped Vladimir Monomakh to pacify and unite Russia. She is credited with protecting the city against the invasion of the Tartars. In 1398, the icon was brought to Moscow and placed in the Cathedral of the Annunciation. Then it was returned to Smolensk, to the Church of the Assumption of the Novodevičij monastery (near Moscow). In 1812 the icon was transported to the battlefields in the war against Napoleon. "In front and around the icon, behind and at all sides, soldiers would walk, run and fall prostrate to the ground, with their heads uncovered…countless soldiers." (Tolstoy, War and Peace). On November 22, 1991, the icon publicly wept for a whole day in front of a large crowd of faithful onlookers. The bishop and patriarch acknowledged the authenticity of the occurrence. The Mary of Nazareth Team Icon from EWTN ​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.   .  Share A Moment with Mary and give your loved ones the opportunity to discover a new aspect of the mystery of the Mother of God each day.

Discover the 3 Forms of Slavery Holding Americans Hostage

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Discover the 3 Forms of Slavery Holding Americans Hostage The Slavery to Sin by Fr. Ed Broom, OMV – Fr. Broom’s Blog: Physical slavery is one thing, but there is an even more serious slavery—it is the slavery to sin. Jesus Himself calls sin slavery. Sin can make us true slaves to moral evil; and this is the worse form of slavery. St. John the Baptist was made a slave of imprisonment under the wicked King Herod. However, the Baptist experienced the true freedom of the sons of God. Even though King Herod experienced exterior freedom, interiorly he was a true slave of his disordered passions and sin—lust, greed, gluttony, and insecurity. In the United States we boast of the freedom that we experience, especially on the 4th of July by blowing off fire-works, admiring fire-rockets and guzzling down beer barrels! But do we really experience the true freedom that Jesus came to give us, the freedom of the sons and daughters of God? What might be one of the major obstacles to freedom and the major form of slavery? Anybody who utilizes simple reason will quickly be brought to the conclusion: the Capital sin of lust. The flagrant, pervasive and universally promoted promiscuity in the realm of sexuality must be touted as the modern binding force of slavery far and wide. The expressions of sexual promiscuity are many, but for sake of brevity we will mention only three. First, it must be stated that all that God created was good, is good and always will be good. However, the problem is in the abuse of the goods of creation. One of the most exalted gifts of God’s creation is the proper use of human sexuality. The expression of human sexuality has its plan, purpose and divine blessing only in this context: a man and woman sacramentally married and in their conjugal union being open to the possibility of life, or procreation—that is to say, being ready to collaborate with God in bringing forth new life into existence. Man and woman provide the material reality; God infuses the immortal soul! Let us now proceed to list three of the modern slaveries in the field of lust and the abuse of human sexuality. SAME-SEX UNIONS. Even though the Supreme Court has recently approved and legalized the union of the same sexes and calling it marriage, it is not in the eyes of God. Even though you call a banana an apple, still the banana is a banana. The Government might call same-sex unions marriage, but it is not and it will never be. Why? God has told us! Listen! “God created them male and female and for this reason and man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife. What God has united let no man rent asunder.” Then God gave the first order to the man and woman: “Increase and multiply.”—in other words, have children! The acceptance, the promotion and practice of sodomy is wrong and it always will be morally reprehensible! PLAGUE OF PORN. Honestly we must admit it: we live in a pornographic society. On almost every corner we turn we are bumping into the crude but all pervasive reality of pornography. In a certain sense, we can use this powerful but so true image: we are being surrounded by a pack of ravenous wolves (pornography) that is intent on devouring us. Indeed if we do not take extreme measures this ravenous wolf can grip on to us, bite into us and rip us apart—the way wolves do to their prey. It would be more than safe to say that pornography is the number one addiction in the United States as well as in other countries. Saint Elizabeth Anne Seton made an incredible prophecy more than two hundred years ago. She said that a black box would enter into the homes and families in the United States and ruin numberless families. Could it be that this prophecy of the insidious and poisonous “Black box” is both the television as well as the Internet connected to the “Black box” of the Computer, what to do you think? TRIAL-MARRIAGES/FREE-UNIONS/COHABITATION. It is all but a plague today among many so-called Catholics, Christians, to start off their life together by simply living together, free-union, “Shacking out” as they used to say in the 60’s! This expression of sexual promiscuity is becoming so common, pervasive and relevant to the modern world that believers, even practicing Catholics, are becoming desensitized to this immoral phenomena. The reasons behind this are multiple, but all immoral! Many say that they have to try it out to see if it works; others say that we have to see if we have good chemistry; still others, say that they do not want to take such a serious step of getting married in the Church and to make a wrong decision. In the mean time they are more than willing to offend God, live in mortal sin on a permanent basis, give bad example, better yet, give scandal to their children and to pave their way to the loss of their immortal souls for all eternity. In conclusion, let us lift up our minds, hearts, souls and desires in prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to the holy and chaste Saint Joseph. Let us beg them fervently for ourselves, our family members as well as the whole world for the grace to be free from the slaveries of the present world, especially the all-prevalent slavery of lust. Let us beg both Our Lady through her most pure and Immaculate Heart and the most pure heart of Saint Joseph for the grace to live out this challenging but freeing Beatitude: “Blessed are the pure of heart for they will see God.” (Mt. 5:8) If done we will not be slaves, but truly free sons and daughters of our heavenly Father! Discover More How Can We Overcome the Slavery of Pornography? Bishop Roger Foys: Stop Holding Hands! Cardinal George: Could Jesus Be Accepted As A Chicagoan?   from Courageous Priest

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* July 27 - Canonization of Catherine Labouré by Pius XII before 10,000 Children of Mary dressed in white (1947)  * “They laid hands on Our Lady? They will not go any further.” --- An initiative of the Association Mary of Nazareth  July 27 - Canonization of Catherine Labouré by Pius XII before 10,000 Children of Mary dressed in white (1947)  “They laid hands on Our Lady? They will not go any further.” Saint Catherine Labouré, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia During the 1848 Revolution in Paris, in March of that year, Catherine Labouré, a sister in the Congregation of the Daughters of Charity, continued to run the Picpus Hospital in Paris (where she also resided) almost single-handedly, taking care of the poor after most of the sisters had been forced to flee. She distributed the Miraculous Medal that the Virgin Mary herself had requested through her, all the way up to the barricades. During searches by the revolutionaries inside the different foundations of the Congregation, she exhorted everyone to keep up their courage and, miraculously, the protection of Mary—whom she incessantly invoked—kept the entire community safe. When Sister Catherine heard that revolutionaries had ransacked the church of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires in Paris, she said: "They laid hands on Our Lady? They will not go any further." In the spring, in fact, the rebellion died out. The Mary of Nazareth Team 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.   .  Share A Moment with Mary and give your loved ones the opportunity to discover a new aspect of the mystery of the Mother of God each day.