Caritas Christi Urget Nos

Category: Blessed Virgin Mary

  • The Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Holy Mother of God

    The Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Holy Mother of God

    Today’s readings

    What is it that you reflect on in your heart? Our Gospel reading today tells us that Mary, whose feast we celebrate today, reflected on all the things that happened surrounding the birth of her beloved son in her heart. I just love that detail. Mary’s most Immaculate Heart was filled with the wonders God was doing in her life and through her life. She treasured those memories and reflected on them in her heart. I think that is a wonderful spiritual model for all of us, her children.

    We ought to reflect on things in our heart more than we do, I think. Certainly I know that’s the case for me. Because I find that when I take a moment to reflect on those things, I know how blessed I am and how much God loves me. Very often, I will sit off to the side of the sanctuary before Mass in quiet prayer. As I prepare for Mass, I like to take a moment to reflect on why I am there. The Eucharist that we celebrate is the feast of thanksgiving, and I want to make sure that I bring my heart to that place of giving thanks. When I do, I find myself reflecting on God’s blessings within my heart. Often it’s the blessing of being the pastor of this wonderful parish; I’m thankful for all the great characters here who help me to know that I am loved. I’m thankful for the volunteers that help make Mass happen here at Saint Mary’s. I’m also thankful for my family, my health, and for all the ways God takes care of me.

    I want to suggest that reflecting on things in our heart might be a very solid resolution for the year ahead. Being thankful helps us to grow in faith: it helps us see God active in our lives and gives God the opening to work in our lives to bless others as well. Being thankful makes us happier people: pausing to reflect on the graces and blessings we have received helps us to know that, even in the midst of our hardest moments, God is working to pour out his love in so many ways. Being thankful helps us to make our world a better place. Gratitude is inspirational in that it helps us to know what makes us glad, and gives us the tools to make others glad and happy too. Thankful people are Eucharistic people: they bring the presence of our Lord to every person and circumstance of their lives. Reflecting on our blessings, holding them in our hearts, is a special treasure and one that we should not be so quick to dismiss.

    Mary’s life wasn’t an easy one. It was going to be marked by hardship and sadness from the very moment she said “yes” to the angel Gabriel. She was going to have to move to a foreign country to escape the wiles of the tyrant who wanted to take her son’s life. She was going to have to follow her son’s ministry and watch as so many misunderstood him and dismissed him and wanted to be rid of him. She was, in fact, going to have to watch him suffer and die.

    But Mary, full of grace, was going to also see so very much blessing. She was going to be the very first one to behold the Word of God as he came to life in her. She was going to be the very first to hold our Lord in her blessed hands. She was going to see the miracles, hear his radically inspirational preaching, and watch him change people’s lives. She was going to be among the first to behold the Resurrection and among those first disciples who brought the Church to birth.

    There was a lot for Mary to reflect on in her heart: good things and sad things, but all things that changed the world and brought salvation to the lives of all who would receive it. Mary is the mother of God the Word, according to his human nature, and as the first to receive the grace of salvation, she was able to behold it all, to take it in, and to reflect on it in her heart.

    If we want to make a real change in our lives in the year ahead, I think a good place to start is to follow the example of the Holy Mother of God and to treasure the graces and blessings that we receive in our heart. Let her example of contemplation stir up our hearts and give direction to our prayer and acts of service. The change that happens in us as we reflect with gratitude on the presence of God in our lives is one that can change our corner of the world.

    Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

  • The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

    The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

    It’s so important to our spiritual lives that we be willing to be interrupted by the holy. If we just keep doing what we’re doing, and never take notice of what God is doing, we miss out on some pretty wonderful experiences. The apparitions of our Blessed Mother are holy interruptions, experiences that call our attention to what God is doing.

    Appropriately enough, I think, we celebrate a second of Mary’s feasts in the space of just three days. We also had the optional memorial of Our Lady of Loreto, portions of the litany of which decorate the back entrances of our church, on Tuesday. During Advent, we naturally turn our hearts in gratitude to Mary for her fiat that made possible our world’s salvation. Today, we celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe in part because she is the patroness of all the Americas, and so, a special patron for us.

    A Native American author of the sixteenth century describes the story of our Lady of Guadalupe in today’s Office of Readings. He tells us of a Native American named Juan Diego, who was on his way from his home to worship on the hill of Tepeyac. There he heard someone calling to him from the top of the hill. When he got to the top of the hill, he saw a woman whose clothing shone like the sun. She told him that it was her desire that a church be erected on the hill so that all could worship her son Jesus. She sent him to the local bishop to plead that cause.

    The bishop didn’t believe Juan Diego’s story and sent him away. He returned to the hilltop to find the radiant Lady once again, and she told him to tell the bishop that she, the ever virgin Holy Mary, Mother of God, sent him. Again the bishop did not believe, telling him that unless he had a miraculous sign, he would not believe the story.

    At that point Juan Diego’s uncle became quite ill. Juan then set out for the local church to have a priest come to anoint his uncle. He purposely took a route around the hill at Tepeyac to avoid seeing the Lady and being detained, since the need for a priest was urgent. But of course, she met him at the side of the hill and spoke to him again. She assured him that his uncle had already been cured and sent him up the hilltop to find flowers of various kinds. He got to the top of the hill to find many Castilian roses growing there, which was odd for that time of the winter. He cut them and carried them down the hill in his tilma, a kind of mantle that he wore for warmth. She sent him to the bishop bearing the miraculous flowers as proof.

    He went confidently to the bishop and informed him that the Lady had fulfilled his request for a sign. He opened up his tilma, the flowers fell to the ground, but the great miracle was that the inside of the tilma revealed the image of our Blessed Mother, in the same manner as Juan had seen her on the hill. The bishop built the church, and devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe, as she had referred to herself, has grown ever since. You can still see the tilma, still bearing the image of Mary, at the shrine in Guadalupe today. That’s another miracle, since it really should have deteriorated all these centuries later.

    During Advent we are blessed to have the saints interrupt us with the holy, pointing the way to Jesus. None of them does this more faithfully than his very own mother, and so we are blessed to celebrate her feast today. May Mary our mother and the mother of God, lead us one day to her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

    Pray for us, O holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen.

  • The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

    The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

    Today’s readings

    I love that the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is celebrated during the season of Advent. Advent is a season of anticipation: God’s promises echo through the Old Testament, and in these Advent days, we see those promises coming to fruition in exciting and world-changing ways. Today’s feast is a glorious glimpse of that reality.

    We are honored today to celebrate this, the patronal feast day of our parish and of our nation. This, of course, celebrates Mary’s conception, not that of Jesus, which we celebrate on the feast of the Annunciation. Blessed Pope Pius IX instituted the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary on December 8, 1854, when he proclaimed as truth the dogma that our Lady was conceived free from the stain of original sin.

    This feast celebrates the belief that God loved the world so much that he sent his only Son to be our Savior, and gave to him a human mother who was chosen before the world began to be holy and blameless in his sight. This feast is a sign for us of the nearness of our salvation; that the plan God had for us before the world ever took shape was coming to fruition.

    The prayer over the offerings today uses a very technical theological term to describe how Mary was born, conceived actually, without sin, and that term is “prevenient grace.” The prayer specifically says, “…Grant that, as we profess her, on account of your prevenient grace, to be untouched by any stain of sin…” Prevenient grace is the same as other kinds of grace in that it relies on the saving action of Jesus on the Cross at Calvary, dying for our sins. But prevenient grace refers to grace applied before that happened, as would have been in the case for Mary who was obviously conceived before her son was put to death. This prevenient grace relies on the fact that God loved us so much that he foresaw the sacrifice of the Cross and applied the grace of it to Mary at her conception. As the Collect prayer today said, “…as you preserved her from every stain by virtue of the Death of your Son, which you foresaw…” All of this is a very technical discussion that boils down to the fact that God will not let the constraints of time limit the outpouring of his grace. And that’s the really good news we celebrate today.

    So, I think we know why this prevenient grace, this Immaculate Conception, was necessary: the readings chosen for this day paint the picture. In the reading from Genesis, we have the story of the fall. The man and the woman had eaten of the fruit of the tree that God had forbidden them to eat. Because of this, they were ashamed and covered over their nakedness. God noticed that, and asked about it. Of course, he already knew what was going on: they had discovered the forbidden tree and eaten its fruit. They had given in to temptation and had grasped at something that was not God, in an effort to control their own destiny.

    Thus begins the pattern of sin and deliverance that cycles all through the scriptures. God extends a way to salvation to his people, the people reject it and go their own way. God forgives, and extends a new way to salvation. Thank God he never gets tired of pursuing humankind and offering salvation, or we would be in dire straits. It all comes to perfection in the event we celebrate today. Salvation was always God’s plan for us and he won’t rest until that plan comes to perfection. That is why Saint Paul tells the Ephesians, and us, today: “He chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him. In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ…”

    And so, in these Advent days, we await the unfolding of the plan for salvation that began at the very dawn of the world in all its wonder. God always intended to provide an incredible way for his people to return to them, and that was by taking flesh and walking among us as a man. He began this by preparing for his birth through the Immaculate Virgin Mary – never stained by sin, because the one who conquered sin and death had already delivered her from sin. He was then to be born into our midst and to take on our form. With Mary’s fiat, her “yes” to God, in today’s Gospel, God enters our world in the most intimate way possible, by becoming vulnerable, taking our flesh as one like us. Mary’s lived faith – possible because of her Immaculate Conception – makes possible our own lives of faith and our journeys to God.

    Our celebration today is a foreshadowing of God’s plan for us. Because Mary was conceived without sin, we can see that sin was never intended to rule us. Because God chose Mary from the beginning, we can see that we were chosen before we were ever in our mother’s womb. Because Mary received saving grace from the moment of her conception, we can catch a glimpse of what is to come for all of us one day. Mary’s deliverance from sin and death was made possible by the death and resurrection of her Son Jesus, who deeply desires that we all be delivered in that way too.

    Pray for us, O holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

  • The Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary

    The Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary

    Today we celebrate a new-ish feast of Mary on the American version of the Church Calendar. The feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary began in Spain in 1513 and in 1671 was extended to all of Spain and the Kingdom of Naples. In 1683, King John Sobieski, of Poland, brought an army to the outskirts of Vienna to stop the advance of Muslim armies loyal to Mohammed IV in Constantinople. After Sobieski entrusted himself to the Blessed Virgin Mary, he and his soldiers thoroughly defeated the Muslims. Pope Innocent XI subsequently extended this feast to the entire Church in commemoration of the victory.

    After the liturgical reforms of Vatican II, this memorial was removed from the calendar, but it was restored by Pope Saint John Paul II in 2002, along with the memorial of the Most Holy Name of Jesus. And so we reverence Mary’s Most Holy Name, as we do the Most Holy Name of Jesus. That’s why a humble bow of the head at the mention of their names is a pious practice, and actually a required rubric in the Liturgy.

    The Blessed Virgin Mary’s whole life was about preaching the goodness of our God, as she saw it developed so clearly in the life of her Son. Everything she said and did always led to Jesus, because Jesus is the Incarnation of God’s love. Mary’s message was and is that we are called to partner with Jesus to make the Kingdom of God known in our own time and place.

    Blessed be the name of Mary, virgin and mother.

  • The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (School Mass)

    The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (School Mass)

    Today’s readings

    Well, I am sure you all noticed the church looks different. Hopefully you saw that over the weekend, but if not, I’m sure when you saw it yesterday it was quite a surprise. The church really, really needed to be painted, but we didn’t just want to slap a coat of paint on the walls and ceiling. When the church was built, that’s what had to be done because there wasn’t money to do much else. So in painting the church this time, we wanted to take the opportunity to do what art in the Church has always been used to do, and that is to tell the story of the Gospel and teach us the faith. In the early days of the Church, most people could not read and write, so in order to teach the faith, people were taught to read the churches. So the artwork and the decoration of the church was meant to preach the Gospel and call people to Jesus. We wanted to do the same here at Saint Mary’s.

    So there are two major themes going on here. First and most importantly, we wanted to express the truth that this is the holiest place on our campus, the place where heaven meets earth, the place where Jesus Christ dwells with us until the end of the age. Some of you who have come to a class Mass with me have heard me say that. So the dome was painted as a night sky, complete with stars; the cupola was painted a light blue to allow natural light to reflect and illuminate the sanctuary; the Tabernacle was raised on a step, and placed on an altar with a stone top; and the reredos was painted with a stunning mural depicting the light of God coming down from heaven and enveloping us all as he calls us into his presence. The text on the upper border of the reredos says, Agnus Dei Qui Tolis Pecatta Mundi; which is Latin and it means, Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

    The second theme is that our parish church is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Immaculate Conception. So the deep blue which support the architectural features of the sanctuary, and the earthy green on the wings of the church proclaim that Mary is Queen of Heaven and Earth. The golden rim around the “sky” above the sanctuary reminds us of her crown, and the gold rays in the ceiling symbolize her merciful love reaching out to the world.

    Along the back of the church, we have installed four “medallions” of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which ask for her intercession for our parish, our families, and our community. The text along the back “ribbon” above the doors are selections from the Litany of Loreto: Mother of Mercy, Mother of the Church, Seat of Wisdom, Help of Christians, Queen of Peace, Cause of our Joy, Holy Mother of God, and Queen of Families. These have been presented in English, Spanish, Polish, and Tagalog, some of the languages spoken by our parish family. Finally, above the doors in the center aisle, the resurrected Jesus has been cleaned by our artist, and the blue from the sky has been painted as a background. This reminds us the Ascension of Our Lord, giving us a command as we leave the church: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

    Today we gather in this beautiful church dedicated to our Blessed Mother, to celebrate her Assumption, body and soul into heaven, to reign with her Son, Jesus. We believe that our Lord did not want any taint of death to corrupt his Blessed Mother, who was conceived without sin. What is important for us to see in this feast is that it proclaims, with the most joy that we can, that what happened to Mary can absolutely happen for us who believe. We too have the promise of eternal life in heaven, where death and sin and pain will no longer have power over us. Because Jesus brought his Blessed Mother back up into his life in heaven, we know that we too can go to heaven. On that great day, death, the last enemy, will have no more power over us, as Saint Paul tells us in our second reading today.

    Like Mary, we are called to a specific vocation to do God’s work in the world. We are called to make sacrifices so that God’s work can be accomplished in us and through us. We can be joyful because God is at work in us. We are called to humility that lets God’s love for others shine through our lives. We are called to lives of faith that translate into action on behalf of others, a faith that leads God’s people to salvation.

    All of that can be pretty hard to handle. Disciples are called to live saintly lives so that they can be caught up in the life of God, reign with him in God’s Kingdom, and one day live forever with him in heaven. Obviously, don’t have to, aren’t even supposed to, do all that on our own. To get there, we receive the gift of grace, and we count on the intercession of the saints, especially the Blessed Virgin, who is Queen of heaven and earth. Depending on her intercession, we set forth to accomplish great things for the Lord, and one day, we hope to share in the glory that Mary has already received.

    Pray for us, O holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

  • The Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

    The Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

    Today’s readings

    This feast is one of the reasons I love the Blessed Virgin. Having given her fiat – her “yes” – to God, she now shows concern for her elder relative who is also with child. She goes to visit her in a great act of hospitality, which is one of the virtues Paul admonished the Romans to follow in our first reading today. Perhaps because of her faith and her great concern for Elizabeth, Elizabeth’s own child begins to rejoice in the womb, recognizing his Lord and the great woman who would bring him to human life.

    While we don’t have an exact account of what happened at that visit, we do have the Church’s recollection of its spirit, as told through Luke the Evangelist. The whole feeling of this Gospel story is one of great joy, which is perhaps why this is one of the joyful mysteries of the holy Rosary. Both Elizabeth and Mary represent the Church in the telling of the story. Because just as Elizabeth was moved by the faith and generosity of Mary, so the Church continues to be edified by her example of faith and charity. And just as Mary rejoiced in what God was doing in her life, so the Church continues to rejoice at the mighty acts of God in every person, time and place.

    The Gospel reading ends with the great song called the Magnificat which is Mary’s song of praise to God for the wonders he has done throughout all time, but also in her own life. We too should make that our own song as we continue to be overjoyed by the great acts of God, shepherding us all through our own lives, and intervening in our world and society to bring grace to a world darkened by sin. We, too, can pray with Mary, “From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name.”

    Pray for us, O holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

  • Graduation: The Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church

    Graduation: The Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church

    Today’s readings

    Today, as we gather for your Graduation Mass, the last time you will celebrate Mass together as a class, we do that on this memorial day of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church. I think that’s a wonderful little coincidence, because it gives us the opportunity to reflect on the ways that Mary has been a mother to you throughout your time here in our school, and how you will need her motherly care as you go forth from our school into your future.

    The Church celebrates the memorial of Mary, Mother of the Church, each year on the day after Pentecost.  It’s a relatively new feast for us, because Pope Francis extended this feast to the Universal Church in 2018.  Before that, it had a long history in Poland, and it was Saint John Paul II who commissioned a mosaic of Mary, Mother of the Church, at Saint Peter’s Basilica.

    The image of Mary, Mother of the Church, has its origins in the Gospels, and in Sacred Tradition.  At the foot of the Cross, Jesus commended Saint John to Mary as his mother, and her to Saint John as her son.  We heard that at the beginning of our Gospel reading today. The Church has seen this as Mary welcoming all members of the Church in the person of Saint John, and relating to them as a mother.  This gives strength to the Tradition that since Mary is the Mother of Jesus, the head of the Body, so she is also the mother of the members of that same Body.

    Mary also prayed with the disciples in the Upper Room for the coming of the Holy Spirit, as we saw in our first reading this evening from the Acts of the Apostles, and as the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, she became the mother of the Church as it came into being. Mary is the one who guides the Church as Mother by interceding for the Church in our need, by pointing us to the leadership of her son Jesus Christ, and by giving us comfort and encouragement in times of need and crisis. Mary is indeed our Mother and because of that grace and comfort, we are truly blessed.

    Mary has guided you in your time here at Saint Mary’s school. As you have learned to pray here, she has stood by you and brought those prayers to Jesus. As you have learned to study and work here, she has been with you to encourage you to find joy in learning and discovering. As you have made friends here, she has been with you to help you find common ground with others who are different from you. Mary has encouraged you and prayed for you, as any mother would for her children.

    As you go forth from our school, you will continue to need Mary’s motherly care in your life. High school is an exciting time, filled with all kinds of opportunities for growth and for becoming the person you were created to be. But it’s also a time with a lot of confusing options, with pressures to succeed and make friends and fit in. There absolutely will be temptations to do things you know in your heart are not for you, things that you have learned are wrong, even things you don’t want to do but feel like you have to in order to be one of the crowd and not someone who stands out like a sore thumb.

    The advice I would give you for that is to make sure your prayer life is there. And you know from your relationship with Mary our Mother that she can lead you to Jesus. Don’t forget the time you were here to go to adoration as a class. You can go to the adoration chapel on your own. Don’t forget to pray the Rosary you learned here. You can pray the Rosary every day. Don’t forget to spend time with Mary your Mother because she, like every mother, wants the very best for you.

    As we gather here on your Graduation day, we all want you to be successful in the future. A lot of people think success is having a lot of money, a prestigious job, all the best things you can buy. But that’s not true. Real success is becoming the person you were meant to be. God has given each one of us a vocation and a place in the world. You might be meant to have a priestly or religious vocation. You might be meant to be a loving parent and a dedicated spouse. You might be meant to make a difference by being a doctor or scientist or first responder or engineer. Whatever it is that you were meant to become, success will be in becoming that and then putting it at the service of the Gospel.

    The successful disciple is the one who has become what she or he is meant to become. The successful disciple becomes the woman or man who makes a positive influence on the world, or at least on your corner of the world. That’s what we were created for, and frankly, when we accomplish that, that’s when we will be the happiest we have ever been. I can tell you that I’ve traveled a few different roads in my adult life, and it wasn’t until I became a priest, especially here at Saint Mary’s, that I realized how happy I am.

    Success requires sacrifice. Giving his own mother to be our mother, the Mother of the Church, Jesus shows us that the members of the Church must lay down their lives if the Church is to make an impact in the world.  You will have to sacrifice to become successful in life. You may have to sacrifice your own comfort, your own popularity, your own ideas so that you can become who you were meant to be. I look forward to seeing the great people you will surely become as you continue to be involved here at Saint Mary Immaculate in the years to come. 

    For all these years that you have been here at Saint Mary’s school, we have tried to give you the tools to grow into the people you were meant to become.  We have done our best to help you find a relationship with Jesus and the companionship of our Mother Mary. If you remember these things and use them and grow in them, you will be successful, happy and blessed.  As I tell you all the time, the goal of all our lives is to get to heaven one day, and for the time you’ve been in our Catholic school, we have done our best to give you what you need to get there, because getting to heaven is the ultimate badge of success; it’s the greatest measure of our having become who we were meant to be.  I hope that you will be reasonably happy in this life, but I really want you to be eternally happy with Christ in heaven one day.  May God bless you in every moment of your lives. 

    Christ is risen.  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

  • Saint Athanasius and the Blessed Virgin

    Saint Athanasius and the Blessed Virgin

    Mass for the Council of Catholic Women May Crowning

    Today we celebrate the memorial of Saint Athanasius, a bishop of the third century and a Doctor of the Church. He was a dedicated defender of the faith against heresy, and is especially known for defending the divinity of Our Lord. We have Saint Athanasius to thank for many words in the Liturgy, most especially in the Nicene Creed:

    I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
    the Only Begotten Son of God,
    born of the Father before all ages.
    God from God, Light from Light,
    true God from true God,
    begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
    through him all things were made.

    We also use his words in a prayer you don’t usually get to hear. It’s a private prayer of the priest as prepares the cup by putting a tiny bit of water into the chalice of wine during the offertory: “Through the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.”

    The Arians, led by the priest Arius in the third century, rejected that message – they did not believe in Jesus’ divinity.  They believed there was a time before Jesus existed, that he was not consubstantial with the Father, but rather was created by the Father.  This position denies the divinity of Christ, which is an unacceptable position for our faith.  If Christ is not divine, he has no power to save us, and we are still dead in our sins.  God forbid!

    Athanasius was also a great friend of the Blessed Virgin Mary. As much as he defended our Lord’s divinity, he exalted Mary for being the temple in which he resided. He wrote, “O noble Virgin, truly you are greater than any other greatness. For who is your equal in greatness, O dwelling place of God the Word? To whom among all creatures shall I compare you, O Virgin? You are greater than them all. O [Ark of the New] Covenant, clothed with purity instead of gold! You are the Ark in which is found the golden vessel containing the true manna, that is, the flesh in which divinity resides. Should I compare you to the fertile earth and its fruits? You surpass them, for it is written: “The earth is my footstool” (Isa. 66:1). But you carry within you the feet, the head, and the entire body of the perfect God.”

    Saint Athanasius so loved the Blessed Virgin that he composed this prayer to her:

    It is becoming for you, O Mary,
    to be mindful of us,
    as you stand near Him
    who bestowed upon you all graces,
    for you are the Mother of God and our Queen.
    Come to our aid for the sake of the King,
    the Lord God and Master who was born of you.
    For this reason you are called “full of grace.”
    Be mindful of us, most holy Virgin,
    and bestow on us gifts
    from the riches of your graces,
    O Virgin full of grace.

    We are grateful to Saint Athanasius for defending the faith so that we can celebrate it today, and for loving the Blessed Virgin, whom we crown today.

    Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

  • The Solemnity of the Annunciation

    The Solemnity of the Annunciation

    Today’s readings

    “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
    May it be done to me according to your word.”

    Today, we celebrate one of the most important feasts on the Church calendar. Without the Annunciation, there could never have been a Christmas. Without the Annunciation, there never could have been a Good Friday or an Easter. The faithfulness of Mary, especially as a very young girl, has to be an inspiration for our own life of faith. Mary had no roadmap or big-picture view of how this would come about, yet she is full of grace and so she is very firm in her fiat – her decision to exercise her faith: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”

    I should note here that this feast is on the Church calendar for March 25th, nine months to the day before the birth of Jesus. But because that fell during Holy Week this year, the feast still gets celebrated – it’s that important – but it gets pushed down the road a bit to the first day after the Easter Octave, today.

    We too are called to Mary’s of faith, because surely the glory of God is aching to be born in all of us. We are called to bring Christ’s presence to every corner of our world, every place where we are. The prospects of that can be scary, because we too don’t know what the implications of God’s work in us will be. We may be called upon to feed the hungry, or clothe the naked, or visit the sick, or shelter the homeless, or any of the other corporal works of mercy. But do we have the personal resources to do that? Maybe not, but we are called to be Christ in those situations anyway. We might respond as Mary did at first: “How can this be?” But ultimately, we are called to respond that we are the Lord’s handmaids and accept the call with great faith.

    Mary is our patron whenever we feel overwhelmed by the task. May we rely on her intercession to guide us through the dark pathways of the unknown. May we look to her for an example of faith. May we follow her great example and let the Lord be born in us too, so that our Incarnate Lord can be made manifest in our world yet again. May we, like Mary, cry out in faith, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”

    Pray for us, o holy Mother of God,
    that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

  • The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

    The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

    Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

    Tuesday, December 12, 2023

    Rev. Patrick M. Mulcahy

    It’s so important to our spiritual lives that we be willing to be interrupted by the holy.  If we just keep doing what we’re doing, and never take notice of what God is doing, we miss out on some pretty wonderful experiences.  The apparitions of our Blessed Mother are holy interruptions, experiences that call our attention to what God is doing.

    Appropriately enough, I think, we celebrate a second of Mary’s feasts in the space of just three days.  During Advent, we naturally turn our hearts in gratitude to Mary for her fiat that made possible our world’s salvation.  On Monday, we celebrated the Immaculate Conception of Mary; today we celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe.  We celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe in part because she is the patroness of all the Americas, and so once again, a special patron for us.

    A Native American author of the sixteenth century describes the story of our Lady of Guadalupe in today’s Office of Readings.  He tells us of a Native American named Juan Diego, who was on his way from his home to worship on the hill of Tepeyac.  There he heard someone calling to him from the top of the hill.  When he got to the top of the hill, he saw a woman whose clothing shone like the sun.  She told him that it was her desire that a church be erected on the hill so that all could worship her son Jesus.  She sent him to the local bishop to plead that cause.

    The bishop didn’t believe Juan Diego’s story and sent him away.  He returned to the hilltop to find the radiant Lady once again, and she told him to tell the bishop that she, the ever virgin Holy Mary, Mother of God, sent him.  Again the bishop did not believe, telling him that unless he had a miraculous sign, he would not believe the story.

    At that point Juan Diego’s uncle became quite ill.  Juan then set out for the local church to have a priest come to anoint his uncle.  He purposely took a route around the hill at Tepeyac to avoid seeing the Lady and being detained, since the need for a priest was urgent.  But of course, she met him at the side of the hill and spoke to him again.  She assured him that his uncle had already been cured and sent him up the hilltop to find flowers of various kinds.  He got to the top of the hill to find many Castilian roses growing there, which was odd for that time of the winter.  He cut them and carried them down the hill in his tilma, a kind of mantle that he wore for warmth.  She sent him to the bishop bearing the miraculous flowers as proof.

    He went confidently to the bishop and informed him that the Lady had fulfilled his request for a sign.  He opened up his tilma, the flowers fell to the ground, but the great miracle was that the inside of the tilma revealed the image of our Blessed Mother, in the same manner as Juan had seen her on the hill.   The bishop built the church, and devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe, as she had referred to herself, has grown ever since.  You can still see the tilma, still bearing the image of Mary, at the shrine in Guadalupe today.  That’s another miracle, since it should have deteriorated all these centuries later.

    During Advent we are blessed to have the saints interrupt us with the holy, pointing the way to Jesus.  None of them does this more faithfully than his very own mother, and so we are blessed to celebrate her feast today.  May Mary our mother and the mother of God, lead us one day to her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

    Pray for us, O holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.  Amen.