"O Mary, Conceived Without Sin, Pray For Us "

"O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us, who have recourse to thee."

"O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, did prepare a worthy dwelling place for Your Son, we beseech You that, as by the forseen death of this, Your Son, You did preserve Her from all stain, so too You would permit us, purified by Her intercession, to come unto You.

Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen. "

The Doctrine

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Christianity, Islam and Mary

I just read an interesting article about the historical relationship between Islam and Christianity, by Barbara Kralis . She included an article by the late Archbishop Sheen on the Moslem devotion to Mary:

....Today (1950), the hatred of the Moslem countries against the West is becoming hatred against Christianity itself. Although the statesmen have not yet taken it into account, there is still grave danger that the temporal power of Islam may return and, with it, the menace that it may shake off a West which has ceased to be Christian, and affirm itself as a great anti-Christian world Power.

It is our firm belief that the fears some entertain concerning the Moslems are not to be realized, but that Moslemism, instead, will eventually be converted to Christianity — and in a way that even some of our missionaries never suspect.

It is our belief that this will happen not through the direct teaching of Christianity, but through a summoning of the Moslems to a veneration of the Mother of God.....

During a visit to Lebanon as a Christian pilgrim in Feb. 2006, we visited (their)Cana. From the hillside we could see the shepherds and their flocks in the valley, and in the far distance, an unobstructed view of Israel. The site we visited is believed by those living there to have been the site of Jesus' first miracle, and was maintained as a little park with a path to a shrine of Mary - a cave with a statue of Our Lady of Fatima. As I recall , there were also some carvings in rock that were meant to depict the Apostles. While we were there, several cars bearing Moslem pilgrims arrived to pray at the shrine. It was quite remarkable.

I wonder whether Archbishop Sheen's hope that the Moslems may be converted through their veneration of Mary will be fulfilled before or after Christians are reconciled amongst themselves . In rejecting as insignificant Jesus' Mother, whom he offered to us from the cross, some Christians have separated themselves from Christ himself in a particular way that the Moslems have not. Whom shall Christ bring home first - those who implore the help of his beloved Mother, or those who do not?

"Our Lady Of Guadalupe"

Last year our parish, St. Ignatius (Cayman Islands), received from Mexico a life-sized replica of the Tilma. It was blessed in Mexico City and hangs on the wall of our church near the front, where it is visible from almost every pew. After each Mass he attends, my seven-yr. old goes over to the picture (by himself) and 'visits' with Our Lady, thanking her for her wonderful 'Yes!'.

Every time I look at this image, I am reminded that we are not alone in our struggles to 'save the unborn'.

EWTN has some great information on the history of Juan Diego, the Tilma, and the Feast of Our Lady of Gualdalupe - December 12.

...let us call upon MARY with confidence. She is an "incomparable model of how life should be welcomed and cared for... Showing us her Son, she assures us that in Him the forces of death have already been defeated" (John Paul II)

The Blue Movement

from Facebook (with over 3500 attending!?)

My youth group leader was giving a talk one night and he said, "There are over a billion Catholics in the world. If Catholics decided to wear the color blue tomorrow, everyone would be like...Blue is a cool color." And that made me have this crazy idea.... What if all of us Catholics actually did that? So I decided in honor of our mother Mary, on December 8th, which is The Feast of The Immaculate Conception, we will all wear the color light blue. Please help me accomplish this goal! Invite all your Catholic friends! Even if you are not Catholic and you want to honor Mary...that's cool too. Join us in this movement and be a witness to the world!


"If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world on fire. Let the truth be your delight...proclaim it...but with a certain congeniality."
-- Saint Catherine of Siena

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is December 8.

Here's what the Compendium has to say about the Immaculate Conception:

96. What does the “Immaculate Conception” mean?

God freely chose Mary from all eternity to be the Mother of his Son. In order to carry out her mission she herself was conceived immaculate. This means that, thanks to the grace of God and in anticipation of the merits of Jesus Christ, Mary was preserved from original sin from the first instant of her conception.

And here's what the Catechism has to say:

491 Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, "full of grace" through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854:

The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.

492 The "splendour of an entirely unique holiness" by which Mary is "enriched from the first instant of her conception" comes wholly from Christ: she is "redeemed, in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son". The Father blessed Mary more than any other created person "in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" and chose her "in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him in love".

493 The Fathers of the Eastern tradition call the Mother of God "the All-Holy" (Panagia), and celebrate her as "free from any stain of sin, as though fashioned by the Holy Spirit and formed as a new creature". By the grace of God Mary remained free of every personal sin her whole life long.
(thanks to Jimmy Akin)

In The 'Mary' Month of May

Joseph Pronechen has posted a 'Marian Review' at National Catholic Register:

"It’s not for nothing that Mother’s Day is a May event, for May is the very Month of Mary. There are Mary statues to be crowned, Mary gardens to tend, and Marian prayers to send up seeking the Blessed Mother’s intercession under a multitude of titles.

With that last thought in mind, the Register put out the call to some Catholics familiar to its readers. We wanted to know: What is your favorite title for Mary, and why? Here’s what we heard back..."