Our Lady of the Rosary Mass Introduction

Mass Introduction - Fr. Brendan

Fra_Bartolomeo_02_Vision_of_St_Bernard_
with_Sts_Benedict_and_John_the_Evangelist

 ----- Forwarded Message -----

From: Fr. Brendan.......

Sent: Wednesday, 7 October 2015, 11:40

Subject: Fw: Our Lady of the Rosary 2015

On Tuesday, 6 October 2015, 18:35, Fr. Brendan........ wrote:

27 Wed 7 Oct 2015

Lord, teach us how to pray.

Our Lady of the Rosary 

Sister Margaret was explaining the rosary to a Protestant girl.

   Isabel asks, “How can prayers said over and over again like that be of any good?”

   Sister Margaret answered.

“I saw young Mrs Martin last week with her little girl in her lap. She had her arms around her mother’s neck, and was being rocked to and fro. Every time she rocked she said, ‘Oh, me mum’ ”.

   To say, Hail Mary, Hail Mary,’ is the best way of telling her how much we love her. And, then this string of beads is like our Lady’s girdle, and then we say our ‘Our Fathers’ too, and all the while we are talking, she is showing us pictures of her dear Child, one by one, and then we turn the page and begin again.”  (Mgr. Hugh Benson)

 

Father, fill my heart with your love that all my actions may be pleasing to you. Help me to be kind and forgiving towards my neighbour as you have been towards me, through Christ our Lord.

 

The grotto of the Marian apparition
in Tre Fontane Rome Italy

   

THE BIRTH OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

Saint Augustine described the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary as an event of cosmic and historic significance, and an appropriate prelude to the birth of Jesus Christ. “She is the flower of the field from whom bloomed the precious lily of the valley,” he said. 
 Fw: Birthday of Mary 8 September nine months to 8 December

Sancta Maria Abbey: http://www.nunraw.com.uk (Website)     Blogspot :http://www.nunraw.blogspot.co.uk, Doneword :http://www.donewill.blogspot.co.uk    |domdonald.org.uk,   Emails: nunrawdonald@yahoo.com, nunrawdonald@gmail.com

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Sent: Monday, 7 September 2015, 22:12
Subject: Birthday of Mary 8 September nine months 8 December

Again to transfer to Blogspot..
 

 
Sent from my iPad.      

THE BIRTH OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 08, 2015

The Catholic Church celebrates today the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary on its traditional fixed date of September 8, nine months after the December 8 celebration of her Immaculate Conception as the child of Saints Joachim and Anne.

The circumstances of the Virgin Mary's infancy and early life are not directly recorded in the Bible, but other documents and traditions describing the circumstances of her birth are cited by some of the earliest Christian writers from the first centuries of the Church.

These accounts, although not considered authoritative in the same manner as the Bible, outline some of the Church's traditional beliefs about the birth of Mary.

The “Protoevangelium of James,” which was probably put into its final written form in the early second century, describes Mary's father Joachim as a wealthy member of one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Joachim was deeply grieved, along with his wife Anne, by their childlessness. “He called to mind Abraham,” the early Christian writing says, “that in the last day God gave him a son Isaac.”

Joachim and Anne began to devote themselves extensively and rigorously to prayer and fasting, initially wondering whether their inability to conceive a child might signify God's displeasure with them.

As it turned out, however, the couple were to be blessed even more abundantly than Abraham and Sarah, as an angel revealed to Anne when he appeared to her and prophesied that all generations would honor their future child: “The Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive, and shall bring forth, and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world.”

After Mary's birth, according to the Protoevangelium of James, Anne “made a sanctuary” in the infant girl's room, and “allowed nothing common or unclean” on account of the special holiness of the child. The same writing records that when she was one year old, her father “made a great feast, and invited the priests, and the scribes, and the elders, and all the people of Israel.”

“And Joachim brought the child to the priests,” the account continues, “and they blessed her, saying: 'O God of our fathers, bless this child, and give her an everlasting name to be named in all generations' . . . And he brought her to the chief priests, and they blessed her, saying: 'O God most high, look upon this child, and bless her with the utmost blessing, which shall be for ever.'”

The protoevangelium goes on to describe how Mary's parents, along with the temple priests, subsequently decided that she would be offered to God as a consecrated Virgin for the rest of her life, and enter a chaste marriage with the carpenter Joseph.

Saint Augustine described the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary as an event of cosmic and historic significance, and an appropriate prelude to the birth of Jesus Christ. “She is the flower of the field from whom bloomed the precious lily of the valley,” he said. 

The fourth-century bishop, whose theology profoundly shaped the Western Church's understanding of sin and human nature, affirmed that “through her birth, the nature inherited from our first parents is changed." 

The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Fr. Raymond

Sunday, 15 August 2015

Homily by Fr. Raymond

MASS

The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Saturday, 15 August 2015

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Solemnity

The Bodily Assumption of Mary into Heaven

By Fr. Raymond

The Bodily Assumption of Mary into Heaven is one of the three great personal privileges of Mary: The Immaculate Conception; the Divine Motherhood and the Assumption.  The Immaculate Conception prepared Mary for her Divine Motherhood and her Assumption into Heaven was a consequence of it. This connection between the Divine Motherhood and the Assumption can perhaps be best understood if we think of the debt any man owes to his Mother. It is a debt that can never be repaid. Our Mothers gave us our very life and existence. They formed us in their wombs; the nursed us at their breasts. ‘No man can pay the price of his life’ as the psalmist reminds us. The best we can do to repay our Mothers for the gift of life is for us to love and honour and respect them, and of course to care for them in their old age.

But things are not so between Mary and the Divine Son she bore. He was Almighty God and was well able to make a fitting recompense to his Mother for giving him his body of flesh. He repaid this debt of gratitude by taking her own body of flesh and blood and preserving it from the corruption of the grave and assuming her, in her bodily entirety, into heaven just as he himself had been at his Ascension. Nor is this just something personal to Mary. We must wait, of course, till the last day for our bodily assumption into heaven, but Mary’s bodily assumption, like the ascension of Christ himself,  gives us already a kind of pledge and guarantee of the ultimate destiny of our own body of flesh and blood. Christ, the New Adam, has entered the New Paradise, of which the Old Paradise was just a foreshadowing, and Mary, the New Eve, has been given to him as his first companion in the fullness of her humanity.

     When the doctrine of the Assumption was first defined, our separated brethren asked, “Where is this in Scripture? We can’t believe what is not in Scripture”. But we can answer that this wonderful event is well prepared for in Holy Scripture. The mind of faith is prepared for it by such events as the lifting up of Elijah from this earth in the fiery chariot. We are prepared for it by the disappearance from this earth of the bodies of Enoch and Moses for example.  But by far the most important foreshadowing of Mary’s Assumption takes place in the very first chapters of Genesis where it is said of the first Adam: “It is not good for Man to be alone”. There were plenty of other living creatures around, but none “like unto himself” to share his life with him on a fully human level. So too surely it must be with the New Adam in the new Paradise. There are plenty of angels and spirits of the just there too but, for the fullness and perfection of all beauty and truth, he needs one by his side who can share his life in the fullness of his glorified humanity, body as well as spirit. Yes even for the New Adam in the New Paradise “It is not good for Man to be alone”.

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THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
Solemnity

        In this festival the Church commemorates the happy departure from life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and her translation into the kingdom of her Son, in which she received from Him a crown of immortal glory, and a throne above all the other Saints and heavenly spirits.

        After Christ, as the triumphant Conqueror of death and hell, ascended into heaven, his blessed Mother remained at Jerusalem, persevering in prayer with the disciples, till, with them, she had received the Holy Spirit. She lived to a very advanced age, but finally paid the common debt of nature, none among the children of Adam being exempt from that rigorous law. But the death of the Saints is rather to be called a sweet sleep than death; much more that of the Queen of Saints, who had been exempt from all sin. It is a traditionary pious belief, that the body of the Blessed Virgin was raised by God soon after her death, and taken up to glory, by a singular privilege, before the general resurrection of the dead.

        The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the greatest of all the festivals which the Church celebrates in her honor. It is the consummation of all the other great mysteries by which her life was rendered most wonderful; it is the birthday of her true greatness and glory, and the crowning of all the virtues of her whole life, which we admire single in her other festivals.

Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]

Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary 22 Aug 1954 Foundation Stone

Ordinary Time: August 22nd

Feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary

http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2014-08-22 

Daily Readings for:August 22, 2014
(Readings on USCCB website)

Collect: O God, who made the Mother of your Son to be our Mother and our Queen, graciously grant that, sustained by her intercession, we may attain in the heavenly Kingdom the glory promised to your children. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

RECIPES

• Crown Cake
• Fruit Salad
• Nameday Sugar Cookies

ACTIVITIES

• Celebrating the Feasts of the Blessed Virgin
• Feasts of Mary in the Family
• Feasts of Our Lady in the Home
• Marian Hymn: ’Tis Said of Our Dear Lady
• Marian Hymn: A Single Branch Three Roses Bore
• Marian Hymn: Ave Maria Dear
• Marian Hymn: Beautiful, Glorious
• Marian Hymn: Salve Regina
• Marian Hymn: Stella Matutina
• Marian Hymn: Virgin Blessed, Thou Star the Fairest
• Mary Garden

PRAYERS

• Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Litany of Loretto)
• The Crown of Twelve Stars Chaplet
• Table Blessing for the Feasts of the Mother of God
• Hail, Holy Queen (Salve, Regina)
• Prayer to Our Lady, Queen of Heaven

LIBRARY

• Ad Caeli Reginam (On Proclaiming The Queenship Of Mary) | Pope Pius XII
• On the Queenship of Mary | Pope Benedict XVI
• Queen of Heaven: Pagan Divinity or Royal Mother of the Messiah? | Mark Brumley

» Enjoy our Liturgical Seasons series of e-books!

Old Calendar: Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary; Sts. Timothy, Hippolytus & Symphorian, martyrs

The faithful, under the guidance of an unerring Catholic instinct, have ever recognized the queenly dignity of the Mother of "The King of kings and Lord of lords": the Fathers, the Doctors of the Church, Popes, down through the centuries, have given authoritative expression to this truth and the crowning testimony to this common belief is to be found clearly expressed in the wonders of art and in the profound teaching of the liturgy. In their turn theologians have shown the fitting nature of this title of Queen as applied to the Mother of God, since she was so closely associated with the redemptive work of her Son and is the Mediatrix of all graces. Pius XII, by his encyclical letter of October 11, 1954, granted the unanimous desire of the faithful and their pastors and instituted the feast of the Queenship of Mary, giving sanction thus to a devotion that was already paid by the faithful throughout the world to the sovereign Mother of heaven and earth.

According to the 1962 Missal of St. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary which is celebrated in the Ordinary Rite on the Saturday following the Second Sunday after Pentecost.

It is also the commemoration of Sts. Timothy, Hippolytus and Symphorian. St. Timothy is a Roman martyr put to death in 303 or 306 during the last persecution. His body lies at St. Paul's-Outside-the-Walls, near that of the great Apostle. The history of St. Hippolytus, martyred at Ostia, near Rome, remains extremely obscure; it is probably in error that he is called bishop of Porto. St. Symphorian was a martyr of Autun, put to death while still a young man in the second or third century. He is one of the great saints of Gaul and several churches were built in his honor. His Acts appear to be genuine.

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Queenship of Mary
With the certainty of faith we know that Jesus Christ is king in the full, literal, and absolute sense of the word; for He is true God and man. This does not, however, prevent Mary from sharing His royal prerogatives, though in a limited and analogous manner; for she was the Mother of Christ, and Christ is God; and she shared in the work of the divine Redeemer, in His struggles against enemies and in the triumph He won over them all. From this union with Christ the King she assuredly obtains so eminent a status that she stands high above all created things; and upon this same union with Christ is based that royal privilege enabling her to distribute the treasures of the kingdom of the divine Redeemer. And lastly, this same union with Christ is the fountain of the inexhaustible efficacy of her motherly intercession in the presence of the Son and of the Father.

Without doubt, then, does our holy Virgin possess a dignity that far transcends all other creatures. In the eyes of her Son she takes precedence over everyone else. In order to help us understand the preeminence that the Mother of God enjoys over all creation, it would help to remember that from the first moment of her conception the holy Virgin was filled with such a plenitude of grace as to surpass the graces enhancing all the saints. Recall what our predecessor Pius IX, of blessed memory, wrote in his Bull Ineflabilis Deus: "More than all the angels and all the saints has God ineffable freely endowed Mary with the fullness of the heavenly gifts that abound in the divine treasury; and she, preserving herself ever immaculately clean from the slightest taint of sin, attained a fullness of innocence and holiness so great as to be unthinkable apart from God Himself, a fullness that no one other than God will ever possess."

Spurred on by piety and faith, may we glory in being subject to the rule of the Virgin Mother of God; she bears the royal sceptre in her hand, while her heart is ever aflame with motherlove.

Excerpted from Ad Caeli Reginam, Pius XII

  http://www.ibreviary.com/m/breviario.php?s=ufficio_delle_letture                                                                         
SECOND READING

From a homily by Saint Amadeus of Lausanne, bishop
(Hom. 7: SC 72, 188, 190, 192, 200)

Queen of the world and of peace

Observe how fitting it was that even before her assumption the name of Mary shone forth wondrously throughout the world. Her fame spread everywhere even before she was raised above the heavens in her magnificence. Because of the honor due her Son, it was indeed fitting for the Virgin Mother to have first ruled upon earth and then be raised up to heaven in glory. It was fitting that her fame be spread in this world below, so that she might enter the heights of heaven on overwhelming blessedness. Just as she was borne from virtue to virtue by the Spirit of the Lord, she was transported from earthly renown to heavenly brightness.      

Patroness Solemnity of the Cistercian Order August 15th 2014

August 15
Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary

On November 1, 1950, Pius XII defined the Assumption of Mary to be a dogma of faith: “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 to heavenly glory.” The pope proclaimed this dogma only after a broad consultation of bishops, theologians and laity. There were few dissenting voices. What the pope solemnly declared was already a common belief in the Catholic Church.
We find homilies on the Assumption going back to the sixth century. In following centuries the Eastern Churches held steadily to the doctrine, but some authors in the West were hesitant. However, by the 13th century there was universal agreement. The feast was celebrated under various names (Commemoration, Dormition, Passing, Assumption) from at least the fifth or sixth century. Today it is celebrated as a solemnity.
Scripture does not give an account of Mary’s Assumption into heaven. Nevertheless, Revelation 12 speaks of a woman who is caught up in the battle between good and evil. Many see this woman as God’s people. Since Mary best embodies the people of both Old and New Testament, her Assumption can be seen as an exemplification of the woman’s victory.
Furthermore, in 1 Corinthians 15:20 Paul speaks of Christ’s resurrection as thefirstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Since Mary is closely associated with all the mysteries of Jesus’ life, it is not surprising that the Holy Spirit has led the Church to belief in Mary’s share in his glorification. So close was she to Jesus on earth, she must be with him body and soul in heaven.

Comment:

In the light of the Assumption of Mary, it is easy to pray her Magnificat (Luke 1:46–55) with new meaning. In her glory she proclaims the greatness of the Lord and finds joy in God her savior. God has done marvels to her and she leads others to recognize God’s holiness. She is the lowly handmaid who deeply reverenced her God and has been raised to the heights. From her position of strength she will help the lowly and the poor find justice on earth, and she will challenge the rich and powerful to distrust wealth and power as a source of happiness.

Quote:

“In the bodily and spiritual glory which she possesses in heaven, the Mother of Jesus continues in this present world as the image and first flowering of the Church as she is to be perfected in the world to come. Likewise, Mary shines forth on earth, until the day of the Lord shall come (cf. 2 Peter 3:10), as a sign of certain hope and comfort for the pilgrim People of God” (Vatican II, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, 68).

FRIDAY, AUGUST 15, 2014 Saint of the Day for 8/14/2014 Saint of the Day for 8/16/2014

Blessed Virgin Mary, Saturday memorial. St. Aelred of Rievaulx

Night Office Reading, 
Saturday memorials of the Blessed Virgin Mary

 

Virgin of Kazan
Valamo monastery

       
  The memorial is a remembrance of the maternal example and discipleship of the Blessed Virgin Mary who, strengthened by faith and hope, on that great Saturday on which Our Lord lay in the tomb, was the only one of the disciples to hold vigil in expectation of the Lord’s resurrection; it is a prelude and introduction to the celebration of Sunday, the weekly memorial of the Resurrection of Christ; and it is a sign that the “Virgin Mary is continuously present and operative in the life of the Church”.On Saturdays in Ordinary Time when there is no obligatory memorial, an optional memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary is allowed.

Alternative           Sermon 20    (Breviary)

A reading from the sermons of  St. Aelred of Rievaulx

Mary, our Mother

Let us come to his. bride, let us come to his - mother, let us come to the best of his handmaidens. All of these descriptions fit Blessed Mary.

But what are we to do for her.? What sort of gifts shall we offer her? O that we might at least repay to her the debt we owe her ! We owe her honour, we owe her devotion, we owe her love, we owe her praise. We owe her honour because she is the Mother of our Lord. He, who does not honour the mother, will without doubt dishonour the son. Besides, scripture says: 'Honour your- father and your mother.'

What then shall we say, brethren? Is she not our mother? Certainly, brethren, she is in truth our mother. Through her we are born, not to the world but to God.

We all, as you believe and know, were in death, in the infirmity of old age, in darkness, in misery. In death because we had lost the Lord; in the infirmity of old age, because we were in corruption; in darkness because we had lost the light of wisdom, and so we -had altogether perished.

But through Blessed Mary we all underwent a much better .birth than through Eve, inasmuch as Christ was born of Mary. Instead of the infirmity of age we have regained youth, instead of corruption incorruption, instead of darkness light.

She is our mother, mother of our life, of our incorruption, of our light. The Apostle says of our Lord, ‘Whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification and redemption.

She therefore who. -is the mother of Christ is the mother of our wisdom, mother of our righteousness, mother of our sanctification, mother of our redemption. Therefore she is more our mother than the mother of our flesh. Better therefore is our birth which we derive from Mary, for from her is our holiness, our wisdom; our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption.

Scripture says, 'Praise the Lord in his saints'. If our Lord is to be praised in those saints through whom he performs mighty works and miracles, how much more should he be praised in her in whom he fashioned himself, he who is wonderful beyond all wonder.

RESPONSORY

R/ Blessed is the holy Virgin Mary, and most worthy of all praise; * through her has risen the Sun of, Justice, Christ our God, by whom we are saved and redeemed.

V/ Let us joyfully celebrate this feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary.* Through her has risen ...

Francis Thompson - The Passion of Mary. Saturday Mass

8th February 2014

Saturday Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Communion Hymn riveted my thoughts, and I re-read the poetry again. 
Only at the top, I glanced to the name of the composer. 
The life of Francis Thompson comes alight again.

Francis Thompson poem  The Passion of Mary

Oh Lady Mary, thy bright crown
Is no mere crown of majesty;
For with the reflex of His own
Resplendent thorns Christ circled thee.

                * * *

The red rose of this Passion-tide
Doth take a deeper hue from thee,
In the five wounds of Jesus dyed,
And in thy bleeding thoughts, Mary!

                  * * *

The soldier struck a triple stroke,
That smote thy Jesus on the tree:
He broke the Heart of Hearts, and broke
The Saint's and Mother's hearts in thee.

                     * * *

Thy Son went up the angels' ways,
His passion ended; but, ah me!
Thou found'st the road of further days
A longer way of Calvary:

                     * * *

On the hard cross of hope deferred
Thou hung'st in loving agony,
Until the mortal-dreaded word
Which chills our mirth, spake mirth to thee.

                        * * *

The angel Death from this cold tomb
Of life did roll the stone away;
And He thou barest in thy womb
Caught thee at last into the day,
Before the living throne of Whom
The Lights of Heaven burning pray.

                           * * *

Francis Thompson:

(author of 'The Hound of Heaven')

In February 1887, Wilfrid Meynell, the editor of Merry England a Catholic literary monthly magazine, received some untidy manuscripts, accompanied by the following covering letter: "In enclosing the accompanying article for your inspection, I must ask pardon for the soiled state of the manuscript. It is due, not to slovenliness, but to the strange places and circumstances under which it has been written".

Meynell must have wondered what sort of a man wrote the enclosed contents, including the moving poem, "The Passion of Mary". What were the "strange places and circumstances" under which these were written? All attempts to trace the author failed, until Thompson noticed one of his poems had been published in Merry England. Meynell's hope that the author would, in response to the publication, reveal himself, proved successful. One day in the spring of 1888, a man in his early 30s in ragged clothes and broken shoes and looking aged and ill - largely due to his drug addiction - presented himself at Meynell's office and introduced himself as Francis Thompson. (ad2000.com)   

Hound of Heaven at heals

Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Paul VI, « Gaudete in Domino »

Thursday, 21 November 2013. Thirty-third week in Ordinary Time

Feast of the Church : Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Commentary of the day : 

Paul VI, Pope from 1963-1978 

Apostolic Exhortation on Christian joy « Gaudete in Domino » (trans. Libreria Vaticana editrice) 

"Now it is hidden from your eyes"

No holy city here below constitutes this goal. This goal is hidden beyond this world, in the heart of God's mystery which is still invisible to us. For it is in faith that we journey, not in clear vision, and what we shall be has not yet been manifested. The New Jerusalem of which we are already citizens and sons and daughters, comes down from above, from God. Of this only lasting city we have not yet contemplated the splendour, except as in a mirror and in a confused way, by holding fast to the prophetic word. But already we are its citizens, or we are invited to become so; every spiritual pilgrimage receives its interior meaning from this ultimate destination. 

And so it was with the Jerusalem praised by the psalmists. Jesus Himself and Mary His Mother sang on earth as they went up to Jerusalem the canticles of Zion: "perfection of beauty," "joy to the whole world."(72) But henceforth it is from Christ that the Jerusalem above receives its attraction, and it is towards Him that we are making our inner journey. 

(Biblical references : 1Jn 3,2; Ga 4,26; Rv 21,2; 1Co 13,12; Ps 49[48],2; Ps 47[46],3)

 

Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Wednesday, 21 November 2012

My Blog SEARCH seems misfired and, therfore, no NEWS of the Presentation of Our Lady.
We have the DGO Post, with thanks.

Wednesday, 21 November 2012 Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
THE PRESENTATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY         Religious parents never fail by devout prayer to consecrate their children to the divine service and love, both before and after their birth. Some amongst the Jews, not content with this general consecration of their children, offered them to God in their infancy, by the hands of the priests in the Temple, to be lodged in apartments belonging to the Temple, and brought up in attending the priests and Levites in the sacred ministry.         It is an ancient tradition that the Blessed Virgin Mary was thus solemnly offered to God in the Temple in her infancy. This festival of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin the Church celebrates this day.         The tender soul of Mary was then adorned with the most precious graces, an object of astonishment and praise to the angels, and of the highest complacence to the adorable Trinity; the Father looking upon her as his beloved daughter, the Son as one chosen and prepared to become his mother, and the Holy Spirit as his darling spouse. Mary was the first who set up the standard of virginity; and, by consecrating it by a perpetual vow to our Lord, she opened the way to all virgins who have since followed her example. Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]  http://dailygospel.org/main.php?language=AM&module=saintfeast&localdate=20121121&id=143&fd=1

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Botticelli Virgin

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

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Thursday, 08 December 2011 -
Fr. Raymond Homily

----- Forwarded Message -----

From: Raymond . . .
To: Nivard . . .
Sent: Thursday, 8 December 2011, 9:42
Subject: Immaculate Conception

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION 2011

In the beginning God created this world as a beautiful garden. And then, as the climax of his work he created man. Male and female he created them; and he looked and saw that it was good - it was very good.  He took great pleasure in the wonderful work of his hands.

This teaching that comes to us from revelation gives us a picture of the human race as being the very climax of God’s creation – his masterpiece as it were; something in which he delights.­ Now if we want to injure someone in some way we can do it very effectively by harming someone in whom he delights; by spoiling something he holds most precious to himself.  This was the mentality of the jealous Satan when he tempted our first parents.  He was out to spoil God’s masterpiece.  And unfortunately he seemed to succeed in doing just that.  He made of us a fallen race.  From that time on, it would seem, God’s masterpiece, no matter how it might be restored, was always something that had been tarnished.  But God’s plans and purposes are not upset by anyone, not even by the one, who, since then, “has claimed power to sift us as wheat”.

God’s masterpiece was still destined to be found untarnished, pure and perfect and unsullied. And this was to be accomplished as we all know in the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. “Our tainted nature’s solitary boast” as the poet so beautifully put it.  Nor was this perfect creature of God’s fashioning merely a “restoration” of his handiwork.  No, the first Adam and Eve, The Adam and Eve of time, the Adam and Eve of nature, were long preceded in the mind of God by the Adam and Eve of Grace.  Before ever the world began, the Scriptures tell us they were decreed in the great plan of the Incarnation of the Word, the Wisdom of God.  This great plan and purpose of God was untouchable by any created power and it swept, and is still sweeping, down all the centuries of human history, advancing inexorably to it final conclusion.  A conclusion that is still to be consummated in the apocalyptic image of the pregnant woman, still threatened by the eternally-frustrated dragon, but standing eternally on the moon and clothed eternally with the sun.