When we think of the month of May, Mother’s Day stands out.
This is well deserved when we consider all the sacrifices, caring, and concern
that we associate with mothers. God gave mothers the strength and compassion
needed for their calling.
Jesus gave us many special gifts: He shared His Father with
us when he taught us to pray the Our Father, He sent his Holy Spirit to dwell
in us and guide us. Finally, on the cross, he shared with apostle John and us:
His own beloved Mother.
Through the centuries, devotion to Our Mother Mary has been
fostered through Icons (images of holy people) and apparitions (appearances) of
Mary in troubled times. Let us focus on some of the devotions in honor of Mary
the Mother of Jesus.
With Ukraine and Poland much in the news, let us study the
Icon: Our Lady of Czestochowa also referred to as the Black Madonna of
Czestochowa. The people of Ukraine and Poland have great devotion to Mary,
depicted in this Icon.
While there are many legends about the
origin and history of the Icon, what is most important is her message. The
image is of Mary holding the Child Jesus in her left arm. She directs attention
away from herself by pointing to Jesus with her right hand. The Child Jesus faces
the viewer and extends His right hand in blessing while holding a book of the
Gospels in His left hand. Mary is referred to as “One Who Shows
the Way.”
The Icon has been honored in many
ways: King John II Casimir Vasa proclaimed Our Lady Queen of Poland. Several
Popes have recognized the Icon including Pope Clement XI in 1717, Pope Pius X
in 1910, Pope John Paul II in 1978, Pope Benedict in 2006, and Pope Francis in
2016. In addition, Orthodox Christians in Ukraine and Belarus have a special
devotion to the Madonna of Czestochowa.
The Black Madonna Icon is now housed
in the Monastery of Jasna Gora (English: Bright Mount) in Poland. It is said to
have miraculously saved that monastery from a Swedish invasion in 1655.
In the United States, there are two
shrines: The National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa is located in
Doylestown, Pennsylvania. There is also a shrine in Garfield Heights in Ohio.
Through the centuries, Jesus has sent
His Mother to appear at difficult times to be a comfort to those who are
suffering. During an especially painful time in 1531, our Blessed Mother
appeared to Juan Diego, an Aztec convert to Christianity, on Tepeyac Hill, now
in a suburb of Mexico City. She asked that a shrine in her honor be built
there.
However, when Juan Diego brought her message to the bishop, he doubted the reality of the apparition. Therefore, he demanded a sign before he would build a church there. When Mother Mary appeared again, Juan Diego was upset because he could not convince the Bishop of the reality of his vision. Gently, she spoke these endearing words: "Hear me and understand well, my little son, that nothing should frighten or grieve you. Let not your heart be disturbed .... Am I not here who is your Mother? Are you not under my protection?" (Juan Diego was a grown man, the diminutive 'my little son' was an expression of affection).
Our Lady then
instructed Juan Diego to pick some roses on the top of the Hill and bring them
as a sign to the bishop. (It was December when that type of rose would not
normally bloom). Juan Diego carried them to the Bishop in his tilma, (poncho). When he opened the tilma, the roses
fell to the ground. Printed on the tilma was a picture of Our
Lady as she had appeared to Juan Diego.
The bishop fell to his knees and ordered the construction of the Shrine which
is visited daily even now and contains the tilma with the
imprint of the picture of Our Blessed Mother.
Our Lady of Guadalupe is credited with the ending of a deadly epidemic of
hemorrhagic fever which ravaged Mexico City from 1736 - 1737. Pope John Paul II
canonized Juan Diego and declared Our Lady of Guadalupe the patroness of the
Americas.
Might she not help us in the deadly
pandemic which we are experiencing now? Let us pray to her who is our Mother
too.
On
March 27, 2022, Pope Francis made the following Act of
Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on behalf of our
world, especially Russia and Ukraine, asking for an end to the war and peace in
our World.
ACT OF
CONSECRATION TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
O Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, in this time of trial
we turn to you. As our Mother, you love us and know us: no concern of our
hearts is hidden from you. Mother of mercy, how often we have experienced
your watchful care and your peaceful presence! You never cease to guide us to
Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
Yet we have strayed from that path of peace. We have
forgotten the lesson learned from the tragedies of the last century, the
sacrifice of the millions who fell in two world wars. We have disregarded
the commitments we made as a community of nations. We have betrayed peoples’
dreams of peace and the hopes of the young. We grew sick with
greed, we thought only of our own nations and their interests, we grew
indifferent and caught up in our selfish needs and concerns. We chose to ignore
God, to be satisfied with our illusions, to grow arrogant and aggressive, to
suppress innocent lives, and to stockpile weapons. We stopped being our
neighbor’s keepers and stewards of our common home. We have ravaged the
garden of the earth with war and by our sins, we have broken the heart of our
heavenly Father, who desires us to be brothers and sisters. We grew
indifferent to everyone and everything except ourselves. Now with shame,
we cry out: Forgive us, Lord!
Holy Mother, amid the misery of our sinfulness, amid our
struggles and weaknesses, amid the mystery of iniquity that is evil and war,
you remind us that God never abandons us, but continues to look upon us with
love, ever ready to forgive us and raise us up to new life. He has given you to
us and made your Immaculate Heart a refuge for the Church and for all humanity.
By God’s gracious will, you are ever with us; even in the most troubled moments
of our history, you are there to guide us with tender love.
We now turn to you and knock at the door of your heart. We
are your beloved children. At every age you make yourself known to us,
calling us to conversion. At this dark hour, help us and grant us your
comfort. Say to us once more: “Am I not here, I who am your
Mother?” You are able to untie the knots of our hearts and of our times.
In you, we place our trust. We are confident that, especially in moments of
trial, you will not be deaf to our supplication and will come to our aid.
That is what you did at Cana in Galilee when you interceded
with Jesus and he worked the first of his signs. To preserve the joy of the
wedding feast, you said to him: “They have no wine” (Jn 2:3). Now,
O Mother, repeat those words and that prayer, for in our own day we have run
out of the wine of hope, joy has fled, the fraternity has faded. We have
forgotten our humanity and squandered the gift of peace. We opened our
hearts to violence and destructiveness. How greatly we need your maternal
help!
Therefore, O Mother, hear our prayer.
Star of the Sea, do not let us be shipwrecked in the
tempest of war.
Ark of the New Covenant, inspire projects and paths of reconciliation.
Queen of Heaven, restore God’s peace to the world.
Eliminate hatred and the thirst for revenge, and teach us forgiveness.
Free us from war, and protect our world from the menace of nuclear weapons.
Queen of the Rosary, make us realize our need to pray and to love.
Queen of the Human Family, show people the path of fraternity.
Queen of Peace, obtain peace for our world.
O Mother, may your sorrowful plea stir our hardened hearts.
May the tears you shed for us make this valley parched by our hatred blossom
anew. Amid the thunder of weapons, may your prayer turn our thoughts to peace.
May your maternal touch soothe those who suffer and flee from the rain of
bombs. May your motherly embrace comfort those forced to leave their homes and
their native land. May your Sorrowful Heart move us to compassion and inspire
us to open our doors and to care for our brothers and sisters who are injured
and cast aside.
Holy Mother of God, as you stood beneath the cross, Jesus,
seeing the disciple at your side, said: “Behold your son” (Jn 19:26). In
this way, he entrusted each of us to you. To the disciple, and to each of us,
he said: “Behold, your Mother” (v. 27). Mother Mary, we now desire to
welcome you into our lives and our history. At this hour, weary and
distraught humanity stands with you beneath the cross, needing to entrust
itself to you and, through you, to consecrate itself to Christ. The people of
Ukraine and Russia, who venerate you with great love, now turn to you, even as
your heart beats with compassion for them and for all those peoples decimated
by war, hunger, injustice, and poverty.
Therefore, Mother of God and our Mother, to your Immaculate
Heart we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, the Church, and all
humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine. Accept this act that we carry out
with confidence and love. Grant that war may end and peace spread throughout
the world. The “Fiat” that arose from your heart opened the doors of history to
the Prince of Peace. We trust that, through your heart, peace will dawn
once more. To you, we consecrate the future of the whole human family, the
needs and expectations of every people, the anxieties and hopes of the world.
Through your intercession, may God’s mercy be poured out on
the earth and the gentle rhythm of peace return to mark our days. Our Lady of
the “Fiat”, on whom the Holy Spirit descended, restore among us the harmony
that comes from God. May you, our “living fountain of hope”, water the dryness
of our hearts. In your womb Jesus took flesh; help us to foster the growth of
communion. You once trod the streets of our world; lead us now on the paths of
peace. Amen.
Blessings
to all mothers, grandmothers, godmothers,
and
all those who provide motherly care.
Comments:
Stephanie Morris, ASBS,
Ph.D. Historian, Certified archivist, emerita
Queen
of Peace, obtain peace for our world. From Pope Francis’ “Act of
Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
From the cross, Jesus gave His Mother to be the mother of
John the Apostle, and John (on our behalf) to be her child. Confident of this,
in 1883, Kate (St. Katharine Drexel)asked the Blessed Mother to be her mother
after the death of Emma Bouvier Drexel.
St. Katharine urged all to “go to Mary as their Mother.”
She also prayed the Rosary for all involved in armed conflicts. St. Katharine
urged all to meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary. Perhaps our meditation
on the Sorrowful Mysteries could include some of our current
concerns.
The Agony in the Garden: Pray for those anxious
about where they will go, will sleep if they will ever return to Ukraine.
The Scourging at the Pillar: Pray
for those in areas under attack.
The Crowning with Thorns: Pray for those wearing
a mantle of leadership, deliberating on steps to stop the aggression and aid
the afflicted.
The Carrying of the Cross: Our Lord fell and
needed help. Pray for those injured that they find support in Our Lord’s wounds
and from the help of others.
The Crucifixion: Pray for those killed
or injured in this conflict and in our cities.
Our Lady, Queen of peace, bring peace and justice to the
whole world.
Pat Chiaffa, ASBS
Thank you for including Pope Francis’
Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the blog. It is such a
beautiful appeal to Our Mother Mary on our behalf. That Consecration will serve
as my Examen of heart and consciousness as I reflect on the daily contributions
I make toward peace or toward disharmony.
I pray for peace yet so many times my
thoughts reveal deep inner unrest. I recognize that I have strayed from the
path of peace that Jesus desires. The more I hear of violence and destruction,
the louder I hear the voice of fear. Fear makes for misery and I go about my
day feeling broken-hearted, wanting to withdraw and grieve what once was. I am
reminded by the Act of Consecration to Mary’s Immaculate Heart that it is my
responsibility to seek the Presence of God in the midst of suffering humanity,
to step out in faith, and to embody peace and love I want to see in the world.
If I can uplift but one person today, I have acted as an agent of change.
I turn to Mother Mary with the heart
of a humbled daughter, seeking forgiveness and asking for her powerful intercession
with Jesus for all the times I have chosen to ignore Him and be satisfied with
my illusions, for the times I have not respected the garden of the earth, and
for those times I chose indifference to others over my own selfish
interests.
I close with the sentiments of Pope
Francis. Mother Mary, through your intercession, “may God’s mercy be poured out
on the earth and the gentle rhythm of peace return to mark our days… May you,
our ‘living fountain of hope,’ water the dryness of our hearts…You once trod
the streets of our world; lead us now on the paths of peace.”
May we receive the
tender motherly love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary into our hearts this day
and share it with all those we encounter.
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