“Behold your Mother!”

Pope Francis rang in the New Year by celebrating Mass for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. He reminds us that we, the faithful, follow the path of faith that Mary took and that she walks with us on our pilgrimage, helping us and encouraging us with her tender maternal affection.

Homily of Pope Francis
Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
1 January 2014

In the first reading we find the ancient prayer of blessing which God gave to Moses to hand on to Aaron and his sons: “The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace” (Num 6:24-26). There is no more meaningful time than the beginning of a new year to hear these words of blessing: they will accompany our journey through the year opening up before us. They are words of strength, courage and hope. Not an illusory hope, based on frail human promises, or a naïve hope which presumes that the future will be better simply because it is the future. Rather, it is a hope that has its foundation precisely in God’s blessing, a blessing which contains the greatest message of good wishes there can be; and this is the message which the Church brings to each of us, filled with the Lord’s loving care and providential help.

The message of hope contained in this blessing was fully realized in a woman, Mary, who was destined to become the Mother of God, and it was fulfilled in her before any other creature.

The Mother of God! This is the first and most important title of Our Lady. It refers to a quality, a role which the faith of the Christian people, in its tender and genuine devotion to our heavenly Mother, has understood from the beginning. . . .

Bishop Loverde Invites You to Our Diocesan Pilgrimage on October 12

Bishop Paul S. Loverde
Diocese of Arlington

It is the grace of God and His Son's sacrifice on the Cross that enables us to reach the finish line of eternal life, but we must be willing participants. This means more than just fulfilling our Sunday obligation, though this is certainly essential; it means putting Christ first in our life. To train, we must set aside time for prayer, for spiritual reading, for learning more about the rich deposit of our faith. The Lord is waiting for us to respond to His invitation to delve deeper into a personal relationship with Him. . . .

I invite you to set aside Saturday, October 12 in order to participate in our biennial Diocesan Pilgrimage. This is a concrete way to grow in faith, a day when thousands of diocesan parishioners make the journey to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. The pilgrimage will consist of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament with a guided meditation, the celebration of the Holy Eucharist and the availability of the Sacrament of Penance, all spent in the magnificent Shrine dedicated to Our Lady, our first model in faith and discipleship.

During this year's pilgrimage, we will not only have the opportunity to pray with the members of our diocesan Church, but also with Catholics around the world. On the afternoon of October 12, we will participate in an international simulcast wherein ten Marian Shrines around the world will pray the Rosary. This afternoon of prayer with the universal Church will include a message from Pope Francis, uniting himself with us during this Year of Faith.

I encourage you to make this Pilgrimage the first step in your recommitment to an intentional faith, whereby the Lord Jesus is the center of your life. Remember, the Lord cannot be outdone in generosity. The sacrifices that you make in spending time with Jesus and in other activities will bear great fruit in your spiritual life. The Diocesan Pilgrimage is one small journey in the larger pilgrimage that each one of us is making — the pilgrimage to join Mary and the saints at the finish line: in Heaven with the Lord!

Find out more information here. This pilgrimage of faith will encourage families to commit to praying together daily, an essential practice that will help create much-needed peace and stability within the foundation of society, the family. Please join us at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception at 9:30 a.m. on October 12, the vigil of the feast of Our Lady of Fatima. If you would like transportation from Blessed Sacrament to the Basilica and back, please contact Susan Doyle by clicking on this e-mail link before October 6 to receive further information.

Daughter of her Son - the Assumption of Mary

by Mark Rothe, Master Catechist

Today is the Solemnity of the Bodily Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Immaculate Mother of God, a "holy day of obligation."

 About this idea of Mass as an "obligation" --

 Yes, this is the Church's own terminology, and it is 100 percent true, but I'll confess I'm not entirely comfortable with the word in our contemporary times. Too many people associate "obligation" with drudgery, a burden, a really big pain, something one has to do when when he would rather being doing something else that is more interesting or beneficial. We're obliged to pay way too much of our hard-earned money in taxes rather than spend it on what we want to spend it on. We're obliged to get up in the morning and have to go to work, rather than sleep in and play all day. In most people's eyes, obligation is the antithesis of freedom. It is a matter of owing something to another, rather than giving it freely and voluntarily.

Well, Mass need not be, and should not be, seen as a burden and a hassle. Instead, it should rightly be seen an an opportunity. An opportunity to be with God and love Him. And the more we love Him, the more we receive from Him, the more we obtain the grace to be truly free, the freedom and power to do good and be the people we want to be, rather than be the slaves of worldly desire and sin. Thus, we can see that the truth of the "obligation" to attend Mass is not something that deprives us of freedom, rather, it is a truth that sets us free. In fact, it so liberates us that, by showing God your love at Mass, you can receive the "medicine of immortality," i.e. the Eucharist. It is hope, the hope by which we are already saved.

 If we love God, and if we want to be with Him in heaven, then we should want to be with Him for a little bit while we are still sojourning down here on earth. Conversely, if we purposely do not go to Mass on Sundays and Holy Days, we are saying that we do not want to be with God, we do not want to spend a measly one-hour in His presence. Not only does that end up making us less free, making us servants and slaves to worldly concerns and sin, it imposes the enormous burdens and pains and drudgery that are associated with worldly concerns and sin.

 Ultimately, of course, that means that if we do not want to be with God here and now, then we will not be with Him after we have left this earth. Despite the use of the word "obligation" to refer to Sundays and Holy Days, neither God nor the Church will force you to go to Mass, just as God will not force you to spend time with Him in heaven. You are perfectly free to spend your eternity apart from Him in hell if you desire.

 So, go to Mass!

If you have been away for awhile, for whatever reason you left and/or have stayed away, do not be afraid to admit that you are starving. Come home. The Father will slaughter the fatted calf and all of heaven will rejoice and celebrate.

 If it is not proper for you to receive Holy Communion because you’ve done something that you shouldn’t have done and thus are in a state of sin, but you like it and intend to keep on doing it, so that you're not ready to go to Confession yet, don't go up for Communion, but do still go to Mass! Jesus Christ is there!  (And work toward getting yourself to Confession!)

 If the liturgy is poorly done, or if the music is bad, or the homily is boring, or the other people are dressed inappropriately, or the priest/deacon/ministers are too liberal or too conservative or too this or too that, or you stayed out too late the night before, or you don't understand some of the teachings of the Church, or you think you know better and oppose the Church, or whatever million other excuses you can come up with, even when you are fully justified in your dissatisfaction, none of that is God's fault. Don't take it out on Him. He is the remedy to all these problems. He is the priceless pearl. The Eucharist is "the source and summit" of our faith. The Blessed Sacrament is Emmanuel, God with us. No matter how lousy everything else is, do not let that keep you from Him.

Mass is not a burdensome duty, but is an empowering opportunity. It should not be thought of as having to go to Mass, but as getting to go to Mass. An opportunity to be with God and love Him.

Holy Mary, Immaculate Virgin Mother of God, Help of Christians

As we vote today and later await the election returns, Bishop Paul Loverde has asked us to pray and have recourse to Our Lord and His Blessed Mother, especially under her title of “Mary, Help of Christians.”

Most Holy Virgin Mary, Help of Christians, how sweet it is to come to your feet imploring your perpetual help. If earthly mothers cease not to remember their children, how can you, the most loving of all mothers forget us?
Grant then to us, we implore you, your perpetual help in all our necessities, in every sorrow, and especially in all our temptations. We ask for your unceasing help for all who are now suffering.
Help the weak, cure the sick, convert sinners. Grant through your intercessions many vocations to the religious life.
Obtain for us, O Mary, Help of Christians, that having invoked you on earth we may love and eternally thank you in heaven.
--prayer by St. John Bosco

In our reflections and meditations on the saints in this Year of Faith, there is no better place to start than with Our most Blessed Mother Mary.

On Thursday, November 8, 2012, at 7 p.m. in the parish center, Cinema Catechism will be presenting Episode Four of Fr. Barron's Catholicism series, Our Tainted Nature’s Solitary Boast - Mary, the Mother of God, together with further discussion and reflections on Immaculate Mary, the Virgin Mother, assumed body and soul into heaven: the New Eve, Full of Grace, who carries the Lord within her and points us toward her Son while also pointing us toward our true selves, the people that God intended and intends for us to be in the fullness of Love and Truth. Master Catechist Roy Sheetz will provide catechesis and moderate the discussion. Go to the Cinema Catechism website for more information about the series and Mary.

Preview of Episode Four of Catholicism:

Aug. 15: The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

When we come together as a parish community for Mass on either the evening of Tuesday, August 14 (Vigil) or on Wednesday, August 15 to celebrate with the entire Catholic Church throughout the world the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we can learn a lot about God’s plan for each of us. This day highlights the special role Mary has in God’s plan of salvation.

Because of her Immaculate Conception, in which Mary was conceived without original sin, it naturally follows that God would preserve her from bodily decay, a result of original sin, by receiving her body into heaven.  When we honor Mary on this Holy Day by gathering as a Church to celebrate her Assumption into heaven, we are reminded again of the awesome gift of God in giving Mary to us as our spiritual Mother. She awaits each of us in heaven, our true and lasting home. Through Mary, God gave us Jesus as our Savior and in her we have an outstanding model of how to love God through the example of her complete openness to God’s will for her to be the mother of Jesus, the Son of God who is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.

This less than 7-minute video by Friar Joseph Mary, FI of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate teaches about the Assumption of Mary and provides helpful references to Sacred Scripture and the Fathers of the Church.

In the great mystery of the Assumption, the Church teaches us the truth that at the end of her earthly life Mary was taken up or received (assumed; Latin: assumptio) body and soul by God into heaven. 

Assumption of the Virgin, by Andrea Vaccaro (1600s)

The doctrine of Mary’s Assumption was declared November 1, 1950 by Pope Pius XII in the apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus (Most Bountiful God): “Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death" (Catechism of the Catholic Church 966).

First Communions, Vocations Sunday and May Crowning

It has been a busy spring at Blessed Sacrament, with First Communion Masses, a visit by the Daughters of Saint Paul on World Day of Prayer for Vocations Sunday and our annual May Crowning.

Father John Cregan, Pastor, prays with parish children before their First Communion on Saturday, April 28.

Daughter of Saint Paul Sister Margaret Michael talks with boys looking at books at the parish display on April 29, World Day of Prayer for Vocations Sunday.

Families talk with Daugher of Saint Paul Sister Sophie at the parish book display.

Father Anthony Killian prays with children at the annual May Crowning on May 5 with students in the parish religious education program.

Blessed Sacrament Celebrates Our Lady of Guadalupe

The Church honors Our Lady of Guadalupe -- “Patroness of all America and Star of the first and new evangelization” as Blessed John Paul II declared her in 1999 – on December 12 each year. 

Priests and parishioners of Blessed Sacrament observed the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe at a special celebration on the morning of Saturday, Dec. 10 with 8:30 a.m. Mass, a reenactment of Saint Juan Diego receiving the image of Our Lady on his tilma (woven cloth) and a fiesta in Quinn Hall with doughnuts and breakfast tamales.

Father Killian, parochial vicar, celebrated the bilingual Mass and Father Cregan, pastor, concelebrated.  In his homily Father Killian noted that 480 years after Our Lady appeared to Saint Juan Diego in December of 1531, the image of herself that she gave to him on his cloak that is kept in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City is still as fresh and vibrant as when it first appeared.  Saint Juan Diego was canonized by Blessed John Paul II in 2002.

The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe shows Mary with her hands folded in prayer, and her head bowed in humility, "the indispensable key" to authentic discipleship, Father Killian noted.  He added that Mary's motherhood "is for one purpose -- the unity of mankind."  Mary herself told Juan Diego, "I am your merciful mother" and the mother "of all mankind."

         Following Mass, priests and parishioners formed a line down the center aisle of the church to place roses at the foot of a large framed replica of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe as a sign of honor for the Mother of God.

     Blessed Pope John Paul II visited the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe when he gave his post-synodal apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in America in 1999.

As we each respond in our own vocations to the call to the New Evangelization urged by Blessed John Paul II and again by Pope Benedict XVI, we can reflect on Blessed John Paul’s words from Ecclesia in America:

“I therefore invite all the Catholics of America to take an active part in the evangelizing initiatives which the Holy Spirit is stirring in every part of this immense continent, so full of resources and hopes for the future. In a special way, I invite Catholic families to be ‘domestic Churches,’ in which the Christian faith is lived and passed on to the young as a treasure, and where all pray together. If they live up to the ideal which God places before them, Catholic homes will be true centers of evangelization.”

May each of our homes and lives reflect the light of Mary, the first and model disciple, and “the Star of the first and new evangelization.”

"I am the Immaculate Conception"

On December 8, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, a Holy Day of Obligation in the United States, by attending Mass to remember in a special way Our Lady’s Immaculate Conception and to honor her as Patroness of the United States.

    

Masses for this Holy Day of Obligation will be held at Blessed Sacrament at 7PM on December 7 (Vigil Mass) and 6:30AM, 8:30AM, 12NN, 7PM, and 8:30PM (Spanish Mass) on December 8.

 

From the earliest days of the Church, Our Blessed Mother has been honored and venerated.  At the beginning of the Gospel of Luke, the angel Gabriel greets Mary at the Annunciation with the words “Hail, full of grace!” (Luke 1:28) and St. Elizabeth proclaims, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” (Luke 1:42).   Through the centuries, Christians honored our Blessed Mother as a unique and highly favored creation, whose submission to God’s will, humility, and strength were to be emulated.  In 1854, Blessed Pope Pius IX, in Ineffabilis Deus defined as dogma that “The Blessed Virgin Mary in the first instance of her conception was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race.”  At Lourdes (France), Our Lady appeared to St. Bernadette eighteen times in 1858 and proclaimed “I am the Immaculate Conception,” confirming for the world that she had been conceived without the stain of original sin.

As Bishop Fulton Sheen wrote, God granted our Blessed Mother the privilege of redemption “in advance, by way of prevention, in both body and soul, in the first instant of conception….She had this privilege, not for her sake but for HIS sake.  That is why those who do not believe in the Divinity of Christ can see no reason for the special privilege accorded to Mary.  If I did not believe in the Divinity of Our Lord – which God avert – I should see noting but nonsense in any special reverence given to Mary above the other women on earth!  But if she is the Mother of God, Who became Man, then she is unique….” (The World’s First Love)

Tomorrow, as you attend Mass, ponder the great friend and intercessor we have in our Blessed Mother, and how better you might emulate her love and humility this Advent.

Additional Resources

• Immaculate Conception Defined
• This Day in Liturgy
• Prayer in Honor of the Immaculate Conception

Our Lady of Victory

When I was a new graduate student at The Pennsylvania State University (that's Penn State for those with much less pretense), I had the option of joing a local Parish or becoming involved in Campus Ministry.  A number of my cousins had been baptized at a parish called "Our Lady of Victory," so I ended up joining and diving in as a CCD teacher.  It took me two home football games to appreciate the irony of the Catholic Church closest to Beaver Stadium, home of Joe Patterno's Nittany Lions, being called Our Lady of Victory.  It took me a year to appreciate who Our Lady of Victory is.  It happened that, in the fall of my second year of graduate school, I was to teach a CCD lesson at the beginning of what Blessed John Paul II had decreed to be the year of the Rosary.  It would also coincide with our parish feast day.

In preparing my lesson, I found out that Our Lady of Victory is a title of Our Lady given after the victory of European naval forces ("the Holy League") against an advancing Ottoman Empire at Lepanto in 1571.  In a five hour battle at the northern most edge of the Gulf of Patras (off the coast of Greece) Holy League forces had driven back the Ottoman Empire, securing the Mediterranean.  Before the battle, Pope Pius V had encouraged all of Europe to pray the Rosary for victory, and upon hearing of the victory at Lepanto credited Our Lady with safely leading the Holy League's forces to victory.  Hence, the title "Our Lady of Victory."  Over time, the title Our Lady of Victory became synomous with Our Lady of the Rosary.  

It seemed odd to me, at the time, that Our Lady of Victory and Our Lady of the Rosary were the same.  Honestly, I had a difficult time reconciling my mental image of 16th Century artillery fire with the quiet times I had spent saying the Rosary. Certainly, as a student at a secular university, I could identify with the Holy League, tossed about on an uncertain sea in a world that is full of traps.  I was, however, uncertain as to where the Rosary fit in until I found the writings of St. Louis de Montfort.  St. Louis said, amongst other things, that "The rosary is the most powerful weapon to touch the Heart of Jesus, Our Redeemer, who so loves His Mother."   

The "how" became clearer when I read Blessed John Paul II's Apostolic Letter, Rosarium Virginis Mariae:

With the Rosary, the Christian people sits at the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love. Through the Rosary the faithful receive abundant grace, as though from the very hands of the Mother of the Redeemer.

No one had ever explained to me that the Rosary was a meditation on the Gospel.  Sure, I knew the mysteries and I could recite a Hail Mary with as much enthusiasm as the next person, but the concept of entering into the Gospel?  Walking through salvation history?  Over time, it became easier to see how one, when daily meditating on the mysteries of salvation, might grow in holiness.  

As our current Pope, Benedict XVI, stated:

When reciting the Rosary, the important and meaningful moments of salvation history are relived. The various steps of Christ's mission are traced. With Mary the heart is oriented toward the mystery of Jesus. Christ is put at the centre of our life, of our time, of our city, through the contemplation and meditation of his holy mysteries of joy, light, sorrow and glory.  [May 13, 2008, Recitation of the Holy Rosary, Address of His Holiness, Benedict XVI, St. Mary Major, Rome, Italy]

Through a daily Rosary, Christ becomes more and more the center of our life.  And if Christ is the center our life, it is much easier to fight against the temptations of the world.  "No one can live continually in sin and continue to say the Rosary: either they will give up sin or they will give up the Rosary" (Bishop Hugh Doyle), or as it says in one of my favorite children's books, "Where you tend a rose, my lad, a thistle cannot grow."

And, as we  are transformed by the Rosary, Christ will use us to transform the world.  It might not be as dramatic as an unexpected victory at sea, but it has the potential to be far greater.    

If you have never prayed a Rosary, start today.  If you aren't ready to commit to a daily Rosary, say one once a week.  Can't make it through the whole Rosary?  Start with a decade.  Ask Christ, through His Beloved Mother, to inspire you with a love of the Rosary.  Watch a decade turn into a whole Rosary.  Watch a weekly Rosary become a daily Rosary.  And see how Christ becomes the center of your life.


Click here for more on the history of this Feast.
Click here for more information on how to pray the Rosary.

The author, Laura Itle, is a Blessed Sacrament parishoner.