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ROME, JUNE 29, 2006 (Zenit.org).- An Egyptian Muslim and deputy director of a prominent Italian newspaper suggested that Mary could be the figure who brings Christians and Muslims together. Magdi Allam of Il Corriere della Sera spoke to ZENIT about the appeal he launched in the pages of the national daily newspaper to Muslims living in Italy to visit the Marian shrines in their host country. The journalist said that he is convinced that the Virgin Mary is a meeting point between Christians and Muslims. "Mary is a figure present in the Koran, which dedicates an entire sura [chapter ed.n.]...

A Protestant preacher recently said that devotion to the Mother of God is the cause of all bad in the world, since she was not a virgin after she gave birth to Christ and was just another woman. This really has upset me. Why do we worship the Virgin Mary and how do we answer those who say that she was nothing but another woman? What significance does she have for us Orthodox? (B.W., TX) One cannot react to every opinion and idea about Christianity. At some point, common sense must prevail. In the first place, the idea that devotion...

January 1, 2006 Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, The Mother Of God Psalm: Sunday 4 Reading INm 6:22-27 The LORD said to Moses: “Speak to Aaron and his sons and tell them: This is how you shall bless the Israelites.Say to them:The LORD bless you and keep you!The LORD let his face shine uponyou, and be gracious to you!The LORD look upon you kindly andgive you peace!So shall they invoke my name upon the Israelites, and I will bless them.” Responsorial PsalmPs 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8 R. (2a) May God bless us in his mercy.May God have pity on...

A Solemn Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of MaryMost Holy Virgin Mary, tender Mother of men, to fulfill the desires of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the request of the Vicar of Your Son on earth, we consecrate ourselves and our families to your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, O Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, and we recommend to You, all the people of our country and all the world.Please accept our consecration, dearest Mother, and use us as You wish to accomplish Your designs in the world.O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of...

August 22, 2005Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary Psalm: Monday 37 Reading I1 Thes 1:1-5, 8b-10 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the Church of the Thessaloniansin God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:grace to you and peace. We give thanks to God always for all of you,remembering you in our prayers,unceasingly calling to mind your work of faith and labor of loveand endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ,before our God and Father,knowing, brothers and sisters loved by God, how you were chosen.For our Gospel did not come to you in word alone,but also in...

Fatima Home Visitation coordinator Byron Whitcraft delivered over 40,000 petition cards to the exact spot where Our Lady appeared in Fatima. On March 20, two members of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP), went on pilgrimage to the site of the 1917 apparitions of Our Lady in Fatima, Portugal, to deliver over 40,000 petition cards collected through the TFP’s America Needs Fatima Home Visitation Program. America Needs Fatima began taking its supporters’ petitions to Fatima shortly after they began their Home Visitation Program (to read about the America Needs Fatima Home Visitation Program, go...

On Good Friday, after night has fallen on the medieval Umbrian town of Alviano, the crowds flock to a spellbinding re-enactment of the Passion of Christ. From the ancient piazza they watch as the bare-chested actor playing Jesus, head crowned with thorns, is tied to a cross 35ft above the ground, fixed to the ramparts of the 15th-century castle. This year, however, the figure spotlit on the cross will be a woman - a 29-year-old ballerina named Elena Angeli - who was cast by the play's director, Corrado Sorbara, to show the "other, feminine side of Christ". His controversial decision...

Hanover, Penn., – Moral values are being undermined at 30 Catholic colleges during the weeks surrounding St. Valentine’s day. In fact, many students are afflicted by a play called “The V***** Monologues,” which is scheduled to be held on Catholic campuses throughout the country. (Asterisks added for the sake of modesty). TFP Student Action – a conservative organization of Catholic inspiration – is opposing the play, urging its members on 375 campuses to protest. According to the group’s web site: “In one scene, a woman describes her seduction by a lesbian woman when she was 16 years old, declaring it...

The Immaculate Conception of Our Lady December 8 Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Our Lady was conceived without original sin. She had a perfect purity, with no bad inclinations. Therefore, she had a great facility to correspond entirely with the grace of God at every moment. Natural and the supernatural grandeur merged together in her soul in a profound and extraordinary harmony. Above all others creatures, she had the highest notion of the sanctity of God and His correspondent glory. She also had the clear notion of what Creation owes to that glory. She knew, and knows, how all created...

In discussing why we believe in the Immaculate Conception, it’s important to understand what the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is and what it is not. Some people think the term refers to Christ’s conception in Mary’s womb without the intervention of a human father; but that is the Virgin Birth. Others think the Immaculate Conception means Mary was conceived "by the power of the Holy Spirit," in the way Jesus was, but that, too, is incorrect. The Immaculate Conception means that Mary, whose conception was brought about in the normal way, was conceived without original sin or its stain...

January 1, 2004The Octave Day of ChristmasSolemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God Psalm: Thursday 3 Reading I Responsorial Psalm Reading II Gospel Reading INumbers 6:22-27 The LORD said to Moses: "Speak to Aaron and his sons and tell them:This is how you shall bless the Israelites.Say to them:The LORD bless you and keep you!The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you!The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!So shall they invoke my name upon the Israelites, and I will bless them." Responsorial PsalmPs 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8 R. (2a)...

Dear Grace, Why do Catholics call Mary the “Mother of God"? Was she not created by God? Does this title mean that she existed before God? It is so good that you desire to understand the Church’s teaching about Mary, the one through whom Christ our Savior came into the world. New Year’s Day is the day the Catholic Church celebrates the divine motherhood of Mary, which is based on the teaching of the Gospels, on the writings of the early Fathers, and on the express definition of the Church. It is a beautiful title for Mary. What many do...

In Sacred ScriptureHow To PrayThe Mysteries:JoyfulLuminousSorrowfulGloriousHome  The Holy Rosary The rosary probably began as a practice by the laity to imitate the monastic Divine Office (Breviary or Liturgy of the Hours), during the course of which the monks daily prayed the 150 Psalms. The laity, many of whom could not read, substituted 50, or even 150, Ave Marias (Hail Marys) for the Psalms. This prayer, at least the first half of it so directly biblically, seems to date from as early as the 2nd century, as ancient graffiti at Christian sites has suggested. Sometimes a cord with knots on it...

January 1, 2003The Octave Day of ChristmasSolemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God Psalm: Wednesday Week 3 Reading I Responsorial Psalm Reading II Gospel Reading INumbers 6:22-27 The LORD said to Moses: "Speak to Aaron and his sons and tell them:This is how you shall bless the Israelites.Say to them:The LORD bless you and keep you!The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you!The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!So shall they invoke my name upon the Israelites, and I will bless them." Responsorial PsalmPs 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8 R....

Roots of Marian Devotion Go Back to Old Testament ROME, DEC. 25, 2002 (Zenit.org).- Scholar Scott Hahn roundly rejects the idea held by some outside the Church that Catholics, by honoring Mary, somehow detract from God. "The glories we honor in Mary are merely her own reflections of God's glory," says the author of books such as "Rome Sweet Home" and "Hail, Holy Queen." Here, the one-time Presbyterian minister spells out his ideas. Q: Why do you say that Catholics should love Mary a lot more than they do? Hahn: Because God does! And he wants us to love her...

SISTER NOUVEAU MARY ADDRESSES THE STATUE OF THE BLESSED MOTHERBy Sandra Molnar Quoth Sister Nouveau Mary to the statue, "I must say, We get precious little help from you, no matter how we pray. At the rising of the moon, in the clearing in the wood, We have danced all in a circle, but as yet it's done no good. And we've said the Mater Noster, meditated till we've dropped, But still the persecution of our order hasn't stopped. Aggravation from all corners, even places close to home, From That Nun in Alabama to You Know Who in Rome." (The...

After the Council of Ephesus(431)in which the mother of Jesus was acclaimed as Mother of God, Pope Sixtus 111 erected at Rome on the Esquiline Hill a basilica dedicated to the honor of the Holy Mother of God. It was afterward called Saint Mary Major and it is the oldest church in the West dedicated to the honor the Blessed Virgin Mary