Mary Is With Us: Our Lady of Lourdes, France

During this difficult time of Coronavirus, I will be sharing excerpts from the book, Magnificat: Mama Mary’s Pilgrim Sites, a collection of 24 testimonies by people whose lives were changed by Mama Mary. I hope that these articles remind us that Mary is with us during this difficult time. May you find solace in these personal testimonials. ~ Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, editor of Magnificat.

2024 Update: A Catholic religious book that I collected and edited has a new edition - MAGNIFICAT: MAMA MARY'S PILGRIM SITES gathers 24 people's accounts of Marian sites wherein they found comfort, solace, and sometimes miracles. The pilgrim sites include familiar shrines in Lourdes, Vailankanni, Guadalupe, Fatima, Ephesus, as well as lesser known ones including several in the Philippines (Antipolo, Manaoag, Odlot, Caysasya and more).  It is available from Amazon.

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Our Lady of Lourdes

FRANCE – The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes

In 1858 the Virgin Mary appeared to sickly 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous at a wooded grotto near the Gave River. In 1872 the neo-Golthic Basilica of the Immaculate Conception was built above the grotto, which itself is a lovely shrine. Since then, many more places of worship were built, including the Rosary Basilica and the underground Basilica of St. Pius X. Not to be missed: the sanctuary's nightly candlelight procession led by a statute of the Virgin Mary carried by white-robed priests. Holy spring water said to have healing effects flow from rows of spigots near the shrine and pilgrims come to bathe in its waters.

~

THE GIRL IN WHITE

Brian Ascalon Roley

The Little Boy

WHEN IT became clear that my little boy could not walk unassisted, my mother began to suggest that we bring him to Lourdes for a cure.

“I don’t know,” my wife said, when I related to her the idea. “Europe’s hilly and the streets and buildings are old. It isn’t so easy to travel with a disabled child.”

“My mother and father would help. I’d carry him.”

“And you believe in that stuff?”

Mary Is With Us: The Maryam Monastery of Lake Tana, Amhara , Ethiopia

During this difficult time of Coronavirus, I will be sharing excerpts from the book, Magnificat: Mama Mary’s Pilgrim Sites, a collection of 24 testimonies by people whose lives were changed by Mama Mary. I hope that these articles remind us that Mary is with us during this difficult time. May you find solace in these personal testimonials. ~ Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, editor of Magnificat.

2024 Update: A Catholic religious book that I collected and edited has a new edition - MAGNIFICAT: MAMA MARY'S PILGRIM SITES gathers 24 people's accounts of Marian sites wherein they found comfort, solace, and sometimes miracles. The pilgrim sites include familiar shrines in Lourdes, Vailankanni, Guadalupe, Fatima, Ephesus, as well as lesser known ones including several in the Philippines (Antipolo, Manaoag, Odlot, Caysasya and more).  It is available from Amazon.

 

 ~~~

ETHIOPIA – The Maryam Monastery of Lake Tana, Amhara

The following article presents an extant and almost unheard of story of Joseph, Mary, and the Child Jesus, except in the African Christian country of Ethiopia. The Holy Family returned to Nazareth but it took them awhile to travel back. They stayed in the premises of Lake Tana, Tigray province of Ethiopia, where a body of apocryphal gospel stories document the miracles associated with the Blessed Virgin Mary raising Jesus from infancy to early childhood. Ancient trade routes show Tigray, Ethiopia as the natural crossing point for traders on their way to the land of Israel by way of the narrow straits of Aden and then following the south-north trade routes to Jordan and thence to Galilee. The effect of participating on this one-of-a-lifetime pilgrimage is a real revelation!
~

THE MARYAM MONASTERY: LAKE TANA, AMHARA, ETHIOPIA

Penélope V. Flores

Introduction

THE BIBLE doesn’t tell me anything. Why do we have such a lacunae of materials concerning the Blessed Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus? Why do we get only a Bible picture of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph on the Flight to Egypt? And after that, the next Bible incidence we hear is an almost adult 13-year-old Jesus in the Jerusalem Temple discussing theology among the learned priests. What happened during the infancy years up to his being a teen? The big black hole seems to have swallowed Joseph, Mary, and Baby Jesus in his infancy and childhood days.

Mama Mary Is With Us: Our Lady of Medjugorje

During this difficult time of Coronavirus, I will be sharing excerpts from the book, Magnificat: Mama Mary's Pilgr4m Sites, a collection of 24 testimonies by people whose lives were changed by Mama Mary.  I hope that these articles remind us that Mary is with us during this difficult time. May you find solace in these personal testimonials.  ~ Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, editor of Magnificat.

2024 Update: A Catholic religious book that I collected and edited has a new edition - MAGNIFICAT: MAMA MARY'S PILGRIM SITES gathers 24 people's accounts of Marian sites wherein they found comfort, solace, and sometimes miracles. The pilgrim sites include familiar shrines in Lourdes, Vailankanni, Guadalupe, Fatima, Ephesus, as well as lesser known ones including several in the Philippines (Antipolo, Manaoag, Odlot, Caysasya and more).  It is available from Amazon.

 

 ~~~


Our Lady of Medjugorje

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA – Medjugorje

Medjugorje is a town located in western Bosnia and Herzegovina, close to the border of Croatia. "Our Lady of Medjugorje" is the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary who pilgrims believe has been appearing to Vicka Ivankovic-Mijatovic, Ivan Dragicevic, Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo, Ivanka Ivankovic-Elez, Jakov Colo, and Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti since June 24, 1981. In March 2010, the Holy See announced that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was forming an investigative commission, composed of bishops, theologians, and other experts, under the leadership of Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the Pope's former Vicar General for the Diocese of Rome. Medjugorje has become one of the most popular Marian pilgrimage sites in the world and has turned into Europe's third most important religious place, where more than 1 million people visit each year.

A MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE WITH OUR LADY

Linda Yamamoto

I HAVE been to several Marian pilgrimages such as Fatima in Portugal, Lourdes in France, and Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina. All of them were life-changing experiences and were very significant in my spiritual journey to a closer relationship with Jesus and Mary.

Aloy Polintan Reviews Magnificat: Mama Mary's Pilgrim Sites (edited by Cecilia Brainard)

Book Review by Aloy Polintan

Book: Magnificat: Mama Mary's Pilgrim Sites

Collected and Edited by Cecila Manguerra Brainard

Anvil, 2012, softcover, 168 pages, ISBN 9789712727115
Available in Amazon Kindle

This book collects 24 Marian devotees’ accounts of their experiences in Marian pilgrim sites. The sites are found in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, India, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, the United States, and there are eight Pilgrim sites in the Philippines. The book includes short write-ups of other international pilgrim sites and some Catholic Prayers. The book has an Imprimatur issued by Archbishop Tagle of Manila.

Flash Book Review No. 95 by Aloy Polintan (twitter: @PolintanAloy)
"And whatever form Mother Mary chooses to make herself known to me, be it as visible as an apparition or a subtle whisper, I knew I would receive her presence with wonder and gratitude."

This collection of personal essays on encounters with Mama Mary in Marian pilgrim sites around the world, culled and curated by critically acclaimed writer and editor Cecilia Brainard, brings us into a journey of bewilderment and adoration, having us amazed at how people of different ages, professions and cultures responded to the invitation to ask for Mary's intercession in their lives' aspirations and circumstances, as well as drawing us back and forth to recognizing how miracles attributed to Her can change our perspectives, and thus deepen our faith.

We are brought to various sites with one driving force: to make Mary known to us. And this book is special because Filipino writers based in the Philippines and those assigned to jobs abroad or those who chose to live permanently overseas come together for a purpose: to find a home, more so in these most unhomely of times.

"I have come to appreciate the resilience of immigrants who have come before me, undaunted by the challenges of a homeland, armed with little more than faith, yet secure in the knowledge that God would become manifest wherever their journeys end."

Each essay is laid out with nothing but the assurance that the Holy Spirit is at work in the writer's life and his or her writings. We get a glimpse of the contributors' private lives, particularly the periods in their earthly journeys when journeying of the spirit was much needed and have always been at hand. After the trial, there was triumph. After sharpenings, there was transformation. After sicknesses and deaths, there was hope energizing those left and bereft. And all of these testaments were rendered with ardor, research, gracefulness and conviction.

"The psychological change in me is not only spiritual, but also richly emotional, creative and transformative."

These days when hope for healing is bordering on paranoia and restlessness, may this book, published by Anvil in 2012, serve not just a pinch, but a grip to a path "worthy of belief".

Bio: Aloy Polintan is the Senior High School Department Coordinator at the Divina Pastora College in Gapan, Nueva Ecija, Philippines

More informaton about Magnificat: Mama Mary's Pilgrim Sites:

Contributors are: Lucy Adao McGinley, Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, Angelita Caluag Cruz, Maria Ciocon, Celeste, Ma. Ceres P. Doyo, Millicent Dypiangco, Ma. Milagros T. Dumdum, Penelope V. Flores, Almira Astudillo Gilles, Ma. Teresita Herrera-Tan, Fe Aida Lacsamana-Reyes, Jaime C. Laya, Guia Lim, Linda Nietes-Little, Ma. Teresa Z. Lopez, Aimee Gaboya Ortega Lucero, Lynley Salome R. Ocampo, Ma. Cristina Padilla-Sendin, Marsha C. Paras, Rev. Dr. Sebastian Periannan, Brian Ascalon Roley, Julia H. Wolski, and Linda Yamamoto.

Praise for Magnificat
“This is another outstanding book by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard. Profoundly Marian and beautifully written by the contributors as these are their personal experiences! To our fellow devotees and would-be devotees of the Blessed Virgin Mary, you will surely fall in love with Magnificat: Mama Mary’s Pilgrim Sites and love Our Blessed Mother even more.” (Bishop Leopoldo C. Jaucian, SVD, DD, Bishop of Bangued, Philippines)

“The devotion to Mama Mary is strong in the hearts of every Filipino.” (Father James B. Reuter, SJ)

“The Magnificat has always been a testament to God’s paradoxical dealings with his people. This book assembles a tableau of witnesses to how a fleeting visit with Mary can turn into a life-changing introduction to her Son. Through their stories the author offers their readers the distinct possibility of setting the stage for a personal, if vicarious, epiphany.” (Father Dionisio M. Miranda, SVD, President, University of San Carlos in Cebu)

“Running as a leitmotif in all the essays in this book is the writers’ palpable love for Mama Mary. Each writer has undergone a change in his or her life or outlook following a visit to a Marian site. Some may have experienced a “miracle,” or felt consoled and renewed; others a deepening of spirituality, or an epiphany, an insight into the divine. Although we know that Jesus is the only Way to the Father, it is our belief in the power of Mary’s intercession to her Son, borne out of the Bible’s Cana story, that makes us all turn to Her, whom Her divine Son will never refuse. Kudos to Cecilia Manguerra Brainard for putting together an engaging collection of stories that magnify the humble handmaid of the Lord.” (Erlinda E. Panlilio, Writer and Editor)



Tags: book review, Marian, Mama Mary, Catholic, religion, Christianity, anthology

Feastday of Our Lady of Velankanni & Our Lady's Birthday today

Novena Prayer to Our Lady of Velankanni


Oh Most Holy Virgin! You were chosen by the Most Adorable Trinity from all eternity to be the most pure Mother of Jesus. Permit me, your humble and devoted servant, to remind you of the joy received in the instant of the Most Sacred Incarnation of our Divine Lord and during the nine months you carried Him in your chaste womb. I wish most sincerely that I could renew, or even increase that joy, by the fervour of my Prayers.


Oh! Tender Mother of the afflicted! Grant me under my present necessities that special protection You have promised to those who devoutly commemorate this ineffable joy. Relying on the infinite mercies of your Divine Son, trusting in the promise which He has made that those who ask should receive, and penetrated with confidence in your powerful prayers, I most humbly entreat you intercede for me. I beg you to obtain for me the favours which I petition for in this novena, if it be the Holy Will of God to grant them; to ask for me whatever graces I most stand in need of.

(Here specify your requests)

I desire by this novena, which I now offer in your honour, to prove the lively confidence I have in your intercession. Accept it, I beseech you, in honour of that supernatural love and joy, with which your Immaculate Heart was replenished during the abode of your divine Son in your womb; in veneration of which, I offer you the sentiments of my heart.

(Repeat the Hail Mary nine times)
and then say the following prayer:-

Oh! Mother of God! accept these salutations in union with the respect and veneration with which the Angel Gabriel first hailed you, "Full of Grace" I wish most sincerely that they may become so many gems in the crown of your incidental glory, which will increase in brightness to the end of the world.

I beseech you, Oh! comfortress of the afflicted, by the joy you received, when the word was made flesh, to obtain for me the favours and graces, which I have now implored through your powerful intercession. For this end I offer you all the good works which have even been performed in your honour. I most humbly entreat you for the love of the amiable Heart of Jesus, with which yours was ever so inflamed, to hear my humble prayers and to obtain my requests.
- Amen.