About Our Lady

Our Lady of Deliverance, Empress of China
In 1900, the Catholic Church was healthy and growing. There were forty bishops, about 800 European missionaries, 600 native Chinese priests...

 
Our Lady of Guadalupe: She Who Smashes the Serpent
Pope Pius XII gave Our Lady of Guadalupe the title of “Empress of the Americas” in 1945. Since December 12 is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, this is a propitious moment to recall how she reigns over our nation from Heaven

From Mexico to Tierra del Fuego, no nation has failed to receive special favors from Our Lady, including Colombia.

Simeon announced to Our Lady not only the terrible struggle Our Lord would face but also that a sword would pierce her soul.

On the Friday following the second Sunday after Pentecost, June 15, 2007, Holy Mother Church celebrates the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. On the following day June 16, 2007, the Church celebrates the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Since this devotion is of vital importance, we transcribe below an exerpt from an article by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira in Legionario on July 30, 1944.
 

On June 25, 1697, a Catholic home in the Eternal City celebrated the birth of a daughter! Little did the happy parents know that Divine Providence had destined this little girl to be a noble instrument in His hands to introduce into the Church one of the most beautiful invocations to the Holy Mother of God: “Madonna della Fiducia” -- Our Lady of Confidence.
 

Recently, several books enumerating the apparitions of Our Lady were published in Italy. When I had the opportunity to take a look at them on a recent trip to Rome, I was surprised. While in one epoch, there were numerous apparitions, in another they were very rare; in one epoch the Holy Virgin appeared to one class of people, in another she appeared to an entirely different class. During the nineteenth century, there were very important and approved apparitions, for example Lourdes, but also an inflation of false ones, perhaps indicating that the devil had been given permission to confound souls as a chastisement for sin.

Tradition tells us that Saint Luke, an able painter, responding to the requests of many Christians, who wanted to preserve a remembrance of the Blessed Virgin Mary after her elevation into Heaven, painted her sacred face on an oak table, near which Our Lady used to sew and pray.  Some time later, when the Romans dominated Jerusalem and were destroying many churches, Divine Providence protected the icon from falling into the hands of the pagans.
 

Does the devotion to the Mother of Good Counsel have any significance for our times?  Undoubtedly, innumerable souls in our disturbed and afflicted times are in need of good counsel in some way or another. They could do nothing better than to implore the help of her, whom Holy Church invokes as Mater Boni Consilii in the Litany of Loreto.  If we broaden our horizons beyond our individual lives and consider, from a historical perspective, the crisis through which the Church of God is now passing, we cannot help but conclude that, now more than ever, mankind needs the good counsel of the Virgin of virgins.
 

Throughout my life with the TFP, I have had the privilege of accompanying the International Pilgrim Statue several times. Because of the miraculous aspect of this statue and out of reverence for her, we always buy her a seat on the plane. She always travels on a seat next to the custodian in a soft padded cloth case so that she is well secured.

On May 31, the Holy Church celebrates the feast of Our Lady, Universal Mediatrix of all Graces. In this age of afflictions and dangers, when all of mankind moans under the weight of misfortunes that increase at every moment, our needs grow and our prayers become more pressing. With this, it is also increasingly important that we know how to pray well. Few truths of the Faith contribute so powerfully to raise the value of our prayers as the Universal Mediation of Mary when studied seriously and made to penetrate deeply into our life of piety.

There are those who imagine they are slighting the Son by honoring the Mother. They fear that by exalting Mary they are belittling Jesus. They cannot bear to see people giving to Our Lady the praises due to her and which the Fathers of the Church have lavished upon her. It annoys them to see more people kneeling before Mary’s altar than before the Blessed Sacrament, as if these acts were at variance with each other, or as if those who were praying to Our Lady were not praying through her to Jesus. They do not want us to speak too often of her or to pray so often to her.

During the month of May - the month of Mary - we feel a special protection of Our Lady that extends to all the faithful; we feel a special joy that shines and illuminates our hearts expressing the universal certainty of Catholics that the indispensable patronage of our heavenly mother becomes even more tender, more loving and more full of visible mercy and exorable condescendence during her month of May.