Holy light on earth’s horizon; ­Star of hope to those who fall,

Light amid a world of shadows, Dawn of God’s design for all,

Chosen from eternal ages, You alone of all our race,

By your Son’s atoning merits Were conceived in perfect grace.

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Mother of the world’s Redeemer, Promised from the dawn of time:

How could one so highly favored Share the guilt of Adam’s crime? 

Sun and moon and stars adorn you, Sinless Eve, triumphant sign;

You it is who crushed the serpent, Mary, pledge of life divine.

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Earth below and highest heaven, Praise the splendor of your state,   

You who now are crowned in glory Were conceived immaculate.

Hail, beloved of the Father, Mother of his only Son,

Mystic bride of Love eternal, Hail, 0 fair and spotless one!

THE NATIVITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

PRESENCE OF GOD: 0 Mary, my Mother, teach me to live hidden with you in the shadow of God.

The liturgy enthusiastically celebrates Mary’s Nativity and makes it one of the most appealing feasts of Marian devotion. We sing in today’s Office: “Thy Nativity, O Virgin Mother of God, brings joy to the whole world, because from you came forth the Sun of Justice, Christ, our God.” Mary’s birth is a prelude to the birth of Jesus because it is the initial point of the realization of the great mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God for the salvation of mankind. How could the birthday of the Mother of the Redeemer pass unnoticed in the hearts of the redeemed? The Mother proclaims the Son, making it known that He is about to come, that the divine promises, made centuries before, are to be fulfilled.

The birth of Mary is the dawn of our redemption; her appearance projects a new light ove­r all the human race: a light of innocence, of purity, of grace, a resplendent presage of the great light which will inundate the world when Christ, ” the Light of the World” appears. Mary, preserved from sin in anticipation of Christ’s merits, not only announces that the Redemption is at hand but she bears the first fruits of it within herself; she is the first one redeemed by her divine Son.

Through her, all pure and full of grace, the Blessed Trinity at last fixes on earth a look of complacency, finding in her alone a creature in whom the infinite beauty of the Godhead can be reflected.  The birth of Jesus excepted, no other was so important in God’s eyes or so fruitful for the good of humanity, as was the birth of Mary. Yet it has remained in complete obscurity, There is no mention of it in Sacred Scriptures and when we look for the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel, we find only what refers to Joseph; we find nothing explicit about Mary’s ancestry except the allusion to her descent from David. Our Lady’s origin is wrapped in silence, as was her whole life. Thus, her birth speaks to us of humility. The more we desire to grow in God’s eyes, the more we should hide ourselves from the eyes of creatures. The more we wish to do great things for God, the more we should labor in silence and obscurity.

In the Gospel the figure of Mary is, as it were, com­pletely overshadowed by that of her divine Son; the Evan­gelists tell us only what is necessary to present the Mother of the Redeemer, and in fact, she enters on the scene only when the narrative of the Incarnation of the Word begins. Mary’s life is confounded with, is lost in, the life of Jesus: truly she lived “hidden with Christ in God.” Let us note, too, that she lived in obscurity, not only during the years of her childhood, but also during the whole period of her divine maternity, yes, even during the triumphal moments in the public life of her Son, even when a certain woman, enthusiastic about the wonderful things that Jesus did, cried out in the midst of the crowd: ” Blessed is the womb that bore Thee and the breasts that nursed Thee!” (Lk 11,27).

The Feast which we celebrate today is an invitation to the hidden life, to hide ourselves with Mary in Christ, and with Christ in God. Many times it is God Himself who, through circumstances or the decisions of our superiors, makes us live in obscurity. We should be very grateful for this, and take advantage of these opportunities to make more progress in the practice of humility and self-effacement. At other times, however, God gives us responsibilities, offices, apostolic works which bring us into prominence, but even in such circumstances we should try to efface ourselves as much as possible. Certainly we must not refuse the assignment, but we should know how to withdraw as soon as our activity is no longer needed for the success of the work entrusted to us.

All the rest-praise, applause, the account of our success or the excuse for our failure-should not concern us. In the face of all this we should strive to remain wholly indifferent. An interior soul should long to hide itself as much as it can under the shadow of God, for, if it has been able to accomplish some little good, it is convinced that in reality all has been the work of God; therefore, it eagerly seeks that all may redound to His glory alone.

Let Mary’s humble, hidden life be the model of ours, and if, in emulating her, we have to struggle against the ever-recurrent tendencies to pride, let us confidently seek her maternal aid, and she will help us to triumph over all vainglory. 

Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene (Divine Intimacy)

Ave Maria!

So at long last, here’s the final piece of the puzzle which puts our whole Coredemption Conference together – Dr. Scott Hahn.

He was not the last speaker at the Conference, Fr Peter Damian Mary Fehlner was, but Fr Peter’s presentation was posted early on in this series, so Dr Scott Hahn gets the privilege of wrapping things up – and what a great speaker to do this!

I’m sure that none of our speakers would mind us telling you this: all of the speakers at the Conference appeared Pro Bono – and may God reward them abundantly for their generosity.

Ave Maria!

Ave Maria!

??He’s seen often on EWTN, he’s the Spiritual Theology Professor at Franciscan University of Steubenville, he’s also the president of an international Catholic effort called Vox Populi Mariae Mediatrici (the Voice of the People for Mary Mediatrix) besides being one of the most respected Mariologists in the world, he’s an accomplished author, he’s a prolific writer of numerous articles, he’s a sought after lecturer, and he’s an ordained permanent Deacon in his diocese, and most importantly of all, he’s a devoted husband and a father of 8 beautiful children – please welcome Dr. Mark Miravalle.”

Here Dr. Miravalle gives a long litany of all the saints, mystics, magisterial statements, and fathers and doctors of the Church, who refer to Mary as Coredemptrix. He puts this in a nutshell by asking, “Where’s the controversy? Where’s the confusion?” Come listen to Dr. Miravalle’s impassioned plea for the dogmatic proclamation of the Marian Titles, Coredemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate. Thank you, Dr. Mark!

Ave Maria!

Ave Maria!

In this week’s installment of the video from our Marian Coredemption Conference, Behold Your Mother we have the homily of Archbishop Raymond Burke who was the main celebrant for Mass. He bases his homily on the apparitions at Fatima (the day of the conference, Oct 13th, was the 90th anniversary of the apparitions) giving him the opportunity to talk about the intercession of Mary in cooperation with Christ. Thank you Archbishop Burke.

We will be posting Mark Miravalle’s talk next week. Stay tuned!

Ave Maria!

Ave Maria!

Here is the second presentation given at our Coredemption Conference in Indiana on Saturday 13th October, 2007, by yet another EWTN celebrity, Fr. Pablo Straub. He admitted afterwards to running out of time and having to shorten his talk – what a tragedy! Maybe we will see the lost parts in the book when it goes to print.

Ave Maria!

Ave Maria!

So here’s the first talk given at the Coredemption Conference held on Saturday 13th October 2007, at Our Lady of the Greenwood Catholic Church, Greenwood, Indiana. Raymond de Souza had the honor of being the first speaker (or was it really an honor?) – we’ve taken the switched feed backup tape, fixed a few minor switching errors (no names mentioned!), re-captured the audio from the source tapes, and stitched this show together – please enjoy!

We will be trying to post one episode a week for the next several weeks until we have the whole Conference re-run. We will also make these talks available in podcasts, i.e. in MP3 format to download for use in MP3 players etc. – stay tuned.

Raymond has a brand new series now showing on EWTN – check it out Mondays at 11:00am, and Thursdays at 2:30am.

Ave Maria!

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Ave Maria!

Fr. Peter gives the last presentation at the?Behold Your Mother Marian Conference receiving a standing ovation.? The title of his talk is Mariae Advocatae Causa: The Marian Issue in the Church Today.?He discusses with his usual exuberance why the Marian titles of Coredemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate are central to the Church today. Come listen as Fr. Peter connects these doctrines to a wide number of concerns for the Church.

Ave Maria!

Ave Maria!

Here is the first of the segments from the Panel Discussion of the Behold Your Mother Marian Conference with Fr. Peter Fehlner, Scott Hahn, Mark Miravalle, Raymond de Souza and with Dana Scallon as the MC. This is a direct recording of the live feed. We intended to put all the conference up in this fashion but due to the computer crash half way through Scott Hahn’s presentation we lost most of the presentations. The first Question and Answer is hard to follow because of audio problems but these get resolved?quickly and the speakers handle all this so gracefully.

Ave Maria!