What shall I call you, full of grace?
I shall call you Heaven: for you have caused the Sun of justice to rise. Paradise: for in you has bloomed the flower of immortality. Virgin: for you have remained inviolate. Chaste Mother: for you have carried in your arms a Son, the God of all. Pray to him to save our souls.
In 1521, the Spaniards conquered Mexico under the leadership of Hernan Cortez. In Tenochtitlan (which became Mexico City), they encountered the Aztecs. The Aztecs were a highly developed and extremely religious people. Their religious practice involved human sacrifices on the altars of their pyramids offered mainly to two mighty gods: Tlaloc, the god of water, and Huitzilopochtli, the warrior god of the sun. The Conquerors were appalled at this practice of human sacrifice in which the heart of the victim was ripped out of his chest, still beating, and passed through the lips of the stone carving of the gods ..........read more.
On July 16, 1251, Our Lady appeared to St. Simon Stock, the Father of the Carmelite Order, and presented him with the Scapular. St. Simon's story began as an English hermit that lived in the hollow of a tree. He received the name "stock" because he lived in the hollowed trunk or stock of a tree. In time he would become a Carmelite and later the Father General of the order. He led the order during a time of great struggle.The Carmelites in the beginning were hermits on Mount Carmel, near Nazareth in the Holy Land. When they migrated to Europe, in this case England, some decided to no longer be hermits and instead became ........read more
Five minutes from the ruins of Pompei, Italy, the great Roman city destroyed by the volcano of Mt. Vesuvius, there is a an area called Valle di Pompei where the town of Campania is located. In the shadow of the ancient volcano, a Marian Shrine was erected in the latter half of the 1800's. The shrine is dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary, named for the Marian image elevated on its high altar. The image represents Our Lady of the Rosary. It is a variation of the Marian icons.....read more
During World War I Pope Benedict XV made repeated but forlorn pleas for peace, and finally, in May 1917, made a direct appeal to Mary to intercede for peace in the world. The response was Mary's first appearance at Fatima just over a week later. At this time Fatima was just a small village about seventy miles north of Lisbon; the three children to whom she appeared were Lucia dos Santos, aged ten, and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, brother and sister, aged eight and seven respectively.
The Angel of Portugal.......read more
In Lourdes, France, in 1844 a baby girl named Bernadette Soubrious was born. Bernadette’s family was very poor, and Bernadette was responsible for looking after and caring for her brothers and sisters.
Bernadette was a good natured girl with dark eyes and a round face. The only education Bernadette received was the Catholic teachings which she studied faithfully in the evenings.
At the age of 13, Bernadette was preparing for her First Holy Communion. One of Bernadette’s chores was to collect wood .......read more
