From Season to Season

One of the most honored titles of the Mother of God is Star of the Sea . Derived from the name of Mary, this title emphasizes her role as a sign of hope and as a guiding star for Christians. The Great Cistercian writer, Saint Aelred of Rievaulx , reflected that, “We ought to lift up our eyes to this Star that has appeared on earth today in order that she may lead us, in order that she may enlighten us, in order that she may show us the steps so that we shall know them, in order that she may help us so that we may be able to ascend” ( Sermon 24 on the Nativity of Mary, 20). The Mother of God, who is also our Mother, receives us into her care, leading us to her Son. While Saint Aelred’s words were written nearly 400 years before the Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, on a hill near Mexico City, in December 1531, they capture something of the important role that the Blessed Virgin played in the evangelization of the New World. Since that time, devotion to Our Lad...

Icon of Mary, " Seeker of the Lost " "Mary experienced uncertainty and insecurity when she said yes to the angel. She knew what oppression was when she didn't find a hospitable place to give birth to Jesus. She knew the sufferings of the mothers whose their children being thrown in the air and pierced by bayonets; she lived as a refugee in a strange land with a strange language and strange customs; she knew what it means to have a child who does not follow the regular ways of life but creates turmoil wherever he goes; she felt the loneliness of the widow and the agony of seeing her only son being executed. Indeed, Mary is the woman who stands next to all the poor, oppressed, and lonely women of our time. And when she continues to speak to people it is the simple and the poor to whom she appears: Juan Diego , the simple old Mexican Indian of Guadalupe; Bernadette , the poor sickly girl in Lourdes; Lucia, Jacinta, and Francesco [ sic ], the unspectacular children o...