Tis the Season of ‘The Gospel of Life’
STRUEB, Hans and/or Jakob
The Visitation
c. 1505
Cousin Elizabeth was in the sixth month of her pregnancy with John the Baptist. Here is my mother greeting Elizabeth. I blessed unborn John and he leaped for joy. (Luke 1:39-55)
Meditation
“Humble Elizabeth has an important role in this encounter; Fulton Sheen spoke of it in this way: “One of the most beautiful moments in history was that when pregnancy met pregnancy ‑ when child bearers became the first heralds of the King of Kings.” God moves in mysterious ways. Fittingly, the elder of the two women present takes the lead in describing the great work God was doing in their midst. Most spiritual writers have held that Mary understood that it was not her mystery to reveal, but one God would make known. Thus the need for discretion made it unfitting for Mary to proclaim her secret to Elizabeth. However, Mother Angelica notes that “Like all fathers, God could not keep the wonderful secret too long. He had to tell someone, and that someone was Elizabeth….”
Elizabeth seems to have been awestruck by the immediate revelation she received at this moment. Some people would be similarly overwhelmed should a famous celebrity or world leader walk in their front door, but for Elizabeth there could have been nothing more momentous than the pregnant mother of the Messiah – carrying Him within her – entering her home. The Holy Spirit imparts to Elizabeth the gifts of knowledge and understanding, and she, who is full of good will and faith, is enlightened as to the meaning of what is occurring (Lk 1:42).
Archbishop Goodier notes that “… throughout His life the one desire of Jesus was that He should be discovered; that He should be discovered, and recognized, owned. For every step made in that discovery He was grateful; no man made it but met with reward overflowing. The one thread of interest running through the whole drama of His life is the growth of this discovery.” Unborn John and his mother Elizabeth share in this first discovery together, as if to remind us all that the first place Jesus should be discovered is in the family.”
George Peate, Unborn Jesus Our Hope
Tis the Season of ‘The Gospel of Life’
After I was miraculously conceived in my mother’s womb, she went with haste into the hill country of Judah to visit her cousin Elizabeth (Lk 1:39). Here is a picture of us traveling by donkey and accompanied by angels.
Meditation
A Prayer by Caryll Houselander
Breath of Heaven,
carry us on the impulse
of Christ’s love,
as easily as thistledown
is carried on the wind;
that in the Advent season of our souls,
while He is formed in us,
in secret and in silence-
the Creator
in the hands of his creatures,
as the Host
in the hands of the priest-
we may carry Him forth
to wherever He wishes to be,
as Mary carried Him over the hills
on an errand of love,
to the house of Elizabeth.
From the Splendor of the Rosary by Maisie Ward
with prayers by
Caryll Houselander
Tis the Season of ‘The Gospel of Life’
The Annunciation… and then the angel left her
by Geraldine Farrell
My mother said ‘yes’ and the Holy Spirit overshadowed her – although I was miraculously conceived, I began life as one cell just like any other unborn baby. And then the angel Gabriel left her… she had become my mother.
Meditation
The following reflections are from Cardinal Bérulle 1575-1629 (founder of the French School of Theology). Some of the most notable followers of the French School were St. Louis de Montfort, St. John Eudes, and Father Jean-Jacques Olier.
“Stuttering rather than speaking, this is what we can say about things that so greatly surpass the human mind and even the angelic mind. These are the first thoughts of the incarnate Word. This is the first conversation of Jesus in the Virgin. This is the Virgin’s first contemplation, or better yet, this is the Virgin’s first ecstasy before the Son of God made Son of Man in her.” p. 166
“The Virgin is involved with Jesus and she is the only one in the whole world involved with Jesus. Thus she is the only one in the whole world adoring the mystery of the Incarnation, which was brought about on earth for the earth but unknown to the earth. She is the only one adoring Jesus. The more that she is the only one captivated by such a great subject, the greater is her involvement. She is devoted to it with all her faculties. All her senses are brought to bear on it, for it is a tangible mystery and tangible within her. All her senses should pay homage to her God made tangible for human nature. Her whole mind is concentrated on it. And the Spirit of Jesus, which enlivens this little divinized body, enlivens the spirit and body of the Virgin as well, through grace, love and a holy, gentle influence.” p. 164
Bérulle and the French School: selected writings By Pierre de Bérulle, edited by William M. Thompson
The following is a footnote by William M. Thompson
“The authors of the French School were so struck by the humiliation and sublime grandeur of Jesus living in Mary’s womb that they counted his time on earth from the moment of conception…Bérulle implies that Nazareth and not Bethlehem is where the “first birth” of Jesus occurs. It is fascinating to note that, although he intended to write about all of Jesus’ thirty-four years on earth, Bérulle’s Life of Jesus, through its thirty chapters, never moves beyond the nine months of gestation.” p. 187
Bérulle and the French School: selected writings By Pierre de Bérulle, edited by William M. Thompson
Tis the Season of ‘The Gospel of Life’
The Annunciation. c.1655 by Nicolas Poussin
I was conceived in Nazareth. The Angel Gabriel appeared to my mother, the Holy Spirit came upon her and the Power of the Most High overshadowed her. (Luke 1:26-38)
Meditation
“The Incarnation is as much the world in which we live as the globe on which we tread, with its earth, air, fire and water, its sun, moon and stars, its animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms. If we look at our souls, their present wants and eternal expectations, their life, strength, health and maladies, the Incarnation is as indispensable to them, and as indispensable every hour of the day, as the heat and cold, the air and light, are to our natural subsistence..” We live and move in the Incarnation. We are what we are, through it. It covers us, underlies us, and is all around us. It is incessantly affecting us in almost numberless ways, both within and without. We cannot get beyond the reach of its blessed influence, even by disbelieving it or dishonoring it.” Father Faber (The Blessed Sacrament)
“When we cast the mysteries of His Life into great groups and masses, we make His Life threefold, Joyful, Suffering and Glorious. The most complete form is that which distinguishes eight lives in Him, His Unborn Life, Infant Life, Hidden Life, Public Life, Suffering Life, Risen Life, Ascended Life, and Sacramental Life. Into these moulds the Incarnation pours itself, and comes out in forms and shapes of the most surpassing beauty.” Father Faber (Bethlehem, p.242)
Tis the Season of ‘The Gospel of Life’
When you think about it – the Church has two special times of the year when it asks Christians to set a time aside for prayer and reflection (and fasting) -Advent and Lent-.
Why Advent?
Because…
As John Paul tells us in Dominum Et Vivificantem:
- ” Creation is thus completed by the Incarnation and since that moment is permeated by the powers of the Redemption, powers which fill humanity and all creation.” #52
- “The mystery of the Incarnation constitutes the climax of this (God’s) giving, this divine self-communication” #50
- “What was accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit “in the fullness of time” can only through the Spirit’s power now emerge from the memory of the Church. By his power it can be made present in the new phase of man’s history on earth: the year 2000 from the birth of Christ.” #51
- “But it must also be remembered that for us Christians this event (the Incarnation) indicates, as St. Paul says, the ‘fullness of time’, because in it human history has been wholly permeated by the ‘measurement’ of God himself: a transcendent presence of the ‘eternal now.’ ” #49
Advent is that time to get in touch with that ” divine self-communication”, to become aware of “human history that is permeated by the measurement of God himself” and the “powers of the Redemption, powers which fill humanity and all creation”. Right now in our world’s history we desperately need this power of the Incarnation to ” be made present in this new phase of man’s history on earth”.
We must realize that Advent and Christmas is a time where God is prepared to pour out anew many graces upon his children. Pro-lifers: in a special way this is our season. We who are pro-life should use this time when Christ came to our world first in a womb and then in a manger to renew ourselves to go out and build a ‘culture of life’.
Last Sunday, the 4th Sunday of Advent, one of the alternative opening prayers for the Catholic Mass included these words: “Your eternal Word took flesh on our earth when the Virgin Mary placed her life at the service of Your plan”. I was taken by this concept of Mary “at the service of” God’s plan of salvation, that is, she was at the service of the plan to redeem you and me. Her famous response to the Archangel Gabriel “Let it be done unto me according to your word” (Lk 1:38), was a wide open acceptance of God’s will – not only for the next year or two but – for the rest of her life… And what a life!
One of the Preface prayers at the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer (Preface of Advent II) was even more striking: “The virgin mother bore Him in her womb with love beyond all telling”. So we see in Mary this beautiful harmony of “service” and “love” –both “beyond all telling”. She was a teenager when she conceived Christ and she was on a trajectory of growing in service and love throughout her entire life. “Full of grace” before conceiving Christ, living a life of intensifying holiness, in the constant presence of God Most High made oh so tiny (in her womb).
We will never ever understand Mary unless we understand this: that she loved her unborn child with “love beyond all telling” during her first trimester, then even more so during her second trimester, and then to the breaking point during her third trimester! Her love of her son –God’s only begotten Son – simply continued to grow and deepen, grow and intensify, grow and re-define what love is and could be.
It is “love beyond all telling” because no human mind can fathom it! Think of Mary’s closeness to her baby when you think of these words from John’s Gospel: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth…And from his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace…” (Jn 1:14,16).
So Mary received grace from her baby and grew in her love for her baby and her God, and Jesus received His humanity from His mother and grew in His humanness and His solidarity with humanity. Each received from the other and grew in the gift received, mother and child.
Fresco of the Annunciation at the Pantheon, Rome, 15th century
In a homily Pope Paul VI gave in Nazareth on January 5, 1964 he reminded us that:
“The silence of Nazareth should teach us how to meditate in peace and quiet, to reflect on the deeply spiritual, and to be open to the voice of God’s inner wisdom and the counsel of his true teachers. Nazareth can teach us the value of study and preparation, of meditation, of a well-ordered personal spiritual life, and of silent prayer that is known only to God.”
Thirty years later, when Pope John Paul II visited Nazareth he brought forth something else Pope Paul VI had said in that 1964 homily:
“Here in the town which Pope Paul VI, when he visited Nazareth, called ‘the school of the Gospel’, where ‘we learn to look at and to listen to, to ponder and to penetrate the deep and mysterious meaning of the very simple, very humble and very beautiful appearing of the Son of God’. ” Nazareth: Pope John Paul II (homily) Solemnity of the Annunciation 25th March 2000
Filed under: Advent, Incarnation, Quotes from Great Christians, Unborn Jesus
Mary full of Life brings light to a dark world. Photo taken by Rob Howells, Director of Development Union Gospel Mission
Recently, we did a post about this beautiful billboard, Mary Full of Life. The idea for the sculpture and billboard were developed by Valerie Aschbacher. (Click here to see the original news story about this billboard.) Valerie sent out an email about her efforts to make sure it was lit up at night. She finally succeeded but shared her thoughts about the darkness surrounding the billboard.
“Saddened by this dark experience, I had hoped Mary Full of Life would become illuminated for all to see – as a real beacon of LIGHT amongst the dark landscape in the city. This morning, the Clear Channel President has notified me – the light is working now.”
This made me think how Mary’s pregnancy and the Unborn Christ Child illuminate our dark culture of death. Karl Adam in his book The Son of God (Sheed and Ward, 1934) writes about how Christ “holy and exalted as was his nature…appeared to us in purely human form, in the dubious condition of all that is transitory and temporal.” What can be a more ‘dubious condition’ to this world than a single cell or a developing unborn baby.
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta reminded us that the poor were really Christ in a ‘distressing disguise’. In our sad world, what disguise could be more distressing than an unborn baby?
In a post entitled Life Incarnate, two views ‘the aspiring f.o.o.l.’ (an aspiring ‘friend of our Lord’) writes these beautiful lines: “He consigned Himself to a torturous life on earth so that we might see, embodied as it is, what love is.”
When I see the billboard of Mary full of Life spreading the light of Jesus unborn to the dark world beneath it, I know this is ‘what love is’ – Jesus unborn ‘in the dubious condition of all that is transitory and temporal’ – yes a beautiful yet , ‘ distressing disguise’ that this dark world needs to behold.
“In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1: 4-5)
“He was despised and rejected by men…” Isaiah 53:3
Joseph and Mary (and her unborn baby) approach the Inn at Bethlehem. Humanity is given yet another opportunity to shine, to welcome the poor and accept the pregnant woman in need. The door is shut in their faces. Their need goes unmet. Their prospects for this birth are not bright.
Yet overhead there is a star (Mt 2:2). In Heaven’s “off stage” stood “the angel of the Lord” and “a multitude of the heavenly host” (Lk 2:9-14) waiting impatiently, by Heaven’s standards. Humanity had fallen again in reaching out to God. But this time, God the Father would arrange a special reception for His Son. Beasts, angels and humans would be drawn to the manger in Bethlehem.
But for now, Joseph, Mary (and the Unborn Christ Child) are homeless. As Jesus would observe three decades later: “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head” (Mt 8:20). Joseph and Mary again exercise faith in Almighty God and trust in His Providential plan for their lives, even as they huddle together, looking this way and that, for some idea of where to go next.
The last day of Mary’s redemptive pregnancy is the first day of the rest of our salvation history. A revelation like no other is about to break upon humanity’s shoreline. A great manifestation is about to unfold on earth’s stage. From the hidden uncharted depths of the womb God will come to visit His people.
But not yet! Mary walks slowly, following Joseph’s lead. The sky is darkening now, but still there is that glimmer of a star on the horizon. At this point we can join our prayers with Mary and Joseph, for this Unborn Baby and all unborn babies.
JUST 1 MORE PRAYING DAYS ‘TIL CHRIST’S BIRTH!
Under the Old Covenant God made His promises to the people of Israel. Then they waited. The prophets gave inspired prophecies. The people of Israel waited. Even in our own lives, we pray and wait for answers to our prayers. Promises, prophecies, prayers all lead us to the Messiah, to the Savior.
The Church’s Liturgical Year is a marvelous cycle of anticipation, celebration and reflection, focused on the life of Christ yet sweeping us along with that Life, through His many experiences. Today we wait for the humble birth of that baby Divine. The world is dedicated to distracting us, the devil is intent on minimalizing Christmas so that we celebrate it with mere token gestures that will hollow and weaken within seconds or minutes of these dutiful acknowledgments.
How should we wait then? Now is the time to intensify our prayer. The 270 days of that hallowed pregnancy have almost run their course. The redemptive pregnancy is about to break into earthly Revelation. In those days, Mary and Joseph were anticipating eagerly and praying with heightened frequency. This is the pattern for the Christian. Advent, like pregnancy, is about waiting on the Lord and praying. If the waiting gets more intense, so too the praying!
Surely we are at that point now. Soon, Joseph and Mary (and the Unborn Child within her) will be turned away from the inn at Bethlehem, experiencing rejection like many unborn children today. Tension is mounting for Unborn Jesus (and unborn children today). Why must human society reject this trinity of strangers in need, sending them off to the house of the beasts; a darkened cave stable?
For our part, we can welcome them into our hearts. Waiting is transformed by praying into welcoming. We know what to do.
JUST 2 MORE PRAYING DAYS ‘TIL CHRIST’S BIRTH!
God has modeled our beginnings on the beginnings of His Son; and the tiny embryo … is infinitely precious in the mind of God, for such was once His Christ in the womb of Mary….
From all eternity the pattern of development of the embryonic Christ had been chosen as the pattern of development for all the sons of men. The Spirit was the architect of the flesh of Christ and is now the architect of the biological building which has its tender foundation on the mother’s placenta….
Over the waters of the amnion hovers the Spirit of God as once He hovered over the waters of the world in the primeval dawn of its creation. The love of God, the Spirit, breathes order … overshadowing with His wings the exquisite geometry of its growth.
Whole regiments of cells are marching at the whispered command of the Spirit; cells which are unconscious of the functions they will enjoy….
So the building progresses; so the windows of the senses are built; so the pattern of the embryonic Christ is followed. For the Spirit is the architect of His own Temple….
The Father creates. The Son is the Model. The Spirit is the Architect.
…. The unborn hands are clasped by the hands of the embryonic Christ.
At term the infant will have eyes like the eyes of the infant Christ, senses like the senses of Christ; ears, nose, the same humanity, the same reflexes.
From Neuroses and Sacraments by Alan Keenan, O.F.M.
Published by Sheed & Ward, 1950
JUST 4 MORE PRAYING DAYS ‘TIL CHRIST’S BIRTH!
On one occasion, when Jesus was preaching the Gospel message as an adult, he encountered a lack of faith. He looked up to heaven and called out: “I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will” (Mt 11:25 26). This time, he did not employ children but babies to illustrate His point. Jesus Himself points towards infancy.
Saint Josemaria Escriva once quipped in reference to “spiritual childhood”: “Be little, very little. Don’t be more than two years old, three at the most.” This half serious, half playful advice is thought provoking. There almost seems to be a progression here that suggests we not only become like children, but especially like “little” children, if not outright babies! And if trusting dependence upon God our Father is baby like, then why not become as trusting as unborn babies?
Unborn Jesus was content to dwell serenely within the womb of His mother for nine months, trusting in God the Father and relying on both for His needs. In this He serves as an example for us. (Just as thirty years later He slept quietly in a boat during a turbulent and terrifying storm, so these two images show us how Jesus trusted God the Father during the everyday events of life, as unborn baby and adult.) This trusting attitude was tied to His complete confidence in the will of God the Father.
Unborn Jesus had been entrusted to His mother as every other unborn child is. Truly, in every unborn child within the womb we witness the epitome of entrusting one life to another. And every unborn child should enjoy complete security and peace within the womb of his or her mother, just as Jesus did. As Pope John Paul II observed, “The God of the Covenant has entrusted the life of every individual to his or her fellow human beings, brothers and sisters, according to the law of reciprocity in giving and receiving, of self giving and the acceptance of others. In the fullness of time, by taking flesh and giving his life for us, the Son of God showed what heights and depths this law of reciprocity can reach.”
JUST 5 MORE PRAYING DAYS ‘TIL CHRIST’S BIRTH!
As Jesus nears Bethlehem we can contemplate His life within Mary’s womb. Pride was the great sin of our first parents – but right at the beginning, in the womb, Jesus shows us the way of humility.
“We cannot contemplate this stage of Our Lord s life without being struck first of all by the humility and self-abasement of it, by the way in which in some sense He annihilated Himself that He might do His Father’s Will. St. Paul says : “He emptied Himself…. being made in the likeness of men” (Phil. 11.7) . He stripped Himself, robbed Himself of all that He possessed: Semetipsum exinanivit.
We know that Mary, His created Home, was chaste and pure, that no breath of sin had ever touched her, that the Holy Spirit Himself had overshadowed her and had undertaken the preparation and the adornment of the earthly Tabernacle of the Word ; but pure and holy though she was, Mary was only a creature and He was the Creator. He was God and she was one of the human race. His place was on the highest throne of Heaven and yet “He abhorred not the Virgin s womb” but there lived hidden from the sight of all, like any other infant and yet wholly unlike, because He had full possession of His faculties and intelligence.
In the manger He will be seen, and so will be loved, pitied and worshiped ; there will be many consolations which will go far to lessen and soften His humiliations, but here, He is alone, hidden ; His very existence not even suspected. He has annihilated Him self, made Himself nothing. He could have taken our nature, had He so wished, without all these humiliations ; why then did He despise not the Virgin’s womb?
Because this is to be His principle all through His life, He will love “unto the end”. He will leave nothing undone that He could possibly do. He came to do His Father’s Will and He will do it thoroughly. He will bear all the humiliations because He wants to be my Model and to teach me that there is only one way of learning humility.”
Mother St. Paul, Ortus Christi
JUST 6 MORE PRAYING DAYS ‘TIL CHRIST’S BIRTH!
Imagine you are a scoundrel. C’mon…we are all scoundrels sometimes, even if just for a few minutes at a time.
Well anyway, imagine that there was a scoundrel who lived in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. A scoundrel who had a conscience…and his conscience bothered him a lot. This winter he was particularly nasty. One night an angel appeared to him in a dream and said to him “Go out to Bethlehem tomorrow night to the fields where the sheep graze and someone will speak to you there. They will direct you to a cave and God will meet you there.”
The next night he fearfully does as the angel commanded him, not sure if he would even live another day. He was terrified of meeting God face to face. The hours go by and he distracts himself making small talk with the local shepherds. It gets colder. Suddenly:
“An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, ‘Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!’” (Luke 2:9-14)
They hurry towards the caves and find one aglow with soft light. They gather ‘round the entrance to the cave, the scoundrel hanging back in the shadows. No one is speaking. The scoundrel gets up his nerve and quietly moves forward into the light. He sees a man half kneeling, half crouching forward, and beside him a woman who is kneeling in prayer. ‘Where is God and where is the baby?’ he wonders. He moves closer, and suddenly he sees the baby lying there in the manger. He is given an inspiration; that God and the baby are One! The baby turns His head slightly and looks up at the scoundrel. Then in the depths of his soul the scoundrel hears the words: “Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace.”
Most of the words spoken that Silent Night were spoken in the depths of souls.
JUST 7 MORE PRAYING DAYS ‘TIL CHRIST’S BIRTH!
Filed under: Advent
Joy was the hallmark of St. John the Baptist’s first meeting with the Lord at the Visitation (Luke 1:39-45). Since Mary had kept her secret to herself, the unborn John was the first human being to bear witness to the Messiah! Why did God choose an unborn baby? Indeed, and why not? No physical human eyes whether adult’s or child’s could have seen the one week old Unborn Jesus. And how did unborn John bear witness? With a joyful leap!
“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. …For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.” Luke 1:41-44
There are many ways to preach the Gospel. The sheer joy and leap of this unborn baby is like the first Gospel sermon ever preached. John in his mother’s womb teaches us that, even without words, joy is a great way to introduce Christ to others. Let us spread joy: a joyful smile, a pleasant word, a cheerful disposition, a happy meeting, a merry gathering and even, if need be, a joyful leap. During the Advent and Christmas season we can imitate John and introduce others to Christ through our joy.
JUST 8 MORE PRAYING DAYS ‘TIL CHRIST’S BIRTH!
Filed under: Advent
In those days Mary arose and went with hast into the hill country, to a city of Judah. Luke 1:39
After receiving the Angel’s message Mary set out on a three to four day journey to visit her cousin Elizabeth. We are not told whether relatives or friends accompanied her. Perhaps she traveled with a caravan heading towards Jerusalem. But if she was traveling in a group for all or part of the journey, we will assume that she was not doing a lot of talking.
Rather she had hours upon hours to ponder in her heart all that had happened to her and the message that had been delivered to her. In the quiet of her thoughts and prayers a stream of realization flowed swiftly, carrying her along, and almost overflowing its banks. Father Faber presents the scene: “Like a new pulse of impetuous gladness, the Babe in Mary’s Bosom drives her forth. With swift step, as if the precipitate gracefulness of her walk were the outward sign of her inward joy, and she were beating time with her body to the music that was so jubilant within….”
Advent is a time to rediscover the joy of Christ’s coming into the world as our Savior. Like Mary let us capture moments of interior silence (even in days filled with activity). Let us ponder these things in our hearts to once again rediscover their true meaning.
God gives us this time of Advent to participate in Mary’s joy – the joy she felt when she found herself expecting the long awaited Messiah. For we too are expecting His joy and a renewal of His love at Christmas. Advent is a time to rediscover the saving power of the infant Christ born so long ago in Bethlehem – a time to regroup within ourselves and rediscover His presence in our souls.
JUST 12 MORE PRAYING DAYS ‘TIL CHRIST’S BIRTH!
Filed under: Advent
Today December 12th is the feastday of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It is not surprising that her feastday comes in this time of Advent because Our Lady of Guadalupe is truly the perfect Advent image.
Father Frank Pavone points out that “In the image, Our Lady is pregnant, carrying the Son of God in her womb. Her head is bowed in homage, indicating that she is not the Goddess, but rather the one who bears and at the same time worships the one true God.” Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Pro-life Movement
We know she was with child in this image because she wears a black belt which was the Aztec Maternity Belt.
On January 23, 1999 in a homily at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe John Paul II called the “Basilica of Guadalupe, the Marian heart of America”.
He went on to say:
“The Apostle Paul teaches us that in the fullness of time God sent his Son, born of a woman, to redeem us from sin and to make us his sons and daughters. Accordingly, we are no longer servants but children and heirs of God (cf. Gal 4:4-7).
Therefore, the Church must proclaim the Gospel of life and speak out with prophetic force against the culture of death. May the Continent of Hope also be the Continent of Life!
This is our cry: life with dignity for all! For all who have been conceived in their mother’s womb, for street children, for Guadalupe! To you we present this countless multitude of the faithful praying to God in America. You who have penetrated their hearts, visit and comfort the homes, parishes and Dioceses of the whole continent.
Grant that Christian families may exemplarily raise their children in the Church’s faith and in love of the Gospel, so that they will be the seed of apostolic vocations. Turn your gaze today upon young people and encourage them to walk with Jesus Christ.
O Lady and Mother of America!”
JUST 13 MORE PRAYING DAYS ‘TIL CHRIST’S BIRTH!
UNBORN WORD of the day 