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"You are all beautiful, Mary,
and the original stain [of sin] is not in you.
Your clothing is white as snow, and your face is like the sun".
From the Lady chapel of St Wilfrid's Catholic church in Preston. Today, 8 December, is the feast of the Immaculate Conception.
A rather unusual depiction of the Annunciation from a 5th-century mosaic in St Mary Major in Rome. Following iconographic convention, the Blessed Virgin Mary is shown spinning wool when the angel appears to her. She is enthroned in queenly garments, the Spirit descends like a dove, and another angel flies overhead.
My sermon for today's feast of the Presentation of Our Lady can be read here.
The Virgin of Mercy which is above the entrance of the church of Notre Dame de France off Leicester Square in London is the work of the sculptor George Saupique who is the author of the sculptures of the 'Palais du Trocadéro' in Paris.
"'Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts you sucked!’ But [Jesus] replied, ‘Still happier those who hear the word of God and keep it!'"
- Luke 11:27f, the Gospel for the Vigil Mass of the Assumption.
15th-century roundel of the Virgin Mary suckling the infant Christ in Newcastle Cathedral.
This weekend is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
"We ask you, Lord, to bestow upon your servants the gift of heavenly grace.
When the Virgin gave birth it was the beginning of our salvation:
may the celebration of her own birthday increase our peace.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever. Amen."
Detail from a reredos in Burgos Cathedral of a very calm St Anne, reading a book having just given birth to her daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary.
During my visit to Limerick I used a number of different lenses. In this instance I used a Sony A7RM2 body with a Zeiss Batis 25mm Lens which I really like.
St Mary's Cathedral, Limerick, also known as Limerick Cathedral, is a cathedral of the Church of Ireland in Limerick, Ireland which is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is in the ecclesiastical province of Dublin. Previously the cathedral of the Diocese of Limerick, it is now one of three cathedrals in the United Dioceses of Limerick and Killaloe.
Today the cathedral is still used for its original purpose as a place of worship and prayer for the people of Limerick. It is open to the public every day from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm. Following the retirement of the Very Rev'd Maurice Sir on June 24, 2012, Bishop Trevor Williams announced the appointment of the Rev'd Sandra Ann Pragnell as Dean of Limerick and Rector of Limerick City Parish. She is the first female dean of the cathedral and rector of the Limerick parish. The cathedral grounds holds a United Nations Memorial Plaque with the names of all the Irish men who died while serving in the United Nations Peacekeepers.
Catholic tradition holds that Jesus appeared to Mary after his Resurrection, and this mosaic in Westminster Cathedral depicts that.
"Today the king of heaven has deigned to be born of a virgin for us, to recall fallen man to his heavenly kingdom. Hosts of angels rejoice, for eternal salvation has come to the human race."
- from a Matins responsory for Christmas day. My sermon for Christmas day can be read here.
Detail from a window in St Dominic's priory church, London.
"The Holy Cross shines upon us. In the Cross is victory. In the Cross is power. By the Cross every sin is overcome. Alleluia!"
- Lauds antiphon for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which is today, 14 September.
This window is in St Sepulchre's church in the City of London.
"In Bethlehem in Judea, anyone looking in at the stable would have seen just a newborn baby cradled by his mother; a beautifully human, timeless, and perennial scene. Like any other newborn, the Christ Child was helpless, and utterly reliant on the love, warmth, attention, and care of others. But despite appearances, this was no ordinary Child. As one carol puts it, this “Offspring of a Virgin’s womb veiled in flesh the Godhead”. So, with the eyes of faith… Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and the wise men all saw that this needy baby was the Son of God; the one whom the angels worship. Today, in this Bethlehem, although we will look on what appears to be ordinary bread, we too know by faith that the Eucharistic Bread is the Bread of Angels. For beneath the veil of the consecrated bread and wine is the real and living Presence of Jesus himself; it is God’s Word made flesh and dwelling among us. And so, like the angels, shepherds, and Magi, we have come to Bethlehem to adore the Lord who is, so to speak, newly-born in the sacrament of the Eucharist. And the altar becomes the Lord’s manger; our feeding-trough, for from it we are fed with our heavenly food."
The rest of my sermon for Christmas day can be read here.
Detail from a stained glass window by Francis Spear (1953) in St Mungo's Cathedral, Glasgow.
"And O what miracle divine,
When water reddened into wine!
He spake the word, and forth it flowed
In streams that nature ne’er bestowed."
– translated from the 5th-century Latin hymn for the Epiphany by Sedulius.
Through the miracle at the Marriage in Cana, Christ reveals himself to be God, the divine Bridegroom of hid beloved people, Israel, who gives more than we could ever imagine: not just forgiveness for sins, but divine life through grace.
This stained glass window by Patrick Reyntiens is in Ampleforth Abbey.
During my visit to Limerick I used a number of different lenses. In this instance I used a Sony A7RM2 body with a Zeiss Batis 25mm Lens which I really like.
St Mary's Cathedral, Limerick, also known as Limerick Cathedral, is a cathedral of the Church of Ireland in Limerick, Ireland which is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is in the ecclesiastical province of Dublin. Previously the cathedral of the Diocese of Limerick, it is now one of three cathedrals in the United Dioceses of Limerick and Killaloe.
Today the cathedral is still used for its original purpose as a place of worship and prayer for the people of Limerick. It is open to the public every day from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm. Following the retirement of the Very Rev'd Maurice Sir on June 24, 2012, Bishop Trevor Williams announced the appointment of the Rev'd Sandra Ann Pragnell as Dean of Limerick and Rector of Limerick City Parish. She is the first female dean of the cathedral and rector of the Limerick parish. The cathedral grounds holds a United Nations Memorial Plaque with the names of all the Irish men who died while serving in the United Nations Peacekeepers.
"The closer something gets to a principle, the more it participates in that principle's effects... Now, Christ is the principle of grace, authoritatively in his divinity and instrumentally in his humanity... But the Blessed Virgin was the closest to Christ with regard to his humanity, because he took his human nature from her. And so, she had to receive from Christ a fullness of grace, greater than that of all others".
– St Thomas Aquinas OP.
This statue of the Virgin Mary, pregnant with the living Word of God, is in the Dominican priory church of San Esteban in Salamanca.
"For us Iraqis, Iraqi Christians, Mary means a lot to us . She’s our mother, our true mother. We love her so much. She’s the bridge to Jesus. We go always to her and through her to Jesus. She doesn’t keep anything for herself, she's very humble. So when you go to her she'll always lead you to Jesus and from Jesus in the Spirit to God the Father." ~Wisam from Iraq Lourdes grotto at Shrine of Our Lady of Snows, Belleville, Illinois, USA.
"You are all beautiful, Mary,
and the original stain [of sin] is not in you.
You are the glory of Jerusalem, you are the joy of Israel, you give honour to our people".
Statue in the church of San Marcos in Salamanca, Spain. Today, 8 December, is the feast of the Immaculate Conception.
"God’s love for us was revealed when God sent into the world his only Son so that we could have life through him"
– 1 Jn 4:9.
My sermon for today, the 5th day of Christmas can be read here.
Detail from a window by Kempe in All Saints' church, Cambridge.
Title: Murillo, Sex Purisima Concepcion
Alternative Title: [Murillo, The Immaculate Conception.]
Creator: Unknown
Date: Unknown
Part Of: Collection of photographs of Spain and Malta
Place: Spain
Physical Description: 1 photographic print: albumen; 13 x 10 cm on 23 x 26 cm
File: ag2015_0007_14_v_b_opt.jpg
Rights: Please cite DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University when using this file. A high-resolution version of this file may be obtained for a fee. For details see the sites.smu.edu/cul/degolyer/research/permissions/ web page. For other information, contact degolyer@smu.edu.
For more information and to view the image in high resolution, see: digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/eaa/id/2060
Digital Collection: Europe, Asia, and Australia: Photographs, Manuscripts, and Imprints
During my visit to Limerick I used a number of different lenses. In this instance I used a Sony A7RM2 body with a Zeiss Batis 25mm Lens which I really like.
St Mary's Cathedral, Limerick, also known as Limerick Cathedral, is a cathedral of the Church of Ireland in Limerick, Ireland which is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is in the ecclesiastical province of Dublin. Previously the cathedral of the Diocese of Limerick, it is now one of three cathedrals in the United Dioceses of Limerick and Killaloe.
Today the cathedral is still used for its original purpose as a place of worship and prayer for the people of Limerick. It is open to the public every day from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm. Following the retirement of the Very Rev'd Maurice Sir on June 24, 2012, Bishop Trevor Williams announced the appointment of the Rev'd Sandra Ann Pragnell as Dean of Limerick and Rector of Limerick City Parish. She is the first female dean of the cathedral and rector of the Limerick parish. The cathedral grounds holds a United Nations Memorial Plaque with the names of all the Irish men who died while serving in the United Nations Peacekeepers.
"Mary, conceived without sin,
pray for us who have recourse to you!"
Detail from the ceiling of Santa Susanna, the American church in Rome. Today, 8 December, is the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Incidentally, the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception is patroness of the USA.
"Mary to me my Mother is love. She is the greatest love you can ever feel for your children, she feels for you because you're her child. That same love, it's amazing. When I think that this same with which she loved her son, Jesus Christ, she loves us. It's awesome to me. It makes me weep and I love her so much."
~Mary from Scotland
'Our Lady of the Mountains,' from the parish of the same name in Jasper, Georgia, USA.
A window from the Lady chapel of St Cyprian's church in London by Sir Ninian Comper.
25 March is the Solemnity of the Annunciation, when Jesus Christ, the Word of God, took flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. Through her assent to the message which the angel Gabriel announced to her, Mary became the Mother of our Saviour and the gateway of our salvation.
"The Child at Bethlehem is a profound image of God’s love for us; he entrusts his Son to humanity, who humbles himself to become as vulnerable as a human baby. O great mystery! But the wonder of Christmas is excelled by the mystery of the Eucharist. Because Christ loves and trusts us so much that he humbles himself, and acting through his priest, he becomes utterly vulnerable; he becomes truly present as our real food, and real drink under the form of Bread and Wine. O marvellous sacrament! Through the Blessed Sacrament, Christ entrusts himself to us, and he is united to our flesh, to our humanity. In this way, Christ is eminently Emmanuel - God-with-us - because the Word became flesh and dwelt among us… Not just in this church in the tabernacle, but in us, in the tabernacle of our very bodies."
The rest of my sermon for Christmas day can be read here.
This stained glass window is in the chapel of St Joseph's Institution in Singapore.
Mid-14th century glass from Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford. I have photoshopped this to remove the figure of a bishop that is currently positioned between the angel and Our Lady.
25 March is the Solemnity of the Annunciation, when Jesus Christ, the Word of God, took flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. Through her assent to the message which the angel Gabriel announced to her, Mary became the Mother of our Saviour and the gateway of our salvation.
"Something that I like as an English British Catholic is that we seem to have a particular devotion: England is Mary's dowry, and we say a Hail Mary in Mass after the bidding prayers .. So it adds a certain specialness to the fact of being British and Catholic and the place of Our Lady in our lives."
~Penelope from England
Statue of Our Lady in Jesuit House Chapel, Mount Street Jesuit Centre (attached to Farm Street parish), Mayfair, London, UK.
Such statues a very seldom on mountains. Usualy on tragical issues. I know one under a dangerous access to a summit (Vanil Carré), together with the name of one who died. The third is on the Monte Moro Col ( ~ 2900 m) between Matmark (Saas Valley, Wallis) and Macugnaga (Italy) A giant golden Madonna, perhaps in relation with the Mattmark disaster during the sixties where an ice fall from the Mattmark glacier killed many, mainly italian workers.
Some intuition for the reason of such statue at this unusual place. She is not at the summit (with it's unavoidable cross), but beside, near the startpoint of the very steep and dangerous ski mountainering descent of the northface. I achieved it only one time, some years ago, but I'm happy above all to be still alive ! May be, all were not as lucky to escape... Any fall would have been deadly in the middle part of the northface (cliffs below) and avalanche danger is seldom low...
"God, our Father,
since you gave mankind a saviour through blessed Mary, virgin and mother,
grant that we may feel the power of her intercession
when she pleads for us with Jesus Christ, your Son, the author of life,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever. Amen."
Én ezzel a képpel kívánok áldott, boldog új esztendőt, bort, búzát, békességet!
Happy New Year to all of you!
Today's memorial (21 November) in honour of the Blessed Virgin was first observed in the West in England in the 11th century and became a Roman feast in the 14th century. Because of its relatively late emergence, Pope Pius V actually removed it from the Tridentine-reformed Breviary but it was restored by Pope Sixtus V in 1585, thus firmly establishing this feast in the Universal Calendar of the Church. However, it seems to date to the 8th century in the Eastern Church wherein on 21 October, the Greek books mark a Feast of the 'Entrance of the All-Holy Mother of God into the Temple'. This, according to Butler's 'Lives of the Saints' links it to a commemoration of the basilica of St Mary the New in Jerusalem in 543.
Whatever the provenance of today's memorial, it is yet another opportunity to focus on the total dedication of Our Lady to the will of the Father, for this day commemorates the belief that when Mary was three years old, her parents, Ss Joachim and Anne, took her to the Temple to be educated. The 'Protoevangelium of James' rather touchingly notes that although Our Lady was only three, the Holy Spirit so endowed her with grace that she did not cling to her parents and instead "danced with her feet and all the house of Israel loved her", for which Ss Joachim and Anne thanked God and marvelled at His goodness.
This stained glass detail is from Our Lady of Victories in Kensington, London.
"I have a miraculous medal ..which has been an incredible witness - so many people have stopped me in the street and in shops.. all nationalities, faiths, everyone is interested in it."
~Katherine from England
This statue of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal is enshrined at the chapel at 140 Rue du Bac, Paris, France.
"Mary is my mother. She is somebody for whom I feel a great devotion and love. I especially think of her mantle of protection being over me at all times and over those whom I love. She's a central part of my faith because she brings me closer to her son Jesus and I feel connected with the love that they all have for everybody. So I am eternally grateful to Our Lord for calling me into the Catholic Church and giving me Mary as my mother."
~Mark from England
Gardens of San Carlos Borromeo Mission in Carmel, California, USA.
"Father,
you prepared the Virgin Mary
to be the worthy mother of your Son.
You let her share beforehand
in the salvation Christ
would bring by his death,
and kept her sinless
from the first moment of her conception.
Help us by her prayers
to live in your presence without sin.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever. Amen."
Detail from the west window of Ampleforth Abbey. Today, 8 December, is the feast of the Immaculate Conception.
Cave at Lourdes
Our Lady of Lourdes is a Roman Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary venerated in honour of the Marian apparitions that occurred in 1858 in the vicinity of Lourdes in France. The first of these is the apparition of 11 February 1858, when 14-year old Bernadette Soubirous told her mother that a "lady" spoke to her in the cave of Massabielle (a kilometre and a half (1 mi) from the town) while she was gathering firewood with her sister and a friend.[3] Similar apparitions of the "Lady" were reported on eighteen occasions that year, until the climax revelation of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception took place.[4]
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth;
we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father"
– John 1:14, which is part of today's Gospel at Mass. My sermon for today can be read here.
This stained glass window is in Willingham parish church.
"Your birthday, Virgin Mother of God, brought news of joy for the whole world, for from you has risen the shining sun of justice, Christ our God, who redeemed us from the curse and blessed us instead, who defeated death and gave us everlasting life."
- Benedictus antiphon for the Birthday of the Virgin Mary.
Today, 8 September, is the feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This striking stained glass window by Patrick Reyntiens, in the Lady Chapel aisle of Ampleforth Abbey, tries to depict this momentous event in salvation history.
During my visit to Limerick I used a number of different lenses. In this instance I used a Sony A7RM2 body with a Zeiss Batis 25mm Lens which I really like.
St Mary's Cathedral, Limerick, also known as Limerick Cathedral, is a cathedral of the Church of Ireland in Limerick, Ireland which is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is in the ecclesiastical province of Dublin. Previously the cathedral of the Diocese of Limerick, it is now one of three cathedrals in the United Dioceses of Limerick and Killaloe.
Today the cathedral is still used for its original purpose as a place of worship and prayer for the people of Limerick. It is open to the public every day from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm. Following the retirement of the Very Rev'd Maurice Sir on June 24, 2012, Bishop Trevor Williams announced the appointment of the Rev'd Sandra Ann Pragnell as Dean of Limerick and Rector of Limerick City Parish. She is the first female dean of the cathedral and rector of the Limerick parish. The cathedral grounds holds a United Nations Memorial Plaque with the names of all the Irish men who died while serving in the United Nations Peacekeepers.
"The Annunciation to Mary inaugurates "the fullness of time", the time of the fulfillment of God's promises and preparations. Mary was invited to conceive him in whom the "whole fullness of deity" would dwell "bodily". The divine response to her question, "How can this be, since I know not man?", was given by the power of the Spirit: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you."
- from the Catechism of the Catholic Church
Detail from a beautiful window by Christopher Webb, c.1939 in St Alban's Cathedral. 25 March is the Solemnity of the Annunciation.