Mariazell Basilica

In the 12th century, the Abbot of the Benedictine Monastery of St. Lambert sent one of his monks, Magnus, to evangelize the people living in an area located in what is now eastern Austria. Magnus took with him a statue of Our Lady that he had carved out of a linden tree. As he made his way, he encountered a huge boulder that blocked his path. Magnus knelt in prayer begging Our Lady’s intercessory help, miraculously the boulder split creating an opening for him to continue his journey.

When Magnus arrived at his destination, he placed the statue of Mary on a tree trunk and proceeded to build a wooden structure around the trunk that became his cell. Hence, was derived the name Mary’s cell or in German Mariazell.

Around the year 1200, the Margrave Henry of Morovia and his wife had the same dream in which St. Wenceslaus counseled them to make a pilgrimage to Mariazell to be cured of the debilitating disease from which they both suffered. When they came to Mariazell, they were both miraculously cured. In thanksgiving to God and Our Lady of Mariazell, they had stone chapel built in Mariazell.

In 1377, King Ludwig of Hungary and his army encountered a vastly superior force of Bulgarian Muslims. The king decided to retreat without engaging the opposing army. That night, however, Our Lady appeared to the King in his dreams encouraging him. Ludwig then led his army into battle where they won a remarkable victory. In gratitude to Mary’s succor, King Ludwig enlarged the stone church at Mariazell into a magnificent Gothic church.

The basilica was enlarged in the 17th century and two baroque towers were erected on each side of the Gothic tower.

The shrine of Our Lady of Mariazell has been the site of pilgrimages and processions for centuries and countless miracles have occurred through her maternal intercession with God. Inside the basilica, the statue of Our Lady of Mariazell is enthroned on a silver altar under a baldachin supported by silver columns.

The statue’s figures of Our Lady and the Infant Jesus wear richly brocaded robes every day except for the feast day of Our Lady of Mariazell.

There are two interesting phenomena associated with the statue of Our Lady of Mariazell. The first is that the statue has never been exactly replicated. Although sculptors over the years have made numerous reproductions of the statue, no one has ever been able to sculpt an exact reproduction. Also, the faces of Jesus and Mary never gather any dirt or show sign of decay.

Our Lady of Mariazell is not only the Mother of Austria, but also of Hungary and the Slavic peoples. That is why she is called Magna Mater Austria (Great Mother of Austria), Magna Hungarorium Domina (Great Lady of the Hungarians), and Mater Gentium Slavorum (Mother of the Slavic Peoples). Indeed she is Mother to the whole human race.

 - Excerpt from an article written by John O’ Connell

Thy birth , O Virgin Mother of God ,

heralded joy to all the world.

For from thou hast risen the Sun of justice,

Christ our God.

Destroying the curse , He gave blessing ;

and damning death , He bestowed on us

life everlasting.

Blessed art thou among women

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

For from thou hast risen of Sun of justice,

Christ our God.

- The Divine Office , Matins (Morning Prayer)

O dear Jesus , I humbly implore You to grant  Your special graces to our family. May our home be the shrine of peace , purity , love , labor and faith. I beg you , dear Jesus , to      protect and bless all of us , absent and present , living and dead.

O Mary, loving Mother of Jesus , and our Mother , pray to Jesus for our family , for all the families of the world , to guard the cradle of the newborn , the schools of the young  and their vocations.

Blessed Saint Joseph , holy guardians of Jesus and Mary , assist us by your prayers in all the necessities of life. Ask of Jesus that special grace which he granted to you to watch over our home at the pillow of the sick and dying , so that with Mary and with you, heaven  may find our family unbroken in the Sacred Heart of Jesus . Amen

- From the Most Sacred of Jesus and Mary Prayer Book

The Most Holy Virgin  Mary Crowned Queen of Heaven

El Lucero de la Grada Monastery of  Carmel, Cuenca de los Andes, Ecuador

“Remember , My children, come to My Mother ; for Her memory of Her human days  upon earth, She  above all humans created - sinless, without the stigma of sin, a perfect life upon earth without sin, and assumed into Heaven, body and spirit - She above all  can direct you because She is your Mother ; She is the Queen of Heaven, and the Mother of every human being upon earth. “

- Jesus , August 14 , 1979

Almighty, ever-living God, You raised  to eternal glory the body and soul of the immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of Your Son. Grant that our minds may always be directed heavenward and that we may deserve to share in her glory. Amen

The Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother follows the tradition of recognizing Mary’s death and resurrection.

This holiday has been celebrated for many years by Christians. Some believe the date of August 15 was set to coincide with popular pagan harvest festivals of the time. It wasn’t  for many centuries of popular request , before Pope Pius XII declared Mary’s assumption to be a dogma or a fundamental belief of Catholics. The declaration occurred on November 1, 1950. 

Devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel is worldwide, and most Catholics are familiar with the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, also known as the Brown Scapular. Mary appeared to St. Simon Stock on July 16, 1251, and gave him the scapular  with the following words, which are preserved  in a fourteenth century narrative : “This will be for you and for all Carmelites the privilege, that he who dies in this will not suffer eternal fire.” The feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel  was instituted for the Carmelites in 1332, and extended to the whole Church by Benedict XIII in 1726 . Today is also the principal feast day of the Carmelite Order.

Novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel

O Blessed Lady of Mount Carmel, grant that we may share in all the prayers and penances  of your holy cloistered daughters of the Carmelite Order. Bless their labors and pray that they may be a source of spiritual strength to all of us who struggle in the world outside their peaceful walls.

O Mary. who entered the world free from stain, obtain for me from God that I may pass out of it free from sin. Amen

Prayer to Our Mother of Perpetual Help

O Mother of Perpetual Help, grant that I may ever invoke thy most powerful name, which is the safeguard of the living  and the salvation of the dying.  O purest Mary, O sweetest Mary, let thy name be henceforth ever on my lips. Delay not , O Blessed Lady, to help me , whenever I call on thee; for, in all my temptations, in all my needs, I shall never cease to call on thee, ever repeating thy sacred name, Mary, Mary.

O what consolation, what sweetness, what confidence, what emotion, feel my soul when I utter thy sacred name, or even only think of thee. I thank the Lord for having given thee, for my good, so sweet, so powerful, so lovely a name. But I will not be content with merely uttering thy name. Let my love for thee prompt me  ever to hail thee, Mother of Perpetual Help.

In the community I live in, families have a tradition of “adopting” for a weeks time a miraculous statue of Our Lady of Fatima. Our Lady is transferred to the next adopting family  by procession around the community, usually on Saturday nights. Once the home of the adopting family is reached, the statue of Our Lady is then placed in an altar prepared  just for her by family members. Her altar is decorated with flowers and candles and is covered with lace , silk or satin material. A welcome prayer is then said by the head of the family and snacks are served afterwards. During the whole week, every night, the Rosary and the Litany of the Blessed Mother are recited by family members, each member takes turn nightly in leading the prayer. When seven days comes to an end, the members of the family recites the parting prayer and sends the miraculous statue to the next adoptive home together with the community.

Prayer to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Immaculate Heart of Mary,

full of love for God and mankind,

and of compassion for sinners,

I consecrate myself to you.

I entrust to you the salvation of my soul.

May my heart be ever united with yours,

so that I may hate sin,

love God and my neighbor,

and reach eternal life with

those  whom I love.

May I experience the kindness of your motherly heart

and the power of your intercession with Jesus

during my life and at the hour of my death.

                                                          Amen                                                                                                                                                                

During the middle ages, May day celebrations, honoring new life, became associated with Mary. The May Hawthorn, which bears white blossoms in early spring became known as  Mary’s Flower of May. In earlier times “bringing in the May”, the “May” being the flowering branches of any tree in bloom on the first of May, was the custom on the first of May in England and parts of Scotland.

The faithful saw Mary’s attributes in the herbs and flowers growing around them and named many plants after her. Legends about the flowers developed as people sought to connect them with event’s in Mary’s life.

Mary was associated with this passage from the Song of Song’s (2:1)

I am the Rose of Sharon, the lily of the valleys.

Roses and lilies became Mary’s flowers. A legend from the second century says that when Mary’s tomb was opened to show Thomas that her body had been assumed into heaven, it was filled with these flowers. The Venerable Bede (673-735) compared Our Lady to the lily ,

. . . . the white petals signifying her bodily purity, the golden anthers the glowing light of her soul. . . .

The Madonna lily was associated with the Annunciation and lilies are often depicted in scenes of the angels visit to Mary.

Tradition tells us that the Amazon lily was the Star of Bethlehem guiding the Magi to Jesus. Other lilies were associated  with Mary. The red lily was Mary’s lily and the Martagon or turban lily was called Our Lady’s Tears. Hosta or plantain lily was the Assumption lily.

Rose legends proliferated, reaching their peak in the twelfth century. The Rosa Alba turned pink when mary blushed at the angel’s annunciation, the Christmas Rose sprang up to provide flowers for the poor shepherd girl who had no gift for the Infant Jesus, the Rose of Jericho marked the spot where the Holy Family rested during their Flight into Egypt, and the Rose Campion saved the life of a lord who prayed “Our Lady’s psalter.”

In the fourteenth century the poet Dante called Mary “the Rose, in which the divine Word became flesh. . . ” Many artists of the fifteenth century painted Mary with roses, often in a rose garden.

We can honor Mary this month by recalling the attributes of Mary called out by flowers and herbs named after her. The flowers can serve as starting points for prayer and meditation about Mary and her life.