“Mary, in the course of history, has not failed to show her motherly care for the little ones…think of…Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta of Fatima.” -St. John Paul II Dollsfromheaven.com
“There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary.” -Sister Lucia Dollsfromheaven.com
In honor of Our Lady of Fatima and her message of peace and prayer to the world, we created the Our Lady of Fatima Outfit & Book to accompany our Mary doll!! To order one go to: Dollsfromheaven.com
“Don’t lose heart. I will never forsake you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.” -Our Lady of Fatima Dollsfromheaven.com
Inspire the child in your life to follow God’s will for their lives and to be humble, kind, and faithful like Our Blessed Mother, Mary! Order one today at: Dollsfromheaven.com
Mary’s second outfit is based on one of the apparitions of Our Blessed Mother, Our Lady of Fatima. A story that will teach children the love for prayer, especially the Holy Rosary. http://www.dollsfromheaven.com/blog/meet-our-new-doll
Master of the Embroidered Foliage - Virgin and Child in a Landscape
Master of the Embroidered Foliage (active 1480 – 1510) was a Netherlandish painter or a group of painters who worked out of Bruges and Brussels.
n 1926 the German art historian Max Jakob Friedländer attributed a group of paintings of the Virgin and Child in a landscape, in identical poses to “Master of the Embroidered Foliage.” The foliage painted in these works was likened by Friedländer to the repeated pattern of stitches in embroidery, thus the unusual name for the artist.
Max Jakob Friedländer (5 July 1867 in Berlin – 11 October 1958 in Amsterdam) was a German museum curator and art historian. He was a specialist in Early Netherlandish painting and the Northern Renaissance, who volunteered at the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin in 1891 under Friedrich Lippmann. On Lippmann’s recommendation, Wilhelm von Bode took him on as his assistant in 1896 for the paintings division. He was appointed deputy director under Bode in 1904 and became director himself from 1924 to 1932, working on his history From Van Eyck to Bruegel and the 14-volume (printed in 16, with supplements) survey Early Netherlandish Painting. In 1933 he was dismissed as a “non-Aryan” and in 1939 had to move to Amsterdam as a result of being a Jew. He attained the rank and title of geheimrat (privy councillor) under the German Empire.He also donated several works to the collection and worked in the art trade as an advisor, to Hermann Göring among others.
Friedländer’s approach to art history was essentially that of a connoisseur. He gave priority to a critical reading based on sensitivity rather than on grand artistic and or aesthetic theories. He described it as follows:
If the determination of the authorship of an individual work of art most certainly is not the ultimate and highest task of artistic erudition; even if it were no path to the goal: nevertheless, without a doubt, it is a school for the eye, since there is no formulation of a question which forces us to penetrate so deeply the essence of an individual work as that concerning the identity of the author. The individual work, rightly understood, teaches us what a comprehensive knowledge universal artistic activity is incapable of teaching us.
~ The Joyful Mysteries~ The Annunciation (Luke 1:30-31) The Visitation (Luke 1:42-43) The Nativity of Our Lord (Luke 2:7) The Presentation of Christ (Luke 2:22-23) The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2:46)
~ The Sorrowful Mysteries ~ The Agony in Gethsemane (Luke 22:44-45) The Scourging at the Pillar (Mark 15:15) The Crowning with Thorns (Matthew 27:28-29) The Carrying of the Cross (John 19:17) The Crucifixion (Luke 23:46)
~ The Glorious Mysteries ~ The Resurrection (Matthew 28:5-6) The Ascension (Mark 16:19) The Descent of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4) The Assumption (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17) The Coronation (Revelation 12:1)
A WAY OF COMMEMORATING THE LIFE, DEATH & GLORY OF JESUS & MARY IN THE MOST HOLY ROSARY, & A WAY TO CURB OUR IMAGINATION & TO LESSEN DISTRACTIONS
In order to do this, we must add a word or two to each Hail Mary (depending upon the decade) and this will help remind us which mystery we are commemorating. This word or words should be added after the word “Jesus.” “And blessed is the fruit of Thy Womb”;
At the 1st Decade … . . “Jesus incarnate”; At the 2nd “ … . . “Jesus sanctifying”; At the 3rd “ … . . "Jesus born in poverty”; At the 4th “ … . . "Jesus sacrificed”; At the 5th “ … . . "Jesus, Saint among Saints”; At the 6th “ … . . "Jesus in His agony”; At the 7th “ … . . "Jesus scourged”; At the 8th “ … . . "Jesus crowned with thorns”; At the 9th “ … . . "Jesus carrying His Cross”; At the 10th “ … . . "Jesus crucified”; At the 11th “ … . . "Jesus risen from the dead”; At the 12th “ … . . "Jesus ascending to Heaven”; At the 13th” … . . “Jesus filling Thee with the Holy Spirit”; At the 14th “ … . . “Jesus raising Thee up”; At the 15th “ … . . "Jesus crowning Thee.”
At the end of the first five mysteries, we say: “Grace of the Joyful Mysteries, come down into our souls and make them really holy”;
At the end of the second: “Grace of the Sorrowful Mysteries, come down into our souls and make them truly patient”;
And at the end of the third: “Grace of the Glorious Mysteries, come down into our souls and make them everlastingly happy. Amen.”
This past week we completed half our Lenten journey, half of our trek through the wilderness of Lent, and just as Our Lord mercifully feeds his people in the desert, so as to refresh them for the journey home, so the Church mercifully refreshes and encourages us with signs of joy this Sunday, to strength us for the journey up towards Jerusalem, towards the Paschal feasts of Our Lord’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection. Hence this day has been called variously Lætare Sunday, after the opening words of the Officium, “Rejoice O Jerusalem”, or Mid-Lent Sunday, or Refreshment Sunday, or Rose Sunday, or, in our country, Mothering Sunday.
The liturgical reference in the epistle to Jerusalem as our mother, and the words of the entrance antiphon which then speak of Jerusalem as a mother consoling us, her children, after the sorrow of weeping for of our sins, meant that in the Middle Ages, in England, this Sunday was associated with mothers, but particularly with the idea of the Church as our mother who consoles us with the Sacraments and who sets us free from the bondage of sin, as the epistle says, so that we can love truly and thus inherit eternal life. The custom thus arose on this day of visiting the Mother Church of a diocese, the Cathedral, or indeed of visiting the font where we had been baptised. For the font is like the womb of own mother church, our parish church, since it is from the font that we are reborn to eternal life through the Sacrament of Baptism. Nowadays, we focus on our Baptism, renewing our baptismal vows and so on at the Easter Vigil. But in medieval times, it was on this day, the Fourth Sunday of Lent, that our thoughts turned to our Mother the Church giving us new life through Baptism.
These ancient ecclesiastical customs in England account for the fact that for us Mothering Sunday is always kept on the Fourth Sunday of Lent, and it is fitting that we gives thanks to our mothers who gave us natural birth, even as we give thanks to God for the gift of the Church who gave us supernatural birth, by grace, to the Christian life. Thus St Cyprian says: ““No one can have God for his Father, who does not have the Church for his mother.” Hence in the Creed we profess our faith in “one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church”, and as I said last Sunday, we each have a solemn duty to work for the unity of the Church, to be loyal and protective, as it were, to our mother who gives us eternal life, who nourishes us with the Sacraments, and who educates us in faith, leading us to God our Father.
As today’s Gospel suggests, Christ gives us the Sacraments of the Church to refresh us, to give us bread for the journey home. For us Christians, home means heaven, as St Paul says, and so the Church feeds us with the Eucharist that is our food for the journey of life, home to heaven. But as at Mid-Lent, the Church gives us a moment of respite, a moment of joy to take stock of the consolations that God has given us, so in our lifetime, in the pilgrim journey of this life, we are called often to stop and be refreshed by the consolations of God that the Church offers us. In the words of a 9th century hymn for the Dedication of a church: “This is thy palace, here thy presence-chamber, Here may Thy servants, at the mystic banquet, daily adoring, take the body broken; drink of Thy chalice… Here in our sickness healing grace aboundeth, Light in our blindness, in our toil refreshment; Sin is forgiven, hope o’er fear prevaileth; joy over sorrow.” As such, when we think of the Church, the new Jerusalem, our spiritual Mother, so we rejoice and give thanks for the gift of the Church, of her Sacraments, of all those consolations of God that come through the Church.
However, here in this Marian Shrine, we cannot speak of Mother Church without acknowledging Our Lady who “as St Ambrose taught… is a type of the Church in the order of faith, charity and perfect union with Christ.” Indeed, as the Second Vatican Council went on to say, “in the mystery of the Church, which is itself rightly called mother and virgin, the Blessed Virgin stands out in eminent and singular fashion as exemplar both of virgin and mother.” Hence, from ancient times, maybe as early as the 8th century, a golden rose, often ornamented with jewels or scented with perfume, was fashioned and blessed on this day. The rose is, of course, the superlative symbol of Mary, the Mystical Rose; she whom the prophet Isaiah foretold would be the flower springing from the root of Jesse; she whom we honour with spiritual garlands of roses in the form of the Holy Rosary that we pray. The gold from which the rose is made is incorruptible; it does not tarnish, and so it is a symbol both of Mary’s sinless virginity, and also of heaven, of which she is Queen. As such the golden rose directs our thoughts to our heavenly home, that heavenly Jerusalem which is the goal of our earthly journey, which is the focus of our Lenten penances, and the joyful thoughts of that habitation of Our Lady and the Saints draws us forward, encourages onwards in our pilgrim journey of life.
On the fourth Sunday of Lent, then, the popes would bless the golden rose in Rome, and these would later be given to shrines of Our Lady, or to Catholic rulers. For this reason, because the blessing of the golden rose takes place on this day, so the custom arose of wearing rose-coloured vestments on the Fourth Sunday of Lent. It’s a rather roundabout way of getting to pink vestments, and indeed, they’re the most obvious difference that we see on Rose Sunday, but in fact, as is often the case with visible obvious things, they are probably the least important of all the rich liturgical and cultural and theological aspects of this Sunday in Lent. So, have a joyful and blessed Mothering Sunday, Mid-Lent, Refreshment Sunday, Rose Sunday or Lætare Sunday. Whichever you choose to call this day, let us, in the words of the Gradual, rejoice “at the things that were said to me: we shall go into the house of the Lord”. For behold, Easter is but three weeks away – time for me to start painting that Paschal Candle!
It is an easy way(the way of true devotion to Mary). It is the way which Jesus Christ Himself trod in coming to us, and in which there is no obstacle in reaching Him.
It is true that we can attain divine union by other roads; but it is by many more crosses and strange deaths, and with many more difficulties, which we shall find it hard to overcome.
We must pass through obscure nights, through combats, through strange agonies, over craggy mountains, through cruel thorns and over frightful deserts. But by the path of Mary we pass more gently and more tranquilly.
Saint John of God, heavenly Patron of the Sick, I come to you in prayer to seek your help in my present sickness. Through the love which Jesus had for you in choosing you for the sublime vocation of serving the sick, and through the tender affection with which the Blessed Virgin Mary placed upon your head a crown of thorns as a symbol of the sufferings you would undergo in the service of the sick to attain to your crown of glory, I beg you to intercede for me to Jesus and Mary that They may grant me a cure, if this should be according to the Will of God.
Jesus endured three excruciating hours skewered on the Cross, yet the physical pain was nothing compared to the agonising heartache He was forced to bear seeing His mother suffering below Him…
Since it’s October, it’s Rosary Month! Allow me to give you some background as to why the Blessed Vigin Mary is closest to all Catholic saints and all the followers of Jesus in this video! Don’t forget to comment or make any suggestions, it will be greatly appreciated!
Quite often people post online certain lists of the “most beautiful” church, statues of Our Lady, or something like that. I find most of the choices in these lists very unsatisfactory (either because they’re not all that unique or are essentially plaster versions of the same image) which is why I hardly ever retweet or re-post them. But rather than to just bemoan their lack, I thought I’d publish my own list. So here, in my opinion, are the “19 Most Breathtakingly Beautiful Statues of Our Lady” that I have seen, and the reasons why.
1. Our Lady Immaculate from the Jesuit church of the Immaculate Conception in Mayfair, London. This is number 1 because someone in the USA saw this photo of the statue, and was so moved by its beauty that she went in search of it in London, and subsequently she became a Catholic.
2. Our Lady of Ushaw College is in the former seminary in the north of England. Carved from Carrera marble by a Jew who became a Catholic subsequently, it has a certain serenity and elegance that I love.
3. This medieval English alabaster from a Dominican priory seems to glow with an inner vitality.
4. This Annunciation scene from Burgos Cathedral is typical of certain medieval depictions of Our Lady and St Gabriel which show them smiling; they radiate joy in the Incarnation.
5. Another smiling Virgin, this time with her infant son, from Amiens Cathedral.
6. Sir Ninian Comper’s painted alabaster statue of Our Lady from All Saints, Margaret Street in London. A fine example of what medieval altar furnishings looked like in polychrome and gilded splendour. This statue of Our Lady is quite tender, and gives a slightly playful quality to the Christ Child.
7. This marble statue of Our Lady of Lourdes is iconic. And she is beautiful, especially when you stand beneath and look up and whisper your prayers and petitions. Countless millions have done so in deep faith, which make her radiant with beauty.
8. This marble statue of Our Lady is in the Chapel of the Miraculous Medal on the Rue du Bac in Paris. This church is yet another centre of pilgrimage and prayer, and at a time when Paris is imperilled this depiction of Our Lady holding the world in her hands speaks of peace and her motherly protection.
9. Certainly one of the most famous images of Our Lady, and she is serenely beautiful, full of trust in God’s good plan, even in the face of the atrocities inflicted on her son.
10. Our Lady of La Naval, Patroness and Protectress of the Philippines is certainly one of the most splendidly arrayed statues of Mary. Carved from ivory in the 16th century, she is greatly revered by the Filipinos and each year she is enthroned like this in the Dominican church in Quezon City for a novena of Masses followed by a Grand Procession.
11. From the stunning medieval Fairford parish church, an alabaster Virgin and Child which is small and delicate; quite lovely.
12. 14th-century statue in Ampleforth Abbey church in my beloved Yorkshire. Like so many medieval statues of Our Lady, she too has a slight smile and I like the posy of flowers in her right hand.
13. Our Lady of Good Success, venerated as Our Lady of Aberdeen in Scotland. The original is in Belgium but this version of the statue is in St Peter’s church in Aberdeen, and I love our blonde she and Our Lord are!
14. This brass statue of Our Lady surmount the choir lectern in the chapel of the Dominican House of Studies, Washington DC. I look at her every day, and she is rather beautiful especially in candlelight. But you’d have to come and join us for Compline (9pm daily) to see this for yourself.
15. A classic (and much reproduced) image of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. Placed here, as a public act of witness to the faith of the first Catholics to come across to the east coast of the USA, it has a special poignancy and beauty.
16. A medieval depiction of the Visitation from the choir screen in Notre Dame de Paris. What I love about this is how pregnant Our Lady is!
17. Brass statue of Our Lady of Lourdes, the Immaculate Conception. I love the detail in this, and it is rather splendid.
18. Another depiction of the Immaculate Conception, this one from Segovia Cathedral in Spain. Our Lady’s purity comes across in this statue, especially contrasted with the Dragon underfoot!
19. Finally, this Romanesque image called ‘Our Lady of Grace’ which is in my room. I bought it in Lourdes, where it was made by the nuns of the Bethlehem community. I love the way Christ holds on to her, and the elegance and nobility of this image. It makes me think of the way I too cling to Our Lady and seek her closeness, her motherly embrace, and a share in her graces.
20.A bonus: This isn’t a statue but it’s a very special and sublime icon of Our Lady. To my mind, it’s second in beauty only to Our Lady of Guadalupe. This is the ‘Madonna of San Sisto’, an icon of Byzantine provenance but believed to have been painted by St Luke, which St Dominic miraculously carried in 1219 to the new monastery of the Dominican nuns in Rome. So, a bit of Dominican history #op800, and it seems to glow with an inner light of holiness and grace.
Every form of catechesis would do well to attend to the “way of beauty” (via pulchritudinis). Proclaiming Christ means showing that to believe in and to follow him is not only something right and true, but also something beautiful, capable of filling life with new splendour and profound joy, even in the midst of difficulties. Every expression of true beauty can thus be acknowledged as a path leading to an encounter with the Lord Jesus. This has nothing to do with fostering an aesthetic relativism which would downplay the inseparable bond between truth, goodness and beauty, but rather a renewed esteem for beauty as a means of touching the human heart and enabling the truth and goodness of the Risen Christ to radiate within it. + Pope Francis +
I rewrote/ recreated a Litany to Our Lady that I thought I’d share here in case it could be of use to anyone else. I used to be Catholic, and I always liked the Litany of Loreto but I’ve been wanting something a little less Church-centered nowadays. I love Mary’s titles in Latin, so I still included some of those (I hope I translated the new ones I added correctly!). The opening prayer is based on Our Lady of Guadalupe’s words to Juan Diego, and the closing prayer is a mix of the Sub Tuum Praesidium (the oldest known Marian prayer) and one of the closing prayers of the Divine Mercy Chaplet.
