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The Little Group
The month of September is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, since the feast of the exaltation of the Holy Cross occurs within this month, closely followed by the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows itself. It always reminds me of my time in high school, where I joined the Legion of Mary. The individual groups which comprise the Legion are known as presidia, named after the basic cells of the Roman army – this nomenclature went all the way through the Legion. Each individual praesidium was named in honour of one of the titles of Our Lady. Our high school had such a praesidium and it was dedicated to ‘Our…
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Mother and Child
One of the notable characteristics of Catholicism is our great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. To begin with, this is something we do purely at the command of the Lord – “Behold thy Mother” – and at the invitation of the Church, which places the Mother of the Lord before us for our veneration. But as time passes and we come to know Her, so do we come to love Her also. It is impossible not to love Her. And so our devotion toward Her – our love – becomes something deep and spontaneous, like the clear water gushing out of a fountain. I shall…
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Our Solitary Boast
For the whole of my life, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary has been, without the shadow of a doubt, my favourite feast of the Mother of God. Her Immaculate Conception is the very first glimmer of dawn on the day of Salvation, heralding the coming of something – Someone – truly wonderful. Theologians have argued over this particular Catholic belief for many centuries. One side said the Blessed Virgin had to be always immaculate in order to worthily become the Mother of God; while the other side said that for Her to be immaculate, She could not – therefore – be redeemed from sin…
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You Will Find God
On the Rue des Sèvres in Paris, there is large church which is dedicated to Saint Vincent de Paul. In a shrine high above the main altar, his remains – his bones, encased within a wax figure – are visible. A staircase rises up to the shrine from the side of the altar and the public are permitted to ascend this in order to pray beside him. Always, there is an observer sitting close to the shrine, almost imperceptibly, to prevent anything untoward happening there. When he first become a priest, it had been with the clear intention of having an ‘easy life’ – at that time in France, priesthood…
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The Miraculous Medal
For many years, I have worn a Miraculous Medal. It has proved to be the means of many, many graces over the years, as the Blessed Virgin promised that it would be. I’d like to tell the beautiful story of how this little Medal came to be. They call Paris the ‘City of Lights’. A vast city, comprised of twenty arrondisements, it is filled with the most stunning architecture – much of which was built to give glory to God. There are great Cathedrals and multiple Churches, all so beautiful and many of them very ancient, such as the great Cathedral of Notre Dame on the Île de la Cité,…
