Celebrating Mary

This month we celebrate two Marian feast days: the Immaculate Conception, when Mary was conceived in her mother’s womb without original sin, and the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which marks Mary’s appearance to a St. Juan Diego in Mexico.

I’ve always felt a special devotion to Mary because my middle name is Mae – and it grew even more after becoming a mother.

Now that my daughter is almost 3, I have grand plans of celebrating saint feast days in some form or another. I thought starting with a feast for “Holy Mary” as my daughter, Madelyn Mae, refers to her, was a perfect place to start.  

Our Blessed Mother
Photo credit: stockexchange/reichinger

We started the morning of the Immaculate Conception – which normally is Dec. 8, but this year was observed Dec. 9 – with white, powdered doughnuts for breakfast in honor of Our Lady’s purity. We colored a picture of Mary I found on the Internet in the afternoon. And for dinner we had a feast, which included chicken tortellini with alfredo sauce, broccoli and blueberry muffins, and white cupcakes for dessert, all in honor of Mary. 

We ended the day with a bedtime story about Mary and praying the Hail Mary.

I know Madelyn didn’t get all the connections to Mary throughout the day, but I enjoyed keeping “Holy Mary” the focus of the day.

And I plan to continue our celebration of Mary with the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe Dec. 12. I won’t be able to do as much with it because I work that day, but I know we’ll have Mexican food for dinner. And perhaps color a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe for our evening activity. I’ll buy I’m sure we’ll end the day reading the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe (see below).

Incorporating the lives of the saints into our family life will be a great way for my daughter – and my husband, Jason, who was baptized just five years ago – to get to know more about the holy saints in heaven. 
Doing so will definitely be one of my goals for the coming year. I invite you to consider doing the same. 

Share your ideas on celebrating saint feast days with us by commenting on this posting.

If you’d like to learn more about the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe, I’ve included a few paragraphs on each.

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
This excerpt is taken from catholicanswers.com.

It’s important to understand what the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is and what it is not. Some people think the term refers to Christ’s conception in Mary’s womb without the intervention of a human father; but that is the Virgin Birth. Others think the Immaculate Conception means Mary was conceived “by the power of the Holy Spirit,” in the way Jesus was, but that, too, is incorrect. The Immaculate Conception means that Mary, whose conception was brought about the normal way, was conceived without original sin or its stain – that’s what “immaculate” means: without stain. The essence of original sin consists in the deprivation of sanctifying grace, and its stain is a corrupt nature. Mary was preserved from these defects by God’s grace; from the first instant of her existence she was in the state of sanctifying grace and was free from the corrupt nature original sin brings. 

When discussing the Immaculate Conception, an implicit reference may be found in the angel’s greeting to Mary. The angel Gabriel said, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28). The phrase “full of grace” is a translation of the Greek word kecharitomene. It therefore expresses a characteristic quality of Mary. 

The traditional translation, “full of grace,” is better than the one found in many recent versions of the New Testament, which give something along the lines of “highly favored daughter.” Mary was indeed a highly favored daughter of God, but the Greek implies more than that (and it never mentions the word for “daughter”). The grace given to Mary is at once permanent and of a unique kind. Kecharitomene is a perfect passive participle of charitoo, meaning “to fill or endow with grace.” Since this term is in the perfect tense, it indicates that Mary was graced in the past but with continuing effects in the present. So, the grace Mary enjoyed was not a result of the angel’s visit. In fact, Catholics hold, it extended over the whole of her life, from conception onward. She was in a state of sanctifying grace from the first moment of her existence. 

OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE
This is taken from the website for Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and Shrine in Port Arthur, Texas, www.patx.us/olgchurch/story.

At dawn Dec. 9, 1531, on Tepeyac Hill near Mexico City, Mary appeared to Juan Diego, an Aztec Indian (canonized in 2002 as St. Juan Diego by Pope John Paul II). While on his way to attend Mass he heard sounds of chirping birds and beautiful music, wondering where it was coming from and its meaning. Then he heard a voice calling him. There she revealed herself to him as “the Ever Virgin Mother of the True God,” and made known her desire that a shrine be built there to bear witness to her love, compassion and protection. She sent him to Bishop Juan de Zumarraga in Mexico City to request her great desire.
The bishop dismissed the humble Indian without paying attention to his story. Two more times Our Lady appeared to Juan, requesting him to deliver the same favor. He did as she asked and finally the bishop asked for a sign. So, Juan reported this to her and she promised to grant a sign the following morning.

Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Photo credit: kconnors/morguefile.com 

On Dec. 12, while on his way to bring a priest to his dying uncle, Our Lady appeared to him for the fourth time. She assured him of his uncle’s recovery and told him to gather fresh roses he would find growing on the frosty summit of the rocky and barren hill. This done, she arranged the castilian roses in his tilma (cloak) and hurried him to the bishop, giving him an account of their origin. This is what is known as “The Miracle of the pink roses.”

To the bishop’s amazement, when Juan opened up his tilma before him, there was painted upon it a miraculous image of Our Lady exactly as she had appeared on Mount Tepeyac. The bishop prostrated himself in veneration and soon after began the building of the shrine on the top of Mount Tepeyac. The basilica in Mexico City is the most important shrine to Our Blessed Mother, under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe in all the American continents.

Juan Diego’s cloak, marvelously preserved, can still be seen behind the main altar in the new Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which is near the original basilica site she requested. Millions from all over Mexico and the world make their way to venerate Our Blessed Mother and to implore her intercession. She stated to Juan, “Am I not here as your Mother?”

 Blogged by Lisa Maxson, Senior Writer/Reporter