Mary, Mother Of God

On New Year’s Day the Church honours Mary under the title of "Mary, Mother of God". This young woman,who God had destined from all eternity was to become the vessel that he had chosen to bring salvation into the world.

Motherhood, in both it's forms, physical or spiritual is often seen as a sub standard job. However the Catholic Church has always placed great importance on this distinguished role and If God himself chose  to enter into the world through the gift of a family then surely this is a good  blue print for us to follow.

Mary's role was pivotal to the whole plan. Her yes was a gift to all mankind.Can you imagine how the whole of creation must have held it's breath waiting and hoping for her answer to be yes. It must have let out a collective sigh of relief when that one simple word was forthcoming. Two thousand plus years later we are still benefiting from that gracious answer.

We know at the moment of the annunciation Mary was commissioned by God to bring Jesus into the world and God, in a certain sense extends that same invitation to us.  Like Mary we have a choice, we can say yes or no, again, like Mary, our answer holds eternal consequences not only for ourselves but for those God has entrusted to us.

The title, Mary Mother of God originated at the council of Ephesus in 431 A.D. The council confirmed that the humanity and divinity of Jesus could not be separated and that they existed in one person. This had implications for Mary as well; it meant that she can justifiably be called the Mother of God. In fact  one of the earliest titles given to Our Lady was "Theotokos" which literally means "The one who gives birth to the one who is God" or in short "God Bearer".

if we choose to give our yes to God we to can become God bearers taking the love and light of Christ out into the world.

Although this day is no longer a Holy day of Obligation  in the U.K it would be nice to go to mass as a family and kneel before Our Lady and consecrate your whole family to her Motherly care.

The Holy Family

The feast of the Holy Family is a lovely feast to stop and reflect on our family life. There is so much to learn from Joseph and Mary. We tend to forget that the babe born in Bethlehem is God Almighty who created Heaven and earth, all things in it, on it and around it. We miss the fact that he whom the Angels bow down and adore, humbly came to earth to live in the mess and chaos of family life.
As parents we can so often feel undervalued, not only by the society we find ourselves living in but also by those who share our life. But the Holy family can teach us so much.
Can you imagine how Mary must have felt when she went and told her parents they were going to be Grandparents? Or having to face  St. Joseph  and try and put across the message of an Angel! Then, St. Joseph having the courage to act upon a random dream and trust that God was working in his life, when everything must have screamed at him that his beloved had cheated on him.
If that wasn’t enough they then had to travel up to 100 miles to go and register in Bethlehem , have their child born in a stable amongst the animals because none of their relatives had space for them and their money couldn’t purchase them a room in town.I don't know about you but at this point I think I would be seriously hacked off.
Then just as she was getting over the birth of her first child she had a houseful of strangers turn up! How did Mary feel about her humble abode when Royalty arrived at the door? Did she wonder if the floor was swept or the pots put away ?And on top of that they had to flee and leave their friends behind knowing they were going to suffer dreadfully. After this they live  as asylum seekers in a backwater of a town.Then they needed to start up a business, make a home and raise the Son of God. To top it all their Son  to all intents and purposes ran away from home, and they had the panic of trying to find him. I find it interesting that it was three days before they went to the temple, were they not expecting their son to be in church?, is that where we would expect to find our children? Did it warm the cockles of Mary’s heart when she stood listening to the responses her son was giving to these educated men of the temple? She certainly seems to have some tense words to say to her errant son! This is family life! The hurly burly of living with children.
At a moment in history when family life is seeking to be destroyed by so many I think it is good to remind ourselves that the Church places such great emphasis on the family and for those who have found their vocation in this wonderful mission we can draw a great strength from  the Holy family.
 We see St. Joseph’s guardianship for his family and how he leads his household from danger. How Mary humbly submitted to this leadership and quietly ran their home nurturing and feeding her family. Jesus came back from Jerusalem and was humble and obedient to his parents’ wishes, he learnt the value of work from St.Joseph, looked after his Mother and learnt about his scriptures  and faith at their knees. We are reminded that it does not matter where we are in life be it child, teen, or parent, we are called to  grow in faith, hope, and love. It is in the nitty gritty of family life that we are transformed and made Holy. The secret to holiness is not doing extraordinary things, but doing ordinary things with extraordinary love and gratitude.
May be on this day as a family you can enjoy packing up a winter picnic and getting out together.

The Holy Innocents

In the days of Herod, a cruel and uncaring man who thought of none but himself. He committed a crime that seems so heinous to the rest of us that it quite takes your breath away. To slaughter innocent babies, just so no one can threaten his position. One can feel nothing but sorrow for a person who had such low self esteem that he had to rule through fear and tyranny. A man truly filled with darkness that very little light could shine through. Sadly he is one among many who down through the ages have committed such crimes against the innocent.

But Christ came to bring light into the world. A light that would set men free from their own internal darkness, if only they are willing to open themselves up to receive this light.

The young children who lost their lives that terrible day became known as the Holy Innocents, martyrs, who shed their blood because of one mans deep desire to hang onto power. Did it work? Not at all. We know Christ was already on his way to safety. His foster father, St.Joseph having been warned in a dream rose and took the child and his Mother and escaped to Egypt.

But what of the children who died that day to protect God. Theirs is a legacy that has endured, a story that is still told. Those children remind us that we cannot stay standing at the crib gazing upon the Christ child but that we must lift our heads and resolutely turn towards the cross. Because that is where Christmas Day leads us to.
Christ warned us that we would have trouble in this world, but he also reminded us that he had overcome the world. So on this day let us remember all those who have died for their faith. Especially the innocent babies being lost everyday through someone else's choices. We remember those children who are suffering at the hands of warmongers or men and women of violence and we must pray for them.
 I think so often we feel overwhelmed "what can I do, I'm only one person"  we are paralyzed by fear and consequently we do nothing. But, if we consider what we have been given by virtue of our Baptism, that we are children of the light, and we begin to take that light into the world and earnestly seek for Gods' light to come into this  world, then we can rest assured that  it will!

In many countries, today is a day of celebrating children. It's a day when children can get up to mischief, a bit like our April fools day. In Spain they cut out paper figures and try and stick them on people's backs without them knowing. In other places they are allowed to "rule" for the day. The youngest member of the family gets to choose whats for dinner or what programs get watched on T.V. But however you choose to celebrate try and gather your little ones around the Christmas crib and pray for children everywhere.

St John

 Today is the feast of St.John the Apostle. "The beloved disciple." Brother of James, son of Zebedee and Salome. He was the youngest of all the disciples and the only one not to be martyred.
in his Gospel John does not merely report all the incidents that he witnesses but truly reflects on there significance and ponders on what Jesus truly meant by what he said. He was one one of a trio of Jesus closest disciples and was witness to all the main events in Jesus' ministry.
We can learn from John how to stay close to The Lord. Jesus was number one in John's life and because of this he became the most forceful evangelist of all.  Perhaps we can learn something from this young evangelist that those who make God their number one, whose lives are built on prayer and who ponder the Scriptures will become powerful witnesses to the love of God.

I found this on Catholic Culture and I thought it would be fun to adopt into our families Christmas celebrations.
Many of the recipes for making the wine are for a mulled wine so if you have a favorite why not heat some up and sit around the fire and toast this wonderful Saint who has given us so much to reflect on, on the life of Christ.
Happy Feasting

It is a custom in the old countries to drink of "St. John's Love". The Church provided a special blessing of wine in honor of the Saint. According to legend St. John drank a glass of poisoned wine without suffering harm because he had blessed it before he drank. The wine is also a symbol of the great love of Christ that filled St. John's heart with loyalty, courage and enthusiasm for his Master; he alone of all the apostles was not afraid to stay close to Our Lord during the Passion and Crucifixion.

Prayer:

St. John's wine, blessed by the priest or sprinkled with water by the father of the family, is served with the main meal. In Catholic sections of Europe, even the children receive a little sip of it after the main course of the dinner. The wine is poured in glasses and passed around to the family and guests. As each glass is given, say:

"I drink you the love of St. John."

Response will be "I thank you for the love of St. John."

The following prayer is said over the wine:

Leader: Our help is in the name of the Lord.

All: Who has made heaven and earth.

Leader: The Lord be with you.

All: And also with you.

Leader: Let us pray. Be so kind as to bless and consecrate with Your right hand, Lord, this cup of wine, and every drink. Grant that by the merits of Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist, all who believe in You and drink of this cup may be blessed and protected. Blessed John drank poison from the cup, and was in no way harmed. So, too, may all who this day drink from this cup in honor of Blessed John, by his merits, be freed from every sickness by poisoning and from any harms whatever. And, when they have offered themselves in both soul and body, may they be freed, too, from every fault, through Christ our Lord.

All: Amen.

Leader: Bless, Lord, this beverage which You have made. May it be a healthful refreshment to all who drink of it. And grant by the invocation of Your holy name that whoever tastes of it may, by Your generosity receive health of both soul and body, through Christ our Lord.

All: Amen

Prayer Source: Feast Day Cookbook by Katherine Burton and Helmut Ripperger, David McKay Company, Inc., New York, 1951

Our Lady Of Guadalupe.

Down through the centuries there have been many reported sightings of Our Lady. But maybe none with such dramatic consequences as when she appeared in Mexico in 1531.
A poor Aztec Indian named Juan Diego was making his way through the hills on his way to Mass in Mexico City as he did every morning. Juan Diego was a very humble and devout Catholic convert, in what was still a   largely pagan country. As he walked along he heard beautiful music and a woman calling his name. Turning from his path he climbed a hill, known it that region as Tepeyac, and found
a beautiful Indian woman waiting for him.

She explained that she was Mary the Mother of God and that she wanted a beautiful church to be built on the site where they were standing. Juan Diego was to go and tell the Bishop that the church would aid the people of Mexico to convert to Christianity. You can imagine how thrilled Juan Diego must have felt at this prospect. However, he took himself off to the Bishop’s residence, where he was kept waiting several hours. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the Bishop did not believe him.
Downcast, Juan Diego made his way back to the hill, where the Virgin Mary appeared to him again. She gently insisted he return to the Bishop and ask again for a church to be built. The Bishop still did not believe the humble man’s story; however, he did ask Juan Diego to request a sign from the Lady.
Poor Juan Diego was almost in despair at having to return a failure for the second time. He explained the Bishop’s request. There appeared on the hillside some beautiful roses which Our Lady requested he pick. She then proceeded to arrange them in his tilma, or cloak. When he took them to the Bishop and opened his cloak the roses fell out. Then the Bishop, before the bewildered eyes of Juan Diego,
fell to his knees, for on the inside of his tilma was the miraculous image of the Virgin Mary.

Within a few years a church had been built on this site. Over time, millions of people converted to Catholicism, through the influence of the image and the story.
Although this in itself is a miracle, it wasn’t the only one. St Juan Diego’s tilma is displayed in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It was made out of coarse cactus fibre which would be expected to rot away and disintegrate, yet five hundred years later it is still going strong with the original image on display.

This is a good day to eat Mexican food, fajitas, tacos, guacamole, etc, and to play piñata. If you’ve never played piñata, today is a good day to start. A piñata is simply a decorated container, often made of papier-mâché, filled with sweets and goodies. This is hung up for children to try to tear open so the sweets will fall around them.
Traditionally, piñatas were round with seven cones on, each hanging with streamers. These seven cones represented the seven deadly sins; greed, sloth, pride, envy, gluttony, wrath, and lust.
Nowadays you can buy piñatas from most good party shops and they come in all shapes and sizes. Fill them with sweets and blindfold one of the children – the reason for this is that the blindfolded player represents faith. People gather near the player and spin him around to confuse his sense of space. This used to be thirty-three times in honour of the number of years Christ lived.
The piñata serves as a symbol of hope. With the piñata hanging overhead we look heavenward yearning for the prize. The stick the child uses to hit the piñata symbolizes virtue, as only good can overcome evil. Once broken the sweets represent the just reward for keeping the faith. Finally the piñata also allows people to share in the virtue of charity, sharing and partaking in the Divine blessing

St Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin

This piece is taken from one of the homily's of St. John Paul II St Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin (1474-1548). Little is known about the life of Juan Diego before his conversion, but tradition and archaelogical and iconographical sources, along with the most important and oldest indigenous document on the event of Guadalupe, "El Nican Mopohua" (written in Náhuatl with Latin characters, 1556, by the Indigenous writer Antonio Valeriano), give some information on the life of the saint and the apparitions. Juan Diego was born in 1474 with the name "Cuauhtlatoatzin" ("the talking eagle") in Cuautlitlán, today part of Mexico City, Mexico. He was a gifted member of the Chichimeca people, one of the more culturally advanced groups living in the Anáhuac Valley. When he was 50 years old he was baptized by a Franciscan priest, Fr Peter da Gand, one of the first Franciscan missionaries. On 9 December 1531, when Juan Diego was on his way to morning Mass, the Blessed Mother appeared to him on Tepeyac Hill, the outskirts of what is now Mexico City. She asked him to go to the Bishop and to request in her name that a shrine be built at Tepeyac, where she promised to pour out her grace upon those who invoked her. The Bishop, who did not believe Juan Diego, asked for a sign to prove that the apparition was true. On 12 December, Juan Diego returned to Tepeyac. Here, the Blessed Mother told him to climb the hill and to pick the flowers that he would find in bloom. He obeyed, and although it was winter time, he found roses flowering. He gathered the flowers and took them to Our Lady who carefully placed them in his mantle and told him to take them to the Bishop as "proof". When he opened his mantle, the flowers fell on the ground and there remained impressed, in place of the flowers, an image of the Blessed Mother, the apparition at Tepeyac. With the Bishop's permission, Juan Diego lived the rest of his life as a hermit in a small hut near the chapel where the miraculous image was placed for veneration. Here he cared for the church and the first pilgrims who came to pray to the Mother of Jesus. Much deeper than the "exterior grace" of having been "chosen" as Our Lady's "messenger", Juan Diego received the grace of interior enlightenment and from that moment, he began a life dedicated to prayer and the practice of virtue and boundless love of God and neighbour. He died in 1548 and was buried in the first chapel dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe. He was beatified on 6 May 1990 by Pope John Paul II in the Basilica of Santa Maria di Guadalupe, Mexico City. The miraculous image, which is preserved in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, shows a woman with native features and dress. She is supported by an angel whose wings are reminiscent of one of the major gods of the traditional religion of that area. The moon is beneath her feet and her blue mantle is covered with gold stars. The black girdle about her waist signifies that she is pregnant. Thus, the image graphically depicts the fact that Christ is to be "born" again among the peoples of the New World, and is a message as relevant to the "New World" today as it was during the lifetime of Juan Diego. Homily of John Paul II

The Feast Of The Immaculate Conception.

This beautiful feast to Our Lady shines out in the darkness of winter. Mary was predestined from all eternity to be the mother of God. For this reason Our Lady receives more graces than all the angels and saints joined together. It is because of this that she occupies a unique position among all peoples. It was not of her own doing but through the saving power of her son Jesus Christ that she was kept
free from any desire to sin. She felt no attraction towards sin or any of the temptations that the tempter would use. From the very beginning God prepared with infinite love the one who was to become the Mother of his Son. 
Mary is "full of grace and blessed among all women" because of this singular act of God. No other human being had or has been preserved in this way. I find it amazing to think that God knows us all so well that he already had our salvation planned out before the beginning of time. He knew he was going to need to create a pure vessel for him to be born into, if you were God why would you not! We inherit our humanity from our parents it's only logical that God would not want to inherit a fallen
nature from his Mother so to preserve her from the stain of original sin he gave her this divine gift.
You can see that when the Archangel Gabriel greets Mary he is aware of the extent of her participation of grace and virtue, he knows her goodness!

Down through the ages the Holy Spirit has taught countless Generations of Christians that the quickest, surest path to the heart of Jesus is through his Mother, who else in all of history knows him as well as she does. A mother has a unique privilege in the life of her children, Mary was no different,  she knew every facet and nuance of her Son because she had nurtured and raised Him from that tiny seed that grew within her to those hidden years in Nazareth. She wants nothing more than to lead all her children to Son, she is our "shortcut"to God. So on this feast day lets us praise God for his beautiful Mother and with the Archangel Gabriel say "Hail Mary full of Grace..."

 To celebrate this feast in the family why not go to mass ." Always a good thing! Or gather around a statue or picture of Our Lady and pray a decade or two or five together. Another beautiful tradition I came across on the internet via Catholic Culture is to decorate a candle with a white cloth tied together with a ribbon. The candle is then placed before an image, statue or ikon of our Lady before which the family prays to the Mother of God.  The covered candleholder represents the rod out of the root of Jesse, Our Lady, from whose womb will come the Saviour of the world. The candle represents Christ, the Light of the World, who shall come to dispel all darkness and stain of sin.

Another tradition is to bake gingerbread. I don't quite see the connection myself, however gingerbread never goes amiss in my house so I give you our simple recipe to fill your home with those lovely scents of Christmas

250g/10oz Plain Flour
3x5ml/3 tsp ground ginger
3x5ml/3tsp bicarbonate of soda
3x15ml/3x tablespoon  golden syrup
75g/3oz butter/margarine 
125g/5oz dark brown sugar
1 egg beaten
Pinch of salt.
To Decorate
Icing pens
Chocolate chips
Silver colored balls.


Sieve flour, ground ginger, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl.
Warm syrup, butter and sugar until all is melted.
Mix into dry ingredients.
Stir in egg. Mix into a dough ( if to soft add a bit more flour)
Wrap in aplastic bag and place in fridge for 15-30 mins.
Dust work surface with extra flour and roll out dough. Cut with gingerbread cookie cutters and place on greased baking trays. Place in the oven at 180c and bake for 10-15 minutes or lightly golden brown. Leave for a few minutes on the tray and then transfer to wire wrack to cool. When cold decorate with icing and chocolate chips.
Enjoy!