This article is a bit old but I thought it spoke so eloquently of Our Lady and a call for peace in a troubled land that we could do well to reflect on it.

IN THE shimmering air of an arid mountainside, a graceful animal can suddenly speak with a human voice of succour; and a beast that seems to offer its own flesh to a hungry traveller turns out instead to be a provider of water, which is even more desperately needed. That, at any rate, is the story of what happened to the eastern Roman Emperor Justinian as he was marching across Syria with a thirsty army. Spying a lovely gazelle in the distance, he chased the animal until it led him to a cool, refreshing spring. Before he could slay the animal, it transformed into an image of the Virgin Mary, shining with brilliant light, who declared: “Do not kill me, Justinian, but build a church on this hill.”

That is what tradition has to say about the foundation in the mid-6th century of Saidnaya convent, about 20 miles north of Damascus, which has been a centre of worship and pilgrimage ever since. The showpiece of the convent is an icon of Mary where Christians and Muslims alike (especially women who yearn to conceive) have addressed their prayers. The blessing of the Virgin Mary at Saidnaya is also invoked by people contemplating a long journey; when a Syrian Muslim cosmonaut went to the Soviet space station Mir, he sought the Virgin’s help and afterwards offered a sacrificial sheep in gratitude, as the travel writer William Dalrymple was bemused to learn.

Yesterday, as the world considered what to do about the apparent use of chemical weapons in another district close to Damascus, the Greek-Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, Yohanna Yazigi, went to Saidnaya and made a remarkable address. “In this blessed land of the Levant, we as Christians knew a better than good relationship with our brothers the Muslims. In this land we knew a brotherhood and fraternity with them, a brotherhood which cannot by divided by the difficulties of history and the machinations of spoilers. We reject [the idea] that anyone should dress in the clothing of religion to create division between the confessions of the same country.”

“We also reject [the idea] that anyone uses religion to stimulate division between us, Muslims and Christians,” he added. “We and you come from the clay of this land, and for a bright future of this lovely country we join our hands together. I declare this from this monastery which [enjoys] the intercessions of the Virgin Mary venerated by all of us, Muslims and Christians, about whom the Koran gives a very nice verse. “O Mary, God chose you and purified you from all the women of the world.”

Whatever else historians write about these tumultuous days for Syria and the Levant, they should surely devote a line to the fact that in the midst of all the turmoil, a Christian hierarch (whose brother and fellow bishop, Boulos Yazigi, was one of two bishops kidnapped near Aleppo in April) made this sonorous appeal to the things the two religions hold in common. As a hierarch whose job is to uphold all the teachings of early church councils, he is not the sort of careless syncretizer who thinks that all religions are basically the same. But at a critical moment in the destiny of his country, he found some compelling words to describe the common destiny, hopes and fears of all those formed by the “clay” of his land.

via Religion and war in Syria: A sonorous appeal | The Economist.

The post Religion and war in Syria: A sonorous appeal | The Economist first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Homily #150513n ( 06min) Play – Father Maximilian asks us to consider whether we experience the “blessedness” of “hearing the word of God and keeping it.” He also speaks of Fatima, and tells us that shortly before the apparitions of Fatima, Pope Benedict XV had inserted “Queen of Peace” into the Litany of Loretto, and Fatima was heaven’s answer.
Ave Maria!
Mass: Our Lady of Fatima – Opt Mem – Form: OF
Readings: Wednesday 6th Week of Easter
1st: act 17:15, 22-18:1
Resp: psa 148:1-2, 11-12, 13, 14
Gsp: joh 16:12-15

Audio (MP3)

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Homily #150815n ( 10min) Play – Father asks if the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is scriptural, is it found in the Bible? Is it explicitly in there? No, but neither is the Trinity, the Hypostatic Union, nor the inerrancy of Scripture. This are all inferred from Scripture. Father points out where we find this scriptural backing for the Assumption in Luke and Revelations. He focuses on chapter 12 of Revelations which speaks of the battle between the Blessed Virgin Mary and Satan, and tells us that this spiritual warfare is still going on today, in fact, it is particularly intense today. If we are with Mary, we will triumph over the dragon, but if we are not, we will be consumed.
Ave Maria!
Mass: Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Solemnity – Form: OF
Readings: 
1st: rev 11:19, 12 1-6, 10
Resp: psa 45:10, 11, 12, 16
2nd: 1co 15:20-26
Gsp: luk 1:39-56

Audio (MP3)

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Mary Now #8 ( 08min) Play – Dr. Mark Miravalle looks forward to the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows on Tuesday, September 15th. He relates this to the doctrine of Mary as Co-redemptrix as he enumerates the seven sorrows of Our Lady as covered in the devotion with this name which is based on the Rosary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Sorrows

http://www.motherofallpeoples.com/

http://www.amsterdamapparitions.com/

Audio (MP3)

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The post Video – The Feast of Mary Co-redemptrix – MNOW 8 first appeared on AirMaria.com.

It was in the winter of 1871 in the village of Pontmain, France, Eugene Barbedette was busy in his father’s barn helping prepare the animal feed. He stood briefly in the open doorway, admiring the beautiful evening. Suddenly the gaze of the 12 year old was held there, for opposite the barn and in a framework of stars, stood a beautiful lady – motionless – smiling at him.

“Do you see anything?” he shouted to the others, “Look, over there!”

“Yes,” cried his brother Joseph, “a beautiful lady dressed in a blue robe with golden stars, yes, and blue shoes with golden buckles…and, she has a golden crown which is getting bigger, and a black veil.”

Since the father did not see her, he told the boys to get on with their work; then curiously, he asked, “Eugene, do you still see anything?”

“Yes, she’s still there,” the boy answered and ran to fetch his mother; she saw nothing, but with a woman’s intuition, she thought it might be the Blessed Virgin and assembling the family gently, all prayed five Paters and Aves in honor of the Mother of God. She called for a nun at the convent next door, who brought her two little charges with her, the later, Francoise and Jean Marie, reaching the door of the barn, called out, “Oh, look at that lovely lady with the golden stars!” and clapped their hands with delight.

The news spread quickly, people gathered, with them the Cure, M. Guerin. The Magnificat was intoned, and Eugene shouted, “Look what she is doing!”

Slowly a great white streamer unfolded and in large letters they read: “Pray, my children, God will answer your prayers very soon. He will not allow you to be touched.”

The Cure then intoned the hymn: “My Sweet Jesus…” At that a red cross with the wounded body of Christ appeared before the Virgin, who held it. At the top in large red letters was written, “Jesus Christ.”

The crowd burst into tears, while the cure ordered night prayers to be said; a white veil hid the vision, while our Lady smiled at the children, a smile which haunted them all through life with its beauty. Something of the sorrow of farewell was depicted on the faces of Eugene and Joseph, for the cure said quickly, “Can you still see anything?”

“No, it is quite finished,” they answered.

At the moment the message was being written in the sky, a messenger passing in front of the crowd had shouted, “You may well pray, the Russians are at Laval.” But they never entered it.

On the 17th of January, at six o’clock at night, the very hour the Virgin appeared to the children of Pontmain, the division of soldiers, without apparent reason, received the order to retire.

On the 28th of January, the armistice was signed at Versailles. After long and searching inquiry, Mgr. Wicart, the Bishop of Laval, proclaimed the authenticity of the vision, and at the very spot where Our Lady had appeared, a basilica was erected in honor of Our Lady of Hope of Pontmain. There the Queen of Heaven receives her countless children and gives them fresh hope in their trials, as she gave France peace in her hour of need.

The basilica is a magnificent structure in the 13th century style, and one may still see the barn where Eugene and Joseph worked when Mary appeared.

from https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/our-lady-of-pontmain.html

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