Celebrating the birthday of Mama Mary

 “Behold, from henceforth, all generations shall call me Blessed” were the very words uttered by the Blessed Virgin Mary’s in Scripture in the “Magnificat”. Indeed, Catholics all over the world (we now number around a billion) and throughout the centuries have venerated the Blessed Virgin Mary whom we call with endearment as our “Mama Mary” most especially today when we celebrate her birthday, a tradition that’s been celebrated for two thousand years.

Notice that I clearly said it is the Catholics all over the world that celebrate her birthday. That’s because the rest of Christianity that broke away from the mainstream Catholic Church have not given the Mother of God proper recognition that God has bestowed upon her. In fact, many of them hate the Blessed Virgin for their own selfish reasons. But in all her humility, you will see in the icon of the Mother of Perpetual Help, the hand of the Blessed Virgin pointing only to her Son our Lord Jesus Christ.

Lest we have forgotten what we already learned from our Bible study, in the beginning of time, from Genesis, there was God, man, woman and the devil. Then at the end of time, in Revelations, there was again God, man, and the woman clothed with the sun, with the stars on her head and the moon on her feet and the serpent. Hmmm, who else could that woman be?

During the fall of mankind from Paradise written in Genesis 3: 15 God said to the serpent “I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers; he will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.” The woman in Genesis 3 and later in Revelations 12 is the Blessed Virgin Mary, who else could be bestowed such great honor by God himself but the woman who obeyed the will of God, when she replied to the Angel Gabriel, “Do unto me according to your word.”

This is the same Blessed Virgin Mary that has come to the world as the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico who appeared before Juan Diego. In the beautiful image that appeared on the cloak of Juan Diego, you will see the picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary. If you look at her eye in that image, you will see Juan Diego imprinted there, which is a miracle in itself.

It is the same Mama Mary who appeared to the three children in Fatima to seek world peace and who predicted the end of Communism at a time when Communism (by consecrating Russia to her immaculate heart) was just beginning. When Pope John Paul II consecrated Russia to her immaculate heart, the Iron Curtain crumbled through people’s power.

In Lourdes, France, Mama Mary appeared before the 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous, a simple rural girl who knew nothing of Church Doctrines, much less the doctrine of the blessed Virgin Mary’s Immaculate Conception. On Dec.8, 1854, Pope Pius IX officially defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception with these words, “The Most Holy Virgin Mary was, in the first moment of her conception, by a unique gift of grace and privilege of Almighty God and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ the Redeemer of mankind, preserved free from all stain of original sin.”

The apparitions of our Lady of Lourdes began on February 11,1858 in a cave of Massabielle beside a river where Mama Mary appeared before Bernadette who asked the apparition who she was. The reply was, “I am the Immaculate Conception”. This may have been four years after the Papal proclamation; however, don’t forget that while the telegraph was already invented on May 24, 1844, it wasn’t yet fully developed. Hence, there was no way that a 14-year-old girl deep in Southern France would know about the declaration by the Pope of this dogma. Years later, St. Bernadette entered the convent. When she died, she was buried in Nevers, France and until now, her body remains incorruptible. This is also considered a miracle!

Very recently and quite close to home, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared before Mrs. Emma de Guzman, an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) who worked in Canada. She had the stigmata and gold dust falling around her when she experienced the apparition. That Mama Mary has appeared before a lowly OFW is a clear message that God always looks with favor the lowly and the poor who have the humility to accept with faith God’s love for us and do the will of God.

If you list all the miracles attributed to the Blessed Virgin Mary, it would be a very thick book and if you list her predictions, you will know that all of them came true. Hence, today we stop to pray and ask Mama Mary to intercede for our sick country. We Filipinos have been very devoted to her name and if our country hasn’t progressed, it is because of our own fault. While we love the Mother of God, we cannot find the heart to love the poor, the sick and the homeless that our Lord Jesus Christ wants all of us Catholics to do.

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