We suggest this intention : to offer this first Saturday to atone for the blasphemies against the virginity of Our Lady.
« Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners ».This is how, for two thousand years, Catholics have greeted the Virgin Mary, Mother of God and their mother too.
Our Lady is at the same time Virgin and Mother. This is the faith of the Church. The perpetual virginity of Our Lady, before, during and after Jesus ‘ birth is an article of faith, professed by the Church in all Her Credo : « I believe in Jesus Christ, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary ».
Mary’s virginity is an additional quality of Her Divine Maternity. It differs from all other human maternities and therefore is above all of them. It respects the natural laws concerning the properties of the maternity. Her perpetual virginity shows us the miraculous conception and birth, as well as the divine nature of Our Saviour. Our Lady is the mother of Jesus Christ, God-Man. Our Lady’s maternity proves the real and perfect humanity of Jesus. Her perpetual virginity proves His divinity.
In one of the antiphonies to Our Lady – Alma redemptoris mater -, the Church claims this perpetual virginity, before, during and after the birth («virgo prius ac posterius »), being a Virgin before and after the birth. The virginity of Our Lady was planned from all eternity for the incarnation of the Word of God who is really God Himself. The birth of Jesus Christ «has not weakened but consecrated the virginal integrity of His Mother. We can say that Mary’s virginity has fertilized Her maternity. The liturgy of the Church calls Our Lady: “ Aeiparthenos” . This means: « always virgin ».
Holy temple of God, Our Lady is the virginal sanctuary, prepared with love by the Holy Spirit to allow the consecration of Jesus as Supreme Pontiff. (R.P. Le Rohelec)
The consecrated virginity, like the perpetual virginity of Our Lady, becomes, for the Church and for all the faithful, the condition wanted by God so that they may receive all divine graces.
The Archangel Gabriel greeted Mary with the words « full of grace ». By Her union with Our Lord’s life and passion, She has deserved the grace of spiritual maternity for all human beings when Jesus, dying on the Cross, entrusted Saint John to Her. Through this virginal maternity, Mary is the « mother of divine grace ». She is the « new Eve » who makes us participant of the divinity by our baptism. She helps us to love Jesus daily more and more through all He gave us: the gospel, the cross, the Church, the sacraments and the respect of the commandments. She is the universal Mediator of graces leading us to Christ and uniting us to Him.
To refuse the perpetual virginity of Our Lady is a grave offence to the divine mercy which has arranged everything for the salvation of souls. The rejection of this article inevitably leads up to the depreciation of the value of the consecrated virginity within the Church. To deny Mary’s virginity undermines the fecundity of Our Holy Mother Church, opens the path to the destruction of the consecrated celibacy and to endless moral excesses.
Like Our Lady, each one of us has to transmit the love of God and, in particular, the priests as Jesus told His apostles (John, 15, 16). «You did not take me for yourselves, but I took you for myself, and I gave you the work of going about and producing fruit which will be for ever ». In this way, the priests, like Our Lady, give us Jesus in the sacrament of the Eucharist. Singing the divine glory, « My soul doth magnify the Lord » (St Luke, 1, 46), on the day of his ordination, the priest becomes another Christ. He brings the eternal salvation to the faithful through the sacrifice of the Mass. Entirely consecrated to Her Son, full of the Holy Spirit, co-redeemer, queen and mother of all priests, Our Lady fully gives us Jesus. Through the graces and mental attitudes of his heart, the priest conveys to us the graces of his priesthood by his union to Jesus Christ for the salvation of souls.
Let us thank God for having given Our Lady to us, holy tabernacle of His Son and let us ask our divine Mother to support the priests in their sacred mission.
« Holy Mother of the Redeemer
Gate of Heaven, always open
Star of the sea
Come and help the faithful who fall
And try to get up
You gave birth to God
Who created You
And You remain a virgin
Accept Gabriel’s greeting
And have mercy on us, poor sinners ».