Walk with Mary throughout the Year

Day 203: December 01 Comforter of the Afflicted (Our Lady of Advent), Mettenbuch, Germany Mettenbuch is a city in Bavaria, which became famous during the period of the Kulturkampf (conflict between the German Empire and the Catholic Church) due to intense supernatural events in the vicinity of the monastery of Metten (Deggendorf) which also led to the healing of Barbara Eder. The apparitions took place between December 1st and December 21st, 1876 and again, for the last time, Mary Most Holy appeared in 1878. The visionaries, NC Kraus, Francisco Javier Kraus, Teresa Sack Liebl and Matilda were all between the ages of eight and fourteen, but some adults and other children also saw some of these apparitions. The children had the privilege of receiving apparitions of the Virgin, the Child Jesus, and sometimes even St Joseph and various angels and saints, along with luminous phenomena. These events were recorded in detail by the parish priest and the then bishop of Regensburg Senestrey Igna...

Day 202: November 30 Our Lady Mary of Zion (New Ark of the New Covenant), Axum, Tigray, Ethiopia The old covenant with the Jewish people ended with the crucifixion of Jesus and the Jews' rejection of his image. Jesus established the New Covenant with all who believe that he is the true Messiah. Mary Most Holy, by giving birth to the Messiah, thus became the "New Ark," the "Living" Ark of the New Covenant. Interestingly, in Axum, Ethiopia, according to Ethiopian tradition, the place dedicated to Our Lady Mary of Zion and the Ark of the Covenant coexist. The Cathedral of Our Lady Mary of Zion, located in Axum in Tigray, is considered the most important and oldest place of worship in Ethiopia; next to the old church, dating back to the 17th century, stand the new cathedral completed in 1964 and the Tobot chapel, where, according to tradition, the Ark of the Covenant is kept. The original place of worship dedicated to Saint Mary of Zion was built in the fourth centu...

Day 201: November 29 Our Lady of the Golden Heart, Beauraing, Namur, Belgium Beauraing is a small town in the south of Belgium. It is here that starting from November 29, 1932 , Our Lady appears to five children 33 times, until January 3, 1933.  The visionaries are: Fernande Voisin, 15 years old, Andrée Degeimbre, 14 years old, his sister Gilberte 9 years old, Albert Voisin 11 years old and his sister Gilberte. On the evening of November 29, Albert went with Fernande, Andrée and Gilberte to the convent of the Sisters where his sister Gilberte usually stayed until 6:30 pm to study. After passing the small grotto of Lourdes, in front of the railway that runs along the convent garden, they headed towards the door of the convent and rang the bell. While the boys waited for someone to come and open the door, Albert turned to look towards the railway embankment. And there he saw something that left him astonished; pointing the others in the direction with his hand, he shouted: "Look! Ou...

Day 200: November 28 Nyrina wa Jambo (Mother of the Word), Kibeho, Nyaruguru, Southern Province, Rwanda On November 28, 1981, while Alphonsine Mumureke (16 years old) was helping in the dining room of her convent school, she heard someone call "My daughter." Going out into the corridor she saw a woman in white, who, in the native Kinyarwandan language, identified herself as the Mother of the Word (Nyrina wa Jambo), asked about the student's faith and urged her to join the Legion of Mary. Alphonsine continued to experience apparitions until December, usually followed by several minutes of unconsciousness, but most of her classmates did not believe her until January 12, 1982, when the Mother of the Word began appearing to another 16-year-old student, Anathalie Mukamazimpaka. At the end there were seven visionaries, including a boy called  Pagano aged seven and a 24-year-old Muslim woman, united in prayer by crowds of pilgrims. In an eight-hour ecstasy on August 15, 1982, th...

Day 199: November 27 BLESSED VIRGIN OF THE MIRACULOUS MEDAL, RUE DU BAC, PARIS, FRANCE Catherine had great devotion to St Vincent. On June 18, 1830, the eve of the feast of Saint Vincent, the young novice Catherine prayed to the saint. Her heart was overflowing with love and asked the intercession of the saint to help her fulfill her great desire to see the Blessed Virgin. At 11:30 at night, she heard her name called. A mysterious child stood at the foot of the bed and invited her to get up: "The Holy Virgin is waiting for you," he told her. Catherine dressed up and followed the child, who spread rays of light wherever he passed. When they reached the chapel, Catherine stopped near the priest's chair, located in the choir. She then heard "something like the rustling of a silken robe." "Behold the Holy Virgin," said her little guide. Catherine hesitated to believe. But the child repeated in a louder voice: "Behold the Holy Virgin." Catherine r...

Day 198: November 26 Our Lady of Soufanieh, Damascus, Syria On November 22, 1982 , three women of different faiths – Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Islam – were praying around a bedside in the Soufanieh neighborhood of Damascus. Seeing light, then oil, coming from the hands of the Catholic woman, the Muslim woman urged her to put them on the sick man, who was immediately healed. Thus, began the spiritual career of Myrna, a member of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, then only 18 years old and recently married to Nicolas Nazzour, of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antiochus. Five days later, oil began oozing from a small image of Our Lady of Kazan at Myrna and Nicolas' home — a revered icon of both Catholics and Orthodox Christians, known for miracles and healings. With a one-year hiatus in 1985-86, the oil came out of the picture until November 26, 1990. On December 15, 1982, Myrna saw the Virgin Mary emerging from a globe of light on a eucalyptus tree. From then on, she repeatedly saw and ...

Day 197: November 25 Mother of the Merciful God, Kykko, Nicosia, Cyprus An ancient tradition holds that the Archangel Gabriel gave Mary the Most Holy Sacrament, some wood taken from the Tree of Life. She then gave it to St Luke, who used it to paint three images of the Child Jesus. The Blessed Virgin herself said before this icon: "The grace of Him whom I have carried in me, lives in it." The icon of the Mother of Merciful God was painted, according to tradition, by the holy evangelist Luke. It received the name "Kykkiotisa" from Mount Kykkos, on the island of Cyprus. Here it was placed in an imperial monastery (so designated because it was built with donations from the Emperor), in a church from which it takes its name. Before stopping on the island of Cyprus, the miraculous icon of the Mother of God had traveled for a long time by divine will. In fact, St Luke himself sent the icon to the Christians of Egypt (or to Antioch), to the first communities, from here it ...

Day 196: November 24 Our Lady of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Bologna, Italy The Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore is the oldest church dedicated to Our Lady in the Diocese of Bologna and tradition traces its origins to the sixth century and it is here that the chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart is located. It is located along Via Galliera ( cardo maximus of the city) and the course of the western branch of the Àposa stream, making it coeval with the great Byzantine basilicas of Ravenna. In the middle of the Romanesque age it was restored and partly rebuilt, with the addition of the bell tower, so much so that it deserved a new solemn consecration in 1187. Of great interest is the recent discovery of a stone cross dated 1143, the oldest known Bolognese road cross, found under the portico of the church in 2013 during consolidation works. The Basilica was run by Benedictine nuns until 31 July 1243 in their place, with a papal bull, a Chapter of canons was installed by the famo...

Day 195: November 23 Feast of the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin of the Comuna, Ostiglia, Mantua, Lombardy, Italy According to tradition, a girl mute from birth, while watching over the flock in the pasture, suddenly saw on a willow, amidst great splendor, a Lady who called her to go to her, revealed her name as Mother of God and manifested her desire by saying:  "I am Our Lady. Tell those of Ostiglia to build a small church here in my honor: many people will come and I will give many graces". The innocent girl, struck by great amazement and immense joy, suddenly regained the use of speech and became the bearer of the will of the Madonna among the inhabitants of Ostiglia. Everyone knew the goodness and sincerity of the girl, until then deprived of speech, they considered her cure as truly miraculous and believed in her message. To satisfy the desire of the Madonna, they built a small chapel called "del Casone", probably because nearby there was a shed built of log...

Day 194: November 22 Icon of the Mother of God "She Who Is Ready to Listen", Mount Athos, Greece The Dochiariou Monastery is one of the twenty monasteries of the Orthodox Church that exist today on the Mount Athos peninsula in Greece. It is dedicated to the archangels Michael and Gabriel. In the church is kept the icon of the Mother of God "who is ready to listen". Saint Neophytos, who wrote the rule for the Docheiriou Monastery on the west coast of the Mount Athos peninsula, is said to have had the image of the Mother of God painted on the monastery wall outside the refectory door around 1110. The image remained in silent darkness in the company of monks for over 500 years. Then, in 1664, while Neilos walked with a lit torch back and forth through the refectory invading the soot ceiling. At one point he heard a voice saying:  "Stop dirtying my icon with smoke."  Neilos, thinking he had only imagined that voice, did not pay attention to it, he even thought...

Day 193: November 21 Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Temple As a Marian feast of ancient and devotional origin, it is linked to a pious tradition attested by the protoevangelium of James. The liturgical celebration, which dates back to the sixth century in the East and to the fourteenth century in the West, emphasizes the first total gift that Mary made of herself, becoming a model for every soul who consecrates herself to the Lord ( Mess. Rom. ). The Protoevangelium of James, an apocryphal writing, not recognized as an inspired text and therefore not counted among the books of the Holy Bible, tells us of the birth of Mary as a child to Joachim and Anne in Jerusalem, in a house not far from the temple, where she was taken to the Temple at the age of three. Today's feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is of considerable importance, also because it is a concrete gesture of ecumenism and dialogue with our brothers and sisters in the East. Th...

Day 192: November 20 Our Lady of Bozzola, Garlosco, Pavia, Italy With a decree dated November 20, 1888, Pope Leo XIII granted plenary indulgence to the faithful who celebrated the main feasts in the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Bozzola in Garlasco, province of Pavia. Garlasco, an important medieval center, was a fief of the powerful Beccaria lords, of which it still retains part of the ancient castle, and fought against the Visconti, masters of Milan. The Beccaria family was succeeded by the Castiglioni marquises who hosted two Savoy kings: Carlo Emanuele III in 1734 and Carlo Alberto in 1836. The most shining glory, however, is the Marian Sanctuary that Garlasco has been able to surround with devotion and art over the centuries. The Sanctuary, imposing for its size, the result of the devotion to the Madonna of the people of Lomellina, is located about a kilometer from Garlasco. The place was, in ancient times, covered with hawthorn bushes, called boxwood in dialect, or boxwood, or büslon,...