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A woman suffering from health problems seeks divine intervention to help pay her medical bills. She says the Virgin Mary appears in a scan of her brain, and she's betting someone will want to buy the image.

The Immaculate Conception: A Marvelous Theme Written by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira    Sunday, December 19 2004 ( Last Updated Thursday, May 29 2008 ) This year the Church celebrates the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception which affirms that Mary was conceived without Original Sin. For centuries, the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady was defended by saints, theologians and laymen. However, it took centuries of theological debate to establish a consensus in the Church. Only in 1854, did Blessed Pope Pius IX, after consulting with the bishops of the whole world, proclaim this...

Martin Luther's Devotion to Mary by Dave Armstrong .. Despite the radicalism of early Protestantism toward many ancient Catholic "distinctives," such as the Communion of the Saints, Penance, Purgatory, Infused Justification, the Papacy, the priesthood, sacramental marriage, etc., it may surprise many to discover that Martin Luther was rather conservative in some of his doctrinal views, such as on baptismal regeneration, the Eucharist, and particularly the Blessed Virgin Mary. Luther indeed was quite devoted to Our Lady, and retained most of the traditional Marian doctrines which were held then and now by the Catholic Church. This is often not well-documented...

“The Rosary is excruciating. There I said it.” Thus begins Brian Pessaro’s “My Struggle With the Rosary” at Godspy. “I wouldn’t be where I am today had it not been for Mary’s intercession,” he writes. “Since the age of 11, I was addicted to pornography. It began simple enough with sneaking peaks at my best friend’s father’s Playboys in the basement of his house. But by the time I was 25, I was so hooked on Internet porn that I would itch for my wife to leave the apartment so I could secretly jump online. Several times over the years...

A Call To Prayer: This Lepanto Moment Politics/Elections Announcement Keywords: PRAYSource: EWTNAuthor: Bowie KuhnPosted on 11/16/2000 17:00:02 PST by big'ol_freeper This Lepanto Moment   A Call To Prayer:This Lepanto Moment  Let me take you back over 400 years ago.  The Ottoman Turks were off the coast of Greece. A powerful Ottoman armada advanced on a badly out manned and out gunned Christian navy. All that stood between the Ottomans and Western Civilization were a relatively few ships, a small number of valiant men and one Rosary. So the men knelt in prayer and invoked the intercession of their Heavenly...

After his opening greeting, ‘Hail Full of Grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women,’ the archangel then continues, what we might call his prediction or prophecy. On hearing the salutation Mary, we are told, became troubled. She wondered what the unusual greeting she received might be. She was called full of grace and was told “the Lord is with thee.” “Blessed art thou among women,” and at which our Lady, understandably then continued and asked further questions. We shall first listen to the angel’s prophecy, then we will see what the prophetic words mean objectively and...

 The Early Church Fathers onThe Assumption The doctrine of the Assumption was one that developed over time. It was not something new but rather the logical result of what was already known (Mary’s Immaculate Conception). Pseudo – MelitoIf therefore it might come to pass by the power of your grace, it has appeared right to us your servants that, as you, having overcome death, do reign in glory, so you should raise up the body of your Mother and take her with you, rejoicing, into heaven. Then said the Savior [Jesus]: "Be it done according to your will" (The Passing...

May 31, 2008                                       Feast of the Visitation                                    of the Blessed Virgin Mary       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Zep 3:14-18a Shout for joy, O daughter Zion!Sing joyfully, O Israel!Be glad and exult with all your heart,O daughter Jerusalem!The LORD has removed the judgment against you,he has turned away your enemies;The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst,you have no further misfortune to fear.On that day, it shall be said to Jerusalem:Fear not, O Zion, be not discouraged!The LORD, your God, is in your midst,a mighty savior;He will rejoice...

Feast of the Visitation   What an easily-overlooked but beautiful Feast the Visitation is! Begun by St. Bonaventure among the Franciscans in A.D. 1263, it became a universal Feast in 1389, during the papacy of Urban VI. This Feast commemorates what is the second Joyful Mystery of the Rosary: Our Lady's visit to her cousin, Elizabeth, who was six months pregnant with St. John the Baptist at the time. At the end of the Archangel Gabriel's Annunciation to Our Lady that she will conceive, he tells her that her cousin, Elizabeth, an older woman thought barren, will also conceive. The...

CNA).- Vitorrio Messori, the most popular Italian Catholic writer has slammed so-called “adult” Catholics who want to minimize the role of the Virgin Mary, just days before the presentation of his new book “Hypothesis About Mary” in Spain. The best-selling author of books such as “Crossing the Threshold of Hope,” addresses who Mary is for believers in his new work, the credibility of apparitions in Lourdes and Fatima and Mary’s role in Christian belief.  The new book has yet to be translated into English.Messori confesses that years ago he was asked to write a book about Mary, but the proposal...

PARIS (AP) — A Roman Catholic bishop said Sunday that the church has officially recognized that the Virgin Mary appeared to a 17th-century shepherd girl in the French Alps. Speaking at Mass in remarks broadcast nationally on France-2 television, Monsignor Jean-Michel di Falco Leandri said he recognized the "supernatural origin" of the apparitions to 17-year-old Benoite Rencurel from 1664 to 1718.

Editor's Note: Today over one billion persons — about one-sixth of the world's population — are followers of Islam, a religious movement, which began in the early seventh century. While found living virtually everywhere in the world, Muslims are concentrated in a belt of countries on both sides of the equator, stretching from Morocco to the Philippine Islands. These countries — notes historian Geoffrey Parrinder in World Religions: From Ancient History to the Present — "occupy territory of great historical and strategic significances, as they lie across the most important lines of trade and communications between the Old World and...

My first personal encounter with the Blessed Virgin Mary happened while I was a student at an Evangelical Anglican seminary in England. I had been brought up as an Evangelical and found my way into the Anglican church. There I was preparing for ordination. A Catholic friend who was a Benedictine oblate suggested that I might like to visit a Catholic Benedictine monastery. While there I told one of the monks that during a time of contemplative prayer I had sensed God’s presence in a very real, but feminine way. The femininity disturbed me because I knew God isn’t feminine....

March 31, 2008                                  Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmReading 2Gospel Reading 1Is 7:10-14; 8:10 The LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying: Ask for a sign from the LORD, your God; let it be deep as the nether world, or high as the sky! But Ahaz answered, “I will not ask! I will not tempt the LORD!” Then Isaiah said: Listen, O house of David! Is it not enough for you to weary people, must you also weary my God? Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child,...

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Bogota, Mar 24, 2008 / 11:19 am (CNA).- The Colombian daily “El Tiempo” revealed on Holy Saturday that a crisis that could have ended in an open conflict between Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela was averted by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe confiding the situation to the intercession of Mary under the three different titles by which she is the country’s patroness. The crisis between Colombia and its southern (Ecuador) and northeastern (Venezuela) neighbors started On March 1, when Uribe ordered a military raid into Ecuador's territory against a rebel camp used by Marxist guerrillas to launch terrorist...

Dogmas of Our Lady   The four principal dogmas relating to the Blessed Virgin Mary are: Her title as Mother of God Her Perpetual Virginity Her Immaculate Conception Her Assumption into HeavenBibliography                 Immaculate ConceptionThe Immaculate Conception is the Virgin Mary’s glorious privilege of being preserved by a special grace of God from Original Sin through the future merits of Jesus Christ. Protestants assert that the Virgin Mary could not have been immaculately conceived for then She would not have needed redemption. This is evidenced by Her own words in the Magnificat: "my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour" (St. Luke...

DALLAS — Artwork depicting the Virgin Mary as a stripper stirred trouble while on display at a small Catholic university before the piece was apparently stolen. The print was part of an exhibit last month at the University of Dallas that featured the work of students at Murray State University in Kentucky. Joanna Gianulis, a senior art major at Murray State, said she was trying to raise questions about perceptions of saints and sinners and didn't intend to be sacrilegious. "How do we know that an exotic dancer is sinful?" she said. "What if she has the best intentions and...

Should Mary be declared co-redemptrix? One of the items posted by the Roman Catholic Zenit News Agency for Monday 11 February 2008 read as follows – Cardinals Hoping for a 5th Marian Dogma To Declare Mary as Mother of Humanity ROME, FEBRUARY. 11, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Five cardinals have sent a letter inviting prelates worldwide to join them in petitioning Benedict XVI to declare a fifth Marian dogma they said would "proclaim the full Christian truth about Mary."The text, released last week, includes the petition that asks the Pope to proclaim Mary as "the Spiritual Mother of All Humanity, the co-redemptrix...

"Rejoice, unfading rose. Rejoice, the only one who budded forth the unfading apple. Rejoice, birth-giver of the aromatic balm of the King of all. Rejoice, 0 Bride unwedded, the world's salvation." The Akathist Hymn is a profound, devotional poem, which sings the praises of the Holy Mother and Ever-Virgin Mary. It is one of the most beloved services in the Orthodox Church. It was composed in the imperial city of Constantinople, "the city of the Virgin," by St. Romanos the Melodist, who reposed in the year 556. The Akathist Hymn has proven so popular in the liturgical life of...

The Virgin Mary: Left-Wing Liberationist?   By Mark D. TooleyFrontPageMagazine.com | Friday, January 11, 2008 Like most Protestants, Methodists honor but do not typically pray to the Virgin Mary. But an official with the United Methodist lobby office in Washington, D.C., apparently makes an exception for the "sassy sister savior" when she is redefined to embody the Religious Left's political ideals: a Mary socialist. Neal Christie, who is the Assistant General Secretary of the United Methodist Board of Church & Society, offered up his Marian liberationist prayer as part of his agency's special holiday message. Merry Christmas from a Virgin Mary who more resembles...