Dear Brigade, This Saturday, December 8th is a very special day. It is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary is the Patron Saint of the United States. As we begin Advent I thought you might like to read a column by Fr. Robert Burns entitled, "And The Word Was Made Flesh" which originally appeared in The Wanderer. FTC-Linda PS -- The Internet Brigade Christmas card is online. View it at: http://www.buchanan.org --------- The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary Feast Day - December 8th In 1854 Pope Pius IX defined the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. He stated, "The doctrine which holds that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary was preserved from all stain of original sin in the first instant of her conception by a singular grace and privilege of Almighty God . . . has been revealed by God and must therefore be firmly and constantly believed by all the faithful." Four years later, in 1858, Bernadette Soubirous, a fourteen- year-old girl living near Lourdes in southern France, went out to gather firewood for her family. While walking near a grotto, she experienced a vision of a young woman dressed in white and holding a rosary. Later, during another apparition of the young woman in white, Bernadette asked her very simply, "Who are you?" She answered, "I am the Immaculate Conception." The doctrine of Mary's total freedom from sin has meaning and inspiration for our life today. Mary was preserved from original sin from the first instant of her conception. Satan never possessed any power or influence over her. She was subject to our human weaknesses -- fatigue, sickness, suffering, even death. But what the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews said of Jesus we can say of her: she is "one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet [is] without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). Mary is the spotless, immaculate, sinless one. We stand in reverent awe for what God has worked so mightily and singularly in her life. Mary, under her title of the Immaculate Conception, is the Patron saint of the United States. http://www.catholicmedia.net/halo/eng/immacbvm.htm ----------- From: Harvey & Audrey O'Connor Prayer to the Blessed Virgin, Patroness of the United States. O Mary Immaculate! Guard with loving care this country dedicated to thee. Let thy purity keep it pure. Watch over its institutions. As thou art the Refuge of all sinners, this country is the refuge of the exiled and the oppressed. Guide it ever in the ways of peace. Let not its prosperity be its ruin. Alas! many of its children, who know not what they do, are walking in uncertain paths which are dark, and lead them away from truth. Mother of all, pray for us and plead for them, that we, thy children, may love and adore thy adorable Son with fervent faith, and that those who are wandering in error's path may, through thy intercession, return to the one Fold of the True Shepherd--to thy Son,our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen ----------- Saint Mary the Blessed Virgin The Mother, of God, Mother of Jesus, wife of St. Joseph, and the greatest of all Christian saints. The Virgin Mother “was, after her Son, exalted by divine grace above all angels and men”. Mary is venerated with a special cult, called by St. Thomas Aquinas, hyperdulia, as the highest of God’s creatures. The principal events of her life are celebrated as liturgical feasts of the universal Church. Mary’s life and role in the history of salvation is prefigured in the Old Testament, while the events of her life are recorded in the New Testament. Traditionally, she was declared the daughter of Sts. Joachim and Anne. Born in Jerusalem, Mary was presented in the Temple and took a vow of virginity. Living in Nazareth, Mary was visited by the archangel Gabriel, who announced to her that she would become the Mother of Jesus, by the Holy Spirit. She became betrothed to St. Joseph and went to visit her cousin, Elizabeth, who was bearing St. John the Baptist. Acknowledged by Elizabeth as the Mother of God, Mary intoned the Magnificat. When Emperor Augustus declared a census throughout the vast Roman Empire, Mary and St. Joseph went to Bethlehem, his city of lineage, as he belonged to the House of David. There Mary gave birth to Jesus and was visited by the Three Kings. Mary and Joseph presented Jesus in the Temple, where St. Simeon rejoiced and Mary received word of sorrows to come later. Warned to flee, St. Joseph and Mary went to Egypt to escape the wrath of King Herod. They remained in Egypt until King Herod died and then returned to Nazareth. Nothing is known of Mary’s life during the next years except for a visit to the Temple of Jerusalem, at which time Mary and Joseph sought the young Jesus, who was in the Temple with the learned elders. The first recorded miracle of Jesus was performed at a wedding in Cana, and Mary was instrumental in calling Christ’s attention to the need. Mary was present at the Crucifixion in Jerusalem, and there she was given into John’s care. She was also with the disciples in the days before the Pentecost, and it is believed that she was present at the resurrection and Ascension. No scriptural reference concerns Mary’s last years on earth. According to tradition, she went to Ephesus, where she experienced her “dormition.” Another tradition states that she remained in Jerusalem. The belief that Mary’s body was assumed into heaven is one of the oldest traditions of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII declared this belief Catholic dogma in 1950. The feast of the Assumption is celebrated on August 15. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception - that Mary, as the Mother of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, was free of original sin at the moment of her conception was proclaimed by Pope Pius IX in 1854. The feast of the Immaculate Conception is celebrated on December 8. The birthday of Mary is an old feast in the Church, celebrated on September 8 since the seventh century. Other feasts that commemorate events in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary are listed in the Appendices. Pope Pius XII dedicated the entire human race to Mary in 1944. The Church has long taught that Mary is truly the Mother of God. St. Paul observed that “God sent His Son, born of a woman," expressing the union of the human and the divine in Christ. As Christ possesses two natures, human and divine, Mary was the Mother of God in his human nature. This special role of Mary in salvation history is clearly depicted in the Gospel in which she is seen constantly at her son’s side during his soteriological mission. Because of this role exemplified by her acceptance of Christ into her womb, her offering of him to God at the Temple, her urging him to perform his first miracle, and her standing at the foot of the Cross at Calvary Mary was joined fully in the sacrifice by Christ of himself. Pope Benedict XV wrote in 1918: “To such an extent did Mary suffer and almost die with her suffering and dying Son; to such extent did she surrender her maternal rights over her Son for man’s salvation, and immolated him - insofar as she could in order to appease the justice of God, that we might rightly say she redeemed the human race together with Christ”. Mary is entitled to the title of Queen because, as Pope Pius XII expressed it in a 1946 radio speech, “Jesus is King throughout all eternity by nature and by right of conquest: through him, with him, and subordinate to him, Mary is Queen by grace, by divine relationship, by right of conquest, and by singular election.” Mary possesses a unique relationship with all three Persons of the Trinity, thereby giving her a claim to the title of Queenship. She was chosen by God the Father to be the Mother of his Son; God the Holy Spirit chose her to be his virginal spouse for the Incarnation of the Son; and God the Son chose her to be his mother, the means of incarnating into the world for the purposes of the redemption of humanity. This Queen is also our Mother. While she is not our Mother in the physical sense, she is called a spiritual mother, for she conceives, gives birth, and nurtures the spiritual lives of grace for each person. As Mediatrix of All Graces, she is ever present at the side of each person, giving nourishment and hope, from the moment of spiritual birth at Baptism to the moment of death. The confidence that each person should have in Mary was expressed by Pope Pius IX in the encyclical Ubipriinum: “The foundation of all our confidence. . . is found in the Blessed Virgin Mary. For God has committed to Mary the treasury of all good things, in order that everyone may know that through her are obtained every hope, every grace, and all salvation. For this is his will, that we obtain everything through Mary.” http://www.catholic.org/ ---- From: StJoesApr@aol.com Date sent: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 To: linda@buchanan.org And The Word Was Made Flesh By FR. ROBERT E. BURNS, C.S.P. The Wanderer (Editor's note: As a special treat both for older readers who remember the late Fr. Burns as one of the most beloved and popular columnists ever published in The Wanderer, as well as for readers who may never have heard of this good priest, we publish this essay written more than twenty years ago and which is included in The Wanderer's anthology, A Christmas Celebration.) One of the most cherished memories of my life has been (and will always be) that solemn moment in the beautiful Midnight Mass of Christmas when the celebrant, deacon, and subdeacon knelt reverently before the main altar while the choir sang softly, Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto, ex Maria Virgine et homo factus est." Count this as one of the priceless treasures that has been stolen from our Catholic people by wouldbe reformers and updaters. The present day attack on the Virgin Birth is not only an attack on the inviolate dignity of the Blessed Mother, but it is also an attack on the Catholic Faith. The existentialist understanding of the Annunciation and the Resurrection is not only an attack on the historical accuracy of the Gospels, but it is basically an attack on the Catholic Faith. Our Faith may well be compared to a beautiful tapestry that is held together by component parts. Remove any of these parts and you destroy the tapestry. For example, we recently celebrated the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. The Immaculati Conception is a de fide Catholic doctrine. But how can the avantgarde intelligently explain the Immaculate Conception when they reject the traditional Catholic doctrine of Original Sin? If, as they say, Original Sin is now to be considered the "escalation of evil in the world, " and even if, as they say, there is within our natures a proclivity toward evil, nevertheless we are not born with the stain of sin. Obviously, therefore, if this be true, we must all have been conceived without stain of sin. It is not surprising therefore that the modern catechisms do not teach the Immaculate Conception. How could they? They do not even properly teach the Redemption - Christ, they say, came into the world to show His love for us and to give us an example that we should love others. They do not teach what they should teach, that Christ came into this world to atone for Adam's sin, to restore to us the supernatural life and to open to us the gates of Heaven. The angel at Bethlehem announced, "This day is born to you a Savior Who is Christ the Lord." Of course this is omitted from many of the Nativity accounts today since the avantgarde are not convinced that such creatures as angels really do exist. The Only Begotten Son of God became Man because the fallen human race, all children of Adam, needed a Savior. It did not require the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity to teach the virtue of loving one's neighbor. Many virtuous men have attempted to do this and with some degree of success. Surely salvation history concerns something more than brotherly love - it has to do with restoring a completely severed relationship with Almighty God. And what of our modern secularists who insist that all Christian symbols, pageants, music, etc., must be removed from the celebrations of Christmas, lest we incur the ire of the all-powerful Supreme Court? If there is any reference to Bethlehem in these celebrations, it must be made clear that it is Bethlehem, Pa., that is referred to, not "The Little Town of Bethlehem" of which Philip Brooks wrote. Well, Americans love celebrations and I suppose it takes very little excuse or perhaps none at all to justify a celebration. Yet we are all familiar with the expression, "This calls for a celebration," presuming there is always some reason, however skimpy, for celebrating. What reason do these secularists have for celebrating Christmas? Christmas without Bethlehem makes as much sense as the Fourth of July without the Declaration of Independence. I think Gilbert K. Chesterton gave us as good a reason as any for celebrating Christmas when he replied to a cynic who had scoffed at the importance of Bethlehem: "You are right indeed, nothing of importance happened at Bethlehem excepting that the whole world was turned upside down." Indeed at Bethlehem, the world was turned upside down. At Bethlehem, those hands that had fashioned the stars, the moon, and the sun in the universe became so feeble that they could not reach to the heads of the oxen. At Bethlehem the eyes of the mighty Creator looked up into the faces of His own creatures. He Who by nature and by right might have been born in a stately mansion, adorned with regal splendor, chose to be born in a rude stable, the poorest of the poor, the most abandoned, the most rejected of men, in order to teach a proud and selfish world the lessons of poverty, humility, and obedience. Because of Bethlehem, man has a new dignity; because of Bethlehem, man has an eternal destiny; because of Bethlehem, all men, even the poorest, have cause for rejoicing; for Bethlehem means that "God so loved the world that He gave His OnlyBegotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him may not perish, but may have life everlasting" (John 3:16). The secularists who in their celebrations have removed Bethlehem from Christmas have reduced Christmas to an empty shell. The avantgarde who have removed the supernatural from Bethlehem have reduced Christmas to an empty shell, for if Christ came into this world simply to teach us to live a complete life and build an earthly paradise, then the world didn't really need a savior and the redemption is completely misinterpreted. And what of the Incarnation? The word Christmas, as we all know it, is derived from the Mass of the feast commemorating the Birth of Christ, Our Savior. The moderns who see in the Mass (and teach children) only the importance of celebration, communal gathering, and meal, are distorting the true meaning of Christmas, because they are neglecting the central fact of all history, the Redemption of the human race by Christ's Death on the Cross, and this is continued on our altars in the "perfect sacrifice of the new law." Malachias, the last of the Old Testament prophets, foretold that "from the rising of the sun, even to the going down, My name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice and there is offered to My name a clean oblation: for My name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord God of hosts" (Mal. 1:11). Need we be reminded that the word "oblation" means sacrifice and this prophecy refers to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass? These are some sober thoughts for us to ponder at this sacred time of the year. We are living in an age when the Catholic Faith is being undermined by secularists and modernists both within and without the Church, when socalled fundamentalists are being derided by so-called modern scholars because the former are determined to cling to the ancient faith. I was born and raised in Massachusetts where 150 years ago the celebration of Christmas was outlawed as a "popish superstition." Thank God those days have passed, but the attack on this cherished feast and our Holy Faith has not passed. It is simply more sophisticated and surreptitious today. We must resist the insidious enemy and renew our dedication to the ancient truths of our Faith. The sudden and unpleasant turn of events in our economic world will deprive many of us this Christmas of the material comforts we had become accustomed to enjoy. I have heard many people say, "Perhaps it will be a good thing; we have become too accustomed to the affluent society, two cars, three televisions, motor boats, snowmobiles, etc., etc." But there was a greater danger. Constant striving after more and more material pleasures and comforts and a life of ease is hardly conducive to spiritual growth. The spirit of sacrifice, selfdenial, and mortification can easily be lost sight of when one is seeking after material pleasures. More than that, there is the danger of relying more on the ingenuity of man and less on the providence of God. Perhaps the lesson of Bethlehem will be more meaningful to many of us this year. No affluence there, only poverty; no wealth, but spiritual wealth; no selfish striving, only humility of spirit. With less time for material pleasures, perhaps we will spend more' time meditating upon the great truths of our eternal salvation. Perhaps it all depends - Our Lord said unless you become like a little child you shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Is there any better place than Bethlehem to acquire the spirit and the simplicity of a little child? http://www.thewandererpress.com (Note - their website is down but should be back up soon) --- end ---- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ T H E I N T E R N E T B R I G A D E Linda Muller - WebMaster 47671 Whirlpool Square, Potomac Falls, Virginia 20165 Email: linda@buchanan.org Web: http://www.buchanan.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ T H E B R I G A D E E M A I L L I S T To Subscribe/Unsubscribe send an email with: SUBSCRIBE BRIGADE - or - UNSUBSCRIBE BRIGADE in your message to: MAJORDOMO@BUCHANAN.ORG ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~