From Ocean To Ocean
Blogged by James Preece on 16th October 2012
It has been three months since I blogged about the From Ocean to Ocean pro-life pilgrimage. In that time the icon has made her way across Russia, and Eastern Europe. Through Kasakhstan, Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Austria, Lichtenstein and in to Switzerland. Soon she will pass through Germany and Belgium and on the 5th November she arrives in Great Britain.
In secular human terms what is happening here is bonkers. Instead of doing something useful Pro-lifers are instead carrying a piece of wood 18,000 miles from Vladivostok across Russia and Europe to Fatima.
In metaphysical terms what is happening is far more incredible. It is an act of faith - entrusting the protection of the civilisation of life and love in to the hands of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary.
Against a backdrop of widespread abortion and demographic collapse, after a thousand years of relentless division, the Mother of God is bringing together her Orthodox and Catholic sons and daughters to work together to bring about the new civilisation of love. The Icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa pre-dates the great schism - she is venerated in both the Orthodox East and the Catholic West. Through the veneration of the Mother of God the Church is breathing with both her lungs.
I don't think comparisons with Lepanto are far fetched - European civilisation is falling to pieces and things are way to far gone for anybody to seriously think pro-lifers can "win" in human terms. We must entrust things to Our Lady, the Mother of God. She is the new Ark of the Covenent and we are carrying her in to battle. The original Ark carried only the law, but Mary carried the one who would fulfil the law and she says to Him now on our behalf "they have no more wine".
O Blessed Virgin Mary, Chaste Mother of God, Immaculate Virgin.
Into your hands we entrust the great cause of protecting the civilization of life and love.
We live in a difficult time of a massive global attack by the civilization of death.
Very many innocent people are perishing - unborn children, the aged and the sick.
The number of victims already exceeds two billion human beings.
Each day an additional 50 thousand children die in their mother’s womb.
Many people do not want to have any children at all.
Means of destroying fertility and life are becoming more and more common.
Infertility of married couples is increasing.
The human child is becoming a product of modern technology, a donor of cells and organs.
Children “are produced” with designated attributes, subject to selection.
Hundreds of thousands of frozen embryos are preserved between life and death in liquid nitrogen.
International man made law denies legal protection to the life of the unborn child.
More and more countries are legalizing euthanasia.
The attack on marriage and the family is increasing.
O Holy Mother, we promise you that we will defend human life,
especially the small and defenseless, with all our strength.
We stand before you, Mother of Our Redeemer,
fully aware that alone we are unable to win that global struggle.
Stand at the forefront of the defense of life movements and lead us.
Protect life! Save the family! Strengthen us!
Obtain from your son the victory of the civilization of life and love!
She will be here very soon - look at the itinerary and decide where you will meet with her to entrust marriage and the family to the Mother of God.
Reader Comments
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Catherine said...
"Let us learn this from Mary our Mother. In England, “the Dowry of Mary”, the faithful, for centuries, have made pilgrimage to her shrine at Walsingham. Our Lady [.]obeyed the will of God fearlessly and gave birth to the Son of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. Faithful at the foot of the Cross, she then waited in prayer for the Holy Spirit to descend on the infant Church. It is Mary who will teach us how to be silent, how to listen for the voice of God in the midst of a busy and noisy world. It is Mary who will help us to find time for prayer. Through the Rosary, that great Gospel prayer, she will help us to know Christ. We need to live as she did, in the presence of God, raising our minds and hearts to him in our daily activities and worries.
May your homes become schools of prayer for both parents and children. God should be the living hearth of your family life. Keep Sunday holy. Go to Mass every Sunday. At Mass the People of God gather together in unity around the altar to worship and to intercede. At Mass you exercise the great privilege of your Baptism: to praise God in union with Christ his Son; to praise God in union with his Church."
29 May 1982, Mass for the renewal of the Baptismal Promises, Wembley
"In a marriage a man and a woman pledge themselves to one another in an unbreakable alliance of total mutual self-giving. A total union of love. Love that is not a passing emotion or temporary infatuation, but a responsible and free decision to bind oneself completely, “in good times and in bad”, to one’s partner. It is the gift of oneself to the other. It is a love to be proclaimed before the eyes of the whole world. It is unconditional.To be capable of such love calls for careful preparation from early childhood to wedding day. It requires the constant support of Church and society throughout its development. Being a parent today brings worries and difficulties, as well as joys and satisfactions. Your children are your treasure. They love you very much, even if they sometimes find it hard to express that love. They look for independence and are reluctant to conform. Sometimes they wish to reject past traditions and even reject their faith. Yours is a true and proper ministry in the Church. We cannot overlook the fact that some marriages fail. But still it is our duty to proclaim the true plan of God for all married love and to insist on fidelity to that plan, as we go towards the fullness of life in the Kingdom of heaven. Let us not forget that God’s love for his people, Christ’s love for the Church, is everlasting and can never be broken. And the convenant between a man and a woman joined in Christian marriage is as indissoluble and irrevocable as this love. This truth is a great consolation for the world, and because some marriages fail, there is an ever greater need for the Church and all her members to proclaim it faithfully.
Christ himself, the living source of grace and mercy, is close to all those whose marriage has known trial, pain, or anguish. Throughout the ages countless married people have drawn from the Paschal Mystery of Christ’s Cross and Resurrection the strength to bear Christian witness - at times very difficult - to the indissolubility of Christian marriage. And all the efforts of the Christian people to bear faithful witness to God’s law, despite human weakness, have not been in vain. These efforts are the human response made, through grace, to a God who has first loved us and who has given himself for us. As I explained in my Apostolic Exhortation “Familiaris Consortio”, the Church is vitally concerned for the pastoral care of the family in all difficult cases. We must reach out with love - the love of Christ - to those who know the pain of failure in marriage; to those who know the loneliness of bringing up a family on their own; to those whose family life is dominated by tragedy or by illness of mind or body. I praise all those who help people wounded by the breakdown of their marriage, by showing them Christ’s compassion and counselling them according to Christ’s truth.
To the public authorities, and to all men and women of good will, I say: treasure your families. Protect their rights. Support the family by your laws and administration. Allow the voice of the family to be heard in the making of your policies. The future of your society, the future of humanity, passes by way of the family."
HOMILY OF JOHN PAUL II
York
Monday, 31 May 1982
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