Mary of the Velvet Log Cabin

I don't know, I like it (but I'm a fiber artist hahaha and I like anything that uses velvet).

Mary of the Velvet Log Cabin

Apps!

If you have an iPod/iTouch/iPad, hopefully you've downloaded some of the Catholic apps out there. I have an iTouch and have downloaded a couple of apps, the iConfess (very nice!), one about St Joseph (okay), iBreviary (I use this often) and a Rosary app which isn't very special.

According to Father V, a new Marian app will be launched on December 8th by the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception (National Shrine of The Divine Mercy, Stockbridge, MA). Details here. I'm looking forward to getting it and will post more here after I check it out.

The Novena to Our Lady of Sorrows starts tomorrow, 9/7/07

Novena of Our Lady of Sorrows

Hymn to Mary

 

Beth Nielsen Chapman has a lovely album of Catholic hymns (called Hymns), 10 of which are in Latin. However, "Oh God of Loveliness" and this one, "Hymn to Mary", are in English. She was raised Catholic but has since fallen away from the faith. Here are the words to "Hymn to Mary" which she wrote,

Holy Mary draw through my heart the sweetest arrow of thy praise.
Lift my sorrow's deepening shadow, so that I may may see your face.
I know I will not be forsaken, gently held in your embrace.
Blessed Spirit, whispering softly, cool the fires of my shame.
Even as I run from your arms, my soul keeps calling out your name.
You were always right here inside each tear of joy, every drop of rain.

Virtual Lourdes Tour

It's been a Lourdes kind of weekend...

At St Pat's in Stoneham, MA, they had a virtual tour of Lourdes with a woman from Our Lady of Lourdes Hospitality North American Volunteers along with a chaplain from Lourdes. They presented a slide show of Lourdes and spoke of St. Bernadette, the thousands of miracles that have occured there and the Shrine/Basilica at Lourdes.

Coincidentally, I had rented "The Song of Bernadette" from Netflix and have begun reading the book by the same name. The movie highlighted how difficult a private revelation is on the person who experiences it and their family.

For those of you who would like your own personal tour of Lourdes, the official Lourdes website has several different webcams set up. They are preparing for the upcoming 150-year anniversary of the apparitions in 2008.

Our Lady of America

Have you heard about Our Lady of America?

This statute was presented to the Bishops at the November 2006 Conference of USCCB by Archbishop Raymond Burke.

Our Lady of America
It was on the eve of the feast of the North American martyrs, September 25, 1956, that Our Lady appeared to Sr. Mary Ephrem. In 1938, Sister began to have what seem like mystical spiritual experiences. She thought little of them, presuming all religious have them. As these visits took on the nature of a specific program of devotion to Mary which Sister was asked to propagate, she then turned to Monsignor Paul F. Leibold. Monsignor Leibold, later Archbishop of the Cincinnati, Ohio Archdiocese, would be her spiritual director from many years until 1972, when he suddenly died due to an aneurysm. Archbishop Leibold had become so convinced of the authenticity of this message that he approved Sister's writings and placed his imprimatur on the design of the medal. Our Lady had asked Sister to have struck a medal that would bear the image of Our Lady of America on the front and the symbol of the Christian Family and the Blessed Trinity on the back.

Thoughts?