Our Mother

Note:  Again, I missed yesterday's deadline...apologies...today we are on schedule and a double "slice" awaits you.

We Marists, picking up on a favorite reference of St. Marcellin, invoke the Blessed Virgin Mary, as "our Good Mother."  In so doing we are echoing the words of Mary herself spoken to Juan Diego during her apparitions on Tepeyac, a hill outside of the old Mexico City,  in December, 1531:  I am your merciful Mother, the Mother of all the inhabitants on this land and all the ret who love me, invoke and confide in me.  I truly will listen to their cries and their sadness in order to remedy all their sorrows, their miseries, and their pains.
Mary has kept her word:  seven years after her appearance to Juan Diego, 8 million Aztec Indians converted to Catholicism, stopped their practice of human sacrifice, and their descendants have remained passionately devoted to La Morena ever since.  The image placed on Juan Diego's tilma continues to be venerated by millions, not only this day in Mexico, but all around the world.  She is patroness of the America's and of pregnant women, for she appeared as such, with a symbol of her great love for all on her garment just over her heart.  With bended knee, she appears to be dancing, a sign of her joy at being with her children.  She is warm and loving, a true mother, but with the sun behind her, she clearly indicates that her Son is the true object of our worship. Her subsequent apparitions at Lourdes, Fatima and Medjugorje demonstrate her persistent presence and care.  If devotion to her could convert a country and a short time, why are we not calling upon her to convert us at this critical period when society, civilization.  seems to be disintegrating?
Bro .Rene