ADVENT MESSAGE from

The Arch of Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and International Shrine of the Holy Innocents

          The eyes of all Christians are upon the Blessed Virgin Mary, as we relive now the awesome approach of the most significant event in history, the birth of the Son of Mary, the Son of God, Our Lord Jesus Christ!  It is marvelous to ponder at this holy season, those scriptural prophecies of Christ that predicted also, His Blessed Mother.

        Isaiah 7:14: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.”  Micah 5:1-2: “But you, Bethlehem-Ephrathah, too small to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel; Whose origin is from of old, from ancient times.  Therefore the Lord will give them up, until the time when she who is to give birth has borne, and the rest of his brethren shall return to the children of Israel.” 

          After our first parents were tempted and fell into sin, the Lord “put enmity between” the serpent, Satan, and “the woman,” Eve, and between also their “seed,” all the future offspring of each.  Genesis 3:15.  One seed of Eve named Mary—usually called Miriam, but her Hebrew name is the same as Our Lady’s—was privileged to lead the Israelites in a song of triumph, as Moses led them away from the slavery of Egypt:

“So Mary the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand: and all the women went forth after her with timbrels and with dances: and she began the song to them, saying: let us sing to the Lord, for He is gloriously magnified, the horse and his rider he hath thrown into the sea.” Exodus 15:20-21 (Douay).

          Could there be a better prefigurement than this, for Our Lady’s divinely ordained destiny, to participate prominently in her Son’s triumph over Satan, sin and death?  How clearly the first Mary’s song is echoed in Our Lady’s great Magnificat!  (Luke 1:46ff)  And, can any Christian of good will read the thrilling 12^th chapter of Revelations, in which God revealed a “great sign” in the sky, “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (v.1), who gave birth to “a boy destined to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod” (v.5)—and not confess the greatness of Mary, whom God Himself represented by this unsurpassably sublime and regal sign?      
         
          How profound and truthful are these first words of Pope Pius XII’s 1954 encyclical, Ad Caeli Reginam—To the Queen of Heaven—proclaiming the Queenship of Mary:

“From the earliest ages of the Catholic Church a Christian people, whether in time of triumph or more especially in time of crisis, has addressed prayers of petition and hymns of praise and veneration to the Queen of Heaven. And never has that hope wavered which they placed in the Mother of the Divine King, Jesus Christ; nor has that faith ever failed by which we are taught that Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, reigns with a mother's solicitude over the entire world, just as she is crowned in heavenly blessedness with the glory of a Queen.”  (Read entire encyclical at http://www.ewtn.com/library/ENCYC/P12CAELI.HTM )

          In this Advent, then, let us consecrate ourselves and our world anew to both the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  You will find beautiful prayers of consecration at www.ArchofTriumph.org/consecrate.html . 

May you and your loved ones enjoy a most blessed Advent, and a very Merry Christmas!

For the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart,

Laurence D. Behr
LDBehr@ArchofTriumph.org 
Executive Director, Ass'n for the Arch of Triumph Of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and Int'l Shrine Of the Holy Innocents, Inc., A NY Non-profit 501(c)(3) Corporation

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