Our Patron Our Lady of Grace

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#006633" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="0c9d6c00ddvuru.jpg"> <div> <IMG SRC="ac39b040.png" border=0 width="155" height="260" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#0066FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>Our Lady of Grace</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#333399" FACE="Arial" >    </FONT> |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Our Lady of Grace"><U>home</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Church Mission"><U>Church Mission</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id49.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MASS SCHEDULE "><U>MASS SCHEDULE </U></A>   |   <A HREF="id51.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="PARISH ACTIVITIES SOCIETIES"><U>PARISH ACTIVITIES & SOCIETIES</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id20.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE=" OLG SCHOOL HOME"><U> OLG SCHOOL HOME</U></A>   |   <B>Our Patron Our Lady of Grace </B>   |   <A HREF="id23.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Pastoral clergy /staff"><U>Pastoral clergy /staff</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id32.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Current Sunday Readings Bulletins"><U>Current Sunday Readings & Bulletins</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id33.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Scriptures for week"><U>Scriptures for week</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id55.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Parish Calendar"><U>Parish Calendar</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id221.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="BLOOD DRIVE"><U>BLOOD DRIVE</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id38.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="special events / trips planned"><U>special events / trips planned</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id37.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="CURRENT SICK, MARRIAGE, DEATH ANNOUNCEM"><U>CURRENT SICK, MARRIAGE, & DEATH ANNOUNCEMENTS  / MASS INTENTIONS</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id52.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="CARDINALS CAMPAIGN"><U>CARDINAL'S CAMPAIGN</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id203.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ministries, Activities Societies "><U>Ministries, Activities & Societies </U></A>   |   <A HREF="id43.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="church pictures"><U>church pictures</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id36.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="event pictures"><U>event pictures</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id188.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="GOODBYE HYACINTH"><U>GOODBYE HYACINTH</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id176.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MOTHERS DAY DANCE 2004"><U>MOTHERS DAY DANCE 2004</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id161.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="SENIORS DINNER WITH FR. 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After falling asleep in her room in the motherhouse at Rue de Bac, she was awakened by a small boy. It was about 11:30 p.m. The boy shone brightly and was dressed in pure white. He called to her, “Catherine, Catherine, wake up. Come to the chapel; the Blessed Virgin is waiting for you.”</div> <bR> <div> Catherine Laboure who had expressed a strong desire to see the Blessed Virgin arose to follow the angel down the hall to the chapel. The chapel was aglow with lit candles as if prepared for a midnight Mass. About midnight, Catherine heard a noise much like the rustling of a silk dress. When she glanced up, she saw a beautiful young woman illuminated by a great white light and wearing a long, white silk dress. The lady was sitting on the right side of the sanctuary in the Father Director’s chair. The small angel exclaimed to Catherine, “There is the Blessed Virgin!” Instantly, Catherine fell to her knees and placed her hands on Mary’s lap. Mary told her that God wished to give Catherine a mission and warned her of great trials to come for France.</div> <bR> <div> Catherine reported her accounts of the apparitions (including Mary’s instructions given for the medal) to her spiritual director, Fr. Aladel. However, he remained skeptical and unsure about their authenticity. The Blessed Virgin appeared to Catherine three more times expressing her disappointment that no progress had been made toward production of the medal. Distraught, and in tears, Catherine pleaded once more with her confessor. Not knowing what to do, Fr. Aladel, turned to the archbishop of Paris. Upon hearing and reading full accounts of the miraculous encounters and finding nothing contrary to the Faith, the archbishop ordered 1500 medals to be cast and distributed throughout France. Two years had passed since Our Lady’s first request. But, within the year, numerous reports of cures and conversions were attributed to the medal. The medal was initially called the Medal of the Immaculate Conception. However, within a short time, the sought after medal, was well-known as the “Miraculous Medal”.</div> <bR> <div> Throughout her life, Catherine Laboure never revealed to others (only to Fr. Aladel and the archbishop of Paris) that she was the one God had commissioned on behalf of the medal; nor that it was to her that the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared. She lived a life of obscurity with the Daughters of Charity until her death December 31, 1876. By then, millions of Miraculous Medals were being worn by believers all over the world.</div> <bR> <div> Catherine Laboure was canonized a saint in 1947. St. Catherine's remains (enshrined today in the Rue du Bac chapel of the apparitions) have remained incorrupt. Her feast day is November 25.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="ac58a2b0.png" border=0 width="138" height="299" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <I><B>Prayer to Mary, Mother of Grace</B></I></div> <bR> <div> It becomes you to be mindful of us,</div> <div> as you stand near him who granted you all graces,</div> <div> for you are the Mother of God and our Queen.</div> <div> Help us for the sake of the King,</div> <div> the Lord God and Master who was born of you.</div> <div>  For this reason, you are called full of grace.</div> <div> Remember us, most holy Virgin,</div> <div> and bestow on us gifts from the riches of your graces,</div> <div> Virgin full of graces.</div> <div> St Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor</div> <bR> <bR> <div> .<IMG SRC="ac6a0120.png" border=0 width="160" height="274" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> . . she is our Mother in the order of grace  (CCC)</div> <bR> <div> 967 By her complete adherence to the Father's will, to his Son's redemptive work, and to every prompting of the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary is the Church's model of faith and charity. Thus she is a "preeminent and . . wholly unique member of the Church"; indeed, she is the "exemplary realization" (typus)[508] of the Church.</div> <bR> <div> 968 Her role in relation to the Church and to all humanity goes still further. "In a wholly singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope, and burning charity in the Savior's work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace."[509]Saint Mary Our Lady of Grace</div> <bR> <div> 969 "This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfilment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation .... Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix."[510]</div> <bR> <div> 970 "Mary's function as mother of men in no way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power. But the Blessed Virgin's salutary influence on men . . . flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on his mediation, depends entirely on it, and draws all its power from it."[511] "No creature could ever be counted along with the Incarnate Word and Redeemer; but just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various ways both by his ministers and the faithful, and as the one goodness of God is radiated in different ways among his creatures, so also the unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in this one source."[512]Our Patron / Our Lady of Grace / The Miraculous Medal</div> </td> </tr></table></body>