Our Lady Help of Christians

Br Louis addressed our group on Tuesday. He spoke of Our Lady Help of Christians. He read to us parts of the Acts of the Apostles, about Mary's role in the early Church. Mrs Robertson then asked us to write a poem or song or list about Mary.

Our Lady Help of Christians

The feast of Our Lady, Help of Christians, was established after Pope Pius VII after he was freed from captivity by Napoleon.

Pope Pius VII instituted the feast in July, 1814 when he returned to Rome, after his arrest in 1808.

The feast is also associated with the Christian victory at the Battle of Lepanto, where a united Christian fleet defeated a fleet from the Ottoman Empire, which threatened to invade all of Europe. Pope Pius V had told people to pray to Our Lady and, in thanks to Mary, instituted the title Our Lady, Help of Christians.

The feast is celebrated on the 24th of May every year and we remember this feast in Australia, as Our Lady Help of Christians is a patron saint of Australia. ~ Anthony

Our Lady of Fatima

OUR LADY OF FATIMA

In Portugal in 1917 something extraordinary happened. In Portugal in 1917, the Virgin Mary appeared to two shepherdesses and one shepherd . The three children were Lucia dos Santos,and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Mary appeared to the three children on the thirteenth of six consecutive months, and many thousands of people came to the spot in Fatima to pray, despite the fact that only the children could see and hear Mary.

The authorities of Portugal believed that the apparitions were disturbing the peace and had the children arrested for a time in August. Our Lady told the children three secrets that they were not allowed to divulge for many years, it was these secrets that the government of Portugal tried to learn from Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco.

During her last appearance in October, Mary announced the coming end of world war one. Francisco died in 1919, a victim of the great Spanish flu epidemic, as was his sister Jacinta who died in 1920.

Lucia survived the epidemic and joined a Carmelite convent, she reportedly had visions of Mary throughout her entire life, she died on February 13 2005. ~ Thomas