Marian Prayer - Memorare

MARIAN PRAYER 
MEMORARE

This beautiful prayer is prayed all over the world by many. It is known to be especially helpful and comforting when we are in need of a Mother's assistance, in times of searching or times of trouble. Why not pray to Mary of Nazareth, Our Lady, the Queen of Heaven? She loves to help us on our pilgrimage time on earth ...

"Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary
That never was it known
That anyone who fled to Thy protection, implored Thy help
Or sought Thine intercession was left unaided. 
Inspired with confidence, I fly unto Thee, O Virgin of virgins, my mother.
To Thee do I come, before Thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my prayer,
But in Thy mercy, hear and answer me,
Amen."

Rev. Catherine Nicolette Whittle

Marian Praise Youtube

We are delighted to present Marian Praise Youtube designed by South African Lumiere Charity volunteer Mr Peter Tyson. We rejoice in our ability to give honour to Our Mother in Heaven.
Wanting to learn more about Mary of Nazareth?
Interested in how poets praised the Queen of Heaven?
Enjoy Marian Praise . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYNL_AuOod4&feature=youtu.be

With thanks to all who assisted in the production and posting of the Powerpoint. 
Photographs on slides 8, 9 and 11 are copyright held, used with permission of Britain Lumiere Charity volunteer. 
Artwork image and other photographs by Catherine Nicolette Whittle, with thanks to the glass artists and sculptors.

Our Lady of Guadalupe; Pray for Ireland

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pray for Us
On Saturday 25th January 2014, Lumiere Charity represented our dedication to the sanctity of life by taking part in the Reform Conference in RDS Auditorium Dublin.
Delegates - among them mothers and fathers with babies and their children - attended the Conference.
People flooded in from all over Ireland, and to show their support for the Life of the Unborn Child.
Prior to the event, many delegates attended Services of Worship and prayed for the Unborn Child.
Prayer and Rosaries were offered to Our Lady as the Irish people continue seeking for reform for the repeal of the Abortion Bill in Ireland.
During the day, at the breaks from the talks, quiet personal prayer occurred, and community support for the repeal of the Abortion Law in Ireland was discussed.

Family Values in Ireland
Family values in Ireland were a reality in the crowd, in the talks and in the lively discussion among the delegates.
Mothers with small babies took their place among the delegates, with the little ones quite content to relax in their moms' arms.
Dads with their babies took part, holding and caring for their little ones while the mothers of their children sat at their sides, relaxing and listening to the input.
Some children raced around the seats amusing themselves, eventually to settle and listen to the proceedings.
Suggestions for the way forward for a vibrant Ireland and spirited pockets of debate from the floor made the day a relaxed and thought provoking one.

Standing Ovation for the Seven
The presence of men and women from all walks of life speaking from the wisdom of their life experience and deep love for the land with sincerity and integrity gave the proceedings an air of dignity.
The packed RDS Auditorium Delegates, standing room only, surged to their feet to give a standing ovation to Ms Lucinda Creighton as she spoke of the decision made by her colleagues and herself not to vote for the Abortion Bill in Ireland.
So heartfelt was the feeling and appreciation for the Seven's courageous stand to remain true to the mandate of the right to life of the Unborn Child, that a second ovation occurred shortly after.

Seats filled to capacity
According to counts by the auditorium Delegates there may well have been 1800 people by the end of the day, as numbers of people continued to pour in after the initial number of participants had been estimated.
People had continued to swell the ranks of the auditorium throughout the day, as they continued to flood in from all over the country. 
Eventually the seats were filled to capacity, and standing room became packed.

Welcoming the Small Delegate
At the breaks, people rushed to shake the hands of the representatives who had voted against the Abortion Bill, and to thank them for supporting the Right to Life of the Unborn Child.
As the Conference completed, a mother held her young daughter close to her heart as the lively youngster gazed at all around her with interest.
Nearby, a father and mother had taken turns to hold their young son during the day.
One of the speakers, on hearing a small child cry out during his speech, delightedly welcomed the small delegate by alluding to the efforts for reform as being for the future of our children.

People of Ireland have not accepted Abortion Bill
As the Conference ended, the people of Ireland who have not accepted the Abortion Bill welcomed the chance to take part in a standing ovation of those who have become synonymous with the Protection of the Unborn Child.
The people of Ireland are seeking reform for the repeal of the Abortion Bill in Ireland.
The right to life of the Unborn Child is still sacred within the hearts of the people of Ireland, who love their children and bow their heads in obedience to God's command in the Commandments 'Thou Shalt Not Kill'.

Momentum in Ireland ploughing strongly forward
During the day delegates took time out to pray quietly, share among themselves the need for reform re the Abortion Bill, and to pray the Rosary. 
Services of Worship were held prior to the Conference for the Delegates and for the lives of unborn children.
The momentum in Ireland, once begun, is now ploughing strongly forward. 

The people of Ireland have not, and will never, ever, accept the Abortion Bill.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pray for Us
Prayer continues among the delegates to Our Lady of Guadelupe for reform for the repeal of the Abortion Bill in Ireland.
Priests for Life; 'Our Lady of Guadalupe Pro-Life Prayer'
http://www.priestsforlife.org/novenas/our-lady-of-guadalupe-novena.htm 

Our Lady of Guadalupe 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRXUCqiBKP4 

Our Lady of Guadalupe and Dr John Bruchalski
http://johnbarrysblog.blogspot.ie/2011/07/our-lady-of-medjugorje-and-guadalupe.html

The Ten Commandments
http://www.godstenlaws.com/ten-commandments/#.UuXhPRDFIdU


Photograph taken at a previous Pro-Life Rally

Mediaeval Poetry in Praise of the Blessed Virgin (Part Two)

Bennett (1982:32) calls the upsurge of devotional verse in England in the thirteenth century:

. . . one of the greatest revolutions in feeling that Europe has ever witnessed . . . Beside this phenomenon the emergence of 'courtly love', so called, is a mere ripple on the surface of literature, though . . . the two developments are not entirely unrelated.

No exact date marking the onset of the mediaeval period of literature can be precisely defined, since the growth of the English language and its literature has ever been an organic process of flowering, pruning and grafting, so that the mediaeval era may be said to have developed almost imperceptibly from the Anglo-Saxon period.
Problems of anonymous, undated and incomplete source material, compounded by insufficient or inadequate palaeontological evidence, make it difficult to determine any exact year when the roots of the mediaeval literary period, which marked a flowering in Marian poetry in England, first penetrated English soil.

The main feature which distinguishes mediaeval Marian poetry from its more officially ecclesiastical, sonorous Anglo-Saxon ancestry is the introduction of the lyric.
There are many definitions of the word lyric and not every critic would agree with the one employed for our purpose, but the lyrics of mediaeval times may be dexcribed as narrative, descriptive or laudatory poems of varying size, in which the poet expresses his thoughts, beliefs and feelings on universal issues, whether secular or religious, in melodic metre and in tones often distinguished by rapt tenderness, warmth and spontaneity.

Woolf (1968:6) might not be expected to agree with this definition as she feels that the mediaeval poets not only took many of their religious lyrics from the Latin but borrowed their feelings accordingly:

     Of course, all religious poets have their subject-matter provided but the medieval poets . . . not only . . . borrow the subject-matter and the techniques of display from a meditative tradition, but they also borrow with the subject-matter the emotion appropriate to it. Their personal moods and emotions are therefore not revealed in their poetry, for they are not concerned with the question of how they feel individually but only with what kind of response their subject should properly arouse in Everyman.

Though at first sight it may seem that Woolf here questions the poets' ability to enkindle emotion in the reader/hearer, this may not be the case - in fact in the second part of the quotation she stresses that this was precisely their aim.
The poet ignored his own self or his situation and instead imagined how Christ, or the Blessed Virgin Mary, experienced events such as the agony of the Passion or the joy of the Nativity.
As a result such poems fulfil the meaning of the world compassion in all its richness, challenging the reader to remain unmoved.

The view of Cholmely (1940:327), who discerns the mediaevals' sincere fervour and love of God and regards their Marian poetry as constituting a vehicle for their lvoe of the Blessed Virgin rather than as an end in itself, confirms this viewpoint:

     In that England which was Mary's dowry, men were eager to offer their gift of poetry to her. The thirteenth and two succeeding centuries are gemmed with lyrics praising and compassionating her. These poems are, on the whole naive in form; they have the terseness and singlemindedness of a short story. They are arrows winged direct from the heart. Simile is seldom used; praise is . . . direct. There are two or three poems . . . whose lines pulse with a passion of wonder, but, for the most part, the lyrics have the simplicity and pathos of folksong music. They are prayers in verse. The unknown authors were not thinking of fame: their hymns are wrought for their Mother's glory.

It is the glorious spontaneity of many of these mediaeval lyrics which would become one of the most striking casualties of the demise of Marian poetry during and after the Reformation, and prove to be a sad loss to the corpus of English poetry.

Photograph taken by Catherine Nicolette - for use copyright free for any worthy purpose

Blessed Light - Happy Christmas and a Joyous New Year

To all Marian Praise readers and supporters,

 

Happy Christmas filled with Blessed Light to all,

 

 and a Joyous New Year.

Mediaeval Poetry in Praise of the Blessed Virgin (Part One)

Sainte Marye Virgine, Moder Jesu Christes Nazarene

The mediaeval period 
The mediaeval period is generally considered as the time when the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary reached its climax in England.

Our Lady of Walsingham
During the Anglo-Saxon period before the Norman Conquest (1066) a noblewoman, the Lady Richeldis de Faverches, who lived in the manor of Walsingham, told people she had experienced a vision of the Blessed Virgin, in obedience to which she built a chapel. (1)
Gaef (1965:3) states that as the Middle Ages advanced, Walsingham became "the most important Marian centre of pilgrimage since the eleventh century".

But it was not the only Marian pilgrimage centre in England, asserts Litten (1994:1-2); there were many others besides - inter alia at Ipswich, Canterbury, Westminster, York, London, Doncaster, Glastonbury, Willesden, Islington, Caversham, Barking, Winchester, Thetford, Evesham, Egmanton and Pen Rhys "to name but a few".

Our Lady's Dowry
According to Litten, nowhere in Europe was Mary of Nazareth held in greater honour during the Middle Ages than in England:

         indeed, England itself was regarded as 'Our Lady's Dowry',
         such being the devotion held by the populace towards the
         Mother of God.                                 
                                                              (1994:1).

Tweflth Century and St Bernard of Clairvaux
In the first quarter of the twelfth century, a movement to give more honour to God sprang up in England.
Its adherents praised God and lauded the Virgin Mary for providing the world with a Redeemer in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christians had traditionally placed faith in Mary's love and mercy.
Now the belief in her powers of intercession with God took root.

Indeed, St Bernard of Clairvaux - who established the Cult of the Virgin Mary - expressed the principle of intercession: 'She will listen to thee, the Son will listen to her, the Father to him.  And the natural appeal of this gentle yet powerful woman was such that her 'cult' spread throughout the Christian world. People referred to her as 'Our Lady', a name first recorded about 1175. The Ave Maria became common i the late twelfth century and some bishops - Grosseteste of Lincoln being one - insisted on all the faithful in their diocese being able to recite it.

                                                                                             (Litten 1994:1)

Since literature was similarly affected by this upsurge in the veneration of the Virgin Mary, mediaeval times in England saw an unprecedented increase in Marian poetry.

Rosemary Woolf
Rosemary Woolf (1968:115) divides the corpus of mediaeval Marian verse into three separate types;
those praising Mary and begging her mercy (e.g. A Cry to Mary: Sainte Marye Virgine), (2)
the five-joy poems (e.g. A Song of the Five Joys: Haile be þu mari) (3) and the Virgin-Christ Child dialogues, which are mostly variations on translations based on the Latin hymn "Stabat Mater Dolorosa luxta crucem" [the sorrowful mother stood at the cross], (e.g. The Blessed Virgin to her Son on the Cross: A Sone! tak hede to me whas sone þu was) (4)

(1) The Lay of Walsingham
http://keysofpeter.org/w.project/lay.htm

(2) St Godric
A Cry to Mary
Sainte Marye Virgine,
Moder Jesu Christes Nazarene,
Onfo, schild, help thin Godric,
Onfang, bring heyilich with thee in Godes Riche.

Sainte Marye, Christes bur,        5
Maidenes clenhad, moderes flur, 
Dilie min sinne, rix in min mod, 
Bring me to winne with the self God.

mid 12c.

St Mary, the Virgin, 
Mother of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
 Receive, defend and help your Godric, 
(and) Having received (him), bring (him) on high with you in the Kingdom of God.

St Mary, chamber of Christ, 
Virgin among maidens, flower of motherhood, 
Blot out my sin, reign in my heart, 
Bring me to bliss with that selfsame God.

(3) Hail be thou Mary maiden bright / Thou teach me the ways right
A Song of the Five Joys of the Virgin Mary, found in one MS of the Cursor Mundi (lines 25619-83) — 58 lines in stanzas of varying length
http://www.cddc.vt.edu/host/imev/record.php?recID=1687

(4) A son take heed to me whose Son thou was
http://www.cddc.vt.edu/host/imev/record.php?recID=160

Breaking News; Mary of Nazareth - New Film

Mary of Nazareth

AN EPIC FILM ON THE MOTHER OF CHRIST

Mary of Nazareth Film Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zPAq45g2nk&feature=em-subs_digest-vrecs

See more information at 

http://www.maryfilm.com/

Screening began October 1st, 2013.