2 August 2010: Our Lady of the Angels

‘Nuestra Señora de los Angeles’

This image, venerated in Franciscan houses, is known as ‘La Nuestra Señora de la Porteria’ because she graces the receiving rooms of their convents.

In the past, callers at Franciscan convents in the Philippines were mostly the sick and the needy, or travelers in need of a room. They were generally received at the porter’s lodge, where alms, medicine or food was distributed.

Ref: Fr Charles Belmonte, “Aba Ginoong Maria”, 1990, p185

In 1769, the Franciscan Fr Junipero Serra founded the ‘Mission San Diego de Alcala’, about six miles northwest of the present city-- the first mission in what is now the state of California. Fr Serra subsequently founded eight other missions.

In 1781, an expedition from ‘San Gabriel Arcangel’ Mission (10 miles east of Los Angeles) founded, on September 4, the present city of Los Angeles: ‘Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles’. A total of 21 Franciscan missions of Upper California were established until 1823.

Ref: “The 1955 National Catholic Almanac”, pp140, 153-4

Parable of the sower

We now come towards the middle of the second year of our Lord’s ministry when he presented great truths to the people in the form of parables. That of the sower is among the most remarkable.

“A sower went out to sow. As he sowed, some fell by the path; and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it had little soil, it withered because it had no moisture.” (cf Mk 4:4-6)

Jesus explains the parable. The seed is the word of God, and they by the wayside are those who hear. Then the devil comes and takes the word out of their heart, lest believing they should be saved. Two things are pointed out here which could be useful in our prayer--

First, dissipation of mind which the devil makes use of to banish good thoughts from our hearts; and

Second, hardness of heart, which prevents them from penetrating into our souls, and taking root there.

“... some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew and choked it.” At the apostles’ request, Jesus explained “... that which fell among thorns are they who have heard the word are choked with cares, riches and pleasures of this life, and yield no fruit” (cf Mk 4:7).

What perpetual difficulties we meet in trying to listen to the Word of God, and to live by it amidst the troubles of the world! Faith also is stifled and dead in many people. If we yield to the snare of the devil, even the germ of our spiritual life will be stifled in us.

“... other seed fell into good soil, and brought forth grain fruit a hundred-fold” -- meaning, as Jesus Christ explained, “That on the good ground are they who, in a good and very good heart, hearing the word keep it, and bring forth fruit in patience: the one thirty, the other sixty and another a hundred-fold” (Mk 4:8).

We desire to be in this last number. What means must we take to attain it? Our Lord has told us to hear and meditate on the divine word with a heart free from disorderly affections; and, desirous of knowing the truth and decide to embrace it. Is this our habit?

Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp485-7

Prayer

“O Mother of holy love, our life, our refuge, and our hope, thou well knowest that thy Son Jesus Christ, not content with being Himself our perpetual advocate with the Eternal Father, has willed that thou also shouldst interest thyself with Him, in order to obtain the divine mercies for us.

"He has decreed that thy prayers should aid our salvation, and has made them so efficacious that they obtain all that they ask. To thee therefore, who art the hope of the miserable, do I, a wretched sinner, turn my eyes.

"I trust, O Lady, that in the first place through the merits of Jesus Christ, and then through thy intercession, I shall be saved. Of this I am certain; and my confidence in thee is such that if my eternal salvation were in my own hands I should place it in thine, for I rely more on thy mercy and protection than on all my own works.

“My Mother and my hope, abandon me not, though I deserve that thou shouldst do so. See my miseries, and, being moved thereby with compassion, help and save me. I own that I have too often closed my heart, by my sins, against the lights and helps that thou hast procured for me from the Lord. But thy compassion for the miserable, and thy power with God, far surpass the number and malice of my sins.

It is well known to all, both in heaven and on earth, that whosoever is protected by thee is certainly saved. All may forget me, provided only that thou dost remember me, O Mother of an omnipotent God. Tell Him that I am thy servant; say only that thou defendest me, and I shall be saved.

"O Mary, I trust in thee; in this I hope I live; in it I desire and hope to die, repeating always, ‘Jesus is my only hope, and after Jesus the most blessed Virgin Mary’.”

Ref: St Alphonsus de Liguori, “The Blessed Virgin Mary”, pp83-4

Beyond Ourselves

At the climax of revelation, the incarnate Word proclaims, “I am the life” (Jn 14:6), and “I came that they might have life” (Jn 10:10). But what life?

Jesus’ intention was clear: the very life of God, which surpasses all possible aspirations of the human heart (cf 1 Cor 2:9). The fact is through the grace of baptism we are already God’s children (cf 1 Jn 3:1-2).

Our daily experience tells us that life is marked by sin and threatened by death, despite the desire for good which beats in our hearts; and the desire for life that courses through our veins.

However little heed we pay to the frustrations which life brings us, we discover that everything within us urges us to transcend ourselves, to overcome the temptation of superficiality or despair.

It is then that human beings are called to become disciples of that other one who infinitely transcends them, in order to enter at last into true life.

Ref: “Pope John Paul II, Breakfast with the Pope”, 1984, 2

Our Lady of Angels or of Portiuncula six-hundred yards from the city of Assisium, in Italy. The Benedictine monks gave this chapel to St Franicis at his request; and he wished the convent which is built there, to be the Mother house of his order.

He there assembled the first General Chapter, which numbered five-thousand religious, and there he yielded up the post, in the year 1226, the twentieth of his conversion, and the forty-fifth of his age.

Ref: Franciscan Chronicle, part i., lib. ii., c. 1. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar); (http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)

Our Lady of the Angels of Portiuncula (near Assisi, Italy). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html);(www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)

Our Lady of the Angels. Cartago, Costa Rica. 13th Century. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)