26 August 2011: Feast -- Our Lady of Czestochowa

Today, 26 August 1982, I find myself by the altar in the chapel of the recent Popes at Castel Gandolfo. Pius XI was apostolic nuncio in Poland in the early years after regaining independence. He brought the image of the Mother of God of Jasna Gora into this chapel and set it over the main altar. It had been presented to him by the Polish episcopate. The remembrance of Jasna Gora had certainly gone deep into the heart of that successor of St Peter, since he willed to have this image on the main altar of his chapel.
So, here, before this altar, today, I feel a ‘profound link with Jasna Gora’, which is celebrating the Jubilee of the six-hundred years of presence of the Mother of God, Queen of Poland, in her most venerated image.
My dear compatriots! However difficult the lives of Poles may be this year, may consciousness win in you that this life is embraced by the heart of the mother. As she won in Maximilian Kolbe, Knight of the Immaculate, so may she win in you.
May the Mother’s heart win! May the Lady of Jasna Gora win in us and through us! May she win even through our afflictions and defeats. May she ensure that we shall not desist from trying and struggling for truth and justice, for liberty and dignity in our lives. Do not Mary’s words, ‘Do as he [my Son] tells you’, mean this too? May power be fully manifested in weakness, according to the words of the Apostle of the Gentiles and according to the example of our compatriot, Father Maximilian Kolbe. Mary, Queen of Poland, I am near you, I remember you, I watch!
Ref: Cf “Prayers and Devotions from Pope John Paul II”, pp303-4

Our Lady of Czestochowa
The image of Jasna Gora expresses a tradition and a language of faith still more ancient than our history ... [which goes] back to the first moments of the proclamation of the Gospel in the land of Poland.
She who once spoke in song, later spoke in this ‘Image’, manifesting through it her maternal ‘presence’ in the life of the Church and of the Motherland. The Virgin of Jasna Gora has revealed her maternal ‘solicitude’ for every soul, every family, ‘every human being’ in this land, working, fighting and falling on the battlefield, condemned to extermination, fighting against himself, winning or losing; for every human being who must leave as an emigrant.
... Jasna Gora has shown itself an inward bond in Polish life, a force that touches the depths of our hearts and holds the entire nation in the humble yet strong attitude of fidelity to God, the Church and her Hierarchy ... it was a great surprise to see the power of the Queen of Poland display itself so magnificently. ...
‘The last decades have confirmed and intensified’ that unity between the Polish nation and its Queen.
‘Everything through Mary.’ This is the authentic interpretation of the presence of the mother of God in the mystery of Christ and of the Church, as is proclaimed by Chapter VIII of the Constitution “Lumen Gentium”. This interpretation corresponds to that of the saints such as Bernard of Clairvaux, Grignion de Montfort, and Maximilian Kolbe.
Ref: Cf John Paul II, “Homily at Jasna Gora”, 4 June 1979. In “The Pope Speaks on Mary”, pp11-2

“... what comes out of the mouth ... defiles a man.”
Having spent the sabbath at Capernaum, Jesus walked in Galilee; but not in Judaea where the Jews sought to kill him. This year he will not keep the Pasch at Jerusalem despite the law. He can dispense his own law because of the plot against his life.
By his example, Jesus teaches us to protect ourselves by flight and other means from the wicked, their evil plot against us, their hatred of God. To act otherwise, when nothing prevents us, would be presuming on grace. God gives the grace of martyrdom to whom, and when, he pleases. It would also be helping an evil by facilitating its execution.
The Jews of Jerusalem, thwarted in their murderous design, tried at least to lower Jesus in the esteem of the people. Thus Scribes and Pharisees spied on him. On seeing some of his disciples, they found fault. “Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” (Mk 7:5) Their words belied their hypocrisy and envy. The words of Isaias, ‘Wash yourselves, be clean’, were meant in a spiritual sense.
Our Lord made them feel it. “Hypocrites, having the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men, the washing of pots and cups, and many other things.” (Mk 7:8) To the people whom they tried to deceive, he said, “Listen to me, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man” (cf Mk 7:15).
Two great vices of the Scribes and Pharisees were hypocrisy and envy. We detest both; but are we free from such vices? Seriously examine how we treat our friends, whose merit and success eclipse ours.
“When Jesus reached home, his disciples asked him about this saying. He said, ‘You also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever comes from outside cannot defile? Since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer. What comes out of a person makes him unclean. For from the heart come evil designs: murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false testimony, blasphemy. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’” (cf Mk 7:17-23)
These words clearly prove: a) what God especially asks from us is purity of heart; b) temptations, thoughts, images, impressions, which come to us from without, cannot defile our hearts if we deny them entrance; and c) we must carefully watch over the affections of our hearts.
How do we act? Is there something kept back in a corner of our heart: a little idol, an inordinate affection, whose existence we deceive ourselves about?
Ref: Cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp533-5

• Our Lady “de la Treille”, at Douay. It is related that when some children were playing disrespectfully before this image, it made with the hand a sign of disapproval. This miracle induced the inhabitants of Douay to build a chapel for it, in the year 1543. — Buzelin, in Annal. Gallo-Flandr. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; www.bethlehemobserver.com)
• Our Lady “de la Treille”, Douay, France (1543). (www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/calendar/index.html)
• Our Lady of Arbour / “Notre Dame de la Treille”. (Douai / Douay, France. 1543). (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html); (www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/calendar/index.html)
• Our Lady of Czeztochowa (Poland, 1382). (http://mariedenazareth.com); (www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/calendar/index.html)
• “Festas da Senhora da Agonia” (Feast of Our Lady of Suffering). Also known as “Viana Festa”. Major festival in “Viana do Castelo”, Portugal -- a joyous celebration where the Virgin is carried over carpets of flowers laid out in intricate designs in a procession from her chapel to the docks. Floats bearing the region's produce are paraded. Another procession of girls wearing national costume and kilos of gold jewelry in which their families invest their savings. Bishop leads the procession of fishermen down to sea for blessing of the fishing fleet. Festivities continue for three days and nights, culminating with the city's only bullfight and a display of fireworks exploding into coloured patterns over the river and town. Moveable feast -- Friday and Sunday nearest August 29. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)