Catholics around the world celebrated the birthday of the Blessed Mother on Sept. 8. In our area, parishioners from the Diocese of Allentown were invited to a special event at Assumption BVM, Bethlehem, focused on Marian feast days and the importance of Mary in our lives as Catholics. The event was presented by the Allentown Area Knights of the Order of Malta.
Father Keaton Eidle, Assistant Pastor of St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Easton, walked attendees through the importance of Marian feast days. He focused on three feasts: Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8; Our Lady of Częstochowa, Aug. 26; and Assumption, Aug. 15.
Starting with the feast of the Immaculate Conception, those in attendance learned of the first great gift that God bestowed on Mary in which we honor and remember during this feast. As Father Eidle stated, Immaculate Conception is a relatively new feast day, established in 1854, even though the Church has always held and believed that Mary was immaculately conceived.
“The Immaculate Conception is a historical event – it is a fact. The Church has always believed and known that,” Father Eidle explained. It is important because it reminds us that Mary was preserved from Original Sin.
Since Mary was going to be the dwelling place for baby Jesus, she had to be without the stain of sin – which is why God made her that way. “Mary had to be set apart in a special way from the rest of humanity, not only for her sake as becoming the Mother of God, but also for the sake of Christ.”
Father Eidle then spoke on how this led directly to her Assumption into Heaven. Like the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the feast of the Assumption of Our Blessed Mother is a relatively new feast day, declared in 1950 by Pope Pius XII. This belief, that Mary was assumed at her death – body and soul into heaven – was also always held by the Church.
“Mary is the first true disciple of Our Lord, so whatever happens to her is the foreshadowing of what is going to happen to us,” said Father Eidle, “but the Assumption is also because God could not allow His own flesh to endure corruption.”
Father Eidle explained that Jesus took all His humanity solely from Our Blessed Mother and that the flesh of Jesus is the flesh of Mary. “Due to Mary being the only human parent of Christ, there has never been a child in the history of the world who looks so much like his parent as Christ was to the Blessed Mother.”
Father Eidle ended with the feast of Our Lady of Częstochowa and a discussion of some of the mysticism behind it. Our Lady of Częstochowa, sometimes referred to as the “Black Madonna,” depicts the image of Our Lady holding the Christ Child with her left hand and pointing to the Child with her right hand.
“This is to remind us that her entire mission is to not be the center of attention, but to point her children to Christ.”
The image is ancient and is said to have been painted possibly by St. Luke or St. John. For hundreds of years, it was venerated in Constantinople due to miracles of protection for the city being associated with it.
Father Eidle explained that throughout the years, both by accident and by violence toward the image, there have been many “wounds” on the image – including an arrow going through the throat of the Blessed Mother. While there were attempts to repair it, the “wounds” still exist. “For some reason, [Mary] did not want the wounds on this image to be fixed,” said Father Eidle.
By Jennifer Russell
