HOLY MASS TODAY

01/05/2026

REFLECTION ON THE BROWN SCAPULAR :- FEAR NOT, I AM WITH YOU |EPISODE 1 - FR.PHILIP KARIKKASSERY OCD (DELEGATE CONFRATERNITY OF THE BROWN SCAPULAR )

05/10/2025

Fr. Stephen Alathara shares the story of COMMUNIO during Goodness News Interview in Malayalam

28/06/2023

🔴 Live - 28 June 2023 @ Vailankanni Shrine Basilica

03/05/2023

“The Rosary is THE WEAPON.”
-St. Padre Pio

21/12/2022

http://gather-the-fragments.org

Petition to the Vatican's Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments to reintroduce the Communion-plate at every Holy Mass.

05/12/2022

Marian Feast Of December 4
Our Lady of La Chapelle, at Abbeville (1400)

Notre Dame de la Chapelle

The Abbot Orsini wrote: “This church was built about the year 1400, on a small hill, where formerly they worshipped idols.”

The town of Abbeville is a commune located in the Somme department in Picardy in the northern region of France. It is located on the Somme River.

Fortunately for us, there still exists today a plan for the town of Abbeville that was etched in the year 1653. Our Lady of La Chapelle can easily be distinguished in the foreground of the etching, dominating the city though built outside the walls.

Built around the year 1400, the church was initially only a chapel in which there was exhibited a religious icon of our Lady that earned the church its name of Our Lady of the Chapel. The structure was indeed erected on the remains of a temple devoted to paganism. The growing number of the faithful coming to pray there made it a true parish, and so the church expanded to have 3 naves and 7 altars, reflecting the expansion of the city.

The church was built in limestone in the flamboyant Gothic style. It survived numerous dangers and setbacks over the coming decades, exposed to wind and rough weather at the top of the hill on the north of the city, including being struck several times by lightning. In 1619, the high Bell Tower did not survive a violent storm, and was rebuilt the following year.

All of this is nothing compared to the danger that the church faced in 1637-1638. At that time Spain and France were at war. King Louis XIII came to Abbeville, a strategic town, and realized that the chapel could serve as a type of fortress in case of a siege. Aware of the danger, Cardinal Richelieu gave the order to demolish the church. The mayor at the time, Guilaume Sanson, and his aldermen as well, managed to talk him out of it.

The church was saved, but for how long?

Then, in 1789, came the French Revolution. The church that had survived so much was destroyed in 1794.

Yet, in 1804, another large chapel was built to replace the lost church, a building retaining the tower of 1620. (That bell tower has been classified as an historic monument since 1901.

The cemetery that once surrounded the church was preserved, and has been significantly expanded to become the cemetery of the city since the year 1844. There is a path that leads up to the main entrance of the chapel through the cemetery that once connected to the three possession of the Templars: The Charterhouse of Thuyson, a house founded and occupied by the Templars and bought by the Carthusians, and the commandery of Beauvoir and Forest l'Abbaye. The road was called the "Way of the Templars."

Our Lady of La Chapelle

“My dear Son, as the Lord of virtues and graces, exalted and adorned me with them from the first moment of my Immaculate Conception. And as, more-over, the hindrance of sin touched me not, I was free from the impediments which prevented other mortals from entering into the eternal gates of heaven; on the contrary the powerful arm of my Son acted with me as being the Mistress of all virtues and as the Queen of heaven. Because He was to vest Himself and assume unto Himself human nature from my flesh and blood, He was beforehand in preparing me and making me like Himself in purity and exemption from fault and in other divine gifts and privileges. As I was not a slave of sin, I exercised the virtues not as a subject, but as a Mistress, without contradiction, but with sovereignty, not like the children of Adam, but like the Son of God, who was also my Son.”

Rosary Confraternity International

01/12/2022

Marian Feast Of December 1
Our Lady of Ratisbon, Bavaria (1842)

One of the most famous examples of Our Lady’s bounty in granting favors to the wearers of the Miraculous Medal occurred less than ten years after the medal had been struck.

Alphonse Rathisbonne was a French Jew who had no religion. When his brother Theodore became a Catholic and then a priest, Alphonse was filled with aversion. He was a typical intellectual of the nineteenth century, a worshipper of humanity, who sneered at anything spiritual in his pride and ignorance.

In November 1841, Alphonse found himself in Rome, although his itinerary had not called for a stop in the Eternal City. There he met Baron de Bussiere. The Baron urgently requested him to wear the Miraculous Medal and to recite daily the prayer of Saint Bernard, “The Memorare.” Alphonse did so in the spirit of acceptance and of dare but without the slightest bit of faith.

Our Lady of Ratisbon

On January 20, 1842, Monsieur de Bussiere saw Alphonse walking along the street and invited him into his carriage. They stopped at Saint Andrea delle Fratee because the Baron wished to see a priest there. In order to kill time, Rathisbonne entered the church.

He was not very much impressed and was walking around rather listlessly. Suddenly the church seemed to be plunged into darkness and all the light concentrated on one chapel. Very much startled he saw there our Blessed Mother bathed in glorious light, Her face radiant. He went toward her. She motioned with her right hand for him to kneel. As he knelt, he realized at last the sad state of his soul. He perceived that mankind had been redeemed through the Blood of Christ, and he was seized with a great longing to be taken into the Church of Christ. The blessed Virgin spoke not a word, but these things came to him as he knelt before her.

The next day Alphonse was baptized by Cardinal Patrizi, vicar of Pope Gregory XVI. The Holy Father as bishop of Rome, ordered an official inquiry and after four months the authenticity of the miracle was recognized.

Alphonse Maria Rathisbonne, as he was named after his baptism, devoted the remainder of his life to winning over his fellow Jews to Christ.

Our Lady of Ratisbon

Rosary Confraternity International

26/11/2022

Marian Feast Of November 26
Our Lady of the Mountains, Italy (1500)

Also known as the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Polsi, or Sanctuary of Santa Maria di Polsi, Our Lady of the Mountain, it is located near San Luca in Calabria in Southern Italy. Until recently the sanctuary could only be reached on foot because of the rugged terrain and its location at the bottom of a gorge.

It is known that the site has been inhabited since pre-Roman times, as there were Hellenic settlers there who worshipped Persephone. Basilian monks had founded a hermitage there in the 7th century honoring the Blessed Mother, which was replaced by a Roman Catholic presence about the year 1500.

During the period from spring to October the area around the sacred shrine comes alive with a considerable number of pilgrims from all over the provinces of Calabria and neighboring provinces. Once near the sanctuary, however, you might still find shepherds grazing their flocks.

Our Lady of the Mountains

There is more than one legend about the founding of Our Lady of the Mountains. One of them is that in the ninth century there were Byzantine monks fleeing from the Saracen invasion. They made their way into the heart of the mountains where they founded a small colony and a church. Possibly due to the extreme distance to the nearest villages, the site was later abandoned.

Another, more widespread legend, tells that in the eleventh century a shepherd boy, a native from a nearby town, was intent on finding a lost bull. When he found it, he watched as the animal dug up an iron cross. Then he experienced a vision of the Blessed Virgin with the Christ Child, who said:

“I want you to build a church to spread devotion to me. I will grant graces, above all, to the devotees who will come here to visit me.”

Still within the sanctuary are kept the statue of Our Lady of the Mountains, a sculpture of great beauty, and the Holy Cross. The statue of the Blessed Virgin was carved in limestone, and is said to have eyes that follow the beholder. She and her Divine Son wear golden crowns that date from 1860, when the father superior of the Basilian convent, Domenico Fera, crowned the statues.

The celebrations that take place at the Sanctuary and their dates are:

August 22. On this date there is a procession from a nearby village to the shrine.

September 2: Day of the solemn feast of the Madonna of the Mountains.

September 14: Feast of the Holy Cross.

Every 25 years: Coronation of the statue of Our Lady of the Mountain – the last time was 2 September 2006.

Rosary Confraternity International

20/11/2022

Marian Feast Of November 20
Our Lady of La Guarde, Bologna, Italy (433)

The Abbot Orsini wrote: “This picture was in the Church of Santa Sophia, at Constantinople, with this inscription: “This picture, painted by Saint Luke, must be taken to the mountain of La Garde, and placed over the altar of the church.” A Greek monk set out for Italy about the year 433, with the picture entrusted to him, and deposited it on the mountain of La Garde.”

The account mentioned by the abbot above is also told in the chronicle of Graziolo Accarisi, who wrote of a Greek hermit who went on pilgrimage to Constantinople where he received from the priests of the church of Santa Sofia the icon of Our Lady of La Guarde. This image was attributed to Saint Luke the Evangelist, and there was an inscription on the painting itself that it should one day be taken to the “mountain of the guard.”

The hermit took the icon, and walked throughout Italy in search of the place where the icon was meant to be, but it was not until he reached the city of Emilia near Bologna that the authorities of the city came out to greet him and processed with the icon back to the mountain. The icon had finally found its home, and it is now more commonly known as the Madonna of San Luca.

Our Lady of La Guarde.

Among the many miracles attributed to the image is especially noted the “miracle of the rain,” which occurred on July 5th, 1433. An extremely heavy spring rain came late in the season, threatening to destroy the crops. Facing the prospect of famine, the people turned to the Blessed Virgin for assistance. The storm and rain stopped suddenly with the arrival into the city of a procession carrying the miraculous icon. Since that time these processions have been repeated annually. There is even an incredible arched walkway that is only a little short of four kilometers on length that is meant to protect the icon from the elements, as well as those on procession.

The icon shows the Blessed Virgin Mary holding the Infant Jesus in blessing. She wears a blue-green robe, with a red tunic. The nose, eyes and fingers appear somewhat elongated. The Divine Child wears a tunic of the same color as His mothers’, with his right hand in a gesture of giving a blessing, and his left hand being closed. In 1625 the image was covered with a silver panel which leaves only the faces of the figures uncovered.

The icon was crowned in 1603 by the Archbishop Alfonso Paleotti. The sanctuary of Saint Luke, where the icon is kept, was declared a national monument in the year 1874. In 1907 the church was raised to the dignity of a minor basilica by the holy Pope Saint Pius X.

Rosary Confraternity International

14/10/2022

Marian Feast Of October 14
Our Lady of La Rochelle, (La Rochette) France (7th Century)

The Abbot Orsini wrote: “Our Lady of La Rochette near Geneva. A shepherd coming up to a bush, where he heard a plaintive voice, found there an image of the Blessed Virgin, which led to a church being built there.”

The Marian Calendar I used listed this date as Our Lady of La Rochelle, and further investigation revealed it actually refers to Our Lady of La Rochette, as stated by the good abbot.

La Rochette, France, is a difficult town to locate. The Abbot Orsini wrote that it was near Geneva, and there is a town, La Croix-de-la-Rochette, just south of Geneva along the lake Saint Clair in France. It is near the cities of Savoie, Isere, Haute-Savoie and Lyon in the Savoie department in the Rhone-Alps. The population is quite small, having only 248 inhabitants at the last census. A tourist guide makes mention of an early church which is listed as a sight-seeing destination only. I can find no mention of a miraculous image of the Blessed Virgin still at this site.

Our Lady of La Rochette

“The impetuous floods of the Divinity met in this holy City of the sanctified soul of Mary. It took its origin from the foundation of his Wisdom and Goodness, by which and whence He had resolved to deposit within this heavenly Lady the greatest graces and virtues ever to be given to any other creature for all eternity.”

“And when the hour had arrived for giving them into her possession, namely the very moment of her coming into natural life, the Almighty fulfilled according to his pleasure and full satisfaction the desire, which He had held suspended from all eternity until the time for gratifying this wish should arrive. The most faithful Lord executed his design, showering down all His graces and gifts in the most holy soul of Mary at the time of her Conception in such an overpowering measure as no other saint, nor all of them combined, can ever reach, nor ever human tongue can manifest.”

“Although She was adorned as the Bride, descending from heaven, endowed with all perfections and with the whole range of infused virtues, it was not necessary that She should exercise all of them at once, it being sufficient that She exercise those, which were befitting her state in the womb of her mother.”

Rosary Confraternity International