Magnificat 2023
Mother Mary’s humility, devotion and obedience to God is the primary reason why God has made her the Queen of Heaven. Devotion to Mother Mary is one of the integral aspects of the catholic faith and hence we celebrate various feasts of Mother Mary. The celebration of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in St. Mary’s Basilica Bengaluru is something that brings together people for all faiths during the novena days. As part of the celebration of the Nativity of our Blessed Virgin Mary, on 10th September, 2023, the Faith Formation committee of St. Anthony’s church TC Palya, decided to make an effort in catechizing the people about the various Apparitions of Mother Mary, its historical relevance and the associated miracles. We named this program as Magnificat 2023.
We are all aware that Mother Mary has appeared in many places to give some important messages and to guide the people back to the path of her Son, Jesus Christ. Some of them are very popular, while some of them have taken place way before the practice of recording miracles existed. In many of these apparitions, Our Lady appears to those who exhibit humility and innocence like that of small children. Perhaps the reason for this is also explained by Jesus in the Gospel of Mathew 18:4 – “Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Mother Mary continues to appear in a lot of places, however to be able to see the Blessed Virgin Mary, we need to humble ourselves.
With the objective of spreading the messages given by Mother Mary throughout our history, the Faith Formation committee of St. Anthony’s church, researched about the various apparitions of Mother Mary and presented a total of 28 apparitions to the people through the children.
We began with a procession of the various apparitions during the Holy Mass of 7:15 am and 8:30 am. At 10:00 am we commenced our program with the Hymn “On This Day, O Beautiful Mother” sung by our children. This was followed by a welcome speech from Fr Anthony Raj and the program was inaugurated by our chief guest Fr Vijay.
After presenting the first 14 apparitions, we had a dance performed by the sisters from the St. Anne’s of Bangalore congregation. This theme of this dance was on Mother Mary. After this dance we continued presenting the remaining 14 apparitions.
The people of St. Anthony’s Church were indeed blessed to witness 28 different Marian shrines from across the world in their church and learn about the many apparitions of Mother Mary, some of which were from India itself. The program was concluded with the Vote of Thanks from Fr. Naveen, followed by a group photo of all the children, priests and teachers.
Our Lady of Lourdes – presented by Maureen Tania Saldana
On Feb 11, 1858, Mother Mary appeared to a poor child named Bernadette Soubirous for the first time near a grotto. She appeared again repeatedly in the days to come. When word spread, Bernadette was harassed by civil authorities but she received an inner strength to tackle them. The spring which our Lady asked Bernadette to drink from was blessed with miraculous healing properties and 25th March, Mother Mary revealed to Bernadette that she is the Immaculate Conception.
Our Lady of Fathima – presented by Isabella Joseph
Mother Mary appeared 6 times to three peasant children Francisco, Jacinta, and Lucia in Fatima which is a city in the district of Santarem in Portugal. The apparition was first seen on May 13, 1917 and there was a total of 6 apparitions till 13th October, 1917. In the sixth and the final apparition Mother Mary, the Miracle of the Sun took place in the attendance of nearly 70000 people. Mother Mary revealed three secrets to the children, all of which have been proven correct.
Vailankanni Matha – presented by Anika Adora
Blessed Virgin Mary had appeared in the village called Vaillankanni with baby Jesus in her arms. Mother Mary initially appeared to a shepherd boy who gave her milk and was able to witness the miraculous brimming over of the milk. This was followed by the miraculous healing of the lame buttermilk vendor by Mother Mary and the Portuguese sailors being saved from a violent storm.
Our Lady of Bandel – presented by Betina F
In 1599, when Shahjahan became the emperor, he destroyed the church built by the Portuguese in the banks of river Hooghly near Calcutta and killed 4 out of 5 priests. A person named Tiago fled with the statue of Mother Mary but he drowned in the river. The emperor sentenced the 5th priest to be stamped to death by the elephants but one elephant raised him and put him on his back. Hence the priest was freed and allowed to rebuild the church. The priest got a dream where Tiago tells him that Mother Mary is coming back and the next day, the fishermen brought the statue of Mother Mary back.
Harihara Matha – presented by Prajusha Joysill P
Long ago, a brahmin while taking bath, fell into the river Tungabhadra and was about to drown when he saw the floating statue of our Lady of Health and caught hold of it and was saved. Thereafter, his wife and children on touching the statue of our Lady of Health, were miraculously healed of their diseases. Later his house was converted to a church and people refer it as the Vailankanni of Karnataka.
