Fr. Thomas M. Pastorius
October 12, 2014
Spiritual Ponderings
Images of Blessed Virgin Mary

Let us deepen our relationship with Our Lord Jesus Christ by learning more about Him by learning more about his mother.

For the month of October, I would like to reflect with you all on some of the different images of the Blessed Virgin Mary throughout history and across the globe. The second image I would like to look at is called Our Lady of Nyaunglebin and can be found in Myanmar. For help in our exploration we will be using The Other Faces of Mary: Stories, Devotions, and Pictures of the Holy Virgin Around the World by Ann Ball.

The image of Our Lady of Nyaunglebin started off as an image of Our Lady of Lourdes. In Lourdes, France the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a young girl named Bernadette. She told Bernadette in the image that she was the “Immaculate Conception.” Fulton Sheen said the following about the idea that Mary was conceived without sin: “The closer one gets to fire, the greater the heat; the closer one is to God, the greater the purity,” and “The Immaculate Conception does not imply that Mary needed no Redemption. She needed it as much as you and I do. She was redeemed in advanced, by way of prevention, in both body and soul, in the first instant of conception.”

A copy of the image of Our Lady of Lourdes made it to Myanmar and despite many government persecutions the devotion of the Burmese people remains faithful to their queen of heaven. The national Marian pilgrimage center of Myanmar is in the town called Nyaunglebin, about one hundred miles from Yangon (Rangoon). Here the Lourdes image is known as Our Lady of Nyaunglebin. Her feast day is celebrated for three days in February, and many Catholics and even non-Catholics who have heard of her go there by car, plane, train, or bullock carts. In spite of the government restriction, thousands dare to attend the annual festival. During the joyful celebration, there is a candlelight procession every evening when the image is carried from the church around the town.

Our Lady of Nyaunglebin highlights some very important truths about the Blessed Virgin Mary. The first is that we are all her children. She does not look upon us and see race, creed, ethnicity, social status etc. Instead she looks down upon us and sees her beloved children - children who were given to her by her Beloved Son. Secondly we see Mary associated with the poor and not with military, rich, and violent leaders. She is a sign of hope for all people because Mary was raised up by God from her lowly state. We are raised up in a similar way at our baptism when we are made brothers and sisters of Christ.

“God could destroy evil, but only at the cost of human freedom, and that would be too high a price to pay for the destruction of dictatorship on earth—to have a dictator in Heaven.” – Fulton Sheen. Remember that in God’s interaction with Mary, He always asked her to cooperate with Him and never forced her. We should treat others in the same way.

Most holy, immaculate Virgin Mary, to your motherly heart Jesus entrusted his disciples and to us He has given you. I thank you, O most beautiful and noble of women, that you have always loved me as a mother, and I want to provide afresh for you an honored place in my life. Obtain for me from Jesus the gift of a new beginning and a new heart: a heart open and obedient to God's Word; a heart simple as a child's; a heart bold in sacrifice; a chaste heart; a thankful heart; a compassionate heart; a heart like yours, O Mary. Enfold in your mercy, dear Mother, all my dear ones especially.... (pause) and all who have a special claim to your help, children and young people, the sick and the suffering, the forgotten and the poor of this world. Join your prayers to our petitions for those who do not cease to be your children even though they have abandoned the faith and fallen into sin. May a remembrance of your love and beauty touch their hearts at depths we cannot reach. As at Pentecost, so now pray for the Church; pray for our parish, our priests, our Brothers and our Sisters, and for all of us, who strive to serve others in the name of Jesus, your Son. With all generations, we will ever call you blessed, O Mary, our Mother of Perpetual Help, for God, the Almighty, has indeed done great things for you, and you have been and are so gracious to us: O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.