Mary

January 8th, 2016

Purpose: To learn about Mary, dispel any misconceptions people have and to pray the Rosary.

Reminders before class:

  • Make sure you can get the Smart TV working with the videos
  • Prepare a short testimony about your connection with Mary and/or the Rosary.

What Devyn will Provide:

  • Rosaries
  • Poster boards
  • Extra copies of apparition sheets
  • Video links on website

Outline:

5:30-6:30pm: Youth Mass

6:30-7:00pm: Snacks, icebreaker, opening prayer in dining room

7:00-7:10pm: Gather Time in classroom

  • Welcome the teens
  • Take attendance
  • Ask the teens what they did over the holiday break.

7:10-7:20pm: Introduction to the night & Review of last meeting

  • Remind the teens that before Christmas we talked about the Holy Family and how Mary conceived Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit
  • Tell the teens that last Sunday (January 1st) was the Feast of the Mother of God. Tonight we will be talking about Mary and why she is so important to us.
  • Ask the teens if they remember what Gospel the story of Jesus’s conception is found in (Luke)
  • To refresh their memories pass out Bibles and take turns popcorn reading Luke 1:26-45
  • Tell the teens that tonight we will be answering the following questions:
  • Do Catholics worship Mary?
  • Why is it important that Mary was a virgin?
  • What are some apparitions of Mary?
  • Why/ how do we pray the rosary?

7:20-7:30pm: Misconceptions about Mary

  • Ask the teens to name some of the things that their friends ask them about Mary.
  • You will probably get responses like “Why do we pray to her” and “why do we worship her?”
  • Show the video “Mary in 2 Minutes” by BustedHalo Video
  • Say the following in your own words:
  • Protestants often think that Catholics make too much of a big deal about Mary. When, in reality, she is a hugely special person!
  • She is super close with Jesus because she is his mom. When your mom asks you to do something, don’t you do it? (hopefully.)
  • Mary is pure and sinless and is a great listener.
  • Mary even sparked Jesus’ first miracle!
  • If Mary helped Jesus start his public ministry, then she can definitely help you with your problems!
  • Take turns popcorn reading John 2:1-11
  • Discuss the following questions:
  • Why do you think Mary told Jesus to help the couple at the wedding?
  • Have you ever told your mom something like “this issue doesn’t concern me” and she replied “I don’t care, do it anyway?” What was the situation? How does this relate to Mary and Jesus?
  • Why is it important that the good wine came from Jesus?
  • How do you think Mary felt after Jesus performed his miracle?

7:30-7:45pm: Write Your Own Hail Mary

  • Say the following:
  • Now that we have talked about why Mary is so important, we are going to break down the prayer that we often pray to her with: The Hail Mary.
  • Some of the words come directly from the Bible passage that we read at the beginning of class.
  • Today, you guys will get the chance to re-write the Hail Mary into more modern words.
  • Tell the teens to open their packets to the “Hail Mary Re-Write” page. They can work with 1-2 other people if you think it would be helpful.
  • Give them about 10 minutes to work on the prayer and then have the teens share their re-worded prayer with the class.

7:45-8:00pm: Marian Apparitions

  • Say the following in your own words:
  • Mary is special because she often appears to people to help them with their problems or to give us inspiration.
  • These instances are called “apparitions’ and thousands have been reported!
  • However, the Vatican takes steps to research which apparitions can be approved, since many of them have serious messages given to us by God through Mary.
  • This is why Mary can seem to have so many names, because we often talk about these apparitions separately, although they are ALL appearances of one person: Mary the Mother of God.
  • Today we will be talking about some of the major apparitions and you guys will be able to work in groups to share some of her stories.
  • Split the class into groups of 4-5 and pass out one Marian Apparition sheet to each group. The teens should work together and create a poster board with:
  • A picture of Mary as she looked during the apparition (they have to draw, they can’t just cut and paste from their paper)
  • Where the apparition took place
  • Who she appeared to
  • What special message Mary gave during the apparition.
  • Teens can also use their phones to look up info if needed.
  • After the teens have finished their posters have them present their apparition to the rest of the class.

8:00-8:05pm: Catechist Sharing

  • Catechists: Share either your connection with Mary or with the Rosary. Share why they are important to you and any special prayer experiences that you have.

8:05-8:30pm: Praying the Rosary

  • Show the video “50 Reasons why 50 Teens Pray with Mary, the Mother of God” by Garret Fisler
  • Say the following in your own words:
  • The Rosary is a traditional Catholic devotional prayer that honors Mary and helps us tomeditate on the life of Christ through prayer as well as meditation.
  • The Rosary has been a Catholic devotional practice for nearly a thousand years
  • The rosary isn’t just the repetition of a bunch of prayers, it is a way for us to meditate on different mysteries of our faith.
  • The rosary is a helpful prayer because it uses physical touch as well as mental thoughts to pray. It is a great way to use your senses in prayer.
  • Today we are going to pray the rosary as a class. Please open your packets to the rosary sheet.
  • Briefly explain the rosary sheet in the teen’s packets and hand out rosaries.
  • Ask for any intercessions that the teens have before you start.
  • Recite the prayer as a class, using the Glorious mysteries.

Tell the teens to have a great week!

Hail Mary Rewrite

Take the words of the Hail Mary and translate it using more modern language.

Hail Mary, full of grace.
Our Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.

My Version of the Hail Mary:

file:///H:/DevynS/WinWord/Prayers/How-to-Pray-the-Rosary.pdf

THE STORY OF OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE

On December 9, 1531, in Mexico, Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego, a poor humble Aztec Indian who had recently converted to the Catholic faith. She asked him to go to the Bishop and tell him to build a church where she said “I will show and offer all of my love, my compassion, my help and my protection to my people.” Juan Diego did as she asked, but the Bishop asked for a sign that this message was really from Our Lady. Mary granted his request.

On December 12, she showed Juan where the most beautiful Castilian roses were and told him to gather them. It was a miracle that the roses were there and in bloom because there was frost on the ground, and the ground was an infertile place where only cactus and thistles grew. After he gathered them, she helped arrange them in his tilma, or poncho, and told him to show them to the Bishop. When he brought them to the Bishop, the Bishop was amazed at the roses, but was even more amazed at what began to happen to Juan Diego’s tilma. Right before their very eyes, the image of Our Lady began to form on the cloth. The picture of Mary was beautiful and the Bishop fell to his knees. He had the church built at her request.

The tilma is still intact after 470 years. The colors have not faded and the cloth has not deteriorated. It has been on display in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe for all this time. The manner in which Our Lady appeared on the tilma was very significant to the Aztec Indians. God had her dressed in a way that they would understand who she was. She was dressed in royal clothes that showed that she was very important, perhaps a queen. She also had the symbol of the cross at her neck which was the same symbol the Spaniards had on their ships and in the churches they built. She had a sash tied around her waist which meant that she was with child, for this was the way the Aztec women dressed when they were pregnant. And on her beautiful dress were all sorts of designs and flowers. But there was one flower on her dress that was very significant. It had only four petals. To the Aztecs, the four petal flower was the symbol for the true God, the God above all gods. This flower was located on her abdomen, right over the place where Jesus was growing inside of her. The Aztecs immediately understood that this was the mother of the true God!

This appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe was very important to the history of our continent. You see, the Aztec Indians and the Spaniards were on the brink of war. The Aztec Indians’ culture and religion were very different from the Spaniards. They worshipped gods, to whom they would offer human sacrifices, often killing 50,000 people a year. The Spaniards, who were Catholic, were naturally disgusted by this. But they were cruel to the Aztecs too, treating them like animals and sometimes killing them for no reason. If a war had occurred, it would have been very brutal and the Spaniards and Christianity would have been totally wiped out. Mary’s appearance changed everything, however. It helped the Indians to embrace Christianity and it helped the Spaniards to treat the Indians with respect and as human beings. In the course of seven years, 6,000,000 Indians converted to the Catholic faith. This was the biggest conversion in the history of the Church! This is why Our Lady of Guadalupe is the Patroness of the Americas.

Juan Diego, the humble man to whom she appeared, was canonized in the summer of 2002. Mary’s appearance also put an end to the worship of stone gods and the ritual of human sacrifice. We pray for Mary’s help today to bring an end to the human sacrifice of God’s children through abortion and to convert non-believers. Our Lady of Guadalupe is also called the Patroness of the Unborn.

Our Lady of Lourdes

The Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in southern France is the most visited pilgrimage site in the world — principally because of the apparent healing properties of the waters of the spring that appeared during the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to a poor, 14 girl, Bernadette Soubiroux.

The first apparition occurred February 11, 1858. There were eighteen in all; the last took place July 16, of the same year. Bernadette often fell into an ecstasy during these apparitions, as was witnessed by the hundreds who attended the later visions, though no one except Bernadette ever saw or heard the apparition. The mysterious vision Bernadette saw in the hollow of the rock Massabielle, where she and friends had gone to gather firewood, was that of a young and beautiful lady. “Lovelier than I have ever seen” said the child. She described the Lady as clothed in white, with a blue ribbon sash and a Rosary handing from her right arm. Now and then the apparition spoke to Bernadette.

One day, the Lady told the girl to drink of a mysterious fountain within the grotto itself, the existence of which was unknown, and of which there was no sign. But Bernadette scratched at the ground, and a spring immediately bubbled up and soon gushed forth.

On another occasion the apparition bade Bernadette go and tell the priests she wished a chapel to be built on the spot and processions to be made to the grotto. At first the clergy were incredulous. The priest said he would not believe it unless the apparition gave Bernadette her name.

After another apparition, Bernadette reported that the Lady told her, “I am the Immaculate Conception”. Though the girl was unfamiliar with the term, the Pope had declared the doctrine of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary in 1854. Four years after Bernadette’s visions, in 1862, the bishop of the diocese declared the faithful “justified in believing the reality of the apparition” of Our Lady.

A basilica was built upon the rock of Massabielle by M. Peyramale, the parish priest. In 1873 the great “national” French pilgrimages were inaugurated. Three years later the basilica was consecrated and the statue solemnly crowned. In 1883 the foundation stone of another church was laid, as the first was no longer large enough. It was built at the foot of the basilica and was consecrated in 1901 and called the Church of the Rosary. Pope Leo XIII authorized a special office and a Mass, in commemoration of the apparition, and in 1907 Pius X extended the observance of this feast to the entire Church; it is now observed on February 11.

Our Lady of Fatima

The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, appeared six times to three shepherd children ("The Three Seers") near the town of Fatima, Portugal between May 13 and October 13, 1917. Appearing to the children, the Blessed Virgin told them that She had been sent by God with a message for every man, woman and child living in our century. Coming at a time when civilization was torn asunder by war and bloody violence, She promised that Heaven would grant peace to all the world if Her requests for prayer, repration and consecration were heard and obeyed.

"If My requests are granted ... there will be peace"

Our Lady of Fatima explained to the children that war is a punishment for sin and warned that God would further castigate the world for its disobedience to His Will by means of war, hunger and the persecution of the Church, the Holy Father and the Catholic Faithful. God's Mother prophesied that Russia would be God's chosen "instrument of chastisement," spreading the "errors" of atheism and materialism across the earth, fomenting wars, annihilating nations and persecuting the Faithful everywhere.

"If My requests are not granted, Russia will spread its errors throughout the world, raising up wars and persecutions against the Church. The good will be martryed, the Holy Father will suffer much and various nations will be annihilated."

In all Her appearances at Fatima, the Blessed Mother repeatedly emphasized the necessity of praying theRosary daily, of wearing theBrown Scapularof Mount Carmel and of performing acts of reparation and sacrifice. To prevent the terrible chastisement at the hands of Russia and to convert "that poor nation", Our Lady requested the solemn public Consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart by the Pope and all the Catholic bishops of the world. She also asked that the Faithful practice a new devotion of reparation on the first Saturday of five consecutive months ("The Five First Saturdays")

The heart of Our Lady's Message to the world is contained in what has come to be called the "Secret" which She confided to the three child seers in July 1917. The Secret actually consists of three parts, the first two of which have been publicly revealed. The first part of the Secret was a horrifyingVision of hell"where the souls of poor sinners go" and contained an urgent plea from Our Lady for acts of prayer and sacrifice to save souls. The second partof the Secret specifically prophesied the outbreak of World War II and contained the Mother of God's solemn request for theConsecration of Russiaas a condition for world peace. It also predicted the inevitable triumph of Her Immaculate Heart following Russia's consecration and the conversion "of that poor nation" to the Catholic Faith.

The last part of the Secret (often called the"Third Secret") has not yet been made public, but was written down by Lucy Dos Santos, the last living Fatima seer, in 1944 and has been in the possession of the Holy See since 1957. Most informed sources speculate that this portion of the Secret concerns chaos in the Catholic Church, predicting widespread apostasy and a loss of faith beginning in the seventh decade of the 20th Century.

Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

Catherine Labouréstated that on July 18, 1830, the eve of the feast of St. Vincent, she woke up after hearing the voice of one child calling her to the chapel, where she heard the Virgin Mary say to her, "God wishes to charge you with a mission. You will be contradicted, but do not fear; you will have the grace to do what is necessary. Tell your spiritual director all that passes within you. Times are evil in France and in the world."[3]