The Holy Name of Mary (to children)

Good morning dear young people. Today is the feast of the Holy Name of Mary, and so then, it is a very nice day for us to think about Our Mother in heaven.

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Mary is the Mother of Jesus, who is God, and Jesus says, that we are his brothers, so that means that Mary is Our Mother, which she is.

The Holy Bible says that if we call on Mary, she will ask many things from Jesus for us. One time, some people ran out of wine at a wedding; what do you think Mary did? She asked Jesus to do a miracle for them, and he did. He made them lots of wine from water.

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We ourselves should talk to the Blessed Virgin many times a day and ask for favors. You may notice that at times if you are sad about something, if you just say the Name of Mary a few times, you feel a lot better! He name has power to help us a lot.

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I was reading in a book, there was this lady, she was worried about her husband, because he had not gone to confession for many years; (see Glories p. 315; 265-) If she told him he should go, he would become very angry. One day she asked a priest what to do; the priest told her simply to give him a picture of Mary. So she got a very nice picture of Mary, and gave it to her husband: here it is!

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Well, he had hardly received it when he said, ‘When shall we go to confession?’ The lady was surprised. At confession the priest asked the man how long it had been: 28 years since he confessed. ‘What made you come back,’ he asked him. ‘Last night my wife gave me a nice picture of the Blessed Virgin, and in that moment I felt my heart changed.

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Today is the feast of the Holy Name of Mary. And it cannot be counted how many people’s hearts are changed by the love of this good Mother. Some people can even become emotional when they hear Mary’s name, or see a picture of her.

But Jesus really wants us to know and love his Mother; that’s why he said to St. John in the Holy Gospel: ‘Now she is your Mother too!’ He means she’s all of our Mother.

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And calling on Mary helps us with a lot of problems that we have. Long ago there was a soldier who lived in France named Ansaldo. He was in a battle one time, and an arrow was shot into his jaw, which entered so deep into the jaw-bone that it was impossible to get the iron arrowhead out.

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After 4 years of suffering with this iron in his jaw, he decided he had to do something. He knelt down and made a promise to Mary. He said, that if she would help him, he promised that he would go to a certain shrine every year where her picture was, and give a large amount of money to help the needy.

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He no sooner made this promise, than the iron fell right out of his jaw. The next day he visited that shrine and gave the money to help the poor, and he was completely cured.

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Mary loves us, and she wishes that we speak to her often every day. We can say the Hail Mary, and Pray the Rosary; and we can just easily say: ‘Mary I love you, help me to love Jesus more.

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So, Happy Feast day of Mary’s Holy Name!