Today, September 8th, the Catholic Church celebrates the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is exactly 9 months after the celebration of her Immaculate Conception. What a joyous day! Personally, I wish it was celebrated by the whole world with as much joy as Christmas (or at least with as much enthusiasm as St. Patrick's day); after all, Mary had (and continues to have) such an important role in the history of salvation. But there I go being a crazy Catholic again! :} Anyway, it is on feast days like today that I just love being Catholic because I am reminded of the blessings God continues to give us through the saints---especially His Blessed Mother who intercedes for us constantly, loves us unconditionally, and longs to guide us closer to her Son so that all will be saved. How I wish the whole world knew how much she loves us! I am reminded of one of Mary's messages in Medjugorje when she said: "If you knew how much I, your mother, love you, you would cry for joy." And this message was confirmed in my heart when I was able to watch the visionary Mirijana have her apparition in Medjugorje a few summers ago... As soon as the Blessed Mother appeared, Mirajana's whole countenance changed. She was completely overcome with pure joy and tears silently slipped down her cheeks as she gazed at Our Lady and conversed with her. Just seeing Mirijana's joy made me start to cry for joy! How blessed we are to be loved so much by God our Father and Mary our heavenly Mother! I pray for the grace to be able to love them back as much as my little heart is capable of!
The visionary Mirjana is 4th in from the right wearing a coral/pink shirt.
Our tour group was blessed to have a private meeting with her to hear her testimony and ask her questions. She seemed so full of peace and joy. I recently read her autobiography called "My Heart with Triumph", which describes the history of the apparitions in Medjugorje and how they affected her personally. It was very inspiring and I highly recommend it!
Here is the latest message from Our Lady to Mirjana on September 2nd, 2017:
"Dear children, who could speak to you about the love and the pain of my Son better than I? I lived with Him; I suffered with Him. Living the earthly life I felt pain because I was a mother. My Son loved the thoughts and the works of the Heavenly Father, the true God. And, as He said to me, He came to redeem you. I hid my pain through love, but you, my children, you have numerous questions. You do not comprehend pain. You do not comprehend that through the love of God you need to accept pain and endure it. Every human being will experience it to a lesser or greater measure. But with peace in the soul and in a state of grace, hope exists; this is my Son, God, born of God. His words are the seed of eternal life. Sown in good souls it brings numerous fruits. My Son bore the pain because He took your sins upon Himself. Therefore, you, my children, apostles of my love, you who suffer, know that your pain will become light and glory. My children, while you are enduring pain, while you are suffering, Heaven enters in you and you give a piece of Heaven and much hope to all those around you. Thank you."
Here is a fun recipe to make for this special Marian Feast day: Rose-Shaped Cinnamon Rolls. I have heard that every time we pray the rosary (which comes from the word "rosarium" which means rose garden or garland of roses) we are giving Mary a beautiful garland of roses. Our family loves these rolls, and I hope yours does too! They do take a bit of time and work, but they are SO worth it! You could even pray a rosary while you do it, and then you'd be giving a gift to Our Lady AND your family :)
Sweet Roll Dough
1 pkg. dry yeast
½ c. warm water
1/2 c. lukewarm milk (scalded then cooled)
1/3 c. butter, margarine or shortening
1/3 c. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
3 ½ to 4 c. flour
Dissolve yeast in warm water in large bowl. Stir in milk sugar, butter, salt, egg, and 2 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Mix in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle. Turn onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Place in greased bowl, turn greased side up. Cover and let rise in warm place until double, about 1 ½ hours.
Cinnamon Filling
2 T. butter, melted
1/2 c. sugar
2 T. cinnamon
Mix until all sugar and cinnamon is moistened.
Make 4 small balls (golf ball size) of dough and roll them out into 3 1/2 inch diameter circles. Overlap dough circles as shown. Sprinkle some of the cinnamon sugar mixture across middle, leaving curved edges clear.
½ c. warm water
1/2 c. lukewarm milk (scalded then cooled)
1/3 c. butter, margarine or shortening
1/3 c. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
3 ½ to 4 c. flour
Dissolve yeast in warm water in large bowl. Stir in milk sugar, butter, salt, egg, and 2 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Mix in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle. Turn onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Place in greased bowl, turn greased side up. Cover and let rise in warm place until double, about 1 ½ hours.
Cinnamon Filling
2 T. butter, melted
1/2 c. sugar
2 T. cinnamon
Mix until all sugar and cinnamon is moistened.
Make 4 small balls (golf ball size) of dough and roll them out into 3 1/2 inch diameter circles. Overlap dough circles as shown. Sprinkle some of the cinnamon sugar mixture across middle, leaving curved edges clear.
Roll circles up into rolls as shown. You should end up with rolled dough with both ends fluted. Cut roll in half.
Place dough in greased muffin tins. Cut/flat end should be down and the pretty, fluted/curved end up.
Let rise until double (30-40 minutes). Bake in 350 degree oven 12-15 minutes.
I found this recipe at the Catholic Cuisine website: http://catholiccuisine.blogspot.com/2015/07/st-elizabeth-rose-bread.html
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