L.A. ARCHBISHOP GOMEZ CELEBRATED TODAY INAUGURAL FEAST OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, MOTHER OF CHURCH AS DECREED BY POPE FRANCIS
May 21, 2018  |  By:   |  Archbishop Gomez, Press Releases  |  

To Commemorate the New Feast, Archbishop Gomez is Offering a Blessed Image of the Virgin Mary to All Families in the Archdiocese

Today, Catholics worldwide celebrated the new feast honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, decreed in February by Pope Francis.

In Los Angeles, Archbishop José H. Gomez celebrated a special Mass, at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels to commemorate the new feast, concelebrated by the Bishop of Orange Kevin Vann, Auxiliary Bishop Joseph V. Brennan for the San Fernando Region of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and several priests of the Archdiocese.

“Mary is the heart of the Church, the Mother of the family of God,” said Archbishop Gomez during the homily. “The Mother of Jesus still goes with us, sharing our joys and hopes, helping us in all the challenges of our daily life. She still opens her arms to us with tender love, to give us comfort and guidance.”

More than 1,300 K-12th grade students, teachers and their chaperones from 22 Catholic School across the Archdiocese attended the Mass, along with hundreds of religious women, Marian devotees and faithful. Students and faithful brought written prayer intentions for the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Cathedral that will be delivered to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City in July during the Archdiocesan pilgrimage with Archbishop Gomez. Representatives from each school that attended the Mass participated in offering flowers to Our Blessed Mother and students from Precious Blood School led the coronation ceremony.

To commemorate the new feast, Archbishop Gomez is offering a special gift through AngelusNews.com, the Archdiocesan weekly news magazine and multimedia website. He is offering a blessed image of our Blessed Mother for every family in the Archdiocese who would like to receive one.

“There should be an image of Mary in every home, a picture of our mother,” said Archbishop Gomez. “My prayer is that families and individuals will place this image in a prominent place, and when they look at it they will remember to pray and make an act of love to our mother.”

For more information, please visit http://www.la-archdiocese.org/Pages/Mary-Feast-Day.aspx, and to receive a blessed image of our Blessed Mother visit http://marian.angelusnews.com/ (English) or http://maria.angelusnews.com/ (Spanish). To view the full Mass, visit archla.org/live.

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