The 1st Ever Devotion to Mary: Our Lady Help of Christians
The 1st Ever Devotion to Mary: Our Lady Help of Christians
The first ever Marian apparition was Our Lady of the Pillar (see previous talk), but the first ever Marian devotion was Mary, Help of Christians. If you don't understand why there is devotion to Mary, you might want to learn what the earliest Christians did regarding her! Fr. Chris Alar gives a fascinating and easy-to-follow explanation about this and why we need it today more than ever because of persecution of Christianity.
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The readings for this homily: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021826.cfm
The world has its “small-g gods”: sex, money, and power. In this powerful Lenten homily, Fr. Chris Alar, MIC explains how the consecrated religious counter them through poverty, chastity, and obedience—but what about the laity?
The answer is the Church’s timeless Lenten call: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
Jesus gave us five new channels of grace to awaken the world to the devotion to Divine Mercy. Father Chris Alar, MIC, defines them as F.I.N.C.H.: the Divine Mercy Feast, Image, Novena, Chaplet, and Hour.
In today’s homily, Fr. Chris Alar reminds us that prayer is not just something we do—it is who we are called to be. It is the lifeline between our soul and God, the “raising of one’s mind and heart to God” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2559). Prayer is communication, relationship, and covenant. It is how we learn to love the Lord and conform our human will to His divine will.
