Fraternite Notre Dame | Our Lady

The Blessed Virgin Mary

Fraternite Notre Dame & the Blessed Virgin Mary

This passage from the Holy Gospel is very meaningful to us Servants of Our Lady, and it makes us discover who is really the Blessed Virgin Mary.
"Behold thy Mother", said Jesus to Saint John who represented us all. We cannot take this words lightly; Christ gives us his Mother at the most pathetic moment of his mission here below.
A dying man does not speak trifling things; these are his last wishes which he dictates. Attached to the cross, he leaves us what is dearest to him on earth, giving us as our mother, his own Mother.

Therefore we, Servants of Our Lady, want to take Mary into our home in order to accomplish the last whish of Christ who invites us to take his own Mother into our home, after the example of Saint John.
That is why we open wide the doors of our lives to her, and we want to give her the place she deserves all through our days.

Attending her school, we know that in Her is found the perfect example to be followed, in order to more perfectly and more surely reproduce Christ into our lives. Then the Most Blessed Virgin Mary really becomes our educator.

In the Mystery of the Visitation, one can say that Mary is driven by the Holy Spirit. Through this very fact, She becomes the Messenger of God and still nowadays, we can see that it is still the same Holy Spirit that commissions Mary as the Messenger of God on the instances of her various Apparitions on the surface of the globe.

In fact, we notice it almost daily with the Apparitions of this Good Mother, of which is favored our very venerated Founder, Bishop Jean Marie. Every month, She comes and visits officially her people with the same charity, the same compassion.

She comes and reminds us the requirements of the Holy Gospel of her Divine Son and very often, moved by the same Holy Spirit, She prophesies on the events to come, in order to invite God's people to a true conversion.

That is why our Congregation, Fraternite Notre Dame, meditates very often both on the Passion of Our Lord and on the Compassion of Mary and her mediation, and finally on her sorrows.

"There were standing by the Cross of Jesus, his Mother and his mother's sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus, therefore, saw his Mother and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he said to his Mother, "Woman, behold, thy Son". Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, thy Mother". And from that hour the disciple took her into his home."

(St John Ch 19 v 25-27)

Our devotion, our great love toward the Most Blessed Virgin Mary manifests itself externally by the fact that we solmnize the feasts that are consecrated to her, along with the first Saturday of each month, dedicated to her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart.

We also solemnize the months of May and October, which are consecrated to her, and the 14th of each month. Everyday, we start with the song of the Ave Maris Stella as a sign of our consecration to her Amiable Person.

Each day, always, we recits the Holy Rosary, followed notably by the Litany of Lorette. After the great Hours of Divine Office, we psalmody a Request to Mary, which is proper to our Congregation.
On August 22, we celebrate the Feast of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother, Patroness and Protectress of our Congregation.
We love and venerate images, icons and statues representing our Immaculate Mother.

Everyday, we make an offering of our day to the two Holy United Hearts of Jesus and Mary and we strive to live in their intimacy.
We, the Servants of Our Lady, are fully aware to be the sons and daughters of the Immaculate One; that is why we feel very concerned with honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary and having her be honored in her Immaculate Conception and in her sorrows.

" It is said: And the Virgin's name was Mary. Let us speak a little about this name which means: star of the sea and which befits admirably the Virgin Mary. Therefore she really is this noble star born of Jacob whose beams enlighten the whole world. If the winds of temptations arise, if you run into the rocks of tribulations, look at the star, invoke Mary. If you are tossed about by the waves of pride, ambition, betrayal and jealousy, look at the star, invoke Mary.

If anger or avarice or the seductions of the flesh shake the little boat of your soul, look at Mary. If, troubled by the enormity of your crimes, confounded by the uncleanliness of your conscience, frozen with fright at the thought of judgment, you start to be swallowed up by the gulf of sadness and the abyss of despair, think about Mary.
In perils, in anguish, in doubt, think about Mary, invoke Mary.May she not depart from your mouth, may she not depart from your heart and, to obtain the succor of the prayer, do not neglect the example of her life.

If you follow her, you do not go astray.
If you pray to her, you do not despair.
If you consult her, you are not wrong.
If she supports you, you do not fall.
If she protects you, you fear nothing.
If she leads you, you do not tire.
If she is favorable to you, you reach your aim.
And thus you experience on your own with what reason it has been said:
And the Virgin's name was Mary."

(Saint Bernard, The name of Mary)

Indeed, we trive to spread the news about the wonderful priviledge granted to Mary, thanks to the infinite merits of Jesus Christ our Lord.
We want to testify to her Immaculate Conception by giving her or keeping for her the place that she deserves in the History of Salvation, in our lives, our Congregation and in all the places where Providence will guide our steps.

Saint Bernard

Thy soul therefore was transpierced by a violent sorrow, in such a way that it is not without a reason that we proclaim thee more than a Martyr, thou in whom the feeling of corporal suffering was surpassed by the affectionate feeling of compassion...

Saint Francis

The Blessed Father knows that his Spiritual Daughter will never betray him by doing anything of any kind against the divine plan; therefore, when the stigmatization had renewed in his flesh the mystery of the Cross and ...

St Alphonsus Maria

Mary is the Queen of Saints and our first advocate. Therefore, as soon as she has delivered a soul from the slaws of Satan and united her with God, she wants that soul to dedicate herself to imitating him. Otherwise, she could not,...

Read More

St Vincent de Paul

By yielding to the principles of this inner life, the Marian devotion developed in a special way in the bosom of the two fold family of Saint Vincent.
It was consistent with the first sermon of Mr. De Paul and also with...

Read More

Saint Louis Marie

This devotion to the Most Blessed Virgin is a short way to find Jesus Christ, either because one cannot get lost in it, or because, as I said, one walks on it with greater joy and easiness, and consequently, with more promptitude...