AMERICA/ARGENTINA - The Marian Year begins on December 8, in which the 500 years of the first Argentine Mass will be celebrated

Thursday, 28 November 2019 marian devotion   evangelization   episcopal conferences  

Buenos Aires (Agenzia Fides) - On the feast of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, November 27, the Argentine Bishops officially announced the opening of the National Marian Year, next December 8, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, which will continue until the same date in 2020. In the statement, sent to Fides, the Bishops invite everyone "to live intensely this gift of God" and recall the reason: the jubilee for the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the image of the Virgen del Valle in the province of Catamarca, venerated throughout the country.
"During the Marian Year - the Bishops continue -, the memory of the first Mass celebrated in the Argentine territory 500 years ago, will take place in the bay of Puerto San Julián on April 1st ... Five centuries, four centuries ... So distant and so different, in the scenarios and in the moments. Both events, now together, continue to evoke and convoke the truth about who we are and what we believe as Catholics in this beloved, suffered and hopeful Argentina". Other events that will be celebrated in this period are the IV National Marian Congress, from 23 to 26 April, in Catamarca, and in September a Mariological Congress, also in Catamarca.
"They say that we Argentines like to be together, that we do our things by sitting at the table to talk and share. And we feel such great affection for mothers that they are almost untouchable - the Bishops continue -. Perhaps for this reason we Catholics in Argentina have the geography marked by the Sanctuaries dedicated to the Virgin Mother, and the history marked by meetings and Marian and Eucharistic Congresses. The year 2020 will be inscribed in this geography and in this history. Maria calls us again. She is the woman, she is the wife, she is the mother who, with her presence, embraces women, wives and mothers in their anguish and pain and welcomes the children of rejection, dependence, loneliness and misery".
On the occasion of the Marian Year, the Argentine Bishops Conference (CEA) published a special edition of "The Bible. The book of the people of God", with a presentation by Mgr. Oscar Ojea, President of CEA, the prayer for the Marian Year, the indications for the Lectio Divina, color illustrations, the various titles with which the Virgin Mary is venerated in Argentina. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides, 28/11/2019)


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