The life of Our Lady

Brainstorm! Who is Our Lady? What do you already know about her? Think about: Her life Her feast days Her many titles e.g. Queen of heaven

Mary’s Parents According to tradition Mary’s parents were Joachim and Anne.

God answers their prayers Joachim and Anne prayed to God and had much faith. God answered their prayers and Anne was soon expecting a child.

The Immaculate Conception We celebrate this feast day on December 8th. This means that from the moment of her existence in Anne’s womb, Mary was free from sin. She was “immaculate”. She never sinned in her life!

The Immaculate Conception God kept Mary free from sin because she was to have the privilege (special gift) of carrying God’s Son Jesus in her womb later in her life. (When Our Lady appeared to Bernadette at Lourdes in 1858 she told Bernadette that she was the “Immaculate Conception”).

The Birth of Mary Exactly 9 months after the Immaculate Conception we celebrate the birth of Mary on September 8th.

The angel Gabriel visits Mary One day, when Mary was about 16 years old, the Angel Gabriel, a messanger from God, visited her and told her that she had been chosen from all women to become the Mother of the Son of God, Jesus, who would come to save the world. Mary was surprised and a little afraid but said yes to what the angel asked.

The words that the angel Gabriel said to Mary we say when we are praying the ‘Hail Mary’. “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you.”

Mary visits Elizabeth Through the power of the Holy Spirit Mary became pregnant with Jesus. Even though she was very tired during this time she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth who was also pregnant to give her help. Elizabeth said to Mary: “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb”. When do we say these words in our prayers??

Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem When Mary was nearly 9 months pregnant she went with Joseph to Bethlehem to be registered in the census (a count of the people) of the area. The journey was long and rocky and Mary found it hard as it was a bumpy ride on the donkey.

The birth of Jesus The only place Joseph could find for Mary in Bethlehem was a stable to give birth to the Son of God, Jesus. Shepherds and kings came to worship and give gifts to the King of Kings.

Presentation in the Temple A little while after Jesus was born Mary brought Jesus to the Temple to be presented to God (a little like our baptism). Simeon told Mary that her life would not be easy and he prophesied some people would reject Jesus.

Jesus’ childhood Mary and Joseph raised Jesus in Nazareth. Joseph was Jesus’ foster-father. Joseph was a carpenter and Jesus and Joseph made a living selling what they made. Mary and Joseph never had any children. This is why we call Mary the Virgin Mary.

Finding of Jesus in the Temple When Jesus was 12 years old his family went up to Jerusalem for a festival. After it Jesus stayed behind in the Temple without his parents knowing. When they eventually found him Jesus told them that he had to do his Father’s will (God the Father’s will)

Jesus begins his mission When Jesus was 30 he left home and began his ministry of preaching, healing and telling people about the love of God. Mary must have been sad to see him leave but she knew that he had a mission from God to do.

The wedding at Cana Mary was present at the first miracle of Jesus. A young couple ran out of wine at their wedding. Mary persuaded Jesus to help them even though he hadn’t started his mission yet. This shows us that Mary is someone we can take our prayers to as she prays to God for us too!

The death of Jesus We don’t read much about Mary during the mission of Jesus which lasted 3 years. At the end of Jesus’ life Mary was there when he was condemned to die and was there with him when the people rejected him and crucified him.

It must have been very hard for Mary to see her son being treated so cruelly by a world that he had come to save. Jesus had helped so many people during his life and now they turned on him. Mary would have understood what Simeon had meant when he told her that her life would not be easy.

Jesus on the cross Jesus spoke to his mother while he was on the cross. He asked the apostle John to look after her as if she were his mother and he asked Mary to look after John as if he were her son. We believe that through Jesus giving John to Mary as her son he was also giving all of us to Mary to look after as her sons and daughters.

The Pieta Mary was there when Jesus was taken down from the cross. It was probably the hardest time in Mary’s life, when she held her dead son, the Son of God who had come to save the world, in her arms. But she knew that this was the only way.

The Resurrection Jesus appeared to his mother Mary after his resurrection. She was there when the Holy Spirit first came down on the apostles at Pentecost, 50 days after the resurrection.

Mary’s life after the Ascension The Gospels don’t tell us much about Mary’s life after Jesus rose up into heaven. Tradition holds that John built a house for Mary in Ephesus where she lived for the rest of her life.

The Assumption Mary, as the Mother of Jesus, the Mother of God was a very special woman. She had Jesus within her when she was pregnant and, with Joseph, she helped to bring up the only Son of God. It would not have been right for her to die and be buried like other ordinary human beings. When she was old God raised her up to be with himself in heaven. We call this the Assumption. Our Lady was crowned Queen of Heaven and earth.

What does Mary do now? Mary is our mother and just like every good mother she wants to: Love us Protect us Pray to God for us Guide us to God She wants us to stay close to God by praying, reading the Bible and by going to Mass and the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Apparitions of Mary Mary has appeared to ordinary people down through the years in places like: Knock, Co. Mayo Lourdes, France Fatima, Portugal A lot of people go on pilgrimage to these places every year.

Our Lady of Knock Our Lady appeared to 15 people in Knock, Co. Mayo on 21st August 1879. She appeared with St. John, St. Joseph and a lamb as a symbol of the Lamb of God, Jesus. The apparition lasted for two hours.

The different names we have for Mary. Do you recognise any schools or churches named after titles of Mary? Star of the Sea Our Lady Queen of Angels Our Lady of Knock Morning Star Refuge of Sinners Help of Christians In Irish, we use a special Irish word ‘Muire’ when we are talking about Our Lady. The usual translation of Mary into Irish is ‘Máire’.

Why do we call Mary the ‘Mother of God’? We call Mary the ‘Mother of God’ because she is the mother of Jesus, Jesus is God.

Feast days of Our Lady 1st January – Mary, Mother of God 11th February – Our Lady of Lourdes 25th March – The Annunciation May – the Month of Mary 31st May – the Visitation 15th August – the Assumption 22nd August – the Queenship of Mary 8th September – the birth of Mary October – the Month of the Rosary 8th December – the Immaculate Conception