The Virgin Aparecida is our Mother, our help and protection.

Since childhood, we have learned to have great devotion to the Mother of all goodness: Our Lady Aparecida. We learn this in the family: in the lap of the mother, in the advice of the grandmother, in the rosary prayed by the father, in the catechesis and in the guidance of the priest. The Virgin of Aparecida  is our Mother, our help and protection; she is our home, our life; Mother of Jesus and, always by our side. With her we talked about everyday matters. She does not fail, she is strong, she is God’s love for us. We can entreat her in constant prayer, and she becomes our advocate.

Photo: Daniel Mafra / cancaonova.com
Thus, united and close to the Virgin of Aparecida, by the merits of the ‘Mother of Mercy’, and with the one who conceived the Word full of grace and truth, we will conceive and give birth to the spirit of evangelical truth. Mary begins and assists us in the following of the Lord Jesus Christ, Her crucified Son. Jesus gave her, as Mother, to us. The Lady of Aparecida is our Mother: she generates us for the life of Christ; teaches us to listen to our Lord, to believe and to live His Word. She did so when she said, “Let it be done unto me according to your word.”

Appearing in the waters

The Virgin of Aparecida is the one chosen and consecrated by the Holy Trinity. She is a privileged instrument of the central gift of the Incarnation. Thus we contemplate her as part of the saving design of the Trinity. In this sense, I like to listen to what St. Francis prayed: “And we thank you, because if by your Son you created us, by the same true and holy love with which you loved us, you made him to be born true and true man of the glorious , blessed, holy and ever Virgin Mary. ”

In meditating on the Gospel of the Annunciation, we are aware of the great gift of the Father: His Word, Jesus Christ: “This Word of the Father, so worthy, so holy and so glorious, the Most High Father sent from heaven, Archangel Saint Gabriel, to the bosom of the Holy Virgin Mary, from whose bosom he received the true flesh of our humanity and fragility “(St. Francis). Thus, in these days, God has given us His Mother, appearing in the waters of the Southern Paraiba (Brazil). She is given to us as a gift from heaven to give us the best we can desire: Her Son Jesus. She it is who appeared in the waters, to be Mother of Jesus in our lives; she wants to help us to generate in us and to bring forth the life of hser Blessed Son in our existence. She is whispering the way she does this: “Do whatever He tells you.”

God gave us His Mother

We thank the Father and sing the gift that He has sent us: His Son. He made him be born of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She brought the Son of God in her most holy bosom, and still carries Him whenever we invoke her, for it is the fullness of God, the Mother of God and our Mother. We are grateful to the Virgin who Appeared for the greater gift. We are grateful to God for giving us His Mother.

God always gives us what we need best. Thus, He gave us and gives His daughter and servant, the Blessed Virgin, to be our Mother; and there He offers Himself to us. Thus, in the maternity of Mary, we can see the origin of our evangelical life, as well as the origin of the whole Family of God. How wonderful! we know Jesus and we can live the Gospel because Mary said ‘yes’ to God!

Mary gave birth to the wonderful God. Long live the Virgin Aparecida (Appeared), Mother of God and our mother!

Bishop João Inácio Müller
Bishop João Inácio Müller is Bishop of the Diocese of Lorena (SP) and writer for Canção Nova Magazine.