hello. on behalf of the arch diocese of san francisco, welcome to mosaic. with me is father kevin kennedy, a priest of the arch diocese and pastor of a local catholic church with a wonderful name our lady of fatima ... we are going to ask him to help us get better acquainted with a woman who has proved to be the most fascinating woman in human history. she walked this earth more than 2,000 years ago but is as

current as the latest news. she is very much in the news at this moment. may 13, 2017, is the 100th anniversary of the day when three children minding sheep in the countryside had their first conversation with a lady who said she had come from heaven to talk with them. may 13, pope francis will visit to canonize the shepherds as saints. at the same time our arch diocese has become preparation for deeper relationship with this miraculous lady. this will culminate in october at the annual rosary rally. after this brief break please join me and father kevin as we begin to learn more about mary, the mother of jesus, and the mother of us all.

hello. welcome back to mosaic. with me is father kevin kennedy. father kevin, you are pastor of a church with a fascinating name. our lady of fatima russian byzantine catholic church in san francisco. you are a native of this area. >> yes. >> you have been a priest of the arch diocese for how many years? >> over 18 years. >> very good. i think viewers want to know what is a russian byzantine catholic church and what is a priest of the arch diocese

doing wearing this cross, this garb? >> this would be what a russian orthodox priest would wear in his parish and elsewhere. russian byzantine catholic churches were established when some russian orthodox christians sought full communion with rome in late 19th and early 20th centuries. they were accepted into catholic church by st. pius x with stipulation they retain the heritage of the full heritage, liturgical, spiritual. i am ordained a roman catholic priest of arch diocese but i have faculties as pastor of the parish to celebrate in the russian byzantine rite and serve this community which has inherited that original union movement from the 20th century. many of the parishes that began

in st. petersburg and moscow were later destroyed during soviet communist persecution. so those who could escape from the soviet union did so in various parts of the world, often entrusted to jesuits, jesuit order, society of jesus were often trained, jesuits in rome to serve russian byzantine catholic christians. so our parish our lady of fatima was a jesuit parish from its inception in 1950. >> let me ask you this if i have it right, you are catholic church in full communion with the church of rome. >> yes. >> you do services in english. >> you moved to english about 20 years ago. >> if i wanted to fulfill my

sunday obligation, receive sacraments, confession, eucharist at your church that is perfectly all right. >> like any other catholic church, the liturgy will be different. we are parish of the arch diocese because the number of russian byzantine catholic churches throughout the world is so small that the holy sea entrusted them to care of the local latin ordinary which in our case is the archbishop of san francisco. i am a priest of the arch diocese. he has appointed me to be pastor of this parish and i am first diocese priest to hold the title. most were jesuits in the past and were fully catholic. so to receive eucharist and sacrament of confession you are receiving from a catholic priest and sunday obligation is fulfilled if you would like to attend. in fact, it is encouraged for roman catholics to familiarize themselves with eastern catholics and to at least once

in their life attend a liturgy in the eastern and in our case byzantine tradition. >> i have done so and i find it very interesting. the music is beautiful. the homilies are very good too. >> thank you. >> our lady of fatima. the next is russian. those seem to be joined in an interesting way. >> yes. the parish was joined in early 1950s as a time when there was great focus on fatima particularly with russia, future of russia and humanity, a great focus and benevolence on the part of our lady concerning russia specifically. this was of course during the soviet era. so a russian byzantine catholic church was naturally named after the mother of god with

that title, our lady of fatima. that was a particular focus for the russian apostulate at that time. >> fascinating. let me talk about mary. we'll begin to talk about her. as i said in my opening, she's very much in the news. if we can show a photo i myself took, i was shopping in the safe way and i turned around. there is the magazine rack. whom do we see with oprah and national enquirer and everyone else? mary. this publication turns out to be a reissue of life magazine special issue from 1996. it's updated and very beautifully done. if i have can show my next slide, these are new books about mary. we have life magazine, a couple very interesting books from local practice press. i have been reading about mary and finding her incredibly fascinating. i want to ask you to help me

understand and help us all understand who is she? what does she do? please take it away. >> i remember when that life magazine cover first came out in 1996. then there were other articles in the year 2000, jubilee year within catholic church, christianity's jubilee year. she's a jewish woman. she's venerated by christians. she's mother. there is something about universal mother hood that appeals to people of various faith traditions in common humanity. there is a need, i think, within our psychological make up, spiritual make up for what she embodies, for what she represents, for what she brings to people which is the love of god, that heart of god expressed especially through

the heart of a mother, a mother's love. >> i think as pope francis said recently without mary, there is no christ. without mary, no jesus. mary is our path to jesus. >> right. >> interesting. we will talk more about that. we're going to show some icons of mary that are very important in the russian byzantine catholic world. we will explain her powers and her efficacy. rejoin us when we return. thank you.

hello. welcome back. we are talking with father kevin kennedy about mary, blessed virgin, mother of god, god bearer. father kennedy, please tell us what we need to know about mary's role in christian

salvation, the plan of salvation. >> mary is all about the incarnation which is then fleshment of god, god becoming one with one of his own creation. in classical francis can theology, certainly in greek, byzantine, christian theology, incarnation is seen as broader than just redemptive, just salvation, seen as the whole purpose of creation is god would create in order to bring creation to himself, in order to bridge the gap between divine and human, god would become part of his own creation, would been fleshed, would join with us and allow us to participate by grace in god's own life. not by nature but by grace to be par takers as st. peter teaches. st. paul teaches this when he

says all was created for him, for the incarnation for christ. he is before all else that is. he is fore ordained, fore shadowed in god's original plan as poemed of creation, that the creation would be united to god and it would be an act of god becoming one with his own creation, uniting the divine and the human. >> this has been a mystery i learned in third grade but never could really understand. >> no one understands it. >> but a beautiful image and understanding of what our human life is for is to move toward god and to become sharers in god's nature. >> right. >> because he is being and he is love. >> yes. >> we are something else. we are becoming, and we are damaged, i think. >> but he takes that damage and unites it to himself to bring

healing, to bring enlightenment about life's true purpose, and ultimately to bring about transformation into himself, through himself to god's own life by the power of his spirit. healing, enlightenment, transformation is the whole work of god's grace within our souls. >> mary, what would you call her? >> mary is the one who makes all that possible. >> she makes it possible. >> when there was a decline in mary in devotion in the 1970s especially, i remember someone asked a jesuit theologan why has this happened. he said because we've made of the incarnation, abstract concept. father said abstractions don't need a mother. she keeps incarnations real. there is no earthly father in christian belief of course so

she's the one who forms heart from her own heart. that blood is hers. that physical, that sacred humanity joined to his divinity. he is only begotten son of the father but is the only son of the ever virgin mary. only the mother of the lord and god the father can say of jesus this is my beloved son. >> which is interesting if you have protestant friends or others who follow a different way, they may think mary is wrongly worshiped, wrongly venerated, a distraction from god and jesus. i think you have icons you can show us. >> icon of the sign which is ancient russian icon on the screen here is a visual that depicts everything that i am speaking of in theological terms, depicts visually. you see the lord in his humanity, in his divinity is in

mary, in her heart, in her womb. st. augustine said she was received first in her heart and then her womb. st. john of damascus early christian byzantine father and doctor of the church, died in the early eighth century, said the same thing, that she's the christ bearer, the god bearer. this is the one who is godden fleshed for us. so therefore she's not digressing from or taking away from or in competition with christ. he is in her. otherwise the incarnation isn't real. there is another make believe christ other than the real christ. he comes to us in and through her. so she's opening her arms and praying called the orans mode. that gesture shows us she's a creature. she is praying. she is worshiping.

she is not herself god but is the mother of the one who is god made flesh for us. >> let me ask to show the next slide. i think it's called mary help for sorrow? >> the russian icon entitled joy of all who sorrow. >> i will say how this strikes me. it's quite beautiful. this looks like her enduring career as a mother with children all around her saying mom, i need something. mom, i need this, i need that. is that what i am seeing? >> that's exactly what it is. this is the icon of the joy of all who sorrow, full title is joy of joys, unexpected joy, joy of all who sorrow. it's the title of holy virgin russian orthodox cathedral. we have the same icon at our

lady of fatima. it depicts people representing this maternal heart. she brings us to god because god chose to come to us in jesus in and through her. she has a role in this relationship of love with all of those who have been formed by christ into his body. she's a mother. so she listens to our petition. she doesn't take the place of christ, but she in a mother's role hears us, prays for us, protects us, strengthens us in this union of love with her son. she brings us into that circle, not outside of it, in the same relationship of love. >> thank you. in our next segment, we will talk about her relationship to these shepherd children at fatima and what that all means. please rejoin us.

let's talk for a moment about what's going on currently. aparitions at fatima, this is the 100th anniversary. shepherd children are being canonized as saints. tell us about its meaning, its purpose. >> fatima is an event that took

place beginning on may 13, 1917, in portugal. it is a prophetic event, a richly symbolic event. it brings us back to the icon the joy of all who sorrow. our lady comes at a time when the world was about to be plunged into sorrow with two world wars, with those who suffered under nazism, suffered under soviet communism, wars that have continued, the divisions within humanity. she comes as a messenger of god. she comes as a messenger of peace. she comes to bring us into that same circle that we saw christ in her heart in that previous icon of the joy our lady of the sign, to bring us into that radiant circle of god's love,

of healing, of enlightenment, of transformation. she directs us to her heart because that's the place where the lord's heart was born. here we have a union between the divine and human. here we have a means for the grace won for us by christ to be shared by the power of his spirit. our lady is in a special way, a spirit bearer. they are her graces. they are the graces of god. but she listens to her children. and by bringing them to her heart, she brings them in a special way to the intimacy with the heart of god, for the graces of the world needs for peace, reconciliation, for conversion, for changing our lives from things self destructive to things that are life giving especially spiritual for us. so she tries to awaken us to the same message that begins the gospel in the lord's

historical ministry. repent. the kingdom of god is at hand. repentance not in a negative sense, you know, but in a positive sense of changing direction, of wakening to god loves' presence in the world, god's love within our hearts, moving towards him rather than away from him. that's the central message. >> let me ask you this. our arch diocese is in a project of a consecration to the immaculate heart of mary. in october there will be a rosary rally and consecration will occur. currently we are trying to learn about this and what it means. perhaps you can explain what it would mean to consecrate ourselves to the virgin mary. >> consecration in its original understanding is simply to dedicate and trust, devote, surrender, love one self to god. mary in a particular way is the god bearer. she's the vehicle, the vessel for his presence as i said

earlier regarding the incarnation. she's the new ark of the covenant, a new covenant. so one of the first saints who spoke of consecration was actually the byzantine father of the church to whom i referred earlier, st. john of damascus, and a homily given for feast of the assumption of the mother of god. he spoke and used the word consecrate. may we come to consecrate ourselves to her, to dedicate and entrust ourselves to her, that if we do so, we are in that radiant circle in her heart where christ jesus is found. >> let me ask you this, as a layman, it's a pastoral question. i am a catholic until i began studying up here on the virgin mary and consecration, i don't know what my relationship with

her was. how would you advise me or any catholic who wants to have a deeper, truer relationship with her, what can i do? >> same way you would get to know anyone. you talk to them. you accompany them. you share with them. she is more real than anyone. she's full of life, love, joy. she's the joy of all who sorrow. she listens. she accompanies. she awakens something within us that yes or nos to find meaning and value and most of all love within our hearts, within our lives. talk to her. prayer st. teresa said is simply a heart to heart conversation with god who we know loves her. we can pray to the saints. she's the queen of all the saints and the one with maternal mediation brings us to the circle of love in her heart which is where the lord is found, god and flesh for us. she doesn't distract from christ. she brings us to him in an

immediate and powerful and very fast way. because when you say mary, she says jesus. >> many of her icons show her pointing the way to jesus. >> one of the great icons, she who points the way. >> we have in our communication department made web pages on which you can get to know mary and find out about the consecration. i found in making the web pages that she opens worlds of beauty and meaning. if you go to the web pages and look you will find the world's greatest art and world's greatest music featuring mary. she's inspired this devotion and glory. let me show our last slide of the day. it's a very famous icon. it's evidently the oldest mary icon in the world dating from perhaps, 5th century. this is a piece that's preserved of old painting on wood and let me read what the

author says about this. he says even a first glance tells you that she is more than a cracked partially worm eaten portrait. once you have looked into the almond shaped eyes of this woman's face, you will never forget them. they will stay with you for the rest of your life. for these eyes penetrate deep into the viewer's heart and know his most secret thoughts, fears, and hopes. thank you very much for joining us on this program about the blessed virgin mary. >> thank you, thank you. so you just scored amazing savings at ross? mmm-hmm. on brandnds that takake you fm me t time... ...to o go time..... ...in n no time. hi. geget the bestst bargains s evn looks s that work k anywhere.. .....at ross. . yes for lele!

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