"Shrine of Our Lady of Aradin, Mother of the Persecuted Church"

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

What a joy to read this:

A new shrine in New York is honoring Christians persecuted for their faith.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Aradin, Mother of the Persecuted Church, opened at St. Michael the Archangel parish in Manhattan. It officially opened on Tuesday with the blessing and dedication of an icon of Our Lady of Aradin.

Father Benedict Kiely of Nasarean.org told Breitbart, “We are at a Lepanto moment in Western history.”

He continued, “We must pray with the same fervor that the Christians prayed then to save Western civilization, not just from the danger of radical Islamist extremism, but from radical, aggressive secular liberalism.”

The article continued:

Father Kiely emphasized that the shrine would be a place to pray for persecuted Christians. He said, “Prayer for the Persecuted Church is a Christian duty.”

… “The witness of persecuted Christians inspires us to speak the truth in love and to bear witness even to martyrdom in our society…”

The image of Our Lady of Aradin, the focal point of the shrine, was produced by a Middle Eastern Christian who had to flee from ISIS.

It is painted with a gold background and has the words of the Hail Mary written out in Aramaic, the language spoken natively by Jesus Christ and His Apostles. Versions of Aramaic are still spoken today by Christians in some parts of the Middle East.

Father Rutler wrote in the June 3 edition of his weekly column, “As I write this, Fr. Kiely is in Mosul, Iraq, which has been almost totally destroyed and where only a few Christian families remain, after thousands have fled.”

The parish pastor noted that this shrine for persecuted Christians is the first in the world …

He explained to parishioners:

… The icon depicts Mary in the traditional dress of an Iraqi bride. The border is written in Aramaic, the language of our Lord, which still is spoken in Qaraqosh, the home of the Iraqi Christian artist Mouthana Butres, who “wrote” the icon. Mr. Butres was driven from his home, along with all the Christians of Qaraqosh, by militant Muslims in August 2015, and he and his family now are refugees in Lebanon.

Father Rutler’s column addressed the sacrificial nature of the Mass and contrasted the persecution of Christians in other parts of the world with Ireland’s recent abortion vote. He wrote, “While bourgeois populations dance in the streets for legalized abortion and the blessing of perverse imitations of marriage, there still are Christians taking up the cross in foreign lands, and in ways that decadents prefer to ignore.”…for more see HERE

 

[TigerLily-1]

Thank you for posting this MariaChristi! It IS a joy and much needed. The Icon is beautiful!

I was reading about this Shrine in the National Catholic Register and was going to post a thread about it.

Our Lady of Aradin translates to Our Lady of Eden.

The National Register article adds:

Aradin means “Eden” in Aramaic, the name of the village where the icon was commissioned. Aramaic is the language Jesus spoke and is still spoken in parts of Iraq and Syria, both colloquially and in the Church liturgy.

Around the icon’s border are the words of the Ave Maria prayer written in Aramaic.

Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world today.

Christians are the most persecuted group in the contemporary world. In a recent letter to the United Nations, the Holy See reported that more than 100,000 Christians are violently killed every year because of their faith.

Every year, the Christian nonprofit organization Open Doors publishes the “World Watch List,” which lists the worst 50 countries where it is most dangerous to be a Christian. The 2018 “World Watch List” includes the following countries as its “top 10”: North Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan, Eritrea, Libya, Iraq, Yemen and Iran.

World’s First Shrine Dedicated to Persecuted Christians Inaugurated in New York City| National Catholic Register

Our Lady of Aradin, pray for all persecuted Christians!

Our Lady of Aradin, pray for us!

 

[MariaChristi]

Thanks to you as well, dear TigerLily for your reply and for posting the lovely icon of Our Lady of Aradin, Mother of the Persecuted Church.

How approriate that title is : Our Lady of Eden, Mother of the Persecuted Church – for Mary alone in our human family, after Adam and Eve sinned, was conceived without sin. They were driven out of Eden but God primised He would put enmity between the serpent and the woman. Mary became in a sense “another Eden” where the Word was made Flesh. Jesus the Son of God Incarnate came to us through Mary as Savior of our human race.

How appropriate that Mary be called “Mother of the Persecuted Church” for Jesus Who is Head of the Mystical Body, His Church, was sought by Herod to be killed so soon after His birth! Mary and Joseph protected Him as a child, but as He grew He became a Man of Sorrows for all He suffered. When He was finally put to death, Mary was there to suffer with Him.

How appropriate for the Iconographer to depict Mary “in the traditional dress of an Iraqi bride” for Mary is both Mother and Model for the Church, which is the Bride of Christ! May we learn much from pondering this Icon and praying for the Persecuted Church. May we pray also for ourselves that we, by God’s Grace, may stand firm in Faith, in whatever trials God permits in our lives.