Bishop Mark Beckman blessed an icon of Mary on June 23 at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Fairfield Glade.
The icon was installed Feb. 18 on the sanctuary wall next to the crucifix. The artist, Sabiha Mujtaba, delivered and installed the icon, which she worked on for a year and a half.
On the weekend of Feb. 22-23, the parish celebrated special liturgies honoring the Blessed Mother. The events included special prayers, white vestments, and Marian hymns, with refreshments following in Sheehan Hall. All parish ministries that pray the rosary before their meetings were present for the liturgies.
“I am humbly convinced that placing a very prominent icon of Mary glorified beside her Son into our sanctuary is a message for our time, so much are we in need of a message of hope,” St. Francis of Assisi pastor Father Michael Woods wrote to parishioners. “Calling Mary forward from her solitary place and placing her prominently beside Jesus, pointing to Him on the cross as the way, is a graphic reminder of the intention of God from the beginning. We need to call this to mind again and again and again. God does not want us separated, isolated, and left to ourselves. It’s why God the Father sent Jesus, born of Mary, to save and unite us.”
The icon “is not just Mary’s story of union with Jesus, profound in itself. It is also our story with Mary, our Mother,” Father Woods continued, “inviting us to believe in her Son. However, if you are like me, a sinner in need of God’s grace, we need to be reminded and encouraged constantly, outwardly and inwardly, in all kinds of ways, to live this life of faith in Jesus, our Lord and merciful savior.
“Nobody, but nobody, lived this life of heroic faith as did our Blessed Mother Mary, God’s uniquely created one. She is God’s masterpiece and messenger who allowed God to work in her as He willed. ‘Let whatever you say be done to me,’ she said. And Mary, ‘full of grace’ proclaimed and acknowledged the source of her gift. ‘He that is mighty has done great things for me. Holy is His name.’
“We here at St. Francis of Assisi . . . call Mary forward into our sanctuary beside her Son because she has so much to teach us about trust in God. As St. John Paul II said, ‘Mary is a kind of “key” that unlocks the innermost mystery of God’s relationship with us.’ In fact, Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth, identified that ‘key’ when she said, ‘Blessed is she who believed that the Lord’s words to her would be fulfilled.’ The key? Mary believed! She believed when everything around her seemed to be ‘a contradiction,’ especially at the foot of the cross. So, let us humbly welcome this timely, simple gesture of faith and veneration, which we have been preparing for some time. It is our hope that this visible icon of Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, placed next to her Son in resurrection and intercession, will be a source of hope and inspiration for all who come to pray. Thank you for supporting this holy endeavor.”