Thursday 16 May 2013

St. Simon Stock and the Brown Scapular, Feast day May 16th, Carmelite friar, 13th Century England

In 2007 Mary's Dowry Productions created a new form of film media in which to present the lives of the Saints on DVD. We invite you to watch our film prayerfully and quietly and to engage your spiritual senses. Watch with your spiritual eye, listen with your spiritual ear.
Mary's Dowry Productions loves to recreate key moments, silently and with no dialogue, from a Saint's life, using historical costume and beautiful backdrops. Original contemplative music runs beneath a detailed narrative that seeks to engage the viewer with the Saint. Our films offer a window into the life of each Saint.

 
A great way to get to know the life of St. Simon Stock and the Brown Scapular is through our film on this inspiring Carmelite friar of 13th Century England.
This film combines includes quotes from Saints such as St. Therese of Lisieux about the importance of the Brown Scapular and Pope John Paul II, the importance of this Sacramental plus much more; a particularly good resource for schools, Confirmation classes, parishes and families.
The film is available worldwide on DVD through Mary's Dowry Productions.
 
 
Saint Simon Stock is one of our great English Saints and the Shrine at Ayelsford in Kent is one of the few remaining Shrines to Our Lady in England.
The history and Catholicism that shines out of St. Simon Stock's great life is in need of rediscovery one more today.  Our film about St. Simon Stock is a useful way to encounter the life of our English Saint and encourage the devotional wearing of the Brown Scapular which was given to us from Our Lady.  St. Simon Stock - pray for us!
 

Wednesday 8 May 2013

Prayer for England, Mary's Dowry - during the 1893 Dedication of England to the Mother of God.


Prayer of the Bishops of England and Wales in 1893 during the ceremony of the Dedication of England to the Mother of God, the last part of which (from the let us pray) is taken from an 8th century prayer found in the Book of Cerne which belonged to Ethelwald, Bishop of Sherbourne, AD 760:


O Immaculate Virgin, Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ!

Mother of Grace, and Queen of the Kingdom of Thy Son!

Humbly kneeling before thee, we offer thee this country in which we live!

It was once thine.

Before it was robbed of the Holy Faith, all its children were thy children and thou wert honoured throughout its length and breadth as its Protectress and its Queen.

Again do we consecrate it to thee; again do we dedicate it as thy own Dowry.

We offer our own hearts, that their love and service may ever grow and increase.

We offer all our brethren – those multitudes who know thee so little – or know thee not at all.

May thy prayer bring back the country’s ancient Faith!

May thy intercession lead us to a closer union with thy Divine Son.

We consecrate ourselves to Him through thee.

Obtain for us, and for England, Thy Dowry, every grace and blessing, O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary!

Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God.

That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray:

Holy Mother of God, Virgin ever blest, O Mary Immaculate, pray for us, intercede for us, disdain not to help us.  For we are all confident and know for certain that thou canst obtain all thou willest from thy Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, God Almighty, the King of Ages, Who liveth with the Father and the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen.