From news.va:
Day of Prayer for the Church in China
Thursday, May 24th is a day dedicated in a special way to the liturgical memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Help of Christians, venerated with great devotion at the Shrine of Sheshan in Shanghai.
That’s what Pope Benedict said on Sunday after praying the Regina Coeli in Saint Peter’s Square adding how we can join in prayer with all Catholics who are in China, so that they may announce with humility and joy the Risen Christ, be faithful to his Church and the Successor of Peter and live their daily life in a manner consistent with the faith we profess.
[The Pope prayed:] Mary, Virgin most faithful, support the path of Chinese Catholics, render their prayer them ever more intense and precious in the eyes of the Lord, and advance the affection and the participation of the universal Church in the journey of the Church in China.
To mark the Day of Prayer for the Church in China which coincides with this memorial Veronica Scarisbrick speaks to Father Emmanuel Lim SJ about the figure of Matteo Ricci in a feature which includes a passage from the diary of this charismatic Jesuit whose memory still lives on in China today: “..the work of evangelisation , of making Christians should be carried on both in Peking and in the Provinces, following methods both of a pacific nature and of cultural adaptation. Europeanism is to be shunned.”… HERE.
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I pray for our Catholic brethren in China. May Our Lord have mercy upon them. May Our Blessed Mother pray for them.
Okay, I have been seeing this on the sidebar and finally have to ask…
What’s the sun (or the text thereon) saying about Mary and Christ?
Good question! Although I thought that was not the sun, but another halo of the kind seen in some icons, such as icons of the Transfiguration and Ascension (which some remarkably silly people think represents Jesus in a space ship).
Hmm, haven’t seen those, have seen Our Lady of Guadalupe… and don’t know enough about Chinese art to opine on which is more likely in Chinese Christian iconography.
So now I’ve got two questions, and the second is, “Is that the sun, or a big awesome halo?”
You can find an explanation of the symbols in the image of Our Lady of She Shan here.