Something beautiful:
A Catholic charity has sent 15 statues of the Virgin Mary to the Middle East to replace ones destroyed by ISIS. The group Œuvre d’Orient, a French association dedicated to helping persecuted Christians, has sent the statues from Lourdes to Ankawa, a suburb of the city of Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, which has a majority Catholic population. Aleteia reports that once they arrive, they will be carried in procession through the town by Chaldean and Syriac Catholics, before being blessed and sent to their parishes. Œuvre d’Orient say the processions will be a testament to Jeremiah 31:17: “And here is hope for thy last end, saith the Lord: and the children shall return to their own borders.”
And today we celebrate...