On Thursday, August 26, the Jubilee of the Virgin of Cortes marks the 800th anniversary of her apparition to some shepherds.
Newsroom (August 24, 2021, Gaudium Press) – The inauguration of this Jubilee Year and the opening of the Holy Door will take place on Thursday, August 26, at 11:00 am at the Shrine of Our Lady of Cortes, in Albacete, Spain. The invocation of the Virgin of Cortes has a history of 800 years. A total of eight centuries in which the Virgin of Cortes has been “light and hope for the people of different parts of Spain,” the Diocese of Albacete recalled in a statement.
Both the Rector of Cortes Shrine, Fr. Ramón Sánchez Calero; and the Vicar of Alcaraz, Fr. Antonio García García, noted that “what we observe is a simple and very trusting Faith in the mother of the Lord,” as “every Sunday we can see how different people come to the Shrine and do not cease to thank the Virgin of Cortes for the favours received: health, family, work, addictions, personal conversion, and so on, full of tenderness and gratitude to the one they consider as protection and consolation.”
Jubilee Year of Our Lady of Cortes
The Virgin of Cortes is “eight times centenary and this devotion has sustained the faith of many generations impregnating them with light and hope,” they pointed out. For this reason, 2021 inaugurates the celebration of an extraordinary Jubilee Year.
“We want to unite the past with the present and the future by making this eighth centenary as special as possible, meeting the men and women of today, meeting every pilgrim who comes to the shrine, so in the current circumstances continue to find light and hope,” the organizers detailed in the same communiqué.
This is a very special event, and the devotees of the Virgin of Cortes will be able to experience with “two different views”, they observed.
The first is a look at our history “as an experience of faith lived in our land for 800 years by the huge multitude of pilgrims who have found shelter and comfort by the Virgin of Cortes in their daily lives,” Fr. Calero and Fr. García García continue. A look that is “grateful for so many religious experiences that has contributed to humanize life; a contemplative look also to our environmental and social scene full of beauty and history,” they marked. A historical look that also has a present and projects into the future.
On the other hand, this Jubilee year will also be lived as an expression of popular religiosity. “At the Shrine, one can sense how Mary gathers her children around, as they go on pilgrimage with great effort to see her and let themselves be seen by her. Once at the Shrine here, they find the strength to bear the sufferings and weariness of life”“. The Shrine of Cortes is a “center of evangelization, offering channels of formation, spaces of prayer and deepening in the Faith”.
And concluded: “we offer you the Shrine and the joyful proclamation of the Faith that we want to convey from here.”
During the celebration of this eight hundredth anniversary, the town of Alcaraz offers visitors its rich history and treasures so that they can be contemplated and admired by all. More information can be found at the web page www.santuariodecortes.es
Opening of the Holy Door
The inauguration of the Jubilee Year and the opening of the Holy Door will take place on Thursday, August 26, at 11:00 am (Local time) at the Shrine of Our Lady of Cortes. The Eucharist will be presided by the Bishop of Albacete, Most Rev. Angel Fernandez, and broadcast live by Trece television.
The following day, Friday 27, the Novena to Our Lady of Cortes will begin at the Shrine. At 7:30 pm the Rosary will be recited and at 8:00 pm the Shrine will host a Eucharistic celebration presided by several bishops and priests.
Compiled by Gustavo Kralj
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