Presentation of Mary

 The Memorial of the Presentation of Mary is celebrated on November 21st.  The theme of this Memorial is:  total consecration to the Lord through Mary.
Although not mentioned in the Bible, this ancient feast is based on information taken from one of the apocryphal Gospels, the Protevangelium of James.  In it we are told that at the age [...]

The Holy Name of Mary

Yesterday was the feastday of The Holy Name of Mary.  I was reading St. Alphonsus Liguori’s Hail Holy Queen!, Chapter Ten of which is dedicated to the “sweetness of the name of Mary”. The chapter is filled with the thoughts of many saints and other holy people on this subject, and I share some of [...]

Divine Mercy Sunday: Mary, Mother of Mercy

 
“As Mother of Mercy, Mary reminds us that if God is Being, Truth and Wisdom, He is also Goodness and Love, and that His infinite Mercy, which is the radiation of His Goodness, flows from His love…”
[From:  The Mother of the Saviour and Our Interior Life:  Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, pg. 224]

The Crucifixion

Excerpt from, “The Mother of the Saviour and Our Interior Life”, by Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. (pgs. 188-189):
What must have been the value of her sufferings at the foot of the Cross, granted the understanding she then had of the mystery of the Redemption!
In the spiritual light which then flooded her soul, Mary saw that [...]

Mother of the Eucharist

 
On Holy Thursday, Christ instituted the sacrament of Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper with His apostles.  Do we generally think of Mary in relation to the Last Supper, or indeed, every time we receive Holy Communion?  We should.  In the Dictionary of Mary (pg. 381), we learn about the “Presence of Mary in the Eucharist”:

“We must [...]

Her Own

Excerpt from:  Hail Holy Queen!, by St. Alphonsus Liguori, pgs. 44-45:
Mary is the Mother of sinners who wish to repent, and as a mother she cannot do otherwise than compassionate them; nay more, she seems to feel the miseries of her poor children as if they were her own.  When the Canaanitish woman begged Our [...]

Mary, the Holy Mother of God

 
In, “The Mother of the Saviour and Our Interior Life”, Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange writes that over the centuries there has been theological debate as to “which was the greater of Mary’s prerogatives, her divine maternity (her motherhood of God) or her fulness of grace.” (pg. 17)  He presents some of the discussions on both sides, but ultimately [...]

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Today is a Marian “optional memorial” wherein we commemorate several things:  Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the Marian spirituality of the Carmelites, the scapular and consecration of oneself to Mary.
Picking up on the theme from my previous post, I would like to share a little bit from the Dictionary of Mary :
“The commemoration of Our Lady of Mount [...]

Mary, Mediatrix of Contemplation

We have, moreover, considered the external conditions that favor contemplation and union with God.  They are:  a certain solitude, silence, sufficient time given to prayer, no overburdening, no useless reading, no preoccupations foreign to our vocation.  To these external conditions must be added natural aptitude and also enlightened direction.  If many of these exterior conditions [...]

For Trinity Sunday: How the Trinity Sees Mary

When I began this blog in December 2007 it was with a certain amount of trepidation.  I was daunted by the idea of attempting to present Mary to others.  The awareness of Mary in my own life was just beginning to take shape.  My Consecration had been only a few months prior, and I knew that the field of Mariology [...]