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Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Archives
Mariology Index
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Mariology Index |
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| Our
Lady and the Resurrection No less than six Doctors of the Church, including SS. Ambrose, Anselm and Albert the Great held that Our Lady was the first witness of the Resurrection. |
| The
Assumption of Our Lady The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin means that after Her life on earth, Mary was taken body and soul into Heaven. Unlike other saints, therefore, Our Lady is in Heaven not only with Her soul but also with Her glorified body. Pope Pius XII defined this doctrine as a "divinely revealed dogma" on November 1, 1950. |
| The
Handmaid of Humanity: Mary, Woman of Salvation History Pope John Paul's devotion to the Blessed Virgin is so deep and pronounced that it is not surprising that she finds a place of honor in almost everything he says and writes. |
| The
Blessed Virgin in the History of Christianity Christianity would be meaningless without the Blessed Virgin. Her quiet presence opened Christian history at the Incarnation and will continue to pervade the Church's history until the end of time. Our purpose in this meditation is to glance over the past two thousand years to answer one question: What are the highlights of our Marian faith as found in the Bible and the teaching of the Catholic Church? |
| Pope
Pius XII and Our Lady Biographers of Pius XII record that his devotion to the Blessed Virgin can be traced to the earliest days of his boyhood. He and his brother Francesco attended ginnasio classes in a private school on the Via de' Ginnasi, near the Jesuit Church of the Gesu in Rome. Next to the tomb of St. Ignatius, on the gospel side, is the chapel of Madonna della Strada, built around the picture of Our Lady to which St. Ignatius was specially devoted Before and after school hours, young Pacelli used to go into the Gesu to pour out his heart in prayer before the miraculous image. Sometimes he stayed so long that he was late in coming home. But his mother never worried about him. "I suppose he is with the Madonna della Strada again," she would say. Once she asked him what he was doing in the chapel all the time. "I pray and tell Mary everything," he answered simply. |
| Mary
and the Crisis of Faith in the Modern World Our present Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, so stresses devotion to Our Lady that some people think it is excessive piety. But today's world desperately needs to believe that Mary is the Mother of the Incarnate God and the Mother of the spiritual life. |
| Mary,
Model of Faith for Priests In these reflections we will address ourselves to two simple questions and answer them briefly but pointedly: first, "Why is Mary specially appropriate as the model of faith for priests?" And, "How can the practice of faith teach all the faithful, but especially priests, to live more faithfully our Christian commitment, and priests their priesthood to which her Son has ordained them?" |
| The
Blessed Virgin and the Holy Eucharist It was from Mary that the Son of God took our human nature. It was from Mary that the Second Person of the Trinity received His humanity. It was through Mary that Jesus Christ, who is God from all eternity, became man, lived visibly on earth in Palestine and is now invisibly on earth in every church and chapel in the Catholic world where the Holy Eucharist is offered, received and reserved. |
| The Blessed Virgin and the Eucharist So we return to our second statement that there would be no Christ now on earth for us to adore, except for His Mother Mary. In the Holy Eucharist is present the whole Christ, true God and true Man. Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, who existed in the bosom of the Father from all eternity. But Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is God become-man, who was conceived and born in time of His virginal Mother Mary. |
| The Blessed Virgin and the Eucharist Had you already been saying here there is one mystery of our Faith that needs to be understood in our day, it is the Holy Eucharist. First statement: Without the Blessed Virgin, we would not have the Holy Eucharist. Second statement: Without the Eucharist, we could not now adore Jesus Christ on earth as the Son of God Who became the Son of Mary. Third statement: From the Eucharist we obtain the graces we need to become more and more like the Immaculate Virgin Mary and more and more loving like the loving heart of Mary. |
| Book Review - Mary and the Eucharist This is not a book of pious fancy, but a carefully written work of faith. Easy to read, it relies heavily on the teachings of the Holy Father and the great Eucharistic saints of Catholic history. |
| Devotion of the Blessed Virgin Today There is no subject in Catholic devotion more extensive than the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is only to be expected, since the Mother of God is so basic to a correct understanding of her Divine Son. With the break in Catholic unity which took place in the sixteenth century, the Western world was deeply affected by those who considered themselves Christians, but had reservations about the Mother of Christ. It is not commonly known that faith in her Divine Son is logically dependent on faith in His mother as the Mother of God. |
| Devotion to Our Lady Devotion to the Blessed Virgin is one of the cardinal features of not only professing to be, but being a Catholic. You might say a Catholic is one who is devoted to Mary. What I will suggest for our reflections is that we look at and check our devotion to Mary on six norms. The one who is devoted to Mary thinks of her, reads about her, talks about her, speaks to her, invokes her and tries to imitate her. |
| The History of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary The Fatima consecration to Our Lady has an ancient history. It is all the more important to see something of this history in the light of some reservations and even criticism of what we know goes back to the early centuries of the Church. |
| Immaculate Heart of Mary Though not a dogma of the Church, there is a close relationship between devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of His Mother. Pope Pius XII said it was fitting that after our homage paid to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Christian people should manifest similar piety and love of their grateful hearts for the most loving heart of Mary, our heavenly Mother, through whom we have received the divine life from Christ. |
| Love for Mary, Model of Consecrated Life The word "model" has been cheapened in the English language. Among other definitions in the latest third International Dictionary, a model is defined as "one who is employed to display clothes or merchandise, as in a fashion show, in a photograph or on television." Yet we know that a model is much more, and for our purpose is far more sublime. Model is a person worthy of imitation. A model is someone who is perfect and therefore serves as a pattern or standard for others to follow. |
| The Magnificat: Mary’s Own Prayer All the great biblical masters of the ages have affirmed that there are four parts to the Magnificat. In the first strophe, Mary expresses her gratitude to God; in the second, she praises God for his power, His holiness and His mercy; in the third, she compares how differently God deals with the proud and the humble; in the fourth, she recalls that all the ancient prophecies to the Jews are now being fulfilled in the Messiah, Who was at that moment present in her womb. |
| Marian Practices of Piety We might make the obvious observation that prayers to the Blessed Virgin are so typically Catholic as almost to identify Catholicism. The reason for that, before we go into detail, is that we believe that the Mother of God was the holiest human person who ever lived, keeping in mind that her Son is a divine Person. We further believe that a person's influence with God, a person's power of intercession with God, is in direct proportion to that person's sanctity. Believing as we do that Mary, as the Mother of God, as full of grace, is the holiest of human persons, inevitably Catholic piety from the very beginning invoked Mary so that she in turn might intercede with her Son. |
| Mary, The Mother of God In 1970, Pope Paul VI instituted January 1 as the feast of Mary, Mother of God. This was to replace the feast of Our Lord’s Circumcision, and place the Latin Rite in accord with the Eastern tradition of the Catholic Church. It would also supplant the former feast of the Maternity of Mary on October 11. The Holy Father gave five reasons for instituting the new feast. Each reason tells us what we believe when we profess our faith in Mary’s Divine Maternity, and how this mystery should affect our daily lives. |
| The Mariology of Pope Pius XII It is easy to write on Pope Pius XII and the Blessed Virgin Mary because there is so much to say. We might recall how as a young boy in Rome he would stop every day to visit the shrine of Madonna della Strada at the Church of the Gesu where, as he told his mother, "I pray and tell Mary everything." Or we might reflect on his life-long devotion to the rosary, his frequent sermons on our Lady, his constant reference to her in his writings or, in summary, his own testimony shortly after election to the papacy, that "our priestly life began with Mary and has always been directed under her motherly eye." |
| Mary: Mediatrix in the Theology of Bellarmine The first apparition of our Blessed Mother at Fatima occurred just thirty years ago on May 13, 1917. It may have been only a coincidence that a few years later the Holy Father should have chosen May 13 as the Feast of St. Robert Bellarmine, Confessor and Doctor of the Universal Church. The fact is that hardly another man in the history of Catholic thought has written more extensively on the glories of Mary or defended her interests more ardently against the attacks of the heretics than this humble scholar from Tuscany. In his private life he was no less devoted to the Mother of God. He fasted every Saturday in her honor. Every morning he used to rise an hour before the rest of the community to recite the Office of the Blessed Virgin on his knees. As a Cardinal in Rome, he organized a special commission to study and defend the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception—fully three centuries before its formal definition by the Church. |
| Mary, Mother of the Church There is a special appropriateness in speaking on Mary, Mother of the Church at this time. We are speaking on a Saturday, which from post-apostolic times has been considered Mary's Day. Why, because, as the Fathers of the Church explain; of all the followers of Christ, Our Lady was the only one whose faith did not falter at all after the Savior's Crucifixion. She remained the Valiant Woman not only under the Cross but after the Cross. She was absolutely certain that what her Son had foretold would come to pass. |
| Mariology: Mary as Mother of God In the nature of things, our treatment will be theological, and we will have to resort to certain facts of history and statements of doctrine that are somewhat technical. There are three basic errors which occasioned the Church’s defining Mary’s divine maternity. Ever since its definition by the Council of Ephesus these three errors keep cropping up, so much so that we can say that the dogma of Mary being the true Mother of God is a precondition for admitting three other mysteries of our Faith. |
| Mary in the Modern World Devotion to Mary’s dogmatic titles simply means loving her and imitating her virtues. Christianity would be meaningless without the Blessed Virgin. Her quiet presence opened Christian history at the Incarnation and will continue to pervade the Church’s history until the end of time. Our purpose in this meditation is to glance over the past two thousand years to answer one question: What are the highlights of our Marian faith as found in the Bible and the teaching of the Catholic Church? |
| Mary, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Blessed Virgin, mother of Jesus Christ and, according to Roman Catholic theology, the greatest of the Christian saints. The title "Mary" occurs only once in the Old Testament as the name of Moses’ sister (Exodus 15:20). Its etymology has been variously traced to mean beautiful, bitter, rebellion, illuminatrix, lady, and beloved of God. Scholars prefer the last meaning, derived from the Egyptian, which may be explained by the four centuries’ sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt. |
| Mary, the Handmaid of Humanity Pope John Paul II's devotion to the Blessed Virgin is so deep and so pronounced that it is not surprising she finds a place of honor in almost everything he says and writes. In one country after another where the Pope visits he seeks out the Marian shrines and there speaks at great length on the Mother of God. |
| Mother of Divine Providence Today's Gospel on the marriage feast at Cana tells us everything we need to know about Our Lady as the Mother of Divine Providence. The Church has given her this title because she, better than anyone else, is the perfect teacher of what Providence should mean in our lives. She teaches us to believe there is a Providence of God. She teaches us to trust in His Providence. And she teaches us to cooperate with Divine Providence in our lives. |
| The Mother of God We address Our Lady as Mother of God every time we recite the Hail Mary, and say, "Holy Mary, Mother of God." This title is at once the most fundamental Marian profession of our Catholic faith, and the most endearing in Catholic piety. Unless Mary is, indeed, the Mother of God, no other title, certainly no superlative title of the Blessed Virgin would have any meaning; and because she is God’s Mother, every title we might give her as the noblest of God’s creatures pales by contrast with this one, Mater Dei. |
| Our Lady in Type and Prophecy in the Old Testament First a word of explanation: when we use the word "type" we mean that the Old Testament gives us by anticipation what we call "types", "symbols". First of all of Christ and then of His mother. Now there are both persons and there are events in the Old Testament that anticipate the New Testament. In other words, Christ our Lord has many "types" as we call them. Persons in the Old Testament who typified the Messiah to come. Correspondingly, even as there were types of "Christ" in the Old Testament, so we speak of types and figures anticipating Mary in the New Testament. |
| Our Lady of Fatima in the Light of History May 13, 1947 was the thirtieth anniversary of the first apparition of the Blessed Virgin at the grotto of Iria on the outskirts of the little Portuguese town of Fatima. In October of the same year, Our Blessed Mother revealed herself as "The Lady of the Rosary" and asked that all faithful Christians make reparation through her to her Divine Son for the sins of the world. She said: I promise to help at the hour of death with the graces needed for salvation, whoever, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months shall confess and receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary. |
| The Real Presence and Mary There is so much confusion in professedly catholic circles about the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist that someone had better make things clear. We begin to understand what the real presence means once we realize that the Holy Eucharist began in the womb of Mary the moment she told the angel, "be done to me according to your word," God became man and began to dwell among us. God was in the world He made from the moment of creation He had to be. Otherwise the world He created out of nothing would have lapsed into the nothingness from which it came. |
| Through Mary to Jesus When we say through Mary, to Jesus, we mean that: Through Mary’s voluntary consent we have received Jesus. Through Mary’s example we are better able to imitate Jesus. Through Mary’s intercession we obtain graces from Jesus. To better understand what these phrases mean, is to more deeply appreciate what it means to be a Catholic. |
| Who is Mary? I would then like to briefly repeat what I said before. I would like to speak on who is Mary; why we should love Mary; and third how we should show our love for Mary. |
| Marian Shrines A comprehensive listing of Marian shrines located around the world. |
| Mary As Model Pope John Paul II assures us, "That Mary was the first of Christ’s disciples. She was the first in time because even when she found her adolescent Son in the temple she received from Him lessons that again she kept in her heart. Not only was she the first of Christ’s disciples, she was the greatest. Because no one else had been taught by Him to such depth as the mother who lived with Him for most of His earthly years. She was both mother and disciple. Indeed we may dare say her discipleship was more important than her motherhood," unquote Pope John Paul II. |
| Lesson 4: The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ But it is mainly by imitating the Mother of Jesus that we make our devotion to her part of our daily lives. Introduce the children early to look upon Mary as their Mother. Teach them to learn from her how they should become like her. And all the while, train them to keep in touch with her by small aspirations, arising spontaneously from their heart, like the whisperings of a child to the one who gave them birth - into the life of God. |
| Mary Magnifies the Lord Prayerful reflection on Mary’s Magnificat is always in order. It is the longest discourse we have recorded of the contents of Mary’s heart. Totally inspired, it is the perfect prayer of humility. It is a sublime prayer of humble adoration. The Magnificat has been a part of the Church’s liturgy since the first century. Ancient monks and hermits recited it daily and it might well be said to be The Prayer of Religious. |
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