Tag: Mary
The Risen Christ: The Prayer of the Body
Our bodies play an enormously important part in our life in the Risen Christ. The Incarnation has given a sacramental quality to our flesh and blood, so that we can offer an unceasing prayer of the body, which can begin here and never end, sanctifying not only the suffering of the body but its joys… Read More ›
Stabat Mater
The Virgin Mary, who believed in the word of the Lord, did not lose her faith in God when she saw her Son rejected, abused and crucified. Rather she remained beside Jesus, suffering and praying, until the end. And she saw the radiant dawn of His Resurrection. Let us learn from her to witness to… Read More ›
A Sign of Sure Hope
8. The Holy Spirit invites Mary to reproduce her own virtues in the elect, extending in them the roots of her “invincible faith” and “firm hope” (cf. Treatise on True Devotion, n. 34). The Second Vatican Council recalled this: “The Mother of Jesus in the glory which she possesses in body and soul in heaven… Read More ›
The “Pilgrimage of Faith’
7. I wrote in Novo Millennio Ineunte: “One can never really reach Jesus except by the path of faith” (n. 19). This was the path that Mary followed throughout her earthly life and it is the path of the pilgrim Church until the end of time. The Second Vatican Council placed great emphasis on Mary’s… Read More ›
Holiness, the perfection of charity
6. The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium states: “But while in the Most Blessed Virgin the Church has already reached that perfection whereby she exists without spot or wrinkle (cf. Eph 5: 27), the faithful still strive to conquer sin and increase in holiness. And so they turn their eyes to Mary who… Read More ›
Mary, an eminent member of the Mystical Body and Mother of the Church
5. According to the words of the Second Vatican Council, Mary “is hailed as pre-eminent and as a wholly unique member of the Church, and as her type and outstanding model in faith and charity” (Lumen Gentium, n. 53). The Mother of the Redeemer is also uniquely redeemed by him in her Immaculate Conception and… Read More ›
Mary, Help of Christians
Patron of Belmont Abbey As Mother of God’s children, Mary has responded by helping Christians throughout the ages. She has done this by coming to the aid of individuals, families, towns, kingdoms and nations. In 1214 she gave the Rosary to Saint Dominic as a weapon to combat the Albigesian heresy which was devastating Southern… Read More ›
Stabat Mater dolorosa
At the cross her station keeping, Mary stood in sorrow weeping When her Son was crucified. While she waited in her anguish, Seeing Christ in torment languish, Bitter sorrow pierced her heart. With what pain and desolation, With what noble resignation, Mary watched her dying Son. Ever-patient in her yearning Though her tear-filled eyes were… Read More ›
Joseph, Husband of the Virgin Mary
7. … The Son of Mary is also Joseph’s Son by virtue of the marriage bond that unites them: “By reason of their faithful marriage both of them deserve to be called Christ’s parents, not only his mother, but also his father, who was a parent in the same way that he was the mother’s… Read More ›