Blogs
Mary in the News: July 28, 2017
By Michael Duricy
Read recent items about Mary in both Catholic and secular news. Also see International Marian Research Institute news and updates.
Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute Features
Updates
Father Johann Roten, S.M., will be receiving the prestigious Friend of Lithuania award on August 29, 2017 from the Knights of Lithuania. Click here for details.
Father Thomas Thompson, S.M., received a thoughtful gift while attending the Mariological Society of America's annual meeting. Click here for details.
Mary in Media: Books, Films, Music, etc.
Catechetical Reference Book on Mary
From the Marian Treasure Chest
Brother John Samaha, S.M., sent us the article below with the following comments: "There is still time to act."
Marianist Bicentennials by Brother John Samaha, S.M.
Below are some ideas to consider for celebrating the FMI bicentenary and the SM bicentenary in 2016 and 2017. Perhaps these thoughts will trigger new and better ideas.
1. Print outstanding pieces by and about Blessed William Joseph Chaminade and Venerable Adele, and also make them available on CD and DVD and web sites.
2. Gather the best of all the Chaminade and Adele images (portraits, drawings, etc.). Make them available in print and also online in reproducible form. Encourage our Marianist artists and school artists to produce new images and graphics, especially logos for the occasion.
3. Develop a press kit with information and photos of Blessed William Joseph Chaminade and the SM, and Venerable Adele and the FMI that will help make them known better and promote their causes for canonization. Make these available to all Marianist communities and apostolates.
4. Develop new efforts to promote Chaminade's cause and Adele's cause. Distribute and use the prayer leaflets with the prayers for their canonization. These and other materials should be available from the provincial offices and from the Marianist Mission.
5. Include information about these anniversaries in the publications and web sites of our schools, parishes, ministries (e.g. newsletters to families, parish bulletins, school newspapers, yearbooks, printed programs, etc.).
6. Encourage use of the Three O'clock Prayer and the Marianist Doxology. Distribute printed cards with these prayers and the images of our Founders. Perhaps the Marianist Mission can help in this project.
7. Plan annual and seasonal retreats around these Marianist themes.
8. Organize efforts to have articles and information about Blessed William Joseph Chaminade and Venerable Adele published in various periodicals (newspapers, magazines, newsletters) and posted on web sites.
9. Ask our Marianist and school artists to design one or more logos to use on stationery, printed materials and on web sites.
10. Revive and use the hymns and songs honoring Chaminade and Adele. Suggest they be used regularly at school, parish, and community services and social observances. Encourage our Marianist, school, and parish musicians to compose new hymns and songs.
11. Compose a special prayer to use to honor these bicentennials.
12. Propose texts from the writings of Blessed William Joseph and Venerable Adele for group and community discussion and meditation and fervorinos.
13. Produce a select list of readings by and about Blessed William Joseph and Venerable Adele.
14. Reprint, if necessary, in inexpensive form and distribute widely, the three pamphlets by Father Joseph Stefanelli about our founders.
15. Proclaim this time a Marianist Year or Marianist Bicentennial Years.
Marian Events
Theme: Mary and Mercy Retreat
Location: Christ the King Catholic Church, 4000 Ave Maria Dr, Ann Arbor, MI 48105
Date: August 4-5, 2017
Join the Marian Missionaries of Divine Mercy for an inspiring retreat featuring best-selling author and acclaimed speaker Father Michael Gaitley, MIC. Click here for more information and to register.
Mary in the Catholic Press
Saints Joachim and Anne: Pope Pays Tribute to Grandparents (Zenit website) July 27, 2017
"How important grandparents are in the life of the family, to communicate the patrimony of humanity and faith essential for every society!"--tweeted Pope Francis yesterday, Wednesday, July 26, Memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, parents of Mary and grandparents of Jesus, on his Twitter@Pontifex_it account.
Since his election to the Petrine throne in March 2013, the Argentine-Italian Pontiff regularly calls attention to the role of grandparents in the family and in society....
Click here to read the entire article.
Mary in the Secular Press
The director and editors of All About Mary under the auspices of the International Marian Research Institute do not necessarily endorse or agree with the events and ideas expressed in this feature. Our sole purpose is to report on items about Mary gleaned from a myriad of papers representing the secular press.
Three Books on the Virgin Mary (First Things website) June 16, 2017
The title of the first book cuts to the chase, Tell us about Mary, by Sarah Jane Boss.
Like me, Sarah Jane Boss trained as a medievalist, but she writes as a contemporary theologian rather than as a historian. Like me, she tends to see Mary primarily as she appears in the medieval sources, as the place or vessel through whom God became visible to the world. Boss shows that seeing Mary as the elemental matrix or chaos out of which God created the world--"present in all physical things as their foundation"--enables us to understand the Incarnation as salvific, and creation as glorified through her. While arguing as a theologian, Boss writes as something of a poet. Like the medieval and early modern theologians on whose works she draws, she thinks in ravishing images and tropes....
Click here to read the entire article.