Blogs
Mary in the News: April 26, 2018
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
- Rare Book Purchase at the Marian Library
-
The Marian Library has recently acquired a rare book entitled De Laudibus Beate Marie Virginis, published in Strasbourg in 1493. It was originally thought to be the work of Saint Albert the Great, but is now attributed to Richard of Saint Laurent. The book consists of twelve chapters that provide an encyclopedic overview of theological reflection on the Blessed Virgin Mary. The text is printed using Latin manuscript type, with the initial letters (capitals) printed in red. The book is folio-sized, bound in leather with subtle decorative stamping on the covers and spine, and is fitted with brass clamps to hold the book closed when not in use. Previously it had been owned by a Carmelite monastery in Frankfurt....
- Complete article
- TOP
Mary in Media: Books, Films, Music, etc.
Mary in Film
-
Dr. Catherine O'Brien, author of The Celluloid Madonna: From Scripture to Screen (2011), has published two articles related to the topic of Mary in Film more recently: "Women in the Cinematic Gospels" in Burnette-Blesch, R. (ed.) The Bible in motion: a handbook of the Bible and its reception in film (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2016), pp.449-462; and "Marie dans le cinéma contemporain: un nouveau visage?" in La figure de Marie dans les expressions artistiques récentes: XXe et XXIe siècle (Société française d’études mariales), 2016, pp.151-131.
- TOP
From the Marian Treasure Chest
Brother John Samaha, S.M., sent us the text below.
The Message of William Joseph Chaminade by Brother John Samaha, S.M.
The Marianist Family (Society of Mary, Daughters of Mary Immaculate, and Marianist lay communities) celebrate its founder with public veneration on January 22, the feast of Blessed William Joseph Chaminade. The Marianist founder was proclaimed worthy of public veneration in recognition of the holiness of his life when Saint John Paul II beatified him on September 3, 2000.
The beatification of Blessed William Joseph Chaminade culminated a process of investigation begun in 1909. Pope Paul VI in 1973 declared him "venerable." The miracle required for beatification was the cure of Elena Otero of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1991. This miracle granted through the intercession of Blessed William Joseph Chaminade was approved in 1998. Elena Otero was present at her intercessor's beatification.
William Joseph was born in Périgueux, France, near Bordeaux on April 8, 1761. He was the fourteenth of the fifteen children of Blaise Chaminade, a cloth merchant, and Catherine Bethon. In 1771, he entered the minor seminary program at the College of Mussidan. After ordination in 1785, he and two older brothers who were priests assumed the administration of and taught at the College of Mussidan.
With the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, his peaceful life turned into the stuff from which the plots of adventure movies are developed. Refusing to swear allegiance to the Civil Constitution, which rejected papal authority and aimed to establish a national church, Chaminade was driven into hiding to avoid exile or the guillotine. Fleeing to the larger city of Bordeaux with a price on his head, he disguised himself as a peddler to continue ministering to the underground Church. Numerous hair-raising experiences and narrow escapes from capture caused him to muse that several times only the thickness of a board shielded him from the guillotine.
As the revolution waned, Chaminade emerged from hiding only to be forced into exile at Zaragoza, Spain, in 1797 for three years. There he worked to support himself and spent many hours in prayer at the great shrine of Our Lady of the Pillar, where he was inspired with a vision for the re-evangelization of France. A special message from Mary helped him conceive of a family of religious and laity that would participate with Mary in her apostolic mission to bring Jesus to others.
While in exile, Chaminade's prayer and discussions about restoring the faith in his homeland convinced him to emphasize the concept of mission. His future collaborators would be a religious family in permanent mission, employing new forms of apostolate.
When Blessed William Joseph returned to Bordeaux in 1800 he opened an oratory and immediately attracted interested faithful, especially youth, to worship services and to educational discussions. Within a year he formed a group of clerics and laity which became the nucleus for his famous and influential apostolic sodality consecrated to Mary Immaculate.
From this grew the Daughters of Mary Immaculate founded in 1816, followed by the Society of Mary in 1817. These religious congregations were to be the animators of the laity brought into the Marianist Family.
Chaminade was reading the signs of the times and responding with imagination to adapt the Gospel to new needs. New circumstances required new approaches. He was heralding the age of Mary and leading into the age of the laity. This apostolic genius said simply that he was looking for a new fulcrum for the lever that moves the modern world.
As the work of the Marianists developed in the establishment and management of Christian schools and teacher training colleges, and the formation of lay-managed faith communities, the Society of Mary reached out to North America. In 1849 the first Marianists came to Ohio in the USA and laid the foundations for the present University of Dayton the following year.
After a long, arduous, and fruitful life that touched many persons and works, Blessed William Joseph Chaminade was taken to his everlasting home with God on January 22, 1850.
His legacy is a rich, apostolic Marian spirituality of living and working in union with Jesus and Mary. Recognized as the nineteenth century apostle of Mary, he is acknowledged as the most noteworthy Mariologist of the first half of the nineteenth century. He had the facility of relating doctrine to ministry and mission, and showed the relevance of Mary's role in the life of Christians. As Jesus chose Mary to cooperate with him in the salvation of the human race, Mary asks each Christian to participate in her apostolic mission to bring the grace of redemption to each person. His was an applied, pastoral theology inviting us to live fully our baptismal commitment.
A favorite Gospel dictum was Mary's message to the servants at the marriage feast of Cana, "Do whatever he tells you." (Jn 2:5), because Blessed William Joseph Chaminade firmly believed that we are all missionaries of Mary. He directed his followers to do everything under Mary's guidance. We are the lengthened shadow of Chaminade.
Marian Events
Event: Morning with Mary
Theme: Presentation by Denise Bossert
Location: Emmaus Catholic Parish, Great Hall, 1718 Lohmans Crossing Rd, Austin, TX 78734
Date: Saturday, May 26, 2018, 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
We invite you to bring your mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends to a very meaningful spiritual morning where we will prayerfully consider ways in which we can bind up each other's hurts and help our Blessed Mother bring her Son's healing to our wounded world.
Denise Bossert is the daughter of a Protestant minister. In 2005, she converted to Catholicism after reading books by Carmelite saints.
Denise is a nationally-recognized writer, speaker, and member of the Catholic Speakers Bureau. Her syndicated column, "Catholic by Grace" is published in sixty-three diocesan newspapers, and she has written for Catholic magazines and appeared on EWTN's Journey Home, Women of Grace, and At Home With Jim and Joy. Her latest book, Stations of the Cross, is about interceding for suffering souls and praying for a healing touch from the Redeemer of all things.
*Light breakfast at 9:00 a.m.
*Presentation starts at 9:30 a.m.
*Book signing right after presentation
Contact Mary's Touch at info@marystouch.org for any comments or questions.
Mary in the Catholic Press
Cardinal Calls for Consecration of Mexico to Immaculate Heart of Mary (ACI Prensa) April 10, 2018
Facing Violence, poverty, and corruption, Mexico should be consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, said Archbishop Emeritus Juan Sandoval Iniguez of Guadalajara....
He emphasized that in consecrating Mexico to the Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, "we will be doing a service to our homeland, and I believe that God will take that into account for us.
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.
World Book Day: Celebrate with Marian Library Collection! (University of Dayton blog) April 18, 2018
Today the Marian Library can boast of an impressive selection of more than 95,000 circulating volumes about Mary, and more than 12,000 rare books; but it wasn’t always this way. The Library was founded with the gift of a single book on October 20, 1943, when Rev. John A Elbert, S.M., then President of the University of Dayton, presented a copy of his book, Devotion to Mary in the Twentieth Century, to Rev. Lawrence W. Monheim, S.M., the Library's founding director.
Our circulating collection began to grow thanks to the help of volunteers who, in the early days of the Marian Library, typed letters asking publishing companies and Catholic college librarians for book lists and donations of their duplicate copies. After its first year, the Library had acquired 500 books and pamphlets....