Blogs
Mary in the News: Jan. 23, 2019
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
Nominations are being accepted through February, 15, 2019. This award recognizes the efforts of people on our campus to change the atmosphere and the potential for women's achievements at the University of Dayton (UD). You may nominate an individual or a group of UD Faculty, Staff, or Students.
Mary in Media: Books, Films, Music, etc.
New Book on the Rosary from Ascension Press
Written by Matt Fradd, the new Pocket Guide to the Rosary seeks to help Catholics develop better prayer habits, and focus their minds on the mysteries of the rosary.
From the Marian Treasure Chest
Brother John Samaha, S.M., sent us the text below with the following comment: "Some notes about Blessed William Joseph Chaminade"
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 St. 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 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
Theme: True Devotion to Mary--Study Group at Saint Albert Parish
Dates: Mondays from February 4 - March 25, 2019, 7:00 - 8:15 p.m.
Location: The Spirit Center [behind the playground] of Saint Albert Parish
The group will discuss True Devotion to Mary by Saint Louis Marie de Montfort and Preparation for Total Consecration to Jesus Christ through Mary by Father Hugh Gillespie. Free tea and coffee will be provided by the Legion of Mary. For details, contact Gloria Dodd by email at gdodd1@udayton.edu.
Mary in the Catholic Press
Cardinal Parolin's Advice for World Youth Day (WYD) 2019 in Panama: "Transform the World by Imitating Mary" (Zenit) January 21, 2019
"May young people become the evangelizers of other young people," is the wish expressed by the Cardinal Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, to Vatican News (Manuella Affejee) a few days before Panama's 2019 WYD. The Cardinal encourages young people to transform the world by imitating Mary....
Cardinal Parolin also stresses young people's engagement in evangelization. "It's important that young people become evangelizers of other young people; it's an engagement to proclaim the Gospel as a response to the expectations and needs of today’s world."
To Have the Virgin Mary's Attitude to Change the World
What is at stake, therefore, is the transformation of the world, explains Cardinal Parolin. "The whole world wants a better world, but how to do it, how to transform it? We have the example of the Virgin Mary who shows us how to change the world. It is first of all to know God and then to put oneself at God's disposition and of His salvation. It's what the Virgin did. She said: "I am the handmaid of the Lord." Then, I think that all Christians, all of Jesus' disciples, must put themselves in the same disposition of spirit, in the same attitude, in the same way of acting to truly change the world, little by little. It's the only solid change that can bring a novelty to our world..."
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.
Christmas Town comes to life as Busch Gardens rolls out holiday lights (Tampa Bay Times) November 27, 2018
This is the seventh year that Busch Gardens has transformed into a night-time holiday wonderland filled with lights, elaborate trees, caroling and lots of goodies to eat....