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By Michael Duricy

Read recent items about Mary in both Catholic and secular news. Also, see International Marian Research Institute as well as Marian Library news and updates.

Marian Library and International Marian Research Institute Features

Updates

N.B. Michael Duricy will be out of the office until October 22, 2019.  Expect no updates of this News blog until then.

Call For Papers

The Mariological Society of America (MSA) invites proposals for its May 13-16 2020 Conference to be held at the Archbishop Brunett Retreat Center in Federal Way, WA on The Person of Mary: Her Cultural and Anthropological Dimensions.

In his 1974 apostolic exhortation, Marialis Cultus (nos. 34–41), St. Paul VI called attention to the anthropological dimensions of the person of Mary. Likewise the Congregation for Catholic Education, in its 1988 Letter, The Virgin Mary in Intellectual and Spiritual Formation (no. 15), noted that: “Post-conciliar Mariology has given renewed attention to anthropology.  The Popes have repeatedly presented Mary of Nazareth as the supreme expression of human freedom in the cooperation of man with God, who 'in the sublime event of the Incarnation of His Son, entrusted Himself to the ministry, the free and active ministry, of a woman.' (Redemptoris Mater, 46)."  This conference will seek to understand the person of Mary in terms of her concrete historical existence as well as her deeper anthropological significance for the human call to communion with God.

Among the topics that might be treated are the following:

The person of Mary as the model for human existence and meaning

Mary as the model of authentic womanhood

Evaluating Marian devotions in light of sound Christian anthropology

Mary's person understood within her own Jewish religious and cultural setting

The person of Mary in light of contemporary anthropological theories

The person of Mary in light of human suffering and redemption

True and false understandings of the person of Mary in light of Scripture and tradition

The person of Mary as understood in mystical literature

The person of Mary as experienced in private vs. public revelation

Mary and the mystery of divine grace and human freedom

The person of Mary in light of divine providence and predestination

The anthropological significance of Mary's Immaculate Conception

The anthropological significance of Mary's divine and spiritual motherhood

Mary's perpetual virginity in our age of the cult of the flesh

Mary's perpetual virginity and the theology of the body

The Assumption of Mary in relation to Catholic eschatology

The person of Mary and divinization

The person of Mary as the exemplar of the divine image and likeness

Mary and the theological virtues

Mary and the gifts of the Holy Spirit

Mary and the charismatic gifts

Please send abstracts by October 31, 2019 to Father Frederick Miller (frederick.miller@shu.edu) and and Dr. Robert Fastiggi at (fastiggi.robert@shms.edu).  The abstract should be about 350-500 words.  It should include sources and an explanation of how the proposal relates to the theme of the conference.

Marion Mulhall, founder of Worldpriest Global Apostolate to speak at the shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Green Bay, Wisconsin, again this year

The National Novena of Our Lady of Good Help at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Champion, Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA, is taking place on October 1-9, 2019.  This year marks the beginning of the celebrations of the 160th anniversary of Mother Mary appearing to Adele Brise at Champion.

Marion Mulhall, founder of the Worldpriest Global Apostolate, [which includes the inspired Worldpriest Annual Global Rosary Relay for the Sanctification of Priests] will be a guest speaker at 12 noon on Sunday, October 6, 2019, during a lunch at the Knights of Columbus – Vince Lombardi Council Family Day at Champion Shrine, during the National Novena of Our Lady of Good Help at America's only Church-approved Marian apparition site.  Marion will also lead the group rosary on site at the major events.

Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help website

From the Marian Treasure Chest

Brother John Samaha, S.M., sent us the text below with the following comment: "October is the month of the Holy Rosary."

Praying the Rosary with the Smiling Pope by Brother John Samaha, S.M.

While some misinterpreted the Second Vatican Council as downgrading devotion to Our Lady, Bishop Albino Luciani of Vittorio Veneto, Italy (later Pope John Paul I), was concerned about his people that no longer prayed the rosary.  He continued to promote devotion to Our Lady and to the rosary.  But he urged more than superficial devotion.

At times, Bishop Luciani was approached by simple faithful who asked him out of pious curiosity what title of Our Lady he liked best.  Without satisfying their curiosity he would reply with a twinkle in his eye, "If you would let me give you some advice, may I suggest that you have devotion to Our Lady of the Pots and Pans, or Our Lady of the Broom.  You see, Our Lady became a saint as a simple housewife, washing the dishes, preparing meals, peeling the potatoes, or things like that."

"What I was trying to tell them," he explained to his priests, "was that, yes, they should have great devotion to Our Lady, they must pray to her and have great confidence in her, but above all, they must imitate her virtues."

Albino Luciani, now affectionately remembered as "The Smiling Pope" and recognized as a superb catechist, loved the rosary and was frequently seen with it in his hands.  In 1972 he wrote, "The rosary becomes a look at Mary, which grows in intensity little by little as one proceeds.  It ends by being a refrain which springs from the heart and when repeated sweetens the soul like a song....  When I speak with God and Our Lady, I prefer to think of myself as a child rather than a grown-up.  The miter, the zucchetto, the ring disappear.  I send the grown-up on vacation, and the bishop with him, and abandon myself to the spontaneous tenderness that a child has for its papa and mama.  To be for a while before God as I am in reality, with the worst of myself and the best of myself; to let rise to the surface from the depths of my being the child I once was, who wants to laugh, to chatter, to love the Lord, and who sometimes feels the need to cry so that he may be shown mercy, helps me to pray.  The rosary, a simple and easy prayer, helps me to be a child, and I am not ashamed at all.”

Marian Events

Title: Hispanic Youth Forum with Ivan Diaz

Dates: Saturday, October 19, 2019

Time: 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Location: Curran Place Meyer room at the University of Dayton

World-renowned Catholic musician, Ivan Diaz, headlines the  Hispanic Youth forum at the University of Dayton on October 19, 2019.

Young people in high school and college are invited to this exciting concert/retreat.  The  bilingual event is FREE, and will take place Saturday, October 19, 2019, at Curran Place Meyer room at the university, starting at 8:30 in the morning, until 5pm.

There will be activities, prayer, music, and of course, food.

Mary in the Catholic Press

‘Today We Also Need a Mother,’ Pope Appeals to Entrust Painful Journeys of All on the Move to Mary (Full Homily) (Zenit) September 29, 2019

"Today we also need a mother," Pope Francis has said, appealing: "we entrust to the maternal love of Mary, Our Lady of the Way, of so many painful journeys, all migrants and refugees, together with those who live on the peripheries of our world and those who have chosen to share their journey."

The Pontiff stressed this on the 105th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, which is observed on September 29, 2019.  In his homily in St. Peter's Square during Mass, he encouraged people to "pass immediately to actions to relieve, care for, and save" people in movement.  "It's about putting the last in the first place," because the true motto of a Christian is "the last first!" and not "me first and the others after."

The Pope's theme for the day, entitled "It's Not Only About Migrants," stresses that in a world "every day more elitist and cruel towards the excluded," the migrants' cause concerns "us all," the "present and ... the future of the human family."

Complete Article

Mary in the Secular Press