Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Annunciation, that great moment in salvation history when the rejection of God in the Garden, a rejection rooted in pride and the desire for a false sense of autonomy, was finally reversed by the beautiful acceptance of God's will by Mary's great fiat, a fiat rooted in perfect humility and a desire to be ( Read more... )

On the fifth Friday night of Lent, we sing the Akathist hymn to the Mother of God. The hymn, however, is not so much about Mary herself as about the Incarnation of God: Christ, our salvation, came to us through her. In fact, large sections of the hymn are directly addressed to Christ ( Read more... )

It has come to my attention that it might be helpful to explain from a Catholic perspective what it means to have a Marian devotion, and how one would go about praying the Rosary. So here goes:

( Under the cut )

Zenit yesterday and today has published a two part interview with Mark Shea, a well known and respected convert from Evangelical Protestant to Roman Catholicism. He says that one of his biggest holdups in his conversion was Catholic doctrine on Mary - and I figured this fits in perfectly with the series of posts I am doing. He is in the process ( Read more... )

Today Pope Benedict XVI concluded his pilgrimage to France with a Eucharistic celebration for the sick, coinciding with today's liturgical feast of Our Lady Queen of Sorrows. Following is the beautiful sermon which he gave:

( The Smile of Mary )

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. I am going to post below the sermon given today by Pope Benedict XVI, as this Feast coincides with his trip to Lourdes, France, for the 150th Jubilee of the Apparition of Our Lady to Bernadette. But before reading the sermon I definitely recommend reading the liturgical ( Read more... )

I am a Protestant.  I have seen many people discussing Mary's roll in faith ( Read more... )

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The readings for today are from Zeph 3:14-18a, Is 12:2-6, Luke 1:39-56In truth we can say that Mary's visit to her cousin Elizabeth was the protoevangelion, the first sharing of the Gospel of Salvation. Having received this most blessed message from the angel of ( Read more... )

Five gold stars to whomever can name the author of the following quote ( Read more... )

Today the Church celebrates the feast of Mary, Mother of God. It is a continuation of the celebration of the Incarnation of Christ which we celebrated at Christmas. Of the Incarnation St. Paul writes, But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we ( Read more... )