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Missio Immaculatae
Eckbert of Schoenau: The First Prayer
to the “Immaculate Heart of Mary”
To the 12th century Benedictine Abbot, Eckbert of Schoenau, is attributed the first written prayer to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In it, Our Lady’s Heart is compared to many Old Testament symbols and images: as the “holy of holies,” the “ark of sanctification,” the...
The Marriage of Saint Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Mystery of the Redemptive Incarnation
The Incarnation of the Son of God was made possible through the consent of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Annunciation, who was already legally espoused to St. Joseph, but prior to their living together. In order to have a correct understanding of the marriage of...
The Marian Issue in the Church Today According to Peter Damian Fehlner, Part 5
According to the penetrating insights of Fr. Peter Damian Fehlner, the crisis in the Church today requires the faithful to live with a faith matching the Fiat of the Virgin, in the spirit of prayer and penance-reparation, that is, in a coredemptive spirit, and in...
Ave Verum Corpus: From Theology to Prayer and Back Again
At Christmas, the Son of God was born of the Virgin Mary. This mystery has an intimate connection with the mystery of the Eucharist, one celebrated in the hymn that begins Ave verum Corpus natum de Maria Virgine: “Hail, true Body, born of the Virgin Mary.” The hymn...
Tota Pulchra, O Maria!
For centuries, the ancient Gregorian chant Tota Pulchra has been the joyful hymn with which the Church, and in particular the Franciscan Order, greets Mary, calling to mind the Mystery of the Immaculate Conception. This hymn of veneration, from the Church’s lips,...
The Fundamentally Marian Imagination of J.R.R. Tolkein
“The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like ‘religion’, to cults or practices,...
The Marian Issue in the Church Today According to Peter Damian Fehlner
By God’s design, Mary is united with her Son Jesus in the work of our salvation, not in a passive way, but by her active cooperation. This is why Mary is said to “occupy center stage” in our redemption—not substituting for or replacing Jesus, but never separated from...
Consecration to Saint Joseph
For nearly two millennia, the Church has found solace in the Virgin Mary’s motherly embrace. St. Joseph has historically assumed a much lower profile, but this situation has been changing, especially since Blessed Pius IX declared him Patron of the Universal Church in...
Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman and Our Lady – Part 2
“Piously meditating on [Mary] and contemplating her in the light of the Word made man,” the Second Vatican Council states, “the Church with reverence enters more intimately into the great mystery of the Incarnation.” The recently canonized Cardinal John Henry Newman,...
Stabat Mater Dolorosa: A Hymn of Coredemption Part 2
In this second part of the article on the Stabat Mater we see the Golden Thread of the Franciscan Order includes this important meditation on the compassion of Our Lady Coredemptrix. With the help of the Franciscan mystics, Ven. Mary of Agreda and St. Veronica...