Archives - Articles
Missio ImmaculataeSaint 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...
Stabat Mater Dolorosa: A Hymn of Coredemption – Part 1
Saint Maximilian Kolbe believed the Immaculate Conception was the “Golden Thread” running throughout the history of the Franciscan Order. This article examines the claim that one could say this “Golden Thread” has shades of coredemption in it as well. We recount in...
The Presentation of Mary: An Historical Event?
The Church presently celebrates the Presentation of Mary (as distinct from that of Jesus) as a liturgical memorial on November 21. Our main source of knowledge of this event, apart from the liturgy, lies in aprocryphal writings which the Church has rejected as not...
The Marian-Franciscan Legacy of Fr. Peter Damian Fehlner
“Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart.” “Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye.” Christus unus omnium Magister. De Maria numquam satis. These passages from St. Luke, St. John, St. Bonaventure and St. Bernard express the heart of Fr. Peter...
Blessed Conchita (Concepción Cabrera de Armida) – Part 3
The great mystics of the Church are famed for allowing the Holy Spirit to reproduce the lives of Jesus and Mary in their souls. For Conchita, reproducing faithfully the interior life of Mary, as she was called to do, meant entering into the mystery of Our Lady’s...
The Annunciation: A Commentary on Luke 1:26-29
At the Annunciation, Mary, the “full of grace,” the creature beloved by God in a singular way, responded to God’s saving plan for her in a likewise unheralded manner, when she joined her “yes” to the “yes” of the Word who took flesh in her womb in obedience to the...
Our Lady of Monte Berico
At the foot of the Vicentine Alps in northeastern Italy is a popular Shrine commem-orating the fifteenth-century apparition of Our Lady, who interceded to save the region from a virulent pestilence. Centuries later, she intervened once again to protect the area from...
The Venerable Conchita (Concepción Cabrera de Armida) — Part 1
Among the ranks of little-known but gigantic saintly figures is Conchita, a laywoman and mystic who lived during the troubled years of the Mexican persecutions of the twentieth century. Hers was a sublime participation in Mary’s spiritual maternity, especially in...
Mary to the Moon!
The moon has often been seen as a symbol of the Virgin Mary—as the moon does not generate light of its own, but reflects the light of the sun, so the Virgin reflects and participates in the glory of God. Similarly, as the moon is, in our own day, increasingly viewed...