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Monday, May 12, 2025

Opening the Door to Mary

by Rev. James Phalan, CSC Young Bernadette Soubirous was overwhelmed by grace. While scavenging firewood for her poor family near a cave on a cold winter day, she saw an unimaginably beautiful girl only slightly older than herself emerge from a brilliant ball of light in a cleft of the rock face. We call her Our Lady of Lourdes. Juan Diego was certainly taken by surprise when an extraordinary lady placed herself on his path while on his way to Mass, saying that she was the Mother of God. We call her Our Lady of Guadalupe. Her apparition in Mexico in 1531 gently averted a collision of Spanish and Aztec cultures that was on the verge of a becoming a bloodbath. Her appearance in Lourdes, France, immediately became a Sign of the Kingdom of Heaven among us. In both cases it was Mother Mary who took the first step. She asked that chapels be built so that she could gather her children, saying to Juan Diego she wanted to “show her Love, Jesu.” When she looked at Bernadette, the girl’s fear disappeared. For both Bernadette and Juan Diego the encounter became an invitation to a deep relationship, heart-to-heart communication. Many identify Lourdes as a place and a mission of healing, both physical and spiritual—and rightly so. I have served in this holy place for three years, blest as a priest to be participant of and witness to so many experiences, particularly through the sacraments. I have seen that the source of the healing is found in the relationship to which Our Lady invites us all, wherever we are, with her Son, Jesus! In the first place, Our Lady came to Bernadette to lead her to know and love Our Lord, as they prayed and meditated the Rosary together at the beginning of each of the eighteen apparitions. To lead us to Jesus on a way of ever deeper love and union, that is what Our Lady always wants to do and has continued to do as Mother of the Church! The apparent plethora of Marian devotions and prayers is due to her, to a great extent, as she has accompanied her family over the centuries in all sorts of circumstances. When we understand this, Mary and prayer with her become so much more accessible. It is she who comes to us. Yet this is not because Christ is in some way the frightful judge to whom we are terrified to approach. Rather, as Pope Francis loves to say, the Lord knows it helps us to have a mother—to have his mother as our mother. She shares in his mercy so that, in the Lord’s Family, we all share that mercy in our world. She especially wants to share peace: Christ is our peace. Yet in our world which speeds continuously on overdrive, anxiety and loneliness are epidemic. They seem to isolate us. How do we even begin to find peace? The way of Mary is often called a “school” to find our way to peace. Our Lady offers us the Rosary, for example, to invite us to stop and take some time. Hold it in your hand and feel connected to something bigger than you! Take time to breathe and make the Sign of the Cross. Slow yourself down as you start to say some simple words from the Gospel, the Rosary prayers that get into the marrow of your bones. Turn your mind to Jesus and his life (the “Mysteries of the Rosary”) and see your life in his light. Open the door to Our Lady to let her be the Mother helping you and your family to learn to pray. She who is called the “Spouse of the Holy Spirit” will help you to learn his ways! Christian prayer is about living more and more in the Holy Spirit. He will be your teacher and guide. There are so many good and beloved Marian devotions and prayers to help you. You have lots of friends on the journey in your parish and other communities as well. Ave Maria Press and many other Catholic media sites are waiting to help, offering fine resources to support you on your journey of prayer with Our Lady. The mission I have served in for years, Family Rosary, which continues the work of Venerable Patrick Peyton, C.S.C., has been entrusted with the mission of helping families to pray. Come to us, too, for help! Let Mary help you pray! Download this article as a PDF here.

Monday, May 12, 2025

Marian Consecration

by Katie Hartfiel What if I told you that we live in the most spiritually significant age in human history since the Incarnation of Christ? The Lord of the Universe could have placed you at any moment in his story, but here you are. You are living in the time that theologians have dubbed “The Age of Mary.” God has not gone silent for the past two-thousands years. On the contrary, he has been sending his most trusted disciple to speak directly to his faithful. Since 1830, the Blessed Mother has been appearing regularly around the world. Mary has come with a message for the faithful and she is repeating it with increasing urgency and passion. She is boldly calling Christians to run to Jesus and to allow her to run alongside us. One of the most powerful ways the Blessed Mother has asked us to do this is through a practice called Marian consecration. The word consecrate means “to set aside for something holy.” Through this act of Marian consecration, we devote ourselves fully to the Lord through Mary. We give every love, struggle, victory, and decision of our lives to the Blessed Mother and ask her to bring them to her Son. It might sound extreme to talk about trusting Mary with our lives. However, if we want to be like Jesus, we must start here. It’s almost inconceivable that the way Jesus chose to come into world was to make himself wholly dependent on Mary as a helpless baby. The Lord wants us to go back to him in the very same way he came to us—through his mother. So how do we do this? In order to prepare for an act of consecration, most people will spend thirty-three days getting ready. These days of prayer and reflection are meant to strengthen our spiritual muscles in ways that are both challenging and rewarding. Mary will be your trainer to help ensure that every prayer, reflection, and examination is done in the most refined way possible. Just as the best Olympian has a coach to help tweak and perfect their skills, we ask the Blessed Mother to mold us for thirty-three days in preparation for the moment of a lifetime! After the thirty-third day, an intentional prayer acts as a declaration of Marian consecration. For my husband, myself, and hundreds of friends and teens, this moment has been one of the most defining in our stories. Many people I have met can measure their lives in a way that pivots on life before and after their Marian consecration. Even St. John Paul II testified that his consecration “was a decisive turning-point in my life. . . this ‘perfect devotion’ is indispensable to anyone who means to give himself without reserve to Christ and to the work of redemption.” This is because the Blessed Mother promises that if you give her your heart, she will replace it with hers. We no longer have to love Jesus with our imperfect and sinful heart alone but we can love him through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This conscious decision of consecration will keep our faith from being another extracurricular activity and instead let our relationship with the Lord be the center of our lives. With Mary as our spiritual guide, she teaches us to say “Yes” to God’s will at all times. Then, like her, we will bring Jesus into the world that needs him so desperately. Download this article as a PDF here.

Monday, May 12, 2025

Mary, Mother to Our Families

by J.D. Flynn Before our wedding, my wife and I asked a holy priest for marriage advice. He didn’t hesitate: “Pray the Rosary every single day,” he said, “and the rest will work itself out.” His advice was clear. But of course we didn’t take it. In fact, it took years for us to get into the habit of praying the Rosary together regularly and even longer to make the Rosary a daily part of our life as a family. Family Rosary happens at bedtime now. Our oldest, Max and Pia, climb into their beds, while Daniel sits on Kate’s lap. Pia usually calls us to prayer.“Prayers, Dad,” she says. “Fold your hands. Like this.”I fold my hands like she does and then I invite my family into a mystery of the Rosary. The kids are little. We only pray a decade or sometimes two. It never takes as long as we think it will. Some nights, thinking about what needs to get done after kids go to sleep, we’re tempted to skip our family Rosary time. But the kids, now at least, remind us every night that it’s time. We say our prayers and then three little voices sing Salve Regina. I think Our Lady must love those voices. I sure do. I don’t know how exactly the Rosary makes a difference for our family but I know it does. I know that we’re giving our children the habit of nightly prayer and a comfortable familiarity with the Blessed Mother. I know we’re inviting them to see the mysteries of Christ’s own life, through the eyes of his mother. I hope we’re inviting them to bring the mysteries of their own lives to Christ through the intercession of Our Lady. And I know that it’s become a grace to sit quietly with our children at the end of the day—to put busyness and bickering and distraction aside—and to turn together to the Lord. Mary, I can see in the mysteries of the Rosary, is bringing our family closer to Jesus and closer to one another. And if she’s becoming another mother my children can turn to I know what a grace that is. I remember, vividly, turning to Our Lady one night as an anxious young man, uncertain about vocation, and trust, and Providence. I remember asking her to be a mother to me. I remember telling her how much I needed a mother’s love. And I remember that the very next day, Our Lord started to bring a new kind of peace into my life. Our Lady began a conversion for me and she helped me discover that God was calling me to marry my wife and to start our family. In the first years of our marriage, struggling together with the painful cross of infertility, my wife and I turned to the Blessed Mother together. In the times when we didn’t know if we could turn to the Lord, we never doubted that we could turn to his mother. We knew she would understand. Even if we lacked the confidence to trust, she would pray for us and all would be well. In our early years of parenting, our children faced serious health struggles. Our daughter spent more than a year in an oncology ward. We had no idea what we were doing but we knew that we could turn to the Blessed Mother. We didn’t know how to be parents but she did. She knew the uncertainty of parenting. She knew the fears. She knew the struggles. And she was a comfort to us. When we didn’t know the words to speak, she prayed for us. Our kids have an extraordinary mother. My wife is holy, and beautiful, and kind. I think that’s why my kids love the Blessed Mother so much: they know what a mother’s love is and the idea that someone loves them like that in heaven is an exciting prospect. As they get older and we can’t be with them all the time, I’m glad they know they have a mother to turn to. I’m glad they know they have our Mother beside them. We haven’t always been faithful to the daily Rosary. But Our Lady is patient. She understands. She’s with us, reminding us to be gentle, to be patient, and to turn to the Lord. Our family is graced through Our Lady and yours can be too. Download this article as a PDF here.

Monday, May 12, 2025

Joseph, Her Most Chaste Spouse

by Patrick Neve When I was younger, my knowledge of St. Joseph was simple. I knew the usual joke about him not speaking in scripture and had a vague knowledge that I should bury him if I wanted to sell my house. Recently I began a job at a new parish and came across a tradition of which I was previously unaware. In preparation for our parish festival, volunteers tied a small statue of St. Joseph on the roof. When I asked one of them why, the old Italian man replied, “For good weather, of course!” Of course. What was I thinking? That night, there was a small rainstorm and I felt bad for poor St. Joseph alone on a roof in the rain. But the next day as I went into work, I saw an even bigger St. Joseph statue strapped to the roof. Sure enough, our parish festival saw great weather all weekend. Besides real estate, good weather, and not talking, there must be more to this saint we call the Terror of Demons. Since we don’t have quotes to tie him to, we are too quick to forget this man of gentle strength who loved Mary and Jesus so well. So we rely on Church tradition to tell us about him. In the Divine Praises, St. Joseph is called Mary’s “most chaste spouse.” It’s a short line, but it tells us the glory of St. Joseph is in his chastity and his relationship to Mary. Joseph’s love and devotion to Christ and Our Lady is an example to all believers, but his role in salvation history is particularly masculine and is revealed through his chastity. In Genesis, Adam was told to till and protect the Garden with the help of Eve. The Father formed his body for work. After the Fall, that work changed. Adam had to fight against the Earth to make it fruitful. The work God gave to Abraham, Moses, and David was different as well: to prepare the Earth for the coming of Christ. Though he was not as well-known as Abraham and David, Joseph was given the same work as his fathers. Christ chose Mary to be the New Eve and made her womb the New Eden. Then He tasked St. Joseph with the role of protecting her. As men, we rarely choose the work that comes to us, but we do choose how to respond to it. A pipe bursts, a toilet clogs, a child needs to be disciplined. Adam didn’t choose to till the Garden and Joseph didn’t choose to be the spouse of Mary, but they knew how to hear the call of the Father and say yes. The glory of St. Joseph is not merely his physical virginity, but his patience and trust in God’s will. He shows all Christians what it means to be chaste: sacrifice. We often connect chastity with sexual virtue, and while this is important, it’s not the only aspect of chastity. Chastity is a virtue that places its own desires to the side and works for the good of another. It trains the body to give up its selfish desires and sacrifice itself. It’s a virtue that fixes a toilet even though we would rather watch a movie. It gets you out of bed at 3 a.m. to change a diaper even though it’s your spouse’s turn. Chastity turns our bodies into an instrument of sacrificial love. Being called “chaste” and “spouse of Mary” together is no coincidence. Joseph’s virtue grew in his closeness to the Mother of Jesus. In Genesis 2, the Father calls Eve a “divine help” (Hebrew: ezer). Other places in scripture use this word to mean “divine aid.” As a disciple of Christ, we are called to chastity, and Mary, the New Eve, is our divine aid. Drawing close to her and to Christ, as St. Joseph did, will make us more open, more patient, more loving, and more chaste. When we pray the Rosary, the litany of Mary, or Marian Consecration, we meditate on her virtues and become more like her. Regardless of our state in life, we are called to be like St. Joseph. We are called to live and die in the presence of Jesus and Mary, helping those around us to reflect them more perfectly. We are called to be silent unless we are preaching the one Word that Joseph speaks in Matthew 1:25. The only Word the Father speaks from all eternity: “And he called His name ‘Jesus.’” Download this article as a PDF here.

Monday, May 12, 2025

Mary Is the True Embodiment of Femininity

by Claire Swinarski When a person thinks of Mary as the embodiment of femininity, they may think of her peacefully holding a smiling baby or of her eyes cast downward in a gloomy stare. But Mary embodies what it truly means to be woman: she is a fierce, formidable, and feminine saint, both daughter and mother. St. John Paul II defined womanhood in four main pillars: the self-offering totality of love, capable strength, tireless devotion, and a penetrating intuition. Mary encompasses all four of these traits. Women of today can learn from her how also to be fierce, formidable, and feminine in the truest senses of the words. Mary’s self-offering totality of love is obvious: she completely offers herself as a gift to all of mankind by carrying the Son of God. Being pregnant is not easy. I’ve never given birth in a barn, but I’m guessing isn’t exactly a walk in the park either. Mary gave not only her body but also, in those days, her reputation. She was told that a sword would pierce her heart and yet she still said yes to raising this child. Mary gave up everything in order to save the world. Talk about a self-offering. Mary also demonstrates a strength to bear the “greatest sorrows.” Think of our world today—the number of women who are carrying heavy burdens such as sexual violence, workplace discrimination, infertility, or separation from family. Mary has known an immense sorrow: She sat at the foot of the cross while her child hung there. She did so with strength and stamina, bearing witness to evil in the world and looking it in the face. A tireless devotion is required to raise any child but to raise the Son of God meant believing him when few did. Let’s not forget that Mary wasn’t just a good mother, she was also a woman of faith, meaning that this revelation not only changed her life but rocked its very foundations. When people doubted or mocked, Mary stood firm. She didn’t give into public pressure or question her beliefs. Instead, the Mother of God clung to her Son and refused to let naysayers tear her away from what she knew to be true. Lastly, Mary holds a penetrating intuition. This is exemplified at the wedding at Cana, when she knew that Jesus was the solution to the problem. She knew the time had come and she trusted her son to claim his place as Worker of Miracles. Mary understood relationships. She knew how it would be perceived when she told the wedding servers to do whatever Jesus asked of them but she saw a problem and wasn’t afraid to step in. Mary is our perfect example of the feminine genius not because of what she wore, how she looked, or how great of a cook she was. Mary is a shining example of taking her gifts, utilizing them within her call, and walking down her path. She stayed true to God’s Word and trusted constantly, no matter what those around her were saying. She wasn’t influenced by hashtags, politicians, or popular opinion. Instead, Mary focused on what she knew to be true and let her faith guide her in her words and actions. That is the genius of the feminine and that is womanhood at its finest. Download this article as a PDF here.

Monday, May 12, 2025

Mary Is There During Our Grief

by Leticia Ochoa Adams When my oldest son died by suicide in March of 2017 the only person I could think of to shout at was our Lady. People often offered me advice on looking to her as a model of a mother who lost a son, but that was not easy for me for many reasons. For one thing, she was without sin and I am sinful, hence the shouting at the Mother of God. For another thing, her son was God. He was going to rise from the dead and he had died to save us all from our own sins. My son died by his own hand in the midst of mental illness and he was an atheist up until a few hours before his suicide. These were entirely different circumstances. I lived my entire life with Mary in the background. Every one of my aunts has a giant painting or picture of Mary in their living room. My mother has a picture, a statue, and a full-sized comforter with Our Lady of Guadalupe in her bedroom. My mother also has a giant wooden rosary hanging on her wall. Mary has always been a part of my life, even when I didn’t want anything to do with her. She just stands there waiting in silence. After Anthony’s suicide, I moved seats at Mass. Instead of sitting in the pew in front of the altar, I moved to sit in the pew next to our Lady. I didn’t know why, but I knew I wanted to be close to her. I needed her to pray for me because I was not able to pray anymore. I had spent countless hours praying for Anthony before his suicide. I prayed novenas and rosaries; I offered up Masses; and I even found a way to pray in front of the relics of St. Anthony of Padua. I begged God to help my son. After all of that prayer, Anthony died. From the moment that we found Anthony dead in the garage, I had the sense to ask other people to pray for us, for him, and for me specifically. And people showed up. I can see that not only people in my life showed up but also that ever-present gift of our Lady in the background. She wasn’t there in the way I thought “stand with Mary” looked like, but in the way that I needed the most. She was not offering advice or platitudes, just love. Mary was interceding for me; she was carrying me and my son the same way she carried her own son, both while pregnant and after he was taken down from the Cross that saved the world. That same Mother of God held me in her arms for as long as I needed so that I could be well. That is who Mary is for me in my grief. What I learned from that experience of Mary as my Mother is how to mother my own children, including Anthony. There is no shortage of books with advice on how to be mothers to newborns, babies, toddlers, teens, and even adult children. But nobody ever talks about how to mother a dead child, and there is still a lot of mothering to do. Right after finding Anthony I was in charge of taking care of his body and his soul. I had someone call 911 and a priest to come bless his body. My pastor and the priest who baptized Anthony showed up and helped get that done. Then I had to plan his funeral. I decided that as a writer, it was my gift to write Anthony’s obituary. Those were all things I was gifted to do to care for Anthony in the aftermath of his death. But even today there are things that he needs me to do: take care of his kids, plant flowers at his grave, try to save money to buy his headstone, and to honor his life. There is still a relationship that goes beyond death: Anthony is still my son and I am still his mother. Mary taught me that to be a mother means to be present in the lives of my children while interceding for them in prayer. So many times I believed that being a mother was just about keeping them alive and fed, both pretty important but also not the core of what motherhood is. Mary shows us that motherhood is deeper because it extends beyond being alive and needing food. Motherhood is about love, presence, and intercessory prayer for our children. It’s also about putting our children in God’s hands. Sometimes that might even include sitting by and watching as one of them cusses at God during Mass, like I did in my anger and bitterness after losing Anthony. Our Lady of Sorrows shows us that it is in our prayer and in our love that our children come to her Son Jesus. Mary was my mother in the depths of my suffering and grief and she taught me how to be a better mother to my children. Download this article as a PDF here.

Monday, May 12, 2025

A Tender Strength

by Timothy P. O’Malley Along the way to adolescence, men learn that tenderness is not a virtue appropriate to those seeking to become “masculine.” A man is someone who cultivates power and strength—the kind of virtues appropriate to the manliest of men. Tenderness calls to mind delicateness, daintiness, a femininity that no man should cultivate—at least if he wants to find friends in the locker room. This assumption about tenderness has creeped into ecclesial circles too. Catholic literature for adolescent men (and even older men) speak of strength, a valiant exercise of courage. Terms like “tender” are employed almost entirely for women. For this reason, much of this literature tends to see the Blessed Virgin Mary as the tender mother of God, an icon for women alone. Of course, Mary was a woman. She can nurture a child within the womb, give birth, and nourish the babe at her breast. Mary is the one who is tender, wanting the entire human family to enter into a relationship with her beloved son, Jesus. As we hear in the Salve Regina, Mary is the clement, devoted, and sweet mother of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Icons depict this with Mary placing her head on the infant Christ. Mary’s tenderness is not the problem. She is tender. The problem is the presumption that tenderness is a weakness rather than a strength. The problem is the assumption that tenderness is a virtue of women, not of men. This assumption makes sense in our fallen world. After all, after the fall, it is the powerful who gain strength. Politicians are not described as tender but powerful. Sports stars are icons of athletic excellence and not tender parents to children. What matters is a public persona that exudes strength rather than that most nauseating of private virtues—the tender love of a parent for a child or the tender care of a child to an aging parent. Tenderness is for the weak. At least that’s the lie that we all believe after the fall. In a world where Jesus Christ has come, the tenderness of the Blessed Virgin Mary is not a sign of weakness. It’s not even a feature of women alone. It’s a virtue meant to be shared by men and women alike. Tenderness, after all, is a habit or disposition to reach out to care for those most in need. The Word was made flesh, revealing to us that God has not been made manifest through power and prestige, but through the tender love of mother and son. Self-giving love is central to the Christian life. In this sense, men and women alike look to the Blessed Virgin Mary as an icon of tenderness. She does not seize power or ask for total control, but tenderly places her head upon her son. She reaches out, caring for the vulnerable flesh of her beloved son, Jesus. This attention to vulnerability is something that we must cultivate in young men. Too many of these young men have been formed to think that vulnerability is weakness. They take up a posture of power in high school and college, coming to define themselves as one unaffected by the plight of the vulnerable. These same men don’t recognize the gift of fatherhood, presuming falsely that “being a dad” is a sign of weakness. Both youth and young adult ministers must counteract this fallen assumption that tenderness is weakness. In the Blessed Virgin Mary we encounter a tenderness that is strength, a willingness to open one’s heart to love the beloved Son even if that love eventually leads to hold her beloved and now dead son in her arms. Ministry to young men must cease proclaiming a faux-Gospel of strength and valiant courage alone. Rather in gazing at the Blessed Virgin Mary, every man and woman alike is to take up a posture of tenderness. After all, Mary reveals the tender love of a God who has become flesh, who dwelt among us, who healed and cared for the sinners and the sick, who died on the cross, and was raised from the dead. Such tenderness is not only a nice, pleasant virtue. It’s the very pedagogy of God who loved the human family even unto the end. Download this article as a PDF here.

Monday, May 12, 2025

Devotion to Mary Is Rooted in the Bible

by Rev. Edward Looney Non-Catholics might think we have an obsession with the Blessed Mother. Some Catholics talk about Mary so much that others might think they forgot about Jesus. Devotees have pictures, statues, wear medals, and pray rosaries and chaplets in her honor. It’s no wonder that Catholics are often accused of worshipping Mary, or even worse, of Mariolatry—an extreme devotion to Mary. Many Catholics lack a proper understanding of Mary or how to articulate what we believe about her. When talking with a family member, friend, or coworker who is not Catholic about devotion to Mary, the key is scripture because we find its source there. Greeting Mary: The Hail Mary The most common prayer to the Blessed Virgin is the Hail Mary, which is recited fifty-three times in the rosary. So much repetition might seem excessive in terms of love for the Blessed Virgin. But the Hail Mary contains the words of sacred scripture. When the first half is prayed, it simply is a repetition of two greetings—from the angel Gabriel and Elizabeth—in St. Luke’s Gospel: The angel comes to Mary and says, “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you.” When Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth, the Holy Spirit prompts Elizabeth to proclaim Mary blessed among women and the fruit of her womb as blessed also. These two greetings merged in the Hail Mary and repeated by generations of believers. Each time we pray it, we tell Mary we love her as our mother and we request her continued prayers throughout life. Mary Is Our Intercessor: Queen Mother and Cana The conclusion of the Hail Mary says, “pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.” It’s an important request. We are asking the Blessed Mother to pray for us in the immediacy of the moment, whatever our concerns or worries might be, but then also to pray at the hour of our death, before we encounter Jesus, the merciful judge. This request for Mary’s prayers is also rooted in the scriptures, both in the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament presents the role of the queen mother. The queen was not the wife of the king, but rather the king’s mother. Her role was to be an advocate and intercessor for the people. The people would approach the queen mother to make their requests and then she would take them to the king for consideration. Sound familiar? It is exactly how we approach Mary. The last Sunday of Ordinary Time is celebrated as Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. If Jesus is the King, then Mary is the Queen who fulfills the role of the queen mother. Many people share their requests with her at shrines and in their daily prayers. She presents them to her Son, who listens to her. It’s similar to the wedding feast of Cana, when Mary noticed a need and brought it to Jesus’ attention. She already was interceding and asking Jesus to do something. Intercession, whether Marian or of the saints, is biblical and its’ why we ask their prayers from heaven still today. And as we’ve seen throughout history, it works! The Beginning and the End: Genesis and Revelation The bible begins and ends with Marian imagery. It is not as apparent as you might think and scholars have debated it, but what Genesis says finds fulfillment in the book of Revelation. Genesis 3:16 says that the foot of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. Mary, as the New Eve, is the woman whose foot will crush the head of the serpent. Many statues depicting Mary as Our Lady of Grace portray this spiritual reality. Her intercession has been effective against evil. In the Book of Revelation, chapter 12 recounts the battle between a woman—clothed with the sun with a crown of stars—and a dragon. The woman overcomes the attacks of the dragon. The Church has always employed a Marian interpretation into this chapter, especially since it is read on the Feast of the Assumption. What was prophesied in the beginning of the canon of scriptures finds fulfillment in the final book and continues to be fulfilled today. Devotion for Centuries: All Generations Will Call Me Blessed Perhaps the best scriptural foundation for our devotion to Mary is that Mary herself said that people for all generations would call her blessed. Why wouldn’t we want to honor the one who gave birth to the savior of the world and played such a crucial role in salvation history? Devotion to the Blessed Virgin was present early in Church history. Justin Martyr and Irenaeus wrote about Mary as the New Eve in the first century. The oldest Marian prayer is the Sub Tuum Praesidium (Beneath Thy Protection), which was found written on Egyptian papyrus from the third century. In 431, Mary’s role as the Theotokos (Mother of God; God-bearer) was defined at the Council of Ephesus. In addition, the saints have written about her for centuries. People have sung hymns about her, invoked her intercession, and visited her shrines. Truly what Mary proclaimed in her Magnificat during her visit to Elizabeth God has fulfilled, for she is blessed among all women. Indeed, the scriptures provide grounds for Catholic devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Download this article as a PDF here.