Blogs
In the News: January 12, 2016
By Michael Duricy
Read recent items about Mary in both Catholic and secular news. Also see International Marian Research Institute news and updates.
Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute Features
Updates
Father Javier Alson, S.M.C. sent us the following information in a recent email. We congratulate the Asociación de Fieles al Servicio de María Corredentora, Reina de la Paz on this important anniversary and ask you to join with us in prayer for the success of this ministry.
"Estimados amigos les estamos enviando la dirección internet del video que hicimos para los 30 años de nuestra obra.
Mary in Media: Books, Films, Music, etc.
Full of Grace: The Story of Mary, the Mother of Jesus is now available on DVD in stores nationwide! Full of Grace is now available nationwide in Walmart, Target, and other retail stores. If you prefer, you can also order online from Amazon. The Marian Library has ordered a copy for our holdings.
From the Marian Treasure Chest
Brother John M. Samaha, S.M., sent us the article below along with the following comments: "Chaminade Day is coming soon. Blessings, John"
The Challenge to Evangelize: Called to Work with Mary by Brother John M. Samaha, S.M.
Our baptismal promise and confirmation pledge oblige us to become evangelizers in our own circumstances. The sacraments of initiation compel us to bring Christ to all people. These sacraments commission us for apostolic service, for collaboration with the Mother of the Lord to complete the Whole Christ.
The Chaminade doctrine of Mary's Apostolic Mission and our participation with Mary to bring Jesus to all people was clearly researched and organized theologically and popularized in print and preaching by Father Emile Neubert, S.M., in the twentieth century. This is our Christian heritage. This is the challenge we are called to live and to propagate.
We are called to participate in the state and mystery of Jesus, Son of Mary; in the mission of applying the merits of the Redemption; in Mary's maternal responsibility to apply those merits to all humankind.
Historical Context
Blessed William Joseph Chaminade in post-revolutionary France was the only noteworthy Mariologist of the first half of the nineteenth century. Considering the tenor of those times, his contribution to Marian theology is remarkable. Commenting on those times, Monsignor George Shea observed that the deviations of Jansenism and related controversies motivated the orthodox theologians of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to nourish Marian piety. This they accomplished by broadening and deepening the doctrinal bases of Mary's mediational role, a crucial issue in the Jansenist heresy.
Monsignor Shea noted that, if we assign John Henry Newman to the latter half of the nineteenth century, Chaminade is the only Mariologist worthy of note in the preceding fifty years.
Chaminade's Approach
Chaminade based his doctrine of Mary's Apostolic Mission on the foundational doctrines of the Mystical Body of Christ, and of Mary's Spiritual Maternity, Coredemption, and distribution of all graces.
In his own words: "Christ has ordained all concerns of religion that Mary participated and cooperated in all of them. We do not go to Mary as our God, but we go to God through Mary, as faith tells us. He came to us through her."
Keystone of the Marianist Charism
Blessed Father Chaminade's teaching about Mary's Apostolic Mission is clear and straightforward. He presents nothing new and radically different, except for his clarity and amplification, from what was held by the early Fathers of the Church. But his originality and development are manifested in the consequences he draws from the doctrine of Mary's Spiritual Maternity regarding her present role in the world. He clearly establishes Mary's Apostolic Mission as a corollary of her Spiritual Maternity.
In union with her Son, Mary collaborates on Calvary in redeeming all in principle. To be the true Associate of the Redeemer she must yet apply to each of us the fruits of the Redemption in fact. Acknowledging this notion, we realize it is theologically certain. Mary's Apostolic Mission is a particular, essential, and integral aspect of her social functions as Spiritual Mother and Associate of the Redeemer.
This doctrine is the keystone of the Marianist charism. While Chaminade's inspiration is addressed to those who follow the Marianist vocation to assist Mary in her Apostolic Mission, the message certainly applies to the whole of Christianity. The social orientation of his teaching--his Mystical Body framework and social consciousness--focuses on the Church at large and on all society.
These words of Chaminade taken from Our Knowledge of Mary summarize the charism bequeathed to his Marianist Family and to the Church.
"We have seen Mary making use of all the rights of a Mother in regard to her Son, Who is our God, and sharing, if we may be permitted to say so, with the Eternal Father parental claims over the Uncreated Word. We have seen her, the New Eve, fulfilling in behalf of the human race the functions of a Spiritual Maternity, engendering in it a new life for heaven lost through the sin of Adam. We have seen her sacrificing on Calvary the only Son of her fruitful virginity. We have seen her at the foot of the Cross, stronger than death, associated with her Divine Son, as she had been associated in all the mysteries of His life. We have seen her from that very hour watching over all Christians, her children, with the most tender solicitude, fulfilling in their behalf the sublime duties of a Mother."
Our Knowledge of Mary further records Chaminade's thought on the Apostolic Mission of the New Eve.
Mary's exalted mission does not end on Calvary. ... Is she not the New Eve, and as such, necessary to her children? ... Her maternal solicitude must extend over the Church to edify and to instruct the faithful, and to guide them aright along the rugged roads of a pagan world.
Nor does the sublime mission of Mary end with her entrance into glory. Even in heaven she continues to cooperate in the work of regeneration, for all things are done through Mary, and every good gift comes to us through her. Jesus proves to us this fact that His Mother is the New Eve, as truly as He is the New Adam.
On this point the doctrine of the Church leaves no doubt. We have her testimony in the words of her accepted oracles.
In reality this is the practical meaning of our baptismal call and confirmation pledge to evangelization, to put the Good News into action.
Neubert's Integration and Synthesis of Chaminade's Mariology
Recent writings of theologians and popes have stressed the universal role of Mary. Outstanding among those writers and preachers is Father Emile Neubert, S.M.
An increasing awareness of the universality of Mary's relation to all persons and to the apostolate of the Church is plainly evident in the teaching of the ordinary magisterium.
Although Mary's Apostolic Mission has not been explicitly and officially defined, it has clearly been stressed in recent teaching and papal pronouncements on Mary's Spiritual Motherhood, Coredemption, distribution of grace, and Queenship. It is contained and implied in these other Marian doctrines.
Chaminade taught explicitly the apostolic role of Mary and our obligation to participate in it. Neubert and other Marianist writers have expanded and integrated this teaching. They made it clear that Mary's maternal responsibility is a continuous mission and not a single act which ended on Calvary. The apostolic responsibility of her Spiritual Maternity is part of her vocation--and ours.
The social and apostolic dimensions of Marian doctrine and devotion continue to unfold. The dynamic relations of Mary to us are both personal and communitarian. She concerns herself with the welfare of individuals and also of social institutions, with the entire Mystical Body of Christ--laity, religious, and clergy. More plainly this understanding is coming to the fore.
In pulling together Father Chaminade's position and couching it in precise theological terms, Father Neubert formulated this cogent conclusion, identifying Mary's Apostolic Mission. In La Mission Apostolique de Marie et la Notre he explains:
"These comparisons between Mary's Apostolic Mission and her role of Mother, Coredemptrix, and Distributor of all graces permit us to affirm that this Mission is revealed. It does not follow as a simple logical consequence of these three functions of Mary which are revealed, but as a particular aspect, as an integral part of them, to the point of being identified with them. Under another name it is simply her role of Coredemptrix and above all of Mother and Distributor of graces. It shares, consequently, in the certitude of these three functions, and we can say that it is revealed as truly as these three are, even if Tradition had never spoken explicitly of an Apostolic Mission of Mary. Provided the idea has been revealed, the name need not be."
Marian Events
Come join us on Saturday, January 16, 2016 for the 32nd Annual Pro Life Rosary Procession and Rally in reparation for 43 years of legalized abortion. The Rosary Procession will start from Cincinnati City Hall on 801 Plum Street at 11 a.m. The Rally will be held at Fountain Square in Cincinnati, Ohio around Noon. For details click into www.CincinnatiProLife.org.
Mary in the Catholic Press
Will the Christians of Iraq One Day Be Able to Live the Joy of Christmas? from Zenit (Iraq) December 28, 2015
The feast of the birth of Christ--bearer of justice and peace--building love among people, is one of the greatest feasts celebrated by millions of Christians around the world and particularly in Iraq. A true feast is always an occasion to remember an exceptional person or event, bearers of joy and hope. Such a feast strengthens us in our daily life. But this year Iraqi Christians will celebrate Christmas in deplorable circumstances, on the one hand because of the deteriorating condition of the situation of our country at all levels, and, on the other hand, because of what they have gone through as Christians, victims of segregation and exclusion....
Unfortunately, this brotherhood has only been slipping away. Recently, Christians found themselves directly threatened. In Baghdad, on December 13, certain individuals, likely Shiite militia, pasted images of the Virgin Mary on the homes of Christian families. These posters carry a message inviting Christian women to imitate the Holy Virgin and to wear veils. These posters are an assault on the liberty of Christians to dress themselves as they see fit. The Very Holy Virgin Mary lived 2000 years ago in a different culture and society--and the true veil is the veil of the spirit and of morality.
On this occasion, we want to be very frank again: we will not give in to injustice. On the contrary, we will remain attached to our land, and to our patriotism and we will continue to show love for our fellow citizens, simply because they are our brothers and sisters.
In Iraq, we will celebrate the birth of Christ, who will come into our hearts in silence and amidst tears, without public displays or festive gatherings; nonetheless, we continue to enjoy an inner peace with perpetuates the joy of faith, and the hope that, despite all the suffering, we are moving toward the building of a more just country and a better future....
Click here to read the complete article.
Mary in the Secular Press
The director and editors of All About Mary under the auspices of the International Marian Research Institute do not necessarily endorse or agree with the events and ideas expressed in this feature. Our sole purpose is to report on items about Mary gleaned from a myriad of papers representing the secular press.
Dwelling with Love Incarnate (Notre Dame Center for Liturgy, Institute for Church Life Blog) December 17, 2015
In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.
...
For the family to gaze with love upon the crèche, to contemplate the wonderful mystery taking place, and to pledge to become this mystery for the world: in this way, even now, the possibility of a new day, a new world of love can come into being. For when we dwell with love incarnate, we may find (perhaps even against our wills) that we become this love that we abide with: "Jesus, immortal boy, let this your birth give/to us peace and joy."” (Adam of St. Victor 5.11)
Click here to read the complete article.
N.B. This second of two posts is part of a lecture given to inaugurate Notre Dame's Institute for Church Life's 2nd annual International Crèche Pilgrimage, Dwelling with Love Incarnate. Click here for a related short video clip on YouTube.