Correcting a Link and Celebrating the Mother of the Church

+JMJ+ Greetings, y’all! I just now realized that the link I had for the Divine Intimacy book (that used to be published by TAN, I thought) was for a used and new books. Ack! I wanted new for our giveaway, so I checked and found it on the Baronius site. So here is the full list below, just to make sure y’all have it in its corrected form. After that we’re going to talk about the Blessed Virgin Mary and some of her titles. It is May, after all, the month devoted to her.

First prize, choose one of these:

Boxed set of In Conversation with God,
Verbum Catholic Study Platform (a basic starter set), or
One year of Brant Pitre’s Mass Readings Explained.

Second Prize, choose one of these:

Divine Intimacy: Meditations on the Interior Life for Every Day of the Liturgical Year,
One volume, your choice, of the set of In Conversation with God,
Great Adventure Bible from Ascension Press, or
Great Adventure Catechism also from Ascension Press.

I heard from the First Prize winner, David, and ordered his book set. He chose the boxed set of In Conversation with God from Scepter Publishers.

I have the full set, too, but I got them one volume at a time so no slipcase for me. Sadface.

I haven’t heard from our Second Prize winner, Anna Mae. As soon as she lets me know which prize she wants, I’ll get hers ordered and shipped, too. Anne Mae McKnight, if you see this, check your email and sp@m folder, maybe the email I sent announcing the winners is in there. I’m excited to see what you will choose. Happyface,

The past few weeks on X (the site formerly known as Twitter) I’ve noticed so many anti-Cstholic comments. Well, that’s nothing new. Happens just about every time a Catholic psosts anything about being Catholic. But nothing brings out anti-Catholic remarks like a post about the Blessed Virgin. Something about her just sets them off. Share an image of her, or, horrors, a photo of a statue, and they come out of the woodwork. But this month is May, the month devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, so I will share something about her in this post.

One May I wrote a post a day about the Blessed Mother, only missed a few days at the beginning of the month because I didn’t get the idea until after a few days had slipped by. I’ve written about how she had a hand in getting me to pray the Rosary before I was even a Catholic, though it’s true that I had already asked my priest to give me instruction. (My priest. I’ll always think of him that way and it saddens me that he’s gone now.)

The Blessed Mother helped me in the hospital, too. Have I written about that yet? Oh, yes, I remember now, I did tell you about that. She’s helped me and loved ones out of jams so many times I can’t even remember how many. I just know that she’s been there when I’ve needed her and she always calls us to follow her Son, to obey Him, to do whatever He tells us to do.

How anyone can have a problem with the Blessed Mother of Our Lord is beyond me. But due to the sea of Protestantism and post-Protestantism that we live in here in the U.S., we have imbibed an anti-Catholicism that reaches way down deep, even if we don’t realize it. And it shows up more often when the Blessed Virgin’s name comes up than probably any other name—or item or teaching or issue—that I can think of.

I mean, even Catholics get tripped up over this. They hear Catholic teaching about the Mother of the Savior and they think some heresy has been uttered. I’ve noticed this for years. I had a friend early on who thought Catholics made too much of her. (I also had a friend who thought Martin Luther was a saint and that the Church had put a stop to indulgences long ago. But that’s a topic for another day.)

Let me say this here and now: The teachings about Mary are about her Son.

She is the Queen Mother because He is the King. If she is not the Queen Mother, then He is not the King.

She is the Ark of the New Covenant because Christ is the New Covenant and she bore Him in her womb. For nine months! (Don’t tell me that didn’t affect her in some stagering way.)

She is the Mother of the Church because Christ is the Head and we are the Body, so she is the Mother of Him and of us. He gave her to the Beloved Disciple on the Cross, and through that disciple, to all of us who are in the Church. (And think of this: He took on her flesh when she bore Him, and we receive His flesh when we receive the Eucharist.)

She is the New Eve and Mother of the Living because by her fiat (“Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done unto me according to Thy Word.” –Luke 1:38) she undid the unfaithfulness and sin of Eve and gave birth to Christ, the One Who made all things new.

Video, Interview with Steve Ray: Understanding the Biblical Truths About Mary, Quest for Faith with Bryan.

And because I love Steve Ray, here are two more videos by him about the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Video, Virgin Mary, Part 1, by Steve Ray.

Video, Virgin Mary, Part 2, by Steve Ray.

That’s it for this week. Thank you for visiting and reading. Feel free to comment or leave feedback. May we stay close to Our Mother and the Mother of Our Lord, Our Lady of Grace, Our Lady of Good Counsel, Seat of Wisdom, Tower of David, Queen of Apostles, Queen of Angels, Queen of Heaven, Queen of Peace. Virgin Most Poweful, pray for us. God bless you and may His peace be always with you. +JMJ+

“The Rosary is the ‘weapon’ for these times.” — Padre Pio

Join me on Fridays for the Rosary Project Live on X (formerly known as Twitter) at 8pm ET, 7pm CT, at the pinned thread on my profile page, to cultivate a culture of Light, Life, Love, Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, for the conversion of sinners, and for the salvation of souls. Optional Preparation thread begins at 15 minutes before. There’s also a Rosary here on the blog that you can use anytime, 24/7/365.

Notes and Links

Understanding Mary as Queen Mother, by Edward Sri.
A trilogy by Scott Hahn. The Lamb’s Supper: Hardcover (used), Paperback, Kindle. Letter and Spirit: Hardcover (used), Paperback, Kindle. Consuming the Word: Paperback, Kindle. (Amazon affiliate links, see Full Disclosure below)
Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, at Catholic Culture.
Mary: The New Eve and Our Spiritual Mother, Dr. Andrew Swofford, article at Ascension Press. Just read some of the comments on that article for some classic anti-Catholic anti-Marian fare. Thank goodness, there are only five comments or it would be harder to bear.
Video, Virgin Mary, Part 1, Part 2, by Steve Ray.

Image: Mother of Mercy, by Lippo Memmi, Chapel of the Corporal, Duomo, Orvieto, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

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