Mary Page News

January 26, 2001

Mary Page News items give insight into our interest areas, our outreach, and the myriad ways people honor Our Lady. We welcome your input and your comments.

Features Spring 2001 course schedule New Exhibit: Tatiana Romanova-Grant Mary in the Secular Press Calendar of Marian Events Prayer Corner Requests

Items Revisited Call for Papers: Marian Spirituality News Archive This week's themes: The Life of Mary Presentation of Jesus in the Temple

Features

Spring 2001 course schedule

The International Marian Research Institute is offering several seminar courses this semester with the first scheduled to start on Feb. 26, 2001. For more details click into 'Academic Program' from the far left of our home page. The course schedule for Summer 2001 may also be seen there. For additional information, please write or call Rev. Johann G. Roten, S.M., Director at the International Marian Research Institute/Marian Library, University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio 45469-1390, (937) 229-4214 or (937) 229-4258 (FAX).

We are also preparing a series of courses to grant credit through distance learning. The first course in the on-line series will be "Mary and the New Testament" with Fr. Bertrand Buby, SM as moderator. It will cover the same material as on-site course MRI611. The on-line course will also award 3 quarter hours credit and will be billed at the same rate as the on-site course. The course will be taught using Lotus Learning Space and will be accessed through the Internet. Applicants are required to use a Windows-based PC with Internet access and email capability. The course will begin on March 5, 2001 and will conclude on April 27, 2001. Weekly readings and assignments may be done anytime, but attendance at an interactive discussion forum will be required each week. These sessions will be held Tuesdays from 7:30-8:30 PM EDT (i.e. 3/6; 3/13; 3/20; 3/27; 4/3; 4/10; 4/17; and 4/24).
For additional information, please write or call Rev. Johann G. Roten, S.M., Director at the International Marian Research Institute/Marian Library, University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio 45469-1390, (937) 229-4214 or (937) 229-4258 (FAX).

New Exhibit: Tatiana Romanova-Grant

A new exhibit, From Russian with Love, features icons in the Russian written by Tatiana Romanova-Grant. Originally from Russian, she now resides in Santa Cruz, California. The exhibit, at the artist's request, shall be a tribute to her mother in gratitude for her faith.

The exhibit can be seen on-line by clicking into the Gallery section of the Mary Page and then choosing 'Current Exhibit'.

Mary in the Secular Press

Commentary on Mary in various news articles from January 3 through January 16, 2001.

The director and editors of Mary Page 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.

• Supplicants of many faiths crowd into St. Michael's Church, called "the Mahim church," every Wednesday in Bombay to attend Mass and venerate the Virgin Mary. Some offer up bright garlands of flowers, hanging them from hooks in the Hindu tradition, while others close their eyes, move their lips in prayer and cross themselves. They hope that if they come to the Mahim church for nine consecutive Wednesdays, their prayers will be answered. Thousands attend the weekly novena services, which began in 1948, after a priest from Bombay visited Ireland and saw a similar ritual taking place there, the Toronto Star reported on January 7.

  Oil has been oozing from a miniature statue of the Virgin Mary near the coastal entrance to northern Beirut, sparking a religious fervor, Agence France Presse said on January 7. The faithful have arrived en masse since January 5, when the statue started to ooze oil, traces of which are found on the edges of the Virgin's hands and on her blue cloak. A priest who requested anonymity said that some of the oil has been taken away for analysis.

• Queensland cult leader, Debra Burslem Geileskey, who founded the Magnificat Meal Movement International in 1992 after claiming to have had visions of the Virgin Mary, has started a new business enterprise. She and members of the movement are selling Herbalife products and she is promoting home loans at a low interest rate, to raise money for a $A41m [sic] basilica at her headquarters at Helidon, near Brisbane. She claims she was told that Jesus Christ would return to Earth if the basilica were built. Parish priest Father John Ryan believes the ventures will finally expose the cult as a money-making operation. Reported by Australian General News and Australasian Business Intelligence on January 12.

• Two years ago a statue of the Virgin Mary in a cave in Ienne, near Rome, started to cry blood. The statue was taken away to be investigated by the police, the Derby Evening Telegraph said on January 3. The article went on to report other occurrences of bleeding statues:

  In 1987, a statue of Jesus Christ in Parma, Italy, was reported to have bled regularly from its wooden heart but a hematologist later identified the liquid as fresh human blood;

  A bleeding statue in Benin, Africa, in 1987 led journalist Vincent Metonnou to speculate that statues were bleeding because of "Man's villainy;"

  In Ireland in 1994, 3,000 visitors in three weeks flocked to the village of Grangecon, County Wicklow, to see Mary Murray's statue of the Madonna, which shed tears of blood and water. The statue continues to draw visitors;

  In 1995 statues of the Hindu god Lord Ganesha hit the headlines when they started sipping milk. The so-called Milk Miracle started in New Delhi, India.

• Two children were missing January 5 when a motorboat, carrying an image of the Virgin Mary, capsized in the southern city of Butuan in the Philippines, the local television station reported, according to Agence France Press on that date. The boat was taking part in a religious river parade and was overloaded with people as it traveled down the Agusan river. It overturned as it was about to dock.

• A message of prophecy sent to The Accra Mail was presented in full due to its "public interest value," Africa News reported on January 4. The 1481 word message is written "In the name of God...to the people of the kingdom of the New Israel" and states that God "has assigned the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ the great task to defend women throughout the world with special reference to the women in this country." Reference to the Holy Qu'ran and numerical calculations are given to support the connection between the murder of 31 women in the Accra metropolis during the past two years and other events, including several minor earth tremors.

• The following was reported by L'Osservatore Romano on January 3:

  "Faith leads the Most Holy Virgin to take unknown and unforeseeable paths, while she continues to keep everything in her heart, that is, in the depths of her spirit," Pope John Paul II said in his homily on January 1, Feast of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God and the 34th World Day of Peace. "Help us too, O Mary, always to rethink our lives with a spirit of faith. Help us to safeguard places for silence and contemplation in the frenzy of our lives. Orient us constantly to the needs of true peace, a gift of the Nativity of Christ," the Holy Father continued.

  2001, the 750th anniversary of the presentation of the scapular by the Virgin Mary to St. Simon Stock, an English Carmelite who was Prior General of the Order in the 13th century, has been proclaimed a Marian Year by Father Joseph Chalmers, the Carmelite Prior General. L'Osservatore Romano said that various celebrations will take place throughout Italy and in the different countries where there is a devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

  "May the example of the shepherd children of Fatima, Francesco and Giacinta [sic], whom this very year I had the joy of beatifying, show once again that children have a special bond with the Virgin Mary. With her help, they can reach the peaks of holiness," the Pope told members of Catholic Action Youth (ACR) when he met with them on December 21. "For my part, I accompany you with prayer so that, like Jesus, you may grow in wisdom and grace, before God and men. This will happen if you always love Our Lady and let her guide you."

Call for Papers: Marian Spirituality

The Mariological Society of American issues a "Call-for-Papers." The conferences will be delivered at the Society's annual meeting, May, 2001, and printed in Marian Studies, 2001 (vol. 52). The Society is undertaking a three-year program on Marian Spirituality the witness and experience of the Marian influence in the life of the Church, of religious movements, and of individuals.

The first year's program (2001) will deal with Marian Spirituality, especially the concept of mediation, during the patristic and early medieval periods. Papers are requested on the Scriptural and doctrinal foundations of Marian spirituality, and on witness of early Eastern and Western writers (e.g., Augustine, Ildephonse of Toledo, Severus of Antioch, John Damascene, Germanus of Constantinople, the monastic writers) and the hymns and prayers of the period.

A precis should be submitted by January 31, 2001. For more information, contact Fr. Thomas A. Thompson, S.M., The Marian Library/IMRI, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH 45469-1390. (FAX 937- 229-4258; Tel: 937-229-4214.)

Marian Themes

The Mary Page theme for this news brief about the Blessed Mother is culled from magisterial documents since Vatican II. The quote below is taken from Redemptoris Mater:

A just and God-fearing man, called Simeon, appears at this beginning of Mary's "journey" of faith. His words, suggested by the Holy Spirit (cf. Lk. 2:25-27), confirm the truth of the Annunciation. Simeon's words cast new light on the announcement which Mary had heard from the angel: Jesus is the Savior, he is "a light for revelation" to mankind. ... Simeon's words seem like a second Annunciation to Mary, for they tell her of the actual historical situation in which the Son is to accomplish his mission, namely, in misunderstanding and sorrow. ... confirms her faith in the accomplishment of the divine promises of salvation,... also reveals to her that she will have to live her obedience of faith in suffering, at the side of the suffering Savior, and that her motherhood will be mysterious and sorrowful. (#16 )

Prayer Corner Requests

You are invited to help us pray for our prayer corner intentions.

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