Through a grouping of his art pieces, at The Marian Library Gallery (7th floor Roesch Library), Michael leads visitors in a series of sculptural meditations for a walk in Mary's footsteps as she journeys with Jesus, her son, throughout major events of his life.
Special Hours for U.D.'s Parents Weekend
In addition to our regular hours of 8:30 am - 4:30 pm on weekdays, during Parents Weekend at the University of Dayton (October 12-14, 2001) the Marian Library will also be open:
Friday, October 12: 7:00 pm -10:00 pm
Saturday, October 13: 10:00 am - 3:00 pm
Sunday, October 14: 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
For more information, click into Parents Weekend.
Schedule of IMRI Courses for the Fall Semester
The International Marian Research Institute will be offering a selection of seminar courses in Theology on the University Dayton campus during the Fall 2001 Semester. For more details, click into Current Courses.
Congratulations to the Mary Page!
We just learned that our Mary Page web site was featured in St. Anthony Messenger magazine's "Web Catholic" column, in both the print and the online editions. St. Anthony Messenger, of course, is the national Catholic family magazine that has been in print since 1893 (340,000 subscribers) and on the Web since 1996. It's a ministry of the Franciscans. The column is a one-year effort to highlight trends on the Internet for Catholics and to show them exemplary sites. Mary Page was featured in the May, 2001 edition of the magazine and at the on-line link below:
http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/May2001/Web_Catholic.asp
Last Week for Current Exhibit: Michael Montag
A new exhibit, A Journey with Mary, featuring 21 sculpture pieces by Michael Montag, will be on display through October 5, 2001. These works can be seen in our Marian Library Gallery Monday through Friday from 8:30 am - 4:30 pm or online by clicking into Current Exhibit from our Gallery section.
Personal thoughts and reflections about Mary from our readers
We've added a section to our Research and Publications section showing selected personal comments from our readers about the Virgin Mary. Click here to see comments received within the past month. From this page, feel free to submit your own personal thoughts on Mary.
This section lists all of the current Marian Events by geographical position.
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.
Commentary on Mary in various news articles from August 15 - September 19.
- Christians around the world prayed at Sunday services for those killed in the attacks on the United States, with religious leaders from Lebanon to Australia offering words of sympathy, the Bergen County, NJ, Record wrote on September 17. Pope John Paul II said he was “heartbroken” and called for the Virgin Mary to bring comfort and hope to the victims’ families. “Mary welcomes the dead, consoles the survivors, supports those families who are particularly tried, and helps all to resist the temptation of hate and violence and to commit themselves to the service of justice and peace,” the Pope said. Also reported by the Chattanooga Times/Chattanooga Free Press. The Pope’s remarks reported also by The Mirror, Global News Wire and AP Worldstream.
- A battered painting that sat in the loft of a barn behind a southwestern Nova Scotia church for a century has parishioners eager to unlock the mystery of how it came to Canada. The cracked and grimy oil painting shows an angel telling the Virgin Mary about the impending birth of Christ. The artwork survived a 1900 fire that destroyed the church at Ste. Anne du Ruisseau in Yarmouth County and was left forgotten in a rectory outbuilding after the church was rebuilt. Discovered by Christine Pothier, tourism coordinator for the church, the painting is unsigned. A Nova Scotia artist and restoration expert who examined the canvas said the painting is French and appears to be about 300 years old. Pothier plans to send photos of the painting to the Louvre in Paris and the National Gallery in Ottawa to see if experts can identify the artist. Reported by the Calgary Herald, Montreal Gazette and Ottawa Citizen, September 10.
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Viewers describe a controversial sculpture of the Virgin Mary unveiled last November by the Prince of Wales as looking like television’s Charlie Dimmock in a wet T-shirt, the London Times said on September 11. One worshipper refers to it as “The Virgin of the Wet T-Shirt.” The Very Rev. Michael Higgins, dean of Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire where the sculpture “takes pride of place in the Lady Chapel,” defends the sculpture, which features the Virgin Mary with long, blond, tousles hair and ample breasts. “It is a work of art and art is supposed to be something people can talk about and pass comment on,” he said. Also reported by The Mirror on September 11.
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Miraculous, a work-in-progress of Access Arts, a Brisbane theatre group that showcases the talents of people with disabilities, is a series of images that run parallel to the legend of the appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917. Director Marcus Hughes said the images explore ways in which people believe in events, objects and experiences that have significance in their lives, or give their lives significance. He sees a connection between the tale of Fatima, “a delightful and yet terrifying representation of pure innocence,” and the work of Access Arts. Reported August 19 by the Sunday Mail (SA) and August 24 by the Courier Mail.
- The Vatican and Canada’s Catholic bishops say a
heretical movement based in Quebec is dividing the church, and they are
urging its adherents to quit, the Montreal Gazette and Ottawa Citizen said
on August 28. The Army of Mary, described as a “rare home-grown Canadian
heresy,” has divided the bishops, with two of Canada’s 93 active bishops
voting against condemnation of the movement in a secret ballot. Marie-Paule
Giguere, now 80, founded the group in 1971. She later claimed to have been
the historical mother of Jesus as well as co-eternal with God.
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Hundreds of people have been coming to the grotto behind St.
Mary’s of the Lake Catholic Church in Skaneateles, NY, the past few Wednesdays
to hear what the Virgin Mary tells Mary Reilly, owner of a local gift shop, the
New York Times said on August 26. Reilly stands transfixed, arching her back and
trembling, apparently in ecstasy, before a statue of the Virgin. Minutes later,
her spiritual director reports what she says she heard: brief expressions of
love and hope from the mother of Christ. Some residents are wondering if this
summer’s phenomenon will transform the quaint Finger Lakes village into a
world-class destination for religious pilgrims. The pastor neither attends nor
dismisses the grotto meetings. “It’s a very quiet, reverent group, and as
long as it stays that way, it’s a wonderful thing,” he said.
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Matters of religion are going to be part of what candidates
deal with if elected and their religious sensibilities are part of how they are
being judged, New York Newsday’s Queens edition said on August 23, in an
article detailing some of the religious views of the mayoral candidates. Council
Speaker and mayoral candidate Peter Vallone, who has pointed out “Our Lady of
the Panel” in the main council chamber to fellow church-goers, says he
doesn’t think it’s a miracle but “it’s spiritually comforting to me.”
He said some Catholics, gazing at the panel’s peculiar grain in a certain
light, have detected a shrouded figure of a woman not unlike that of the Virgin
Mary.
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Five years after Father Andrew Notere revealed that an image
of the Virgin May with the child Christ had appeared on a wall above the altar
at Christ Church, he and his parishioners celebrated the fifth anniversary of
the establishment of the Shrine to Our Lady at the church, the Sunday Mail (SA)
wrote on August 19. Some who come to the church in the South Coast town have
seen visions and many have found images of Mary and Christ in photographs taken
in the church. Father Notere’s belief that the church is a place of miracles
has gained some acceptance by church authorities, in particular Bishop Graham
Walden, who has lent his support. A celebration of the fifth anniversary of the
shrine, attended by the bishop and other priests from the diocese, included the
official opening of a new Retreat Centre on the church grounds.
- Montreal’s Greek community celebrated its tenth
annual Hellenic festival August 15 with a party in honor of the Virgin Mary,
the Montreal Gazette said on August 16. Devotees of all ages leaned over to
kiss an icon of the Virgin Mary in Montreal’s oldest Greek Orthodox
church, boys and girls tosses tennis balls for stuffed animals and local
talent played Greek folklore and even Greek disco.
- A story in the August 27 issue of The Hindu, recapturing the spirit of Luz as it was 35 years ago, tells how the area got its name. Portuguese Franciscan missionaries sailing from Goa encountered a severe cyclonic storm for which the Coromandel coast was notorious. As the missionaries prayed to the Virgin Mary to save them, one of them spotted a welcome ray of light. Rejoicing, they called the area in which they made a safe landing “Luz,” which meant “light” in their native tongue. The Luz church, tucked away in a side road, was constructed in 1516 to commemorate the event.
- Little Italy’s Feast of the Assumption was once a quaint, one-day religious festival filled with traditions from the Old Country, the Cleveland Scene (New Times, Inc.) reported on August 16. Now in its 103rd year, the Feast remains a celebration of Mary’s assumption into heaven, but has grown in secular significance. A three-day festival draws 80,000 persons each year, non-Catholic as well as Catholic, to carnival rides, gambling booths and an outdoor discotheque. Father Philip Racco, pastor of Our Lady of Holy Rosary Church, is credited with preserving the Feast’s religious integrity while opening the festivities to broader interpretation. “Now, people understand it as a feast to celebrate the goodness of life: to eat, to dance; the music, the food, and the ethnic identity.” he said.
- Rev. Randy Roux blessed the herb garden and students from the Ursuline Academy crowned the statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor at the Old Ursuline Convent in the Vieux Carre on the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the New Orleans Times-Picayune said on August 17. The annual event also commemorates the arrival of the Ursuline nuns in New Orleans on August 17, 1727 and the contributions of Sister Frances Xavier Hebert, considered the first woman pharmacist in the New World. She provided medicines, products of her herb garden, for the royal hospital nearby and for military use until the Civil War.
- Vandals sheared the head off of the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes and severed her praying hands in an attack at the grotto at Star of the Sea Church, the NorfolkVirginian-Pilot said on August 15 and16. The 500 pound statue had been knocked off her pedestal and was found lying in the stone grotto a few days earlier. Church leaders had agreed that the grotto should remain accessible to the public at all times when the decision was reluctantly made to lock the church doors at night and barricade the parking lot from encroaching Oceanfront nightlife.
XIIIth International Mariological Symposium
The Pontifical Theological Faculty "Marianum" will host the XIIIth International Mariological Symposium in Rome on October 2-5, 2001. The topic will be "Contemporary Hermeneutics and Biblical Mariological Texts: Verification and Proposals." For more information email the Secretarial office of the Marianum at: marianum@marianum.it
Pope Appeals to Americans Not to Give In to Hatred
Date: 2001-09-16
There Must Be a Just Response to Attacks, He Says
At the end of the Mass, John Paul II prayed to the Virgin Mary: "May the Virgin bring comfort and hope to all who suffer because of the tragic terrorist attack, which in the past days has profoundly wounded the beloved American people."
"I now also direct my thoughts of sorrow and sympathy to all the sons of that great nation," the Holy Father added. "May Mary welcome the deceased, console the survivors, sustain the families that are particularly tried."
The Bishop of Rome prayed so that Americans will "not give in to the temptation of hatred and violence, but be committed to the service of justice and peace."
Shortly after the attacks Sept. 11, the Pope sent a telegram of condolence to U.S. President George W. Bush. The following day he dedicated the general audience to pray for the victims, their families and rescue workers, and the country´s government leaders. On Friday, he interrupted his audiences, to withdraw in prayer.
From L’Osservatore Romano August 29 and September 5
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Before praying the Sunday Angelus on September 2, the
Holy Father gave a commentary on modern life and warned against the focus in
daily life on getting ahead through cunning and lack of scruples. He said
the "Kingdom of God is prepared effectively by people who do their work
seriously and honestly, not aspiring to things that are too high, but
turning to those that are lowly in daily faithfulness. To carry out his
universal plan of salvation, God ‘looked upon his handmaid in her
lowliness,’ the Blessed Virgin Mary." The Pope asked that we
"confidently invoke her, so that every activity, professional or in the
home, may be done in an atmosphere of genuine humanity."
-
During the General Audience on August 29, Pope John Paul
II commented on the Canticle of Judith used in the Liturgy of the Hours for
Lauds. He said the person of Judith will become the archetype for
emphasizing God’s preference for what is fragile and weak, but chosen to
manifest divine power. The Christian tradition sees in the Jewish heroine a
prefiguration of Mary and the words of Judith echo when Mary sings in the
Magnificat: "He has put down the mighty from their thrones and raised
up the humble."
-
On August 25 the Pope celebrated Mass in honor of Our
Lady of Czestochowa and introduced the Mass of Our Lady with a special
commemoration of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, whose centenary of his birth is
being celebrated this year in Poland. "My thought goes to Jasna Gora,
where for centuries the Black Madonna is venerated as the Mother and Queen
of the Polish people. Again I entrust to her protection our country and all
its citizens," he said.
-
On August 20, for the General Chapter of the Congregation
of the Franciscan Sisters of St. Anthony, the Holy Father sent a Message to
Mother Maria Goretti Manzo, Superior General of the Congregation, founded
100 years ago by Mother Miradio Bonifacio. The Pope invited the religious to
make the most of this special moment to strengthen their adherence to their
charism: "You were founded to serve the poor and the needy." He
asked them to "Look to the Immaculate Virgin Mary, to whom I entrust
anew your religious family and its goals" and said, "May Mary, to
whom your foundress turned with humble, filial devotion, support your
apostolate with her powerful intercession."
- Pope John Paul II on August 13 sent a message to the young people gathered at Czestochowa to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the sixth World Youth Day held there. He repeated his message of August 1991 in a threefold slogan: I am, I remember, I keep watch. He said, "I keep watch expresses the mother’s attitude. Her life and her vocation are expressed in being watchful. She keeps watch over men and women from the first moments of their existence." This is why, in addition to the Cross and the Bible, the young people in 1991 set up another eloquent symbol, the icon of the Mother of God, to represent this special maternal watchfulness, the Pope said. "They wanted the image of the watchful Mother to be deeply engraved in their minds and hearts, and to form their lives...May this look remain in your souls. May it always teach you what ‘I keep watch’ means," he said.
We've added answers to two new questions submitted by readers.
- What do The Simpsons say about Mary?
- Can you tell me more about the image of Mary known as "La Brune"?
A new section on international stamps with images of Mary has been added to our Resources section. The latest added is Bolivia. Expect more countries to follow.
Please check out our updated page of The Hail Mary in Various Languages.
We have also added book reviews for the following Marian texts:
El Secreto de sus Ojos: Estudio de los ojos de la Virgen de Guadalupe (1999) by José Aste Tönnsmann.
Empress and Handmaid: On Nature and Gender in the Cult of the Virgin Mary (2000) by Sarah Jane Boss.
The Vision of the Beloved Disciple: Meeting Jesus in the Gospel of John (2000) by George T. Montague, S.M.
A multimedia presentation on Marian National Patronages has been added to our Resources section under Marian Shrines. This page uses Flash and requires Shockwave software to run. If you don't already have Shockwave, our page will guide you to download it for free or to simply display an HTML version. Please let us know what you think of this format. Expect more multimedia presentations in the future!
We've posted memorials to three long-time faculty members who died recently:
The graphic at the top left of our home page now randomly displays flowers named after the Virgin Mary. Click on the flower to enlarge the image and display information about it.
Documents, Pronouncements (Magisterial, doctrinal)
Address to Women Religious
Address of Pope John Paul II at Turin,
September 4,1988
"May the Mother of the Church be an inspiration for the discovery of a new
feminine identity.
http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~newman/women-cp/new.html
[Internet source: California Institute of Technology]
Marian Themes in Magisterial Documents
The Life of Mary: Calvary
In conjunction with the Commemoration of Our Lady of
Sorrows (September 15), please note these Post-Vatican II Magisterial Documents
concerning the theme, Mary's Life, Calvary. These teachings of the Catholic
Church may prove useful to include in talks, homilies or for research. ...
http://www.udayton.edu/mary/resources/documents/docs6-2k.html
This section contains excerpts from past editions of the Mary Page news.
Our Mary Page web site is updated frequently. Please stop in again and see what's new.
You are invited to help us pray for our Prayer Corner intentions. Please take a look! This site has been updated and enhanced and now allows users to directly submit prayer requests or to volunteer as a prayer partner for these intentions!
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