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5/23/06

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

 

Liturgical Season

To celebrate the month of May with Mary:

Marian Commemoration Days

Mary Page offers a variety of resources inviting study, reflection and meditation.  We also list important Marian dates for each month of the year.  Please see Marian Commemoration Days for the month of May.

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New Resources

A section on international stamps with images of Mary has been added to our About Mary page.  The latest addition was Bavaria.  Expect more countries to follow.

We have updated our material on Mary, Beloved of the Trinity.

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  News from the Marian Library

Alumni Update

Father Frank Leo, Jr., has been chosen to serve the Church in the Vatican Diplomatic Service.  In September 2006 he will begin a two year formation and study period at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in Rome as well as studies in canon law at the Gregorian University.  Following this diplomatic training, he will officially enroll in the Vatican Corps of Diplomats serving in either the Secretariat of State or in any number of apostolic nunciatures in the world.

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Current Exhibit

"Madonnas of the Morning Calm," an exhibit of thirty sacred images by Korean artist, O-Sek Bang, will run from May 15 through September 15 at the Marian Library Gallery on the seventh floor of Roesch Library.  The exhibit is free and open to the public weekdays from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm.  To view the display outside of normal operating hours, call 937-229-4254.  Click here for a virtual exhibit.

Creches are also on display in our museum.  Patrons with RealPlayer may also view a streaming video showing the sets which were on display during the 2005 Christmas season.

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Additional Web Addresses for The Mary Page

In order to make our web site more accessible, The Mary Page may now be reached at the following URLs: lapagedemarie.org; lapaginademaria.org; marypage.org; themarypage.org; marypage.udayton.edu; and themarypage.net.  The original address on the University of Dayton site, www.udayton.edu/mary, remains active as well.

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Web Collaborators

Two important Catholic websites have added The Mary Page to their list of Media Partners.  CatholicWeb.com highlights items from The Mary Page in their section on Catholic News.  Catholic.net includes a Mary Channel on their navbar with Mary Page articles. Please visit these sites in return.  We expect continued collaboration with them in the future.

Also, the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI) has added the Gallery section of The Mary Page to the Exhibits section of their on-line museum, the Plethoreum.

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International Marian Research Institute Course Schedule

IMRI courses for the Summer 2006 semester will commence on June 19.  The course schedule for the Summer semester is now available.

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Tenth Annual Crisis Pregnancy Center Benefit Banquet
Wednesday, May 24, 2006 at 6:30 pm

Location:

Salvatore's Italian Gardens
6461 Transit Road
Depew, New York

Program:

Keynote speaker will be Dr. Paul C. Schenck, Pastoral Associate with Priests for Life, and Founder of the National Pro-Life Action Center in Washington, DC.

Promoted by the Arch of Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  For more information call Doris Martin at (716) 631-5661.

Click this link for a list of all of the current Marian Events by geographical position.

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Prayer Corner Requests

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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Catholics from Moscow to go to Poland for common prayer with Benedict XVI
Moscow, May 18, 2006

A group of Russian Catholics, parishioners of the Moscow cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is going to Warsaw next week for common prayer with Pope Benedict XVI.

Vicar of the cathedral Fr. Zbigniew Bartoshewski told Interfax on Thursday that 15 parishioners were planning to go. Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz will lead the pilgrims' group.

The pilgrims from Moscow would attend the morning mass in Warsaw on May 26 lead by Benedict XVI and after that tour Chenstohov, Krakow and Wadowice, where the late Pope John Paul II was born.

The pilgrimage will last from May 24 to 31.

Fr. Zbigniew said he had no information about a possible audience of the Russian pilgrims with Benedict XVI in Warsaw.

Members of the catholic communities from other Russian cities, form instance from Orel, are also planning to visit Poland while the Pope is there.

Prayers for Polish Trip, Rosary in Month of the Virgin Mary
Vatican City, May 17, 2006

During the general audience, held in St. Peter's Square, the Pope addressed the young people and the sick, calling on them "to intensify the devout practice of praying the Rosary, especially in this month of May, dedicated to the Mother of God," entrusting to her "all your needs." He also called on recently married couples to "make the praying of the Rosary in the family a moment of spiritual growth under the maternal gaze of the Virgin Mary."

Pope's Address at Shrine of Our Lady of Divine Love
Rome, May 15, 2006

Here is a Vatican translation of the address Benedict XVI gave during his May 1 visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of Divine Love, on the outskirts of Rome. The Pope gave it at the conclusion of the recitation of the rosary.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

It is a comfort to be with you today to recite the holy rosary at this Shrine of Our Lady of Divine Love, where the faithful express the devout affection for the Virgin Mary that is rooted in the soul and history of the Roman people.

Special joy springs from the thought of thus renewing the experience of my beloved predecessor John Paul II, who, on the first day of the month of May in 1979, exactly 27 years ago, made his first visit to this shrine as Pontiff.

I greet with affection the rector, Monsignor Pasquale Silla, and thank him for his cordial address. With him, I greet the other priests, Oblate Sons of Our Lady of Divine Love, and the sisters, Daughters of Our Lady of Divine Love, who are joyfully and generously devoted to serving in the shrine and the whole range of its different good works. I greet the vicar, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, and the auxiliary bishop of the Southern Sector of Rome, Bishop Paolo Schiavon, and all of you, dear brothers and sisters, who are here in large numbers.

We have recited the holy rosary going through the five joyful mysteries, which portray to the eyes of the heart the beginnings of our salvation, from Jesus' conception in the Virgin Mary's womb, brought about by the Holy Spirit, until he was found in the temple of Jerusalem when he was 12 years old, listening to the teachers and asking them questions.

We have repeated and made our own the Angel's words: "Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you!" and also the words with which St. Elizabeth welcomed the Virgin who went with haste to help and serve her: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!"

We have contemplated the docile faith of Mary, who trusted in God without reserve and put herself entirely in his hands. Like the shepherds, we too have felt close to the Child Jesus lying in the manger and recognized and adored him as the eternal Son of God who, through love, became our brother, hence, our one Savior.

We too entered the temple with Mary and Joseph, to offer the Child to God and to carry out the rite of purification: And here, together with salvation, we felt ourselves anticipating, in the words of the elderly Simeon, the contradictory sign of the cross, and of the sword that beneath the cross of the Son was to pierce the Mother's soul, thereby making her not only the Mother of God but also Mother of us all.

Dear brothers and sisters, in this shrine we venerate Mary Most Holy with the title "Our Lady of Divine Love."

Thus, full light is shed on the bond that united Mary with the Holy Spirit from the very beginning of her existence when, as she was being conceived, the Spirit, the eternal Love of the Father and of the Son, made their dwelling within her and preserved her from any shadow of sin; then again, when the same Spirit brought the Son of God into being in her womb; and yet again when, with the grace of the Spirit, Mary's own words were fulfilled through the whole span of her life: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord"; and lastly, when, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Mary was taken up physically to be beside the Son in the glory of God the Father.

"Mary," I wrote in the encyclical "Deus Caritas Est," "is a woman who loves.... As a believer who in faith thinks with God's thoughts and wills with God's will, she cannot fail to be a woman who loves" (No. 41). Yes, dear brothers and sisters, Mary is the fruit and sign of the love God has for us, of his tenderness and mercy. Therefore, together with our brothers in the faith of all times and all places, we turn to her in our needs and hopes, in the joyful and sorrowful events of life. My thoughts go at this moment, with deep sympathy, to the family in the Island of Ischia, hit by yesterday's disaster.

In the month of May an increasing number of people come here as pilgrims from the parishes of Rome and also from many other districts, to pray and to enjoy the beauty and restful tranquility of these places. From here, from this Shrine of Divine Love, we therefore expect powerful help and spiritual support for the Diocese of Rome, for myself, its Bishop, and for the other bishops my collaborators, for the priests, for families, for vocations, for the poor, the suffering and the sick, for the children and for the elderly, for the entire beloved Italian nation.

We are expecting in particular the inner energy to fulfill the vow made by the Roman people on June 4, 1944, when they solemnly asked Our Lady of Divine Love that this city be preserved from the horrors of war, and they were heard: the vow and the promise, that is, to correct and improve one's own moral conduct to bring it more into line with that of the Lord Jesus.

Today too, there is a need to convert to God, to God who is Love, so that the world may be freed from war and terrorism. We are unfortunately reminded of this by the victims, such as the servicemen who fell last Thursday in Nasiriyah in Iraq, whom we entrust to the motherly intercession of Mary, Queen of Peace.

Dear brothers and sisters, from this Shrine of Our Lady of Divine Love, I therefore renew the invitation I expressed in the encyclical "Deus Caritas Est": "To practice love and in this way to cause the light of God to enter into the world" (No. 39). Amen!

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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.

Restoration of the First U.S. Catholic Cathedral
[Source: The Baltimore Sun, March 16, 2006]

When the great dome of Benjamin Henry Latrobe's cathedral first rose over the Baltimore skyline two centuries ago, it loomed as a bold symbol of a new liberty.

The British had suppressed Roman Catholicism in the American colonies, forcing the faithful to worship in secret. But now a church building that rivaled Latrobe's U.S. Capitol in size and sophistication, a cathedral on a hill for a Catholic diocese that encompassed the entire young nation, proclaimed a new era for religious freedom.

Today, Michael J. Ruck Sr. said, the message of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is as relevant as ever.

"At a time when sacred mosques are being destroyed by explosives, and riots are engulfing basilicas in distant lands," the chairman of the basilica historic trust said yesterday, "this cathedral deserves to be preserved, protected and, yes, showcased for Americans of today and Americans of tomorrow as a symbol of our right to worship without fear of persecution or attack."

Ruck spoke as the historic trust announced plans for the bicentennial reopening in November of America's first Catholic cathedral. It has been closed since November 2004 for a $32 million restoration.

The festivities will begin with a ceremony and open house Nov. 4, followed by a Mass and the re-consecration of the altar the next day. Also planned for the bicentennial week are a concert, an inter-religious service and tours for the public. The festivities end with a procession of the nation's Catholic bishops and a Mass on Nov. 12--a repeat of the pageantry that accompanied the centennial of the basilica in 1906.

Pope Benedict XVI, invited to attend, will not be coming. Cardinal William H. Keeler, who has known the pontiff for decades, has asked him to consider making a stop during a visit to the United States he might make next year.

Built from 1806 to 1821, the neoclassical cathedral was declared a basilica by Pope Pius XI in 1937. It also has been designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior and a National Shrine by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Yesterday, the historic trust, the independent organization that has raised $25 million for the restoration, offered reporters an early glimpse inside.

The project, designed by John G. Waite Associates and Beyer Blinder Belle and managed by Henry H. Lewis Contractors, was intended to peel away two centuries' worth of changes to the original vision of Latrobe and Archbishop John Carroll. The trust hopes to establish the building as a destination for pilgrims and tourists.

"We're using the history to build for the future," said Mark J. Potter, executive director of the trust. "People are going to want to view the 19th-century cathedral as Carroll and Latrobe intended. ... It will be a living classroom for future generations."

Workers have uncovered and replaced the 24 skylights of the great dome, which will suffuse the sanctuary with warm natural light, and they have restored interior walls to their original palette of pale yellow, blue and rose. A floor of white marble remains to be installed.

The undercroft, the level below the sanctuary, has been excavated to create space for a lower-level chapel. Workers have opened access behind the altar to the crypt that holds the remains of Carroll, Cardinal James Gibbons and Archbishop Martin John Spalding, among others.

Four touches not envisioned by Latrobe will be part of the finished interior. Fresco paintings dating from 1865, representations of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that were walled up in the late 19th century and not rediscovered until last summer, will again be revealed. New paintings that depict the Assumption of Mary and the Ascension of Jesus in the style of the early 19th century have been installed in the saucer domes that flank the great dome.

Other work includes the replacement of electrical, plumbing, and heating and air-conditioning systems, and the installation of wheelchair-accessible restrooms. Potter said the building would be fully compliant with the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The trust also has built a museum to display artifacts from the basilica's history. The building hosted the ordinations of the Rev. Michael J. McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus, and the Rev. Thomas F. Price, co-founder of Maryknoll. Mother Mary Lange, who founded the first order of black nuns in the world, worshiped there, and Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II visited.

Yesterday, Dr. Marie-Alberte Boursiquot, a member of the historic trust board, described her first encounter with the basilica. Recently arrived in Baltimore to complete her medical training, she was looking for a place to worship.

"I thought I was lost, because it did not look like a church," Boursiquot said. "In fact, I thought it was a bank. After having circled the building twice, I decided to enter the `bank' to ask for directions.

"As I entered, I noticed, in the very center of the building, the tabernacle which houses the most sacred objects of our faith. I realized then that I had entered my new parish home."

She was looking forward to attending Mass again at the basilica.

"Having an historic landmark that stands as a symbol of our right as Americans to worship openly, irrespective of our individual religious beliefs, without fear of reprisal is, in my view, something truly worth celebrating. ... And getting my favorite church back is worth a bit of celebrating, too," she said.

Statue Inspires Devotion, Prayers to End Suffering
[Source: San Antonio Express-News, March 11, 2006]

Devotees of a sacred Mexican statue of the Virgin Mary scribbled their deepest burdens Friday and dropped them in a basket at St. Cecilia's Catholic Church.

One on top of the pile read:

"For all my court cases to go away and for all my family to live forever and be safe and healthy."

These prayer requests and photos of loved ones, left before a replica of Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos, will be taken to the basilica in central Mexico where the original statue is kept. Thousands of mostly Hispanic Catholics from as far as Houston and the Rio Grande Valley have seen the replica during its 10-day tour of five San Antonio area churches.

The tour ends Sunday at St. Cecilia's, where special Masses on Friday drew hundreds of people, many using walkers, crutches and wheelchairs to approach the statue. Elevated on a pedestal covered in golden linen, it was protected by a glass shield.

Two baskets brimming with cash were on either side. All around were flowers, including several dozen pink roses one church member donated. From his folding chair several feet away, a security guard watched so no one would try to touch the statue, which was adorned in a gown organizers said cost $10,000 alone. However, the icon's emotional value to Hispanic Catholics, particularly those of Mexican heritage, can't be measured in dollars.

Many who attended Masses on Friday have seen the original statue in San Juan, Jalisco, a 17-hour drive from San Antonio, and tell stories of its spiritual rewards. They believe praying to the Virgin Mary--Jesus' mother and the symbolic mother of the Catholic Church--can enhance their chances of a miraculous answer.

Debra Huizar Vasquez, 42, awoke at 5:30 a.m. Friday for this reason. She took a bus to St. Cecilia's to spend several hours at Masses and in prayer before the statue. Asthma has made her voice hoarse. Anemia has her on a cocktail of medications, she said, and she gets frequent headaches and battles depression. But she said her biggest heartache is the imprisonment of her husband and son.

She brought an album of family photos--smiling images of them together--and placed it on the altar. She removed a photo of herself and leaned it against the front glass covering the statue.

Her hands trembling, she began to pray. She pressed her fingers against her lips and touched the gold-colored linen on statue's stand. Later, she found a seat next to a woman who helped her fill out two prayer-request cards.

"I'm going through a lot, and I'm tired of being sick," she said. "I am wishing for a miracle from the Virgin--so I can be happy. Sometimes I ask God why all this is happening to me."

Outside the sanctuary, church members sold $2 commemorative candles, prayer cards, posters and other collectibles from tables near the main walkway. Father Ruben Garcia stood ready to bless the candles with holy water.

Father Celedonio Martinez, a priest from the San Juan basilica in Mexico, is the liaison for the statue's safe return. During a sermon Mass on Friday, he talked about e-mails from the thousands of pilgrims who every day go to San Juan and report miracles of healing.

They are part of the statue's legacy of miracles, dating to1623 when a young girl killed in a trapeze accident reportedly came back to life after townspeople prayed to the Virgin Mary and placed the statue on her chest.

"This statue is here so we can build our faith," Martinez said. "So we can love one another as brothers and sisters. The Virgin Mary wants us to bring all her children together."

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