marian feast day

Our Lady of Loreto… Patroness of Aviation?

December 10, 2022December 9, 2022 Articles, Mary

In 1920, aviation experts and pioneers asked Pope Benedict XV to bless their work and the skies. He obliged – after all, if Our Lady was the delight of mariners, she should certainly be patroness of air fare – and declared patronage of the skies to Our Lady of Loreto. This title, coming from the […]

Defining the Definition of the Immaculate Conception

December 8, 2022December 8, 2022 Articles, Mary

Today’s great Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary is a doctrine that is misunderstood by many. If you have ever correctly explained this teaching to someone else, congratulations! You’re well ahead of many Catholics. The Immaculate Conception is often confused with the Virginal Conception of Jesus, at the Annunciation (which we celebrate on March […]

Our Lady of Kibeho

November 28, 2022December 14, 2022 Articles, Mary

Our Lady of Kibeho is the only Church-approved Marian apparition in the fifty-four nations of continental Africa. Spanning eight years and three visionaries at Kibeho College in Rwanda, it all began on November 28th, 1981, when Our Lady appeared to seventeen-year-old Alphonsine Mumureke while she was serving other children: “She could have chosen me when […]

Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

November 27, 2022November 23, 2022 Articles, Mary

Catherine Labouré was only with the Daughters of Charity in Paris three months before she was awoken in the night by a call. At the foot of her bed stood a beautiful child, insisting she get up and go straight to the chapel. The young sister obeyed in haste, and soon enough, the reason for […]

Saint John Paul II and the Mutual Gifts of Mary

October 22, 2022November 18, 2022 Articles

Perhaps best known for his Theology of the Body – love as a free, faithful, total, and life-giving gift of self to another – a dive into the life and spirituality of Pope Saint John Paul II shows us that this mutual gift can be given (and received) in our relationships with Jesus and His […]

Our Lady of Good Help: Go and Fear Nothing

October 9, 2022September 29, 2023 Articles, Mary

When Adele Brise received her first communion in Belgium, she decided to devote herself to Our Lady and educate children in the Catholic faith. Her plan was thrown for a loop when she and her parents emigrated in the summer of 1853, creating a farm just outside Luxembourg, Wisconsin. The next six years Adele spent […]

Holy Mary, Ransom of Captives

September 24, 2022November 18, 2022 Articles, Mary

In 1960, the feast of Our Lady of Ransom was officially added to the liturgical calendar, celebrating the foundation of the Order of the Mercedarians (or the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy) in Barcelona, Spain. Founded on a dream (quite literally) by St. Peter Nolasco, a war veteran and tutor to fellow […]

Hope in Our Lady of Sorrows

September 15, 2022December 16, 2022 Articles, Mary

Today the Church reflects upon the sufferings of Mary, most notably remembered through the Seven Sorrows and the Seven Sorrows Rosary (popularized by the Servite and Dominican Orders). But for many of us, meditating upon these pivotal sorrows that accompanied the Son of God’s life and ministry can present a challenge to our joy-filled and […]

Power in the Name of Mary

September 12, 2022November 18, 2022 Articles, Mary

As Pope Innocent XI watched the overwhelming Ottoman troops close in on Vienna, Austria, vulnerable and with little allied support, he did the one thing we should all do in times of uncertainty, difficulty, and (in the case of King John III Sobieski of Poland, a major combatant) crisis: he turned to the Blessed Mother […]

The Joyful Invitation of Our Lady’s Birth

September 8, 2022November 18, 2022 Articles, Mary

When celebrating the saints, the Church most often commemorates them with one feast day. Naturally, for the Blessed Mother, we celebrate many more. We recall her Immaculate Conception on December 8th, her Assumption into Heaven in August, and today, Mary’s birthday. Today, the Church invites us to renewed joy and anticipation in Mary’s birth, as […]

The Visitation, a Feast of Service

May 31, 2022May 31, 2022 Articles, Mary

“During those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.” (Luke 1:39-40) When I was in college, I regularly participated in Alternative Breaks – spring trips that brought me to new communities and made me a […]

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