Mary is an excellent teacher

Whenever we pray the Rosary, as Saint John Paul II said, we sit in “the school of Mary,” asking her to teach us about her son Jesus. With October being dedicated to the Rosary and the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary celebrated on Oct. 7th, we find ourselves again in her school — hopefully not contained to this month alone, but every day, of every month, every year, for the rest of our lives.

Mary is an excellent teacher. Many saints have looked to her to teach them the virtues and how to live the Christian life. Mary has also revealed herself as a teacher in another way: through her many apparitions. Often when she appeared to those chosen visionaries, she conveyed lessons from heaven about who she is and what she does. Saint Juan Diego (Guadalupe) learned that she was the Mother of the True and Living God, while Saint Bernadette Soubirous (Lourdes) learned that Mary was the Immaculate Conception. 

In October 1859, the Blessed Mother appeared to Adele Brise in the United States as the 28-year-old Belgian immigrant walked to a grist mill and then on the way to and from church. During the third and final apparition (the only time Mary spoke), Adele became a student of Our Lady, learning heavenly lessons and then being asked to become a teacher, a catechist, herself. 

Nearly 160 years removed from the apparition, and after the Church’s approval was granted on Dec. 8, 2010, thousands upon thousands of pilgrims each year have the opportunity to sit in the school of Our Lady and learn the lessons she taught at the National Shrine in Champion, Wisconsin, many years ago. They are lessons still relevant for us today. 

Fr. Edward Looney (1)

Catholic Digest, 2018

(1) Father Looney is a priest of the diocese of Green Bay (Wisconsin, USA) and a member of the Mariological Society of America.