May 1st - Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker Mary’s Husband, the Carpenter Leo XIII wrote, "Joseph, of royal descent, united in marriage with the most sublime and saintly of women, the putative father of [...] from spending a large part of His life on manual work. "This is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary...?" Mark 6:3. (Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, 1891).

7 - Feast of Our Lady of Monticino (Italy, 1776) Jesus Will Reign Through Mary (I) Saints have said wonderful things about Mary, the Holy City of God. As they themselves have admitted, they were never more

April 20 - Our Lady of Sorrows (Quito, Spain) The Sweet Fruitfulness of Mary’s Womb Let us linger on the association between the Blessed Virgin and honey that led Hildegard of Bingen to write, in a letter

March 31 - Our Lady of the Holy Cross, Jerusalem Mary’s Tears (III) When Mary weeps over us, her Tears are indeed a universal out flowing of heavenly Blood, of which she is the sovereign Dispenser, and

March 30 - Our Lady of Miracles (Lucca, Italy, 1588) Mary’s Tears (II) Tears are a legacy of the Mother of Sorrows, such an awesome legacy that it cannot be frittered away in the vain affections of the

March 26 - Sinaxis of the Archangel Gabriel, Byzantine On Mary’s Virginity and Giving Birth People are sometimes troubled by the silence of St Mark's Gospel and the New Testament Epistles about Jesus' [...] His Incarnation to His Passover. St Ignatius of Antioch already bears witness to this connection: "Mary's virginity and giving birth, and even the Lord's death escaped the notice of the prince of this world:

March 29 - Apparition of Our Lady to St Bonnet (7th C.) Mary’s Tears (I) The tears of the Mother of Sorrows fill the Scriptures and flow down across the centuries. All of the weeping mothers, widows and [...] alone, she is there weeping too, because all tears belong to her as the Empress of Beatitude and Love. Mary's tears are the very Blood of Jesus Christ, but differently shed, just as her compassion was a sort

February 21 -Birth of John Henry Newman (1801-1890) Mary’s Modesty Exerts a Gentle Sway When first He [Jesus] went out to preach, she kept apart from Him; she interfered not with His work; and, even when

February 7 - Our Lady of the Bowed Head (Rome, 1610) Mary Did Her Part (III) There is very little unusual about the outward life of the Blessed Virgin, or at least the Gospels do not record it. They show [...] and Joseph, who worked to earn their daily bread. But what was the bread that nourished the faith of Mary and Joseph? It was the sacrament of the moment. But what did they experience beneath an existence

February 2 - Purification of Our Lady (First celebrated in 544) This is the Time When Mary, Virgin and Queen, Came to the Temple with Her Son It was the day of the Purification of the Virgin. I was in [...] Foligno, in the church of the Minor Brothers. I heard a voice speaking to me, "This is the time when Mary, Virgin and Queen, came to the temple with her Son." I listened with great love in my soul. And having