Marian Devotion, From Family to Pope

How Loving Our Lady Boosts Faith

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With the visit of Pope Francis to the United States days before October’s month of the Holy Rosary, it is an apt time to reflect on why Marian devotion, including the Rosary, is vital to Catholic devotion. The Pope is a model of this, praying before images of Our Lady in Cuba and the United States on his recent papal visit; he also canonized St. Junípero Serra at Mary’s church, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. After the canonization Mass, Francis offered a rosary to the Mother of God before another statue. And his devotion to Our Lady, Undoer of Knots was reflected by a grotto display in Philadelphia, which Francis visted on his last day in the United States.

“Marian devotion is a consistent theme in the writings and thoughts of different popes and saints,” said Father Donald Calloway of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception. Father Calloway (FatherCalloway.com), who is a national speaker and author of books on Mary, pointed to Father Patrick Peyton’s famous saying: “The family that prays together stays together.”

“When the family prays together, they tend to be more united,” Father Calloway explained. “There tends to be forgiveness and harmony in the home. That’s ultimately what God wants, because the family is the foundation of civilization. And the Rosary has a way of uniting the family.” He emphasized that Pope Francis prays three Rosaries a day and often speaks of Mary’s role in the lives of the faithful.

In Cuba, upon visiting the shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Charity, the patroness of Cuba, Francis prayed a Hail Mary. The next day, at Mass, he invoked the example of Our Lady. “We are asked to live the revolution of tenderness as Mary, our Mother of Charity, did,” the Pope said Sept. 22. “Our revolution comes about through tenderness, through the joy which always becomes closeness and compassion and leads us to get involved in, and to serve, the lives of others.”

This wasn’t the first trip that prompted Marian moments. In South America, Francis said: “Mary is a mother!” He also said, “Have patience, hope, and follow Mary’s example.” On the feast of Fatima on May 13, 2014, Francis said, “The Rosary is a prayer that always accompanies me; it is also the prayer of the ordinary people and the saints … a prayer from my heart.” Forty days after his election, he led the Rosary at St. Mary Major on the first Saturday of May. “Mary is the mother,” Francis said, “and a mother’s main concern is the health of her children … Our Lady guards our health … helps us grow, face life and be free.” And for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, his devotion was evident as well: “The Mother of the Redeemer goes before us and continually strengthens us in faith, in our vocation and in our mission. By her example of humility and openness to God’s will, she helps us to transmit our faith in a joyful proclamation of the Gospel to all.”

 

Marian Essentials

Johnnette Benkovic, founder of Women of Grace (WomenofGrace.com) and an EWTN television and radio host, finds Marian devotion and the Rosary essential, because a “devotion to the Blessed Mother is a devotion to Jesus Christ himself,” she said. Benkovic noted how everything about Mary speaks of Jesus: “She is the pre-eminent disciple, the one he sets before us as our exemplar and model. She leads us to him, and he leads us to her as our spiritual mother.”

She said the Rosary is the “prayer of excellence,” next to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. “Surely it can be a source of strength in working through the problems that press against family life today and the unprecedented challenges it faces in the 21st century.” She explained how we have the opportunity, with every bead, to enter the eternal moments of the life of Jesus Christ. This is why Our Blessed Mother told the children at Fatima to pray the Rosary every day, Benkovic emphasized. “She was offering them a power-packed weapon of grace — a nuclear blast of the Divine life, given to us through her Son, Jesus Christ.”

Frequent EWTN guest, bestselling author, teacher and international speaker Scott Hahn — who spoke about Mary in conjunction with the World Meeting of Families — shared his family’s growth in the Rosary. When wife Kimberly was a new Catholic in the 1990s, “We used to do, after dinner, a decade of the Rosary. When John Paul II called for the Year of the Rosary, he encouraged families to pray the Rosary together.”

From then on, they began praying a family Rosary almost daily and before every major trip. Hahn noted the result: “The Rosary became for us as a family a wellspring of grace and peace.”

At each bead, he prays for a particular intention — an individual, a group in need, like Mideast Christians, and so on. “As I am going through them, I feel I’m getting close to the heart of my Mother,” he said.

“Nothing made the Bible more personal and the Gospel come alive for me as praying the Rosary and seeing these episodes through the eyes of his mother,” Hahn made clear. “It has a remarkable effect on me. It has become my absolutely favorite prayer. I try to get in two or three in a day.”

The Rosary helps us follow the life of Christ and “is basically teaching us to have a liturgical life,” pointed out Father Calloway. Families can grow a liturgical family life by checking the calendar for feasts dedicated to Our Lady. “Every single day of the year there is a Marian feast,” he said. “Learn about her feast days and her shrines. That’s a way the family can become more Marian.” These feasts include Dec. 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, which is also the start of the Year of Mercy.

Benkovic shares other ways to increase Marian devotion. First, “Our homes ought to reflect our faith. Does our home itself speak to our faith? If we want to grow devotion in our lives and in the lives of our family members, we need to have holy reminders around us that lift our minds and our hearts to those realities that are most important.”

Benkovic suggested, “A statue of Our Lady, a picture of her with the Christ Child and rosaries placed in easily accessible places all remind us of our Mother and also help to encourage prayer to her and love of her.”

“Secondly, our personal devotion to the Blessed Mother can aid others to grow in their own devotion,” she said. Children model what they see: “When they ‘catch’ a parent praying the Rosary, it becomes easier to introduce the family Rosary. If we observe the feast days of Our Lady with joy and anticipation, we may well instill holy fervor in the heart of another. If we attend First Saturday devotions, we may inspire a spouse or a child to come with us.” Third is the witness of our words. “Talking with our children about the Blessed Mother, prayerfully invoking her intercession with them for a special need, telling family members about her various titles on her feast days or explaining dogmas about her on holy days help our loved ones grow in affection for Our Lady and relationship with her,” observed Benkovic.

 

Undoer of Knots

As his stop at the Philadelphia grotto showed, Pope Francis has given to the Church a gift in his love of “Our Lady, Undoer of Knots.” Studying in Germany, as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, he was inspired by a Bavarian painting of Our Lady in this title; he brought the devotion to Argentina. “Pope Francis has inspired that, and I love that in him,” Hahn said. “He starts each day and lives each day close to the Immaculate Heart of Our Lady.” Benkovic, too, finds this a powerful devotion, with efficacious results. “Even though we may be praying the novena for a family member or friend, we are drawn to recognize within ourselves areas that need to be healed, need to experience the light of God and need to be set free,” she said.

 

Visits and Consecrations

Follow the Holy Father’s example and pray before Marian statues, too. Before and after each international trip, the Holy Father visits and prays before Salus Populi Romani (Protectress of the Roman People), the Marian icon venerated in the Basilica of St. Mary Major. Hahn counsels the importance of Marian consecration as well. “Three years ago, when I was on sabbatical, I began by renewing my Louis de Montfort consecration. It was the greatest way I could imagine starting it,” he said. This time he did the consecration using Marian Father Michael Gaitley’s book 33 Days to Morning Glory. “Most of my kids have done the consecration, Hahn explained, adding that his son David inspired a family consecration, suggesting, “Why don’t we do this as a family while on vacation? On the feast of the Assumption, we could make the consecration as a family.” The Hahns did, even influencing other families in the neighborhood to join in with their own consecrations.

As the Pope said at vespers Sept. 24 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, “Let us commend to Our Lady the work we have been entrusted to do; let us join her in thanking God for the great things he has done.”

Joseph Pronechen is the

Register’s staff writer.

Caravaggio (1571–1610), “The Incredulity of Saint Thomas”

For We Walk by Faith, Not by Sight

“Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.’” (John 20:27-29)