Peter John Cameron - Mysteries of the Virgin Mary: Living Our Lady’s Graces

PREFACE

St. Thrse of Lisieux, doctor of the Church, once said, For a sermon on the Blessed Virgin to please me and do me any good, I must see her real life, not her imagined life. [Preachers] should present her as imitable, bringing out her virtues, saying that she lived by faith just like ourselves.1

The aim of this book is to present the real life of the Blessed Virgin Mary as it is commemorated in the Marian liturgical feasts of the Church. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the Churchs devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship. The Church rightly honors the Blessed Virgin with special devotion. The liturgical feasts dedicated to the Mother of Godexpress this devotion to the Virgin Mary (CCC, 971, quoting Pope Paul VI, Marialis Cultus, 56).

We may well wonder, why does the Church venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary according to these particular liturgical feasts drawn from her life? And what do the mysteries of Marys life have to do concretely with our own? These are the questions that this book seeks to address.

Much of the confusion and dissatisfaction and sadness we experience day to day come from our own struggles with real life. We need someone to help us look at our life, to show us who we are, to help us become ourselves and live fully. That is why we turn with devotion to the real life of the Mother of God. In seeing how Mary lived by faith, we can find the courage and grace to do the same, united with her.

The Blessed Virgin Mary brings us closer to Christ as we live her mystery in Christ. When we talk about mystery, we mean something that we acknowledgethat we recognize to be real and truebut that we do not possess. When we say mystery we speak of an Other who changes us. We long for that transforming change to take hold of us.

Yet, as St. Thomas Aquinas observes, sublime mysteries should not be explained to everyone immediately, but should be handed down through superiors to others in their proper turn.2 And so we willingly confide ourselves to Gods mother, celebrating sacramentally the mysteries of the Blessed Virgin Mary, so as to be in communion with Our Lady in the way that she continues to live her mystery in Christ.

With this end in mind, this book endeavors to offer spiritual perspectives on the Blessed Virgin Marys life that are ordered to aiding meditation on the Marian mysteries. Key to this is the inclusion of the insights of many mystics and spiritual masters regarding the Blessed Virgin Mary (including a number of voices new to me).

This book can be read from beginning to end, and then picked up again on each Marian feast throughout the Churchs liturgical year. While it is intended for everyone, my hope is that priests and deacons who preach the mysteries of the Blessed Virgin Mary will find this little book beneficial.

In a special way I owe my devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary to Father Romanus Cessario, o.p ., whose exemplary love for Our Lady moved me to ask him to teach me about the Mother of God and her instrumental role in the life of faith. I am deeply thankful to Father Cessario for his witness, his instruction, and his friendship.

I would like to thank my acquisitions editor, Cynthia Cavnar, who came up with the idea for this book and asked me to write it. I am especially grateful for the clerical assistance of Catherine Kolpak, a most ardent devotee of the Blessed Mother.

May all who read this book be blessed to discover how God intends Our Ladys graces for our lives.

Father Peter John Cameron, o.p.

St. Mary Priory, New Haven, Connecticut

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

December 8, 2009