Fr. Thomas M. Pastorius
October 25, 2015
Spiritual Ponderings
Images of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Our Lady of Penrhys

I have devote my spiritual ponderings for the month of October to the Blessed Virgin Mary and in a special way we have looked at how the Blessed Virgin Mary has been displayed throughout of history and what religious lessons a particular image of the Blessed Virgin Mary teaches us. For this last week, I will one again be referring to a book by hagiographer (a person who writes biographies of saints) Ann Ball. The book is called: The Other Faces of Mary: Stories, Devotions, and Pictures of the Holy Virgin Around The World.

“Before the Protestant Reformation, the Welsh country side was blanketed with shrines and holy wells dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The principal medieval shrine was at Penrhys. The shrine there was a major place for pilgrims. Pilgrimage was an important part of the Church’s life during the Middle Ages because they were often assigned as penances for serious sins. Pilgrimages were considered good penances for sins because they removed you at least temporarily from the near occasion of sin. You were also given a lot of time to ponder Scripture stories and what was really important in your life.

During the Reformation many of the images of the Blessed Virgin Mary including this one was destroyed in a hope to stomp out the Catholic faith. During this time of persecution, Catholics would still come and pray at the Church where the statue had been demonstrating that the image was not the important thing but rather what was important was their relationship with God and His Mother. Four hundred years later in 1939 a new statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary was erected in the Church; proving once again that the Catholic faith continues to survive thanks to the Holy Spirit and the faith of the people.

“The history of the shrine of Penrhys is one of glory and defeat, of prayers and of final triumph over adversity. Today in the heart of South Wales, the beauty of devotion to the Mother of God still burns brightly.” –Ann Ball.

The following are some more quotes about the Blessed Virgin Mary from Scott Hahn’s book: Hail Holy Queen:The Mother of God in the Word of God.

1. All Mariology, all Marian devotion, must begin with solid theology and firm credal faith. For all that Mary does, and all that she is, flows from her relationship with God and her correspondence to His divine plan. She is His mother. She is His spouse. She is His daughter. She is His handmaid. We cannot begin to know her if we do not, first have clear notions about Him—about God, His providence, and His dealings with His people.

2. As the Mother of God and His children, Mary shows us how to glorify the Father, not by groveling but by receiving the gift of His Son in fullness of the Spirit. So if you want to judge how well people grasp the gospel in its essence, find out how much they make of having God as their Father—and Mary as their mother.

3. Mary is the test of how well a Christian has accepted the gospel. It’s not that she’s central figure of salvation history. She’s not: Jesus is. But our understanding of Mary reveals everything about how we understand Jesus and His saving work.
We live our sonship best by listening to Mary and loving as she loves. Listening means responding when she says, “Do whatever He tells you.” Loving means standing by Christ, even to the cross. Loving means choosing, Him in every instance, over sin.

4. First the rosary is anything but mindless. Indeed, its meditative technique has been refined by centuries of practice in order to engage the mind most completely. The rosary ordinarily engages at least three of our senses—with the sound of voices, the feeling of the beads, and the sight of devotional images—so that those senses are made prayerful. Thus committed, body and soul to prayer, we are less prone to distraction.

5. Further, the formulas themselves are rich in scriptural doctrine and devotion. The Our Father we learn from the lips of Jesus Himself. The Hail Mary comes from the words of Gabriel and Elizabeth in Luke’s gospel. And who could argue with the words of the Glory Be, which merely give praise to the eternal and Blessed Trinity?