Free Republic

Marian Renaissance among Protestants? The surprising answer is yesThe signs do not point to a complete restoration of the Blessed Mother's rightful place in the Church, but the signs are surely intriguing, and thoroughly biblical which is to say, thoroughly Catholic. The Marian renaissance includes pastors from all mainline Protestant denominations: Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists. High -Church Anglicans are mentioned only in passing because they're old hands at this. Here is a favorite quote from the Time Magazine article:In a shift whose ideological breadth is unusual in the fragmented Protestant world, a long-standing wall around Mary appears to...

March 19, 2005Solemnity of Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary Psalm: Saturday 14 Reading I2 Sam 7:4-5a, 12-14a, 16 The LORD spoke to Nathan and said:"Go, tell my servant David,‘When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors,I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins,and I will make his kingdom firm.It is he who shall build a house for my name.And I will make his royal throne firm forever.I will be a father to him,and he shall be a son to me.Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me;your throne shall...

John 2:1-12 One does not have to venture far into the Anglican blogosphere to recognize that the dominant discussion is on the House of Bishops’ report. This morning, I was led to turn my eyes to Mary rather than the bishops. At the wedding in Cana, Mary comes to Jesus, who had not yet performed any public miracles, with a problem–"They have no wine.” She has a childlike trust that Jesus will do something about it–"Do whatever he tells you.” The scripture doesn’t tell us what she did next. I’ve always thought she went back to the party, but I...

....In a shift whose ideological breadth is unusual in the fragmented Protestant world, a long-standing wall around Mary appears to be eroding. It is not that Protestants are converting to Catholicism's dramatic exaltation: the singing of Salve Regina, the Rosary's Marian Mysteries, the entreaty to her in the Hail Mary to "pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death." Rather, a growing number of Christian thinkers who are neither Catholic nor Eastern Orthodox (another branch of faith to which Mary is central) have concluded that their various traditions have shortchanged her in the very arena in...