9. MARIAN APPARITIONS

The most powerful preacher of the Gospel in history is not Billy Graham or the sum total of the TV evangelists. It is the Woman whose seed are those who "have the testimony of Jesus Christ." The appearances of the Woman throughout history and in different parts of the world has led to the conversion of millions.

Once we recognize that Mary is the Woman whose seed follow Jesus, then the inevitability and the reason for her appearances are self-evident. Her mission is to bring her Son's message of salvation to all her other seed so that she can lead them to Jesus. This understanding of Mary's appearances helps us understand that they not only fulfill Scripture but are demanded by Scripture. We realize too that Mary and the Holy Spirit always work together.

The supernatural and the miraculous have been critical ingredients in the growth of Christianity. His followers believed in Jesus and His Message primarily because of His miracles. Moreover the spread of Christianity around the world was at least partially dependent on the

 many miracles performed by the Apostles (some of which are recorded in the Acts of the Apostles). Today both Fundamentalists and Liberals try to deny the continuing presence of the miraculous in Christianity; Liberals, of course, go a step forward and deny even that miracles were present at the origin of Christianity. But their arguments are based on bias and not a study of the evidence.

Marian appearances are part of the overall pattern of the manifestation of the supernatural and the miraculous in Christianity. The miraculous nature of these appearances and associated messages has brought millions to Christ. Through her appearances Mary has spread the Gospel in every corner of the world. Invariably these appearances have resulted in conversions, repentance, growth in holiness and an improved prayer life.

Space does not permit any further description of the famous Marian apparitions of Guadalupe, Lourdes and Fatima. The famous atheist psychologist Sigmund Freud once exclaimed, "I do not think our cures can compete with those at Lourdes. There are so many more people who believe in the miracle of the Blessed Virgin than in the existence of the unconscious."¹ Without question the most dramatic and most influential appearance of Mary in history was her miraculous visit to the New World at Guadalupe and the resultant conversion of over nine million Aztecs.

Some practical applications of the Marian apparitions may be mentioned here.

A mother's first concern is to protect her children from danger following which she will feed, clothe and shelter them. Every Marian devotee can testify to the maternal care and protection they have received from their Mother. She who protected the Son of God from every danger from His earliest days and Who met His every need for thirty years has now been asked to look after His brothers and sisters "who do the will of the Father."

Not only has Mary appeared to her children and drawn them to her Son but she has also left them with weapons and shields to protect them in their perilous journey to salvation. These weapons include the Miraculous Medal and the Rosary, two great gifts given by a loving Mother to her children.

Thousands of miracles have been attributed to the efficacious prayer of the Rosary. The late Neville Ward, a Methodist minister, wrote a famous book on the Rosary (Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy) from which these excerpts are taken.

The Western Rosary considers fifteen forms of experience-- five at its happiest, five at its most horrible, five at its most glorious - as seen in the life of Jesus and his mother. These are fifteen representative images of reality. Nothing can happen to us that is not contained there; all that is there can happen to us and in some sense is happening to us now. To pray the Rosary is to try yet again to keep in touch with life in its fullness, to insure that we do not evade or miss anything.

The ring of beads is a means for counting prayers as we work through a program of prayer and meditation. There are five groups of ten beads, each group separated from the next by a larger bead. To this circlet of beads is added a short pendant consisting of a large bead, three small ones, another large bead and a crucifix.

It is used in various ways. A common way of doing this program of prayer is to start with the crucifix at the end of the small pendant. On this is said the Creed, then on the first large bead the Lord's Prayer, a Hail Mary on each of the three small beads, and the Glory be to the Father or the Salve Regina on the remaining large bead.

Where the pendant joins the round there is a large bead or a medallion on which is said the Lord's prayer; then come ten small beads on each of which a Hail Mary is said; the large bead that follows is used for the saying of the Glory be to the Father to conclude the first decade and then the Lord's prayer to begin the next ten, and so on until the decade consisting of the Lord's Prayer, ten Hail Marys and the Gloria, has been said five times and the round is finished.

These memorized prayers are combined with a scheme of meditation on fifteen subjects, all drawn from the Bible with the exception of the last two. These subjects are called mysteries and are divided into three groups as follows:

The Joyful Mysteries

1. The Annunciation. St Luke 1:26-38

2. The Visitation. St Luke 1:39-56

3. The Nativity. St Luke 2:1-20

4. The Presentation. St Luke 2:22-40

5. The Finding in the Temple. St Luke 2:41-52

The Sorrowful Mysteries

1. The Agony in the Garden. St Luke 22:39-54

2. The Scourging. Isaiah 5:3-1; St John 19:1

3. The Crowning with Thorns. St Matthew 27:27-31

4. The Carrying of the Cross. St Luke 23:26-32

5. The Crucifixion. St John 19:17-37

The Glorious Mysteries

1. The Resurrection. St John 20

2. The Ascension. Acts 1:1-11

3. The Coming of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:1-13

4. The Assumption of the Virgin Mary

5. The Coronation (Rev. 12)

While each decade of the Rosary is said one of these themes or mysteries is held in the mind for meditation, so that each time the Rosary is said the mind will have dwelt on five great Christian meanings. They are taken in turn according to the days of the week: on Monday and Thursday, the Joyful Mysteries; on Tuesday and Friday, the Sorrowful Mysteries; on Wednesday and Saturday, the Glorious Mysteries.

Such is this fifteen-point program of Christian themes for meditation in a setting of familiar prayers which has been found to be so helpful to innumerable people greatly varying in age and education and experience. No other scheme of prayer has been so widely used in the Christian west.²

It may be asked, Why do we need Mary and Marian devotions and holy objects like the Rosary and the Miraculous Medal? Because this world is a dangerous place in which Satan is active, because damnation is possible for any one of us. The constant Our Fathers and Hail Marys of the Rosary are required because of our depraved nature: such prayers are instruments to hold back the world, the flesh, and the devil. Moreover, the prophecy that all generations are to call Mary blessed is a command not an option. Many Fundamentalists who frown at Marian devotions like the Rosary are likely to frown even at devotions directed exclusively to Jesus. The whole idea of "devotions" is alien to them. Only when they realize their own perilous condition, their own need for supernatural resources can they begin to understand the urgency of these devotions. Even expert swimmers are helpless in powerful currents - and when you are swimming in dangerous waters the current could get you before you know it. Lifejackets can be lifesavers in such circumstances.

God will use every created instrument to help us reach Him. It is for this reason that He sends us a loving Mother who will protect us from danger and feed, clothe and shelter us.

NOTES

¹ Sigmund Freud, "New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis," 1933, in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (London: Hogarth Press and Institute of Psycho-Analysis: 1953-1974), v.22, 152.

² Neville Ward, Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy (Cambridge, MA: Cowley Publications, 1985), x-xiii, 47-8