: Mike Aquilina, Fr. Frederick W. Gruber
: Keeping Mary Close Devotion to Our Lady through the Ages
: Servant
: 9781635823257
: 1
: CHF 10.50
:
: Christentum
: English
: 160
: kein Kopierschutz
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
If you've ever wondered what devotion to Mary is all about, you'll treasure this one-of-a-kind, popular glimpse into the early Church's life, doctrine, and devotion to Our Lady. Through lively stories, teachings of the Church fathers, and evidence from ancient archaeology, the authors invite you to enter the fascinating world of the early Christians, giving you an imaginative glimpse into how they demonstrated their love for Mary through their prayers, art, and daily life. Along the way, you'll gain a deeper understanding of Mary's role in your own life and that of the Church today.
Chapter One
From Jerusalem to Ephesus
Then they returned to Jerusalem…. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. (Acts 1:12–14)
That is how the original Church described itself. The words come from a meticulous historian of the first generation, St. Luke the evangelist, who testified that he had interviewed eyewitnesses (see Luke 1:1–4).
In the days after Jesus’s ascension, the disciples awaited the gift the Lord had promised as the seal of their salvation. In the Upper Room, they waited to be filled with the Holy Spirit. They gathered “together with…Mary the mother of Jesus.”
That was the primitive Church on its own terms. The Blessed Virgin Mary was in its midst. She was a disciple among disciples, and yet her place and her role were unique. In the Acts passage above, she is the only woman to be mentioned by name; in fact, she is the only non-apostle to be identified. And as the last named, she holds a place of prominence.
She is a quiet presence, but constant and crucial. She changes the composition of the picture. Suddenly the Upper Room is more than a waiting room in an all-male seminary. There is a feminine presence identified asmother. The gathering is a family, and the room becomes a home.
And that is how the Church viewed itself throughout its early life. Mary remained a presence, often acknowledged, clearly loved and honored, and necessary for the coherence of the gospel’s proclamation.
This book is about devotion to Mary in that period, the so-called patristic era—the time most people mean when they speak of the “early Church.” The period begins with Christianity’s first generation. Some of these Fathers—Clement, Ignatius, and Polycarp—received the faith directly from the apostles.
Through most of the period that concerns us, the practice of the faith was illegal, and sometimes it was a capital crime. Perio