Marian Virtue Series

“Let us carry on and imitate Mary, a deeply Eucharistic soul, and all our lives will become a Magnificat.”– Pope Benedict XVI

Mary gave her “fiat” at the Annunciation when she said, “I am the handmaiden of the Lord; let it be done unto me according to your Word” (Luke 1:38).

She perfectly conformed her will and life to the will of the Father’s. Through her “fiat” a woman from Nazareth became the Mother of God and Queen of Heaven.

Today we celebrate the Queenship of Mary, and I’m so excited to introduce you to The Marian Virtue Series.

Virtues of Mary

Mary found God in all things and pondered the good works of God in her life. All of her actions were filled with love for God. How can we follow her example and give our full “yes” to the Lord?

One way that St. Louis De Monfort suggests in his Treatise on True Devotion to Mary is to imitate her virtues.

 In every action then we should consider how Mary performed it or how she would perform it if she were in our place. For this reason, we must examine and meditate on the great virtues she practised during her life.

There’s a simple prayer that a few great saints have prayed like Mother Teresa and St. Gemma. The prayer is, “Mother Mary lend me your heart.”

This prayer helps us to do as St. Louis De Montfort suggests and lets Mary be our guide for each action. These prayers helped these great saints to contemplate the life of Jesus and the pure love of his mother for him.

Emulating Mary’s Virtues

What virtues of Mary are we supposed to meditate upon and put into practice? St. Louis De Monfort identified ten virtues that Mary possessed and that we can each imitate in our own lives.

• Profound humility
• Lively faith
• Blind obedience
• Surpassing purity
• Constant mental prayer
• Universal mortification
• Ardent charity
• Angelic sweetness
• Heroic patience
• Divine wisdom

Meditating and reflecting upon the ten virtues can help us to imitate Mary in a very practical way. The goal of all Marian Devotion is to grow closer to Christ. By imitating Mary, we hope to deepen our love for Christ and relationship with Him, and so we look to the example of Our Heavenly Mother who raised Him.

The Ten Virtues of Mary

To delve deeper into what each of these virtues means I asked twelve amazing women to reflect and write on each of the ten virtues and Marian devotion.

Every Wednesday and Friday a different blogger will be writing about a different Marian Virtue. I’d like to introduce you to each of them and their blogs:

The Writers

August 30 – Profound Humility – Old Fashioned Girl 

Chloe is a very short stay-at-home-wife and lover of all things old fashioned. When she is not buried in a growing stack of books, she can be found spending time with her husband, drinking crazy amounts of coffee, or creating new episodes of her podcast ‘Letters to Women: Exploring the Feminine Genius’.

September 1 – Lively Faith – Not So Formulaic

Ginny is a Catholic wife, mother, and teaching writing from Northern Virginia. She blogs about Catholic womanhood, homeschooling, and raising gifted/twice exceptional kids at Not So Formulaic.

 

September 6 – Blind Obedience – Klassic Kathleen

Kathleen is a Catholic blogger who lives in southern California with her husband and their sweet daughter. She loves to read, write and try out new recipes in the kitchen! She writes about life, Catholicism, marriage, motherhood, DIY projects, and anything else that might strike her fancy on her blog, Klassic Kathleen.

September 9 – Surpassing Purity – The Lemke Lodge

Alexandra is a young wife to a law student and mother to a toddler son. She writes and grams about the growing pains of life while practicing a Catholic lifestyle. She also shares about little beautiful moments, ways in which to create beauty at home, and long lists.

 

September  13- Constant Mental Prayer – The Green Catholic Burrow 

Desiree is a wife and mom to 8; she’s also a rookie Catholic (Tiber Swim Team 2016! 😀), a longtime homeschooler, dabbler in fitness, respectable cook, Molly Weasley wannabe, and general jack-of-all-trades.

September 5 –  Universal Mortification – Coffee & Pearls

Sterling is a Catholic convert who helps teach women how to become saints through personal development! Her weekly podcast Coffee & Pearls is just 15 minutes so it’s perfect for busy moms! She lives in Boise, Idaho with her four children and speaks all over the
country at conferences and retreats.

September 20 – Ardent Charity – A Beautiful, Camouflaged, Mess of A Life

Anni is a proud wife of an Army soldier, and social worker turned stay at home, Catholic mommy blogger. She can be found writing on topics of faith, parenting, and military life from a spouse’s perspective at www.beautifulcamouflage.com.

September 22 – Angelic Sweetness – Reconciled to You

Allison Gingras is a Catholic blogger, author, retreat leader, inspirational speaker podcaster, and radio host. Reconciled To You shares the ‘Grace Trifecta’ of Prayer, Sacrament and Scripture. Allison witnesses with great enthusiasm, passion and a sense of humor!

 

September 27 Heroic Patience – Fresh Starts and New Adventures

Sarah is a 21-year-old, new nurse, and soon to be newlywed (September 9th!). More than anything in the world, she loves seeing the look people get in their eyes when they talk about something they really love and hearing the stories that they carry with them wherever they go. She also loves hiking, waffles, star gazing, and scented candles.

September 29 Divine Wisdom – Wild Things Farm

Sarah is a homesteading, homeschooling, home birthing mama to six wild and adventurous kids and wife to an equaling wild and adventurous man. She’s the quiet one. When not being (joyfully) conned into her family’s schemes and ideas, she enjoys curling up with a good book, creating something beautiful, and writing tales of her families adventures at www.sewmanywildthings.wordpress.com.

October 4 – Increasing Marian Devotion – The Lion of Design

Kimberly seeks to live her Catholicism to the fullest in a life of joyful adventure with her husband and four kids. She is a Theologian, Author, Writer, Blogger, Artist and always looking for a challenge.

 

October 6 – Closing Thoughts – Our Home, Mary’s Mantle

Emily is a Catholic convert, lifelong military dependent, and 3rd Grade Religious Ed teacher. She lives in Fort Worth with her husband Marque and son Christopher. She left her career in event planning/executive administration to stay home with and homeschool her son who has Aspergers. She writes about faith, life, finances, homeschooling, and crafting.

October 7 – Final Grand Prize Giveaway – Strengthen My Heart

Join Us

If you’ve been wanting to learn more about Our Blessed Mother and have some encouragement along the way, then please follow along. You can join us by using the hashtag #tenvirtuesofmary on social media. We’d love to hear how this Marian Virtue series impacts you.

With each blog post, we will introduce you to a Catholic shop or artist with a special giveaway item. Many of the giveaway items are Marian themed and complement what these amazing women have to say. We will celebrate the close of the series on The Feast of Our Lady of The Rosary with a grand prize giveaway.

I pray that this series will encourage each of us on our earthly pilgrimage and help us to grow closer to Christ. Totus Tuus!