{"id":16431,"date":"2023-06-29T21:46:42","date_gmt":"2023-06-30T01:46:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/serony.com\/ken\/?page_id=16431"},"modified":"2023-06-29T21:51:23","modified_gmt":"2023-06-30T01:51:23","slug":"a-most-powerful-woman","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/serony.com\/ken\/books-papers\/a-most-powerful-woman\/","title":{"rendered":"A ‘most powerful woman’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A ‘most powerful woman’ \u2013 National Geographic’s major hat tip to the Virgin Mary<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Washington D.C., Nov 10, 2015 \/ 03:45 pm (CNA\/EWTN News)<\/b>.- Our Lady. Blessed Mother. Virgin Mary. Queen of Peace. Theotokos. Handmaid of the Lord. Mother Mary.<\/em><\/p>\n

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These are just some of the titles used to describe the young woman to whom an angel appeared some 2,000 years ago with the message that she would conceive and bear the Savior of the World.<\/p>\n

Mary has very few recorded words in the New Testament, but her worldwide devotion spans across time, cultures and even religions.<\/p>\n

In a Nov. 8 feature for National Geographic, \u201cHow the Virgin Mary Became the World\u2019s Most Powerful Woman<\/a>,\u201d Maureen Orth explores the worldwide phenomenon of devotion to the Mother of God in anticipation of the Dec. 13 National Geographic Channel special, \u201cThe Cult of Mary.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her piece, Orth spoke with Marian scholars and experts and even followed pilgrims to Marian apparition sites to learn more about this \u201cmost powerful woman.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see the relationship of Mary with us isn\u2019t just any relationship \u2013 it\u2019s sacred,\u201d Mar\u00eda Enriqueta Garc\u00eda, who did her sacred theology dissertation at the International Marian Research Institute at the University of Dayton, told Orth.<\/p>\n

The idea of Mary as an intercessor before God comes from scripture at the Wedding Feast of Cana, when Jesus performs his first miracle after his mother\u2019s prompting of, \u201cThey have no wine\u201d followed by her instruction to the servers to, \u201cDo whatever he tells you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSince then no other woman has been as exalted as Mary,\u201d Orth said. \u201cAs a universal symbol of maternal love, as well as of suffering and sacrifice, Mary is often the touchstone of our longing for meaning, a more accessible link to the supernatural than formal church teachings. Her mantle offers both security and protection.\u201d<\/p>\n

For her story, Orth accompanied pilgrims around the world to Marian apparition sites including Lourdes, Kibeho, Mexico City, and even Medjugorje \u2013 where apparitions are said to still be occurring and the Vatican has not yet ruled on its authenticity.<\/p>\n

In Kibeho, Rwanda she met with Anathalie Mukamazimpaka, one of the young women to whom the Virgin Mary appeared from 1981 to 1983 with the message of repentance and foretold the events of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first time she appeared,\u201d Anathalie said, \u201cI was reciting the rosary, and she called me by my name \u2026 She never told me why she chose me. She said she appears to anyone she wants, anytime she wants, anywhere she wants,\u201d Anathalie said. \u201cShe only asks us to love her as much as she loves us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary even helped give a nation their identity, Orth said, in the case of Our Lady of Guadalupe with Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone witnessing the outpouring of love and devotion that pilgrims demonstrate for their beloved Madre on the days leading up to the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe \u2026 can see that the Virgin Mary is deeply embedded in Mexican hearts and souls,\u201d Orth said as she followed pilgrims to Mexico City where St. Juan Diego\u2019s tilma bearing the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is still intact and on display.<\/p>\n

In addition to Christians, Muslims hold the Blessed Mother in high regard, Orth said, noting that her name appears more in the Koran than in the New Testament.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the Virgin Mary is not at all strange to Muslims,\u201d Fr. Johann Roten, director of research and special projects at the University of Dayton\u2019s Marian Library, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, wherever there is a connection between Christians and Muslims \u2013 or any two groups that know and love her \u2013 there is a common value in the covenant mother.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Egypt, Orth spoke with Muslims who were drawn to churches because of their devotion to Mary.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer story tells us a lot of things,\u201d a young Muslim woman praying outside the Abu Serga church on Easter said. \u201cShe is able to face lots of hardships in her life because of her faith, her belief in God.\u201d<\/p>\n

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MAGAZINE\u00a0 |\u00a0 DECEMBER 2015<\/p>\n

How the Virgin Mary Became the World\u2019s Most Powerful Woman<\/span><\/p>\n

Mary barely speaks in the New Testament, but her image and legacy are found and celebrated around the world.<\/p>\n

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As the sun sets in Medjugorje<\/b>, Bosnia and Herzegovina\u2014a hot spot for Virgin Mary sightings\u2014devotees of diverse faiths and nationalities gather to pray.<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Maureen Orth
\n<\/b>Photographs by Diana Markosian
\n<\/b>PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 8, 2015<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s apparition time: 5:40 p.m. In a small Roman Catholic chapel in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the village of Medjugorje, Ivan Dragicevic walks down the aisle, kneels in front of the altar, bows his head for a moment, and then, smiling, lifts his gaze heavenward. He begins to whisper, listens intently, whispers again, and doesn\u2019t blink for ten minutes. His daily conversation with the Virgin Mary has begun.<\/p>\n

Dragicevic was one of six poor shepherd children who first reported visions of the Virgin Mary in 1981. She identified herself to the four girls and two boys as the \u201cQueen of Peace\u201d and handed down the first of thousands of messages admonishing the faithful to pray more often and asking sinners to repent. Dragicevic was 16 years old, and Medjugorje, then in communist-controlled Yugoslavia, had yet to emerge as a hub of miracle cures and spiritual conversions, attracting 30 million pilgrims during the past three decades.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m in Medjugorje with a group of Americans, mostly hockey dads from the Boston area, plus two men and two women with stage 4 cancer. We\u2019re led by 59-year-old Arthur Boyle, a father of 13, who first came here on Labor Day weekend in 2000, riddled with cancer and given months to live. He felt broken and dejected and wouldn\u2019t have made the trip had not two friends forced him into it. But that first night, after he went to confession at St. James the Apostle church, psychological relief came rapidly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe anxiety and depression were gone,\u201d he told me. \u201cYou know when you\u2019re carrying someone on your shoulders in a swimming pool water fight\u2014they come off, and you feel light and free? I was like, Wait a minute, what just happened to me? Why is that?\u201d<\/p>\n

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