 Okay, I don't see father on there as that Okay, cool. Hey friends, this is Dan Stephanie Burke You're watching divine intimacy by in the scenes divine intimacy radio Or you get to see all of our mistakes and foibles and our humanity hidden normally from typical radio audiences, but you get to see them here pretty excited to talk about Mary today and life-changing stories of devotion to her and Before we jump in it's interesting the our guest is the head of the President of the Mariological Society of America, so we have a rich well of Resource to draw from and we're gonna open the show in a minute talking about the triumph of the immaculate heart I'm just curious from his standpoint because he knows so many sources of Mary and Mary and a Mariology if you will that I want to just get some perspective. We have a conference coming up the summit in October of 2023 Will be the Mary and mystery of the triumph of the immaculate heart. That's right And it's gonna be pretty exciting here and I'm very excited about it. I love our lady. She's my queen in Hansville, Alabama and great speaker lineup already But I just want father to educate us a little bit on that and get us more excited about it the other thing I want to tell people about before we jump in is Pilgrimage to Carmelite Spain if you've never done it It will change your life and that's said a lot about a lot of things like new tires in your car New you know new sheet sheet cover or seat covers. That's all bologna What really happens is when you get in the presence of saints they change your life So Carmelite pilgrimage to Spain June 5th to 16th 2023 with Stephanie and I we only allow 50 Participants because we like to get to know everybody and pray with everybody in one bus You will not be on a pilgrimage with six buses. We promise just one bus Well and perpetual lines at the bathroom is right with that all becomes not interested and it happened We have an extension to Fatima speaking of Mary which fits this whole thing. All right, so let's jump into the show On your market gets set go. This is danna Stephanie bill Stop stop reset This is the great thing about live radio. I don't know how people do it, you know who do it every day flawlessly It's amazing to me. I can't do that on your markets that go. This is danna Stephanie Burke Welcome to divine intimacy radio your radio haven abreast your hermitage of the heart your monastery of the mine We we lift our hearts and minds to heaven to draw on the wisdom of the saint and to saints to help us to navigate this difficult life today We are going to focus on drawing on the wisdom of what would be known as the saint the preeminent Disciple of Jesus which is his blessed mother and we have a special guest to help us navigate our Journey today. Who is that stuff? We are so thrilled to welcome father Edward looney. He is a priest of the diocese of Green Bay The president of the Mariological Society of America and an author of several books He's also a host of the podcast how they love Mary. So welcome father looney. It's good to have you here Well, it's great to be with all of you here on divine intimacy radio Awesome. Now you have a podcast and some resources I just want to say it at the beginning middle and end Edward looney calm Is that the resource is that the page where they could find everything? I hope so. I am terrible at updating my websites Oh, but they should be able to find enough information there to get them where they want where they want to be And the podcast is called how they love Mary. Is that right? That's that's correct. And it's actually the title of the book as well. So that's kind of two for one Perfect. Well before we jump into the book, tell me give me some I don't know cliff notes Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary why it's so important. I Really want to encourage folks to show up next year. I mean, we don't have trouble filling these summits But really want folks to learn more about the triumph of the Immaculate Heart Yeah, well the triumph of the Immaculate Heart all surrounds itself with Essentially the apparition of our Lady at Fatima that Mary promised the children in the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph and There were lots of things kind of Preambling that the first would be, you know, pray the rosary every day for peace in the world to avoid further wars That was also the request for the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart And then there was that promise in the end my heart will triumph So right now we live in a time where we see a lot of immorality It's given a lot of license and we can lose hope we can lose a lot of things when we see all of it We can become discouraged, but I think that's the great promise that in the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph And there are other alleged marrying apparitions that talk about kind of the illumination of conscience and how at One point people will come to know and to love God And I think that's truly when the reign of the Immaculate Heart is going to take place when we all become servants of our Lady and followers of her son That's really beautiful It is beautiful the the connection to Fatima of course is really important because To me that message of hope is in contrast with some very difficult things that she said Right what do you find? I mean that's to me the most important aspect of the triumph of her Immaculate Heart in terms of how it affects us theologically Yeah, and one of the things too is I I think we often Think of the end of the world and when that's going to happen And of course St. Paul when he wrote his letters He thought that there was this imminent parisia that was going to take place that Jesus was going to come back in his lifetime all the apostles thought that but of course here We are over 2,000 years later and we're waiting for the return of Jesus So the triumph of the Immaculate Heart could take place literally in our lifetime But I think it also has to take place Individually in all of us so that when we have a devotion to our Lady when we allow her messages to reign in our heart And we follow them well then that's allowing her heart to triumph through us and in us So that's another little aspect. I think we should look at too with the triumph Yeah, that's really beautiful when I Do some speaking here and there and that's one of the things that has been really Resonating with me that I've brought up is that I I think part of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of our Lady Is actually going to happen in the hearts of her people and especially her her women her daughters As sin came through, you know Eve I think we're gonna be we're all gonna be playing a part in that as our lady Purifies us and returns us to who we're called to be We're gonna play a part in healing our families in healing our communities our marriages our our children You know and at infinitum. I think it's really going to play a part in that And that's something st. Louis de Monfort writes about in true devotion to Mary He talks about that there will be this age of Mary and that all that kind of if you want to use Militristic language that this army of our lady is going to rise up and that's why it's so important that we band together and pray the rosary and and I know the Atlantic piece and you know, they think though the rosaries are weapon But but the rosary sure is a weapon against evil But it's an instrument of peace for the world and peace for our heart and souls as well very well said, you know one of the things I like about this book and In your I don't your acknowledgments you acknowledge father Fred Miller and He actually walked me off the cliff in my first Montfortian consecration because I'm I'm a convert from Protestantism and Mary the doctrines relate to Mary one of my biggest struggles and so he helped me to Put it in context and he said next year do Max million Colby, you know, which is kind of which is kind of funny So now we consecrate ourselves every year to the Blessed Mother, but I think like the way that he helped me Which was explaining to me more fully the mystery, right? So I could Intellectually align my mind with the truths of the church and then a sense with faith and then act and live That consecration your book I think will do in this why we had you on the show today is to talk about how they love Mary 28 life-storing life-changing stories of devotion to our lady I believe your book could help people who maybe even struggle with her devotion with breakthrough because you quote so many You know great saints on on her life and why we should have devotion to her Yeah, they all have devotion to our lady The 28 people and some of them are saints others are holy men and women that I think should be saints one day But they're they're not yet saints. It's a great book I think for people who are new to Marian devotion Maybe they're like I don't understand it all and I think that's the value of the saints is that we can learn from them We can see their example. They inspire us I always love that phrase from Hebrews 12 that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses And so that great cloud has to inspire us and in our journey of faith and that's exactly what they do And I was really inspired by that the name how they love Mary came from a line That I began thinking about from an opening prayer for the Feast of Saint Lawrence It said may we love what he loved I said, well, what did Saint Lawrence love and then I started looking at the other saints I'm like, well, what did they love? Well, they love the Eucharist. They love our lady. They love the church They love all of these different things. So Yeah, I think that it can help anybody in their love for our lady If it's a new a newbie to Marian devotion or maybe someone who's been a lifelong devotee But maybe they feel a little stagnant or stale in their Marian devotion Maybe it can be a refresher and give them a breath of fresh air What wonderful so you you chose 28 people to include in your book How did you select these people because you said some are saints some are our saints in the making So how'd you decide who to put in? Yeah with the exception of Pope Francis all of the people including the book are deceased So there he's the only living one But what I wanted to do was in a sense This was going to be kind of an autobiographical piece for me So each one of these people have had some sort of influence in my life Like the very first lesson that I talk about is Saint Damien of Molokai and what did his Marian devotion look like? Well, Saint Damien is my birthday Saint So It just seemed natural to me and I've always had a devotion like when I learned that Saint Damien was my birthday Saint I've had people send me medals of Saint Damien from Hawaii that found me You know and heard me talk about Saint Damien. So that was one of the reasons why included him So each one of the people kind of have had some sort of influence as a saint in my life I include some lesser-known people, but one of them was Mother Mary Francis She was the poor Claire Abbas down in Roswell, New Mexico. Oh gosh, what a connection to my connection I grew up in Roswell My I spent many many hours out at the poor Claire's and my parents have served them for years and years That is a very very holy ground. Yeah, so keep rolling on that one. That's yeah So I I said mass for them last November. I wonder if I would have met your parents Yeah, it's my sure so Yeah, so I chose her because when I was in the seminary they would put out books for us, you know Like they book recommendations or whatever in the library and I saw this book for Advent come Lord Jesus Meditations on waiting and I read that book and it was one of the best spiritual Reflections that I've ever read and then I read her, you know, Lenten reflections So, you know, I thought someone like her people need to meet her or I went to conception Abbey for seminary for two years And so there's a priest there father Lucas Etlin He had a cause for canonization Kind of slowed down doesn't it didn't really advance or anything like that But I thought well, let's introduce people to the monks of conception Abbey then Very cool. Very cool. So What? You mentioned mother Mary Francis had a big impact on you as you're doing a book like this I know, you know, you have a bunch of quotes and sources that you or that are go-to for you But is there one outside of the one you already shared is there one or two that really? Solidified your Mary and spirituality. I'll just give one example of my own my first book Navigating the interior life. I found a quote and I don't remember where who it's from you do because it's in your book That everyone who becomes a saint has a devotion to Mary that affected me very deeply So what's your where your which stories are the greatest inspirations for you? Yeah, you know the story of blessed Salonist Casey had a tremendous impact and especially right now in my life I've been reading the mystical city of God all year. I've been doing it as a little podcast Kind of like in this in the spirit of father Michael Schmitz called the mystical city of God in your podcast And really the reason why I wanted to do that was because when I learned of Salonist Casey's story and my predecessor in the parish I was a Capuchin and he worked and lived with Salonist Casey So he instilled within the people in my parish a great devotion of Salonist. So Salonist gets beatified I'm reading his biography and anticipation of that to write a piece about him And I was really struck by a few things the first was he was in a hospital He was going to have his leg amputated and my mother was a severe diabetic had toes amputated I knew her leg was next and so I said in my mind. I'm like well Salonist He he you know was almost an amputee. He ended up not having his leg amputated, but I thought to myself Well, he needs to be my mother's intercessor. So every day I started asking Salonist to pray for my mother And then as I kept reading the biography I found out that he would recommend the mystical city of God to people to read And if you go to the Salonist Casey center in Detroit, they have a copy of the mystical city of God one of the copies he gave to someone that he wrote a little note in And basically he would say I will pray you pray and you read this Sometimes people would come back and they'd be like, well, why isn't so-and-so getting better? Well, he'd ask did you read from the mystical city of God? They would say no no So he said read from the mystical city of God. So I would say that's one of the most profound ones like So that's so inspired. Let's stop you there I'm sorry to cut you off because I love your enthusiasm We uh, we have to go to a break when we come back. I want you to just keep that thought and keep rolling because it's It's fascinating. We'll be right back Um, so we're at break, but everyone can still hear us uh I'm going to take a live stream note to say so Don't miss the Marian mystery and the triumph of the immaculate heart summit avila summit annual avila summit Father John Byrne sister Regina Marie Gorman Claire Dwyer Father Ignatius Schweitzer at the shrine of the most blessed sacrament in Hansville and our Carmelite pilgrimage to Spain, which includes a fadima extension Which just totally fits in with what we're talking about today So check those out and let's jump back into the show Oh, uh spiritualdirection.com forward slash events for all of our events Uh after once the show is concluded. So that was 13 minutes. Father will go 12 and a half now if you want to watch the clock a little bit Probably we'll cut out at 12 With you and then do some wrap up. Okay 12 minutes. All right on your markets that go This is danna Stephanie Burke. Welcome back to divine intimacy radio Love this subject, which is so strange. I had so much trouble uh with mary coming into this church I ended up writing a best-selling book called the contemplative rosary uh about her devotion to her And uh, so we've got it. We've got a I would say a world-class expert on on mary and Devotion to mary father edward looney with his great book. How do they love mary? So father, I hated cutting you off for the break because I love your enthusiasm But keep rolling with what you were what you were talking about Yeah, I was talking about salonis kasey and Essentially after I learned his promotion of the mystical city of god every day then While I prayed for my mother Usually at night, I would say a little prayer, you know, dear father salonis Please pray for my mother that she'll never have her leg amputated in this life and Then I would read a page from the mystical city of god Well, I got to about page 245 and then my mother passed away, which I saw as an answered prayer But uh, I never finished it and so I thought to myself I owe this to salonis I really want to read the mystical city of god. I talked to a few of my friends And I I pitched the idea to them and they're like well, we wanted to reread it or read it for the first time so if you do this we're going to follow along and uh, so every day now I've been reading for the mystical city of god for about 20 minutes. It's a four volume over 2500 page work It's an arduous task, but uh, it's been spiritually beneficial for me and uh, I know it's making a difference in my soul I don't I can't articulate it all that well, but I just know that I'm different because I'm reading it God be praised and it's interesting because I was just looking at it. I have it on my shelf I have a little I have a shelf in my library that's all Um dedicated to our lady and that's right there in front of me and I looked at it the other day Kind of stared at and I thought you know, I should break that open So maybe this is my nudge Well, let me ask you besides the rosary because we've talked about you know the contemplative rosary that dan and Connie Rossini wrote great book. It's and we even have an app for it. We do. Um, it's beautiful I love our app. So what are besides the rosary? What are some other forms of mary and devotion that you could school us on? Yeah, you know, uh, actually connected with the rosary. I suppose you could say like For 50 for the 54 day rosary novena from august 15th to october 7th the feast of our lady the rosary I've just been doing a social media rosary with followers and uh, yesterday it was windy here I usually do it from our grotto at my parish. We have a very beautiful grotto uh, a historical marker and uh, because it was so windy I did it inside But I have this lady from the philippines come by earlier in the morning. She's a parishioner She just got back from the philippines. She brought me like this two foot two foot tall statue of our lady from one of the mary and shrines down in the philippines and I prayed the rosary yesterday before that image. So that's something that I noticed In a lot of the stories of the holy men and women father lucas atlin who I referenced earlier father patch or father Father patent. He also Had a statue of our lady, you know the statues of our lady St. Therese was miraculously healed by a statue that came to life and smiled at her So the statues I think having the presence of our lady is is tremendous and To have that holy reminder as mother angelica would always say and that when we look at a crucifix We remember Jesus died for us. Maybe we pray christ crucified have mercy on me And when we see a statue of our lady, maybe you call upon our lady pray for me blessed mother So I think that's a strong invitation of prayer the scapular of course is another Sacramento There's spiritual reading that we can do like I mentioned with uh, salonis casey and reading that the mystical city of god, but There are great saints like st. Francis the sails who wrote homilies about the blessed mother there's a volume of Sermons on our lady that he wrote that's published by tan books And and those those are opportunities. I think to to delve deeper into marrying devotion to there's There's so many different ways beside the rosary that we can express a marrying devotion and fervor in our own life And there's a great book we we have a guest on today who's talking about a great book just about that It's uh, father edward looney How they love married 28 life-changing stories as revulsion To our lady you can get that out at spirits of direction dot com forward slash shop Published by the great sophia institute press and I was going to add one more devotion and that's going on pilgrimage Oh big. Oh, that that is huge. That has been Incredible life changing for us in our the hoops who come right, you know, it's it's been incredible I I want to come up to the shrine up there in green bay. Um, oh, I've been there. It's really it's really yeah I haven't so tell us a little bit about that father Yeah, so going on pilgrimage is really significant. Lots of people have gone on marrying pilgrimages Fulton sheen I think you know, he went to lured so many times. He went to fadima so many times mother angelica actually went to akita japan Uh after her stroke, you know, and wow, she she went to lured so Um pilgrimage is important and right here in wisconsin. So we talk about pilgrimage You're leading that pilgrimage to a carmelite spain. I was just an avala earlier this year when I was in spain Is that amazing? Yeah, it was beautiful amazing. Uh, and then I said uh mass at the tomb of st Teresa of avala in whatever that town was but all but the term is that's the town name and uh Yeah, so uh, we can go across the pond But we can also come right here to shrines in the united states. Yeah, there's a marion apparition champion And right outside of green bay where our lady appeared in 1859 as the queen of heaven And told the visionary adel to pray for the conversion of sinners offer her holy communion for that intention To make a general confession then to gather the children teach them what they need to know for salvation It's a very simple message. The shrine was spared from A A torrential fire you could call it like a fired tornado That began burning on the very eve of the anniversary of the apparition devastated Hundreds upon hundreds of acres of land But yet the shrine stood there amidst the sea of of ash as an emerald island as one person commented so It's a story that's rich with lots of different healings and miracles that still happen to the present day So that's a place you can come to the united states Wherever you live, there's probably a marion shrine where I live in wisconsin Of course, I live 20 minutes from champion, but we have the shrine to holy hill a karm light of the silica outside of milwaukee There's the shrine of our lady of guadalupe in lacrosse But there are shrines all across the united states wherever you go. You can find a shrine to the blessed mother I'm sure of it And you should go annually really and yeah with with a specific intention to pray But I love your uh enthusiasm My favorite shrine in the united states is our lady of la lache down there in florida. Yeah, and it's there too It's known as a place where couples who struggle to conceive they pray for that grace of fertility and I've taken Intentions there like I I'll post on social media. Who would you like me to pray for? I'm insane augustine And I I just received an email last week from someone that said you prayed for us and now we just had our child baptized And we're told we never have children so I love getting those little grace reports So a visit to a shrine can be efficacious for your soul and also just for your intercessory prayer as well Last question I want to ask you and we may have a little more time for another one, but it's complex So It's it's related to additional devotions that we learn from People like you've written about in your book how they love mary But I've prayed exilium christianorum for years mary, you know mary help of christians And in that there's a prayer the opening prayer has mary purifying our prayers to god as we pray The devotion where does that do you know where that tradition comes from and can you talk a little bit about how She can purify our prayers. I've been begin praying that at mass naturally And the last few masses I've gone to lord mary, please Purify my intentions in my heart in this mass Well admittedly I don't know about that devotion I think this is the second time you've told me about it Which is probably the invitation to learn more about it Maybe begin praying it myself But that whole notion of mary purifying our prayers because she is the immaculate conception She's without sin and so she is favorable before god now we We have sin and so she can join her prayers to ours And and then present them to her son Just as she at cana that wonderful story of turning water into wine that jesus did Well, it was at her request and so I think really this this notion not only just her purifying our prayers amplifying them It affects or maybe talks a little bit about her mediation of grace that god has given her this role in history And one of the things that you just look at history You look at all the different times that people have called out to our lady and they've experienced grace Like the battle of lapanto was won. Some people don't like referring to military battles, but But that was one where the people joined in prayer of the rosary and a success was given to them But you go to any shrine when you're in spain. They'll have little mementos on the walls saying, you know in remembrance of my healing or whatever and People have prayed to our lady and it works And that's because god has given this to us as she is our spiritual mother And so she is the one to make intercession for us And uh, and he wishes to give us grace through her hands because she was the fullness of grace One of the um devotions that just came to mind as you were speaking was the one in italy We're on the on street corners on the building. They they incorporate a incorporate um a little um Shrine a little statue. There's a there's a little altar and they have a statue for a lady Relief where she sat in right it's set in into the corner of the buildings And it is such a beautiful devotion because you're walking down the streets. You're in modern, you know Full on modernity everywhere You know all kinds of different colors shapes and styles and everything And then you look up and there's our lady and it's this reminder of i'm with you, you know I haven't left my people Call to me pray to me, you know, so it's just really beautiful When and a catholic can see that a non christ a non christian a muslim someone else could see that Any christian they're just reminded it's a great reminder in the world that well Here is the mother of god and she loves you and she prays for you whether you like it or know it That's awesome. That's awesome So father edward looney how they love mary 28 life-changing stories of devotion to our late our lady Sophie institute press edward looney.com Is up on the screen for live stream folks And you could also find his works at ewtn's religious catalog Always support ewtn because when you do two amazing things happen Like if you ordered this book from ewtn The one thing it would happen would be really good is you'd actually get the book The second thing that would happen is that you're helping them In their great ministry. They allow us to do the show Every week all over the world and we're grateful to them grateful to father looney who Obviously has been affected by the blessed mother because he's a priest filled with joy and energy And an obvious movement of god in him So pick up the book read it you will be blessed and with that we are out of time Okay, so until next time may the god of peace make you perfect in holiness May he preserve you whole and entire spirit soul and body irreproachable at the coming of our lord Jesus christ Amen best timing we've ever had um for those On still waiting for us I want to tell you about one course At the aval institute. It's called the spiritual wisdom of st. Thomas Aquinas Guided survey through the major themes of the summa with special emphasis on his wisdom As a master of scriptural interpretation Practical guidance guide to the holy ghost christ-centered life through Eliminating insights in the virtues and the gifts of the holy spirit the sacraments in prayer If you take this course what i'm told is you will levitate by the end That's a lie. You will be holier for sure September 6 is when it starts so that's coming up pretty quick So go sign up dr. Kevin vose who's also the author of many books on Aquinas that are fantastic accessible avala dash institute.org Avila dash institute.org spiritualdirection.com port slash events for all of our events. God bless you be holy, please The world needs saints more saints You can take a