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The Marian Institute

The world's first ecumenical organization dedicated exclusively to inspiring a Marian Renaissance through cultural experiences.

The Marian Institute is the world’s first ecumenical organization dedicated exclusively to finding and creating authentic cultural connections to the historical and devotional figure of Mary. We are doing so by activating social content and leveraging our expertise in new media channels and content distribution to inspire a movement and encourage evangelists to carry our message and brand out to a

global community. We are committed to fueling a Marian Renaissance by focusing on and communicating the universal feminine attributes of Mary (faith, beauty, strength, peacefulness, fidelity, etc.) through high profile, meaningful encounters on the streets of America and abroad.

08/22/2026

Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary
August 22

This week we celebrate another feast of our Blessed Mother instituted by Pope Pius XII, the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Just four years after declaring the dogma of the Assumption of Our Lady into heaven, Pope Pius XII, through the papal encyclical entitled Ad Caeli Regnum, instituted a feast to celebrate the Queenship of our Lady. The feast was originally celebrated on May 31st to “crown” the last day of the month of Mary.

Today, due to the rearrangement of some of Our Lady’s feast days by Pope Paul VI, the church celebrates this feast on the octave of the Assumption. It is very fitting that these two feast days of the Blessed Virgin Mary be celebrated in such close proximity, because it was upon her Assumption into heaven that our Lady took her place as the Queen Mother, beside her Son, Jesus Christ. In addition, if one recalls the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary, you will note that the fourth Glorious Mystery is the Assumption and the fifth Glorious Mystery is the Crowning of Mary. Since Our Lady gave the most holy rosary to the church, through St. Dominic, these two mysteries have been closely associated.

Why do we celebrate Mary as Queen? This is because her Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, is our King, the Prince of Peace, the Lord of Lords. Since Mary is the mother of Our Lord, she is rightly called Queen. Throughout the history of the church we have never hesitated to proclaim that Mary is Mother of the King, the Queen Mother of our Lord. St. Jerome noted that in the Syrian language, Mary’s name means Lady. Likewise, St. Chrysologus emphasizes that in the Hebrew language, Mary means Lady, Domina in Latin. Our Lord and our Lady; King and Queen. So through, the Pontificate of Pope Pius XII, we have a feast day to celebrate the Blessed Virgin Mary’s Queenship. A day to acknowledge what the Church has always professed, that the Blessed Virgin Mary, as the Mother of God, is the true Queen of heaven and earth.

🎨Art: Coronation of the Virgin 1635 to 1636,

08/14/2026

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

August 15

On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII made the following declaration in his Apostolic Constitution, Munificentissimus Deus ,“by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.” Thus, proclaiming the fourth dogma of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

What does this mean for us as members of the Body of Christ? It means that we have hope, we have hope that we too will be taken body and soul into heaven to be with our Lord on the judgement day. In the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, this hope was expressed as follows: “In the interim just as the Mother of Jesus, glorified in body and soul in heaven, is the image and beginning of the Church as it is to be perfected is the world to come, so too does she shine forth on earth, until the day of the Lord shall come,( 2 Pt. 3:10) as a sign of sure hope and solace to the people of God during its sojourn on earth”.

We are a people of hope. We hope in the Word of the Lord. As Jesus told his disciples, before His passion and death on the cross, “and when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also (Jn 14:3)”. On this day we honor the Blessed Virgin Mary who has received her heavenly glory and resides, body and soul, with her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ in heaven. We pray that one day we too, will be with the Blessed Virgin Mary and our Lord Jesus Christ in heaven, body and soul for eternity.

🎨🖌️: Assumption of the Virgin, 1637,

08/11/2026

Talking to Mary should be very simple. Many have found the way easily. More should try it.

-Servant of God Catherine de Hueck Doherty

Mary, Mother of God, pray for us!

📸: via

07/16/2026

Our Lady of Mount Carmel
July 16

Many people today, while they might be familiar with the title of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, are not as familiar with the devotion of the Brown Scapular that was given by Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The year was 1251, the date was July 16th, and the chosen recipient was St. Simon Stock, the superior-general of the Carmelite Order of the first chapter of Carmelites in England.

As a bit of history, the Carmelite Order traces their origin all the way back to the Old Testament. It began on Mt. Carmel where the prophet Elijah lived as a hermit. At the time, Israel was besieged by a terrible drought and the prophet Elijah was praying to God for salvation from the drought. Each time he cried out to the Lord he would send his servant up the mountain to look for rain. Seven times he cried out and on the seventh petition the servant returned with news of what appeared to be a rain cloud. The heavens opened up and the rain began to fall. The prophet Elijah saw the cloud as a sign of the Virgin, who would bear the long-awaited Messiah that had been foretold by the prophet Isaiah, of course, we know her as the Blessed Virgin Mary. The prophet Elijah and his disciples continued to live on Mt. Carmel and to pray for the Virgin and the coming of the Messiah.

It was from these hermits, disciples of the prophet Elijah dedicated to the Virgin, foretold by the prophet Isaiah, that the Carmelite Order received its heritage. To this day the Carmelites have a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, in particular as Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. As the Crusades were waged, in the Levant, the Order fled to the west to avoid persecution by the Saracens. At the time of St. Simon Stock, the Carmelites were a small Order fighting for survival. On July 16, 1251 St. Simon Stock knelt in prayer imploring the Blessed Virgin Mary to grant her protection over the Carmelite Order. Our Lady appeared to him holding the Christ Child and the brown scapular. Our Lady of Mt. Carmel promised St. Simon Stock that anyone “dying in the habit” would be saved by her special grace. While the Carmelite Order wears a large scapular as a part of their habit, the small devotional brown scapular may be worn by the lay faithful with the same promise of salvation attached.

The brown scapular devotion may be practiced by anyone as a devotion to Our Lady. In order to practice the devotion, one needs to be enrolled by a priest, and wear the scapular on their person every day. In addition, one must pray a rosary each day and observe chastity according to their state in life. The importance of the daily rosary cannot be overstated. The rosary and the brown scapular go together in signifying true devotion to Our Blessed Lady. When Our Lady appeared at Fatima, during the October 13, 1917 miracle of the sun, Lucia, the eldest seer, saw Our Lady appear as Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, signifying the importance of the two devotions: the rosary and the brown scapular.

07/04/2026

Have a happy and safe Fourth of July!

06/23/2026

“She [Mary] prays with us. The rosary prayer embraces the problems of the Church, of the See of St. Peter, and the problems of the whole world.”

St. John Paul II

📸: Josh Applegate via

♥️✝️🌏🌹🛐

06/12/2026

The Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
June 12

A Prayer for Daily Neglects

Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with all its love, all its sufferings and all its merits.
First --- To expiate all the sins I have committed this day and during all my life. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Second --- To purify the good I have done poorly this day and during all my life. Glory Be, etc.
Third --- To supply for the good I ought to have done, and that I have neglected this day and all my life.

Glory be to the Father
and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning is now, and ever shall be world without end.

Amen.

05/31/2026

Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
May 31
♥️✝️🌏🌹🛐

05/29/2026

“The twentieth-century Catholic author J.R.R. Tolkien, in the words of a protagonist in one of his novels, described our responsibility in this way: ‘It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.’” Pope Leo XIV

Mary, we shall till the fields of our hearts and minds and plant
gardens of love in your honor, pray for us!

📸: via

05/13/2026

Our Lady of Fatima

On May 13, 1917, Our Lady of Fatima appeared to three illiterate shepherd children, Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta, in the small village of Fatima, Portugal. The children were tending the sheep and building themselves a playhouse. They saw a flash of light, thinking it was lightening, they decided they better get the flocks and go home. Before they could herd the sheep and depart, Our Lady appeared to them on the top of a small oak tree. Lucia, the oldest of the three, age 10, spoke to Our Lady and asked her where she came from. Our Lady replied that she came from heaven. Lucia then asked what Our Lady wanted of her. Our Lady told the children that she wanted them to come on the 13th of the month for 6 months and she would later tell them who she was and what she wished. Lucia then asked a third question; will I go to heaven? Our lady assured her that she would go to heaven. Will Jacinta and Francisco, her cousins and companions, also go to heaven? Our lady again assured her that yes, they too would go to heaven, but that Francisco would have to say many rosaries before he would gain heaven. Our Lady then taught them the “decade” prayer and asked them to say it after each decade of the rosary. In addition, she asked them to say the rosary every day, for peace in the world and an end to the war. She then departed.

It was during the June 13th appearance that Our Lady again assured the children that they would go to heaven. This time Our Lady said that she would come for Francisco and Jacinta, very soon, but that Lucia would remain for some time longer in order to make known the message of Fatima.

In light of the recent Covid 19 pandemic that we experienced from 2020 to 2023, it is spiritually rewarding to revisit the deaths of the two little shepherd children who saw Our Lady, Francisco and the Jacinta. It was in January 1918, that the Spanish Flu, the most deadly pandemic in recent history, spread throughout the world. Our two littlest seers, Francisco and Jacinta, along with countless others contracted the Spanish Flu. During their illness they maintained the practice of their daily rosaries and offered all of their pain and suffering for the conversion of sinners, just as Our Lady had taught them. Each of them knew that they were not to be spared death in their illness, yet they persisted in their mortifications and prayers, looking forward to their heavenly reward. Sadly, it was from the Spanish Flu that each of them died, Francisco in April of 1919, at the age of 11 and his little sister Jacinta in February of 1920, at the age of 9. True to her word, Our Lady took each of them to heaven, our assurance of this from their Canonization to Sainthood on May 13, 2017, one hundred years after the first Apparition of Our Lady.

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