AusMaria meets AirMaria

A new program and series is being launched by AirMaria in USA; but it is made in Australia.

A program that tells the story of our Catholic faith on Mary forged and crafted in monuments called the shrines.

Marian evangelization and apostolate has never been so exciting these days as we have been gifted with a new technology of the internet. No wonder that the present Holy Father encourages us, especially those involved in evangelization and catechesis to make use of the internet as an instrument of evangelization. Here in AusMaria, we are proud to announce the official launch of the new Marian programme for our popular video blogging website in USA, AirMaria. However, the pre-internet production (taping, editing, scripting) is done in Western Australia.

The program is entitled "Marian Shrines of the World." This is hosted by our very own Aussie-born friar, Fr. Andre Feain, who studied in USA and in Italy. Why a series on Marian shrines? As our first installation in our video updates shows, Fr. Andre tacitly indicated that almost all Marian shrines are monumental proofs of heaven's intervention, albeit, Mary's concern in our lives. Shrines of Our Lady in Fatima, La Salette, Lourdes, Guadalupe, etc. are proofs of this recurring principle: that Mary wishes, out of her maternal concern, to intervene in our lives to make them better and pleasing to God. The late John Paul II called this, "maternal mediation."

In addition, Marian shrines, like all other Catholic shrines in the world, are monuments of Faith. They are not just inert passive buildings built on rocks and bricks. They are the tangible witness of the faith of the people that build them. They show a civilization or a century that is is so enamoured of Faith that they forged what seems to be ordinary physical materials into objects of devotion and inspiration. For the late pontiff, John Paul II says that the Marian shrines indicate a geography of Faith. Although, he says, that graces are given us in different places, the shrines are locus where intense graces are dispense to those who will visit them with devotion. This "localization" in a physical place of these graces is at the very heart of the mystery of the Incarnation. It is because of the reality that the Son of God whom heaven can not contain, assumed our human nature that He had, for the first time, been confined in specific places: Bethlehem, Nazareth, Galilee, Calvary. By doing so, He elevated everything that is human and material, including places, to be "loci gratiarum", that is, places of graces. The same principle is applicable to all Marian Shrines.

May this new series help us to appreciate God's divine goodness that will transform these Marian Shrines to be more than just tourist spots, but rather, as places of love and devotion to and by our august Mother of God.