Put Your Hands into Hers: Mary, Our Life, Our Sweetness, and Our Hope …

By Rev. Ronald Ramson C.M.

What’s your relationship to Mary, the mother of Jesus? Do you think of Mary as your mother or your queen? What did Jesus say from the wood of the cross about his mother? Do you pray to Mary for your family, loved ones, and yourself?
In Put Your Hands into Hers, author Father Ron Ramson, a Vincentian priest, offers an in-depth look at Mary, the mother of Jesus, a woman who has exemplified a mother’s love, hope, and inspiration. With snippets of Ramson’s life included, it offers interesting, informative, and inspirational insight into the human side of this special woman’s life.
Put Your Hands into Hers demonstrates that Mary is the answer to a messed up world; she is our refuge and our hope. We need Mary; we need a Mother’s love in action. We need her inspiration, truth, compassion, and justice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Jul 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9781665705141

Rev. Ronald Ramson C.M.

Ron Ramson, C.M., a Vincentian priest, is a man of many experiences and acquaintances. He has been a parish priest and pastor, a vocation director, a seminary rector and formator, director of formation for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, a missionary in Kenya, and an author. Ramson lives in Missouri.

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Copyright © 2021 Rev. Ronald Ramson, C.M.

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except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher

make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book

and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Archway Publishing

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are

models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright

© 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States

of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

ISBN: 978-1-6657-0513-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6657-0515-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6657-0514-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021906423

Archway Publishing rev. date: 07/01/2021

Contents

Note

Preface/Background

A Few Basic Remarks

Why?

A Marian Inspirational Gallery

Don’t Be Afraid

Mary’s Biography by Saint Maximus the Confessor

Mary, The New Eve

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton and Mary in Italy

After God….

Mary’s Mom and Dad: Jesus’ Grandparents

Saint Padre Pio and the Madonna

Do Whatever He Tells You

The Mary I Knew as a Youth

The Old Man on the Train

We Cannot Forget What the Rosary Is

The Hail Mary Has a History

The World’s Most Famous Woman

Mary and the Man She Loved

Our Lady of……… (You fill in the blank)

Happy Birthday!

There is No Room in the Inn

Jesus’ Third Word from the Cross

Miriam of Nazareth

Scapulars Come in Colors

The Second Annunciation

A Conversation

The Color Green

The Most Beautiful Name in All the World

Why Does Mary Have So Many Names, Titles, and Feasts?

The Fruits of the Rosary: The Virtues

Decisions in the Rosary

The Golden Hail Mary

Mary, Did You Know?

Mary and The Archbishop

The Joyful Mysteries

The Sorrowful Mysteries

The Glorious Mysteries

The Luminous Mysteries

Queen Mother

The Subversive Song of Mary

Sub Tuum

Little Lady Dressed in Blue

12 Stars

The Hands of Mary

Marian Apparitions

Our Lady of the Pillar

Our Lady of Sorrows

Our Lady of La Salette

Our Lady of Guadalupe

Our Lady of Akita (Japan)

Our Lady of Fourviere

Patroness of the USA

Our Lady of Lourdes

Our Lady of Deliverance

Our Lady of Knock

Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

Our Lady of Hope

Two Lesser Known Shrines of Blessed Mary

Our Lady of Fatima

Our Lady of Czestochowa

Mary in Belgium

Our Lady Health of the Sick

Our Lady of Good Success

Our Lady of Mercy

Our Lady of Good Help

Our Lady of the Holy Rosary

Our Lady of Altotting

Our Lady Undoer of Knots

Our Lady Seat of Wisdom

Our Lady of the Cenacle

Our Lady Help of Persecuted Christians

Our Lady of Tears

Bibliography

Note

Opposite the western side of our residence here in Perryville, Missouri is what many call The Bronze Mary.

People—locals, and tourists—kneel before her at the prie-dieu and put their hands into her hands. Many times, I have done the same.

The Association of The Miraculous Medal, in the middle of the Fall of the past year, asked me to place into Mary’s hands, several thousand prayer requests. I placed one stack after the other into her hands and then blessed each one. What a great privilege! Have you got prayer intentions?

Are you looking for hope, for inspiration, for compassion?

Put your hands into hers.

*********************************************

This is not a textbook on Mariology or a theological treatise. It is a book on and about Mary from a Vincentian priest who has had Mother Mary in his mind and heart for over seventy-five years. You will read autobiographical snippets of me throughout the book.

Preface/Background

I am surrounded by Mary. I am referring to Mary, the Mother of Jesus.

The Church of the Assumption, now referred to as the Shrine Church (it houses the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal), stands in dominance to the left side fairly near the residence in which I live. Close to the church is a small center housing a religious goods store and a meeting room named after Saint Catherine Laboure.

To the west, alongside us, runs the Rosary Walk leading to three grottoes.

Farther west and parallel to our residence lies the office building of the Association of the Miraculous Medal in which women and men dedicated to the ministry of Mary work.

Behind us, in our back yard, is the Marian Meditation Walk. I prefer to call it the Ring of Mary or the Crown of Mary because within the circle stand twelve statues of Mary with one immediately off to the side.

These thirteen statues represent Mary’s unflinching love for humankind. Each statue shows Mary in a different physical appearance, in native dress, related to the time and culture. She is a master of appropriateness. I always have been amazed how young girls have been able to describe in detail the dress of Mary and her shoes (if she was wearing any). And Mary is a master of languages and dialects!

These thirteen Marys cover the globe: Portugal, England, Ireland, France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Mexico, Japan.

I have been blessed over the last two years by making fifty-plus videos for the Association of the Miraculous Medal. The videos were all made either at The Bronze Mary or at The Marian Meditation Walk or at one of the Marian grottos.

What does Mary have to say to you and me today? We have gone through an epic pandemic with world changing aftereffects. A small virus has changed the world like, perhaps, nothing else could with such rapidity and expansiveness.

Is Mary a valid intercessor for today or a relic of the past, nice to know of, nice to look at, but nothing more?

What do many pray? Hail, holy Queen, our life, our sweetness, and out hope.

Does Mary inspire our hearts and minds?

Is she a vessel of hope?

Do we feel a mother’s love?

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Why?

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Why write another book about Mary who lived two-thousands years ago? There are so many publications on her available. I personally have a dozen Marian books on my shelf.

Maybe the reason—why—is because there are a good number of people out in the pews or at home who think alike: Mary is the answer to a messed up world. Mary is our refuge and our hope.

I was asked to write this book on Mary by a reputable editor, so I have. I had no intention to author a book on Mary; it never entered my mind, but I believe in divine providence. I believe that God speaks to us through persons, circumstances, situations. I have had good examples of this in my life. When that editor asked me to write a book on Mary, I saw this as God’s will. And guess what? Almost immediately, I became flooded with Marian ideas, including the title for the book!

Your purchase of this book is an example of God speaking to you and Mary doing her part also. Am I pushing the envelope or is there truth to my assumption?

The writing of this book has been a daunting task yet one of joy. As I have been in lockdown for months, I utilized the time for prayer, research, and writing.

As we have lived through the pandemic, we often have invoked Our Lady Health of the Sick (her feast day is the Saturday before the last Sunday in August). I filmed a short video on Mary under this title for the Association of the Miraculous Medal and was amazed at the number of peoples’ responses! Obviously, people see the need for Our Lady during this turbulent time.

Added to the fire of the pandemic has been the unrest and turmoil on our city streets. This is reminiscent of the July 1830 uprisings in Paris as foretold by Mary to Saint Catherine Laboure.

We need Mary; we need a mother’s love in action. We need her bonafide inspiration. We need her truth, compassion, justice. Mary can and will give all five! You will read those words over and over within these pages.

Consequently, this book: Put Your Hands into Hers.

Three Essentials

Three essential concepts intentionally run through this book, if not explicitly certainly implicitly: a mother’s love, hope, and inspiration.

In all the apparitions of the Mother of Jesus to persons throughout the centuries, she has exemplified three qualities: a mother’s love, hope, and inspiration. Yes, at times, she has given people a mission, but underlying that mission are those salient qualities.

A Mother’s love.

We only can speculate, but there must have been a conversation between Jesus and his mother that ran something like this:

Mother, after all these years here at Nazareth earning a living as a carpenter and caring for you after dear father Joseph’s death, the time has come. I will be leaving for Jerusalem where I will be initiating my mission: preaching the Kingdom of God. I have talked to our family members and neighbors to keep their eye on you. Our savings are in my cabinet drawer; you should not have any financial problems. I will see you occasionally, certainly at the wedding in Cana.

Her husband, Joseph had passed; now the love of her life, Jesus, was leaving her. She had to know within her that he would suffer in many ways during his public ministry.

Her mother’s love was strained when he was twelve years old, when Joseph and she found him in the temple of Jerusalem. She had been worried to death for three days.

Now as a grown adult she will have more to worry about than a lost pre-teen. She knew what Jesus has to say will clash with religious authorities and no doubt with the Roman occupational forces. A mother’s love is without borders.

In every apparition, Mary our Mother, has manifested a Mother’s love regardless of age, country, recipient.

A mother’s love is:

nondefinable,

the most powerful force in the world,

unconditional and eternal,

sacrificial,

beyond generosity,

the total gift of self.

Hope.

While missioned in Denver, I saw the musical Damn Yankees starring Jerry Lewis; I thoroughly enjoyed the stage production. One of the hit songs is Heart.

"You’ve gotta have hope

Mustn’t sit around and mope

Nothin’s half as bad as it may appear." ¹

Moving from the profane to the spiritual, Saint Paul tells us:

"Now hope that is seen is not hope.

For who hopes for what he sees?

But if we hope for what we do not see,

we wait for it with patience."²

A husband and father, a Frenchman, a man beatified by the Church said:

"Hope! The fault of many Christians is to hope little….

They are apostles in the boat during the storm: they forget that the Savior is in the midst of them."³

The year of 2020 was a tough one. Those of us who faced the consequences of the coronavirus, needed to rely on hope. We waited and waited