Maiden and Mother: Devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary throughout the Year - Softcover

This unique Marian devotional includes hymns, prayers, songs, ballads, litanies, and other texts drawn from all centuries, bringing together a precious collection of texts from the most ancient to modern.

The selection is arranged under main headings for the seasons of the Church's year, with sub-sections covering all the major feasts of Our Lady plus some others observed locally or still popular.

The months of May, dedicated to Mary, and October, the month of the Rosary, have devotions arranged on the traditional pattern for different times of day.

Brief introductions to each feast and season are provided, with a note on the history, significance, and liturgical celebration of each. The best-known medieval hymns and prayers are given in their original Latin as well as English.

The whole builds into a book for private or small-group devotion to the Blessed Virgin that has no rival for comprehensiveness and usefulness. It will appeal both to those who feel deprived of traditional forms of devotion and to those who are conscious of the increasing significance of the figure of the Virgin in today's world.

Margaret R. Miles is Dean and d Academic Vice-President of the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, and is President of the American Academy of Religion. She was formerly Bussey Professor of historical Theology at Harvard University. Her previous books include "Image as Insight: Visual Understanding in Western Christianity and Secular Culture, Carnal Knowing: female Nakedness and Religious Meaning in the Christian West, Seeing an Believing: Religion and values in the Movies," and, most recently, "Reading for Life: Beauty, Pluralism, and Responsibility" (1998).