She was everywhere in the pre-Vatican II Catholic home. On the May altar crowded with fresh flowers. On the rosary by the bedside. On the brown scapular worn against the skin. On the holy card tucked in the missal. In the Litany whose titles — Tower of Ivory, Gate of Heaven, Morning Star — were as familiar as the alphabet.

Before the Altar Changed, Vol. II: Marian Devotions recovers this world for the Catholics who never knew it and deepens it for those who have never stopped practicing it. From the Rosary's medieval origins to the Legion of Mary's twentieth-century apostolate, from the apparitions at Guadalupe, Lourdes, and Fatima to the quiet domestic shrine of a May altar in a family living room, this volume offers the fullest available guide to the Marian devotional life of the pre-conciliar Church.

Thirty-two chapters across seven parts cover:

The Rosary — its medieval origins, the three sets of mysteries, the family Rosary of Father Patrick Peyton
The Scapulars and Medals — the Brown Scapular, the Green Scapular, the Miraculous Medal, the Scapular Medal
The Prayers of Mary — the Angelus, the Memorare, the Litany of Loreto, the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the great Marian novenas
The Feasts and Seasons — the Marian calendar, May and October as Mary's months, the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, Our Lady of Sorrows
The Apparitions — Guadalupe (1531), Lourdes (1858), Fatima (1917), La Salette, Knock, Akita
The Confraternities — the Legion of Mary, the Sodality of Our Lady, the Children of Mary, the great American Marian shrines
The Home and the Parish — the home altar, holy cards, Marian hymns, and the November devotion for the Holy Souls

Five appendices supply the practical equipment of the devotional life the book describes: the complete prayers of the Holy Rosary with all fifteen mysteries and their traditional virtues, the Litany of Loreto in Latin and English, the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Prime, Vespers, and Compline), a comparative calendar of Marian feasts in the 1962 and 1969 Roman calendars, and an annotated bibliography for further study.

Whether you are recovering an inheritance you once knew, or discovering for the first time the world your grandmother lived in, this book is your guide.

The second volume in the Before the Altar Changed series. Volume I treats the pre-Vatican II liturgical year; further volumes on the Sacraments and on Saints, Shrines, and Popular Piety are forthcoming.

Before the Altar Changed, Vol. II: Marian Devotions

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