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Very well done work on the LOTR #2. I like how you included images for each of the questions too!

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Very well done work on the LOTR #2. I like how you included images for each of the questions too!

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Outstanding layout of these celebrations! You make it so easy to see both the seasons and the celebrations together. 

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Outstanding layout of these celebrations! You make it so easy to see both the seasons and the celebrations together. 

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Praying to Mary, OUR Mother, can help us Grow!

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Praying to Mary, OUR Mother, can help us Grow!

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A fundamental idea expressed in both videos is that Mary can help better us as People of God. She was the Mother of our Savior, therefore she is also our Mother. She nurtured Jesus, and she will also nurture us and help us grow in our lives as Catholics

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Both videos show that building a relationship with Mary will strengthen our faith. While Father Mike's video focuses on developing a relationship with Mary, Bishop Barron discusses how Mary can help us choose good over evil.

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How do Father Mike's Video and Bishop Barron's Video Relate?

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How do Father Mike's Video and Bishop Barron's Video Relate?

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We must choose for whom we want to fight: The Ark of the Covenant or Satan

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Mary Bears within her Body the Living Presence of Jesus Christ: God dwells within her and is always in her presence

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Mary Bears within her Body the Living Presence of Jesus Christ: God dwells within her and is always in her presence

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Because of this, Satan will always try to lure us into his army, doing anything possible to accomplish his malicious goal.

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Gone and now the Ark of the Covenant is within the Womb of Mary, therefore making Mary the Ark of the Covenant as she bears it in her holy temple.

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This queen mother became pregnant with the Son of God and a battle between good and evil occurred

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Mary is Associated with a Cosmic Struggle: A Battle Between Good and Evil

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Mary is Associated with a Cosmic Struggle: A Battle Between Good and Evil

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Our thirst and love for Jesus should lead to a stronger love of Mary, His mother.

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The Word Became Flesh in the Womb of Mary

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The Word Became Flesh in the Womb of Mary

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Shows Jesus’ full humanity and assures us that Mary is his mother

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CatholicByte Apologetics - Mary, Our Mother

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Jesus gave her to us as a mother from the cross and we need to have a relationship with her

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If we are all his disciples, His mom is our mom.

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As Our Love for Mary Strengthens, Our Love for God Strengthens

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As Our Love for Mary Strengthens, Our Love for God Strengthens

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By looking at the lives of the Saints and Mary, we can see how amazing God is through their own wonders. She is intimate.

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Carmelite Sisters on Having a Relationship with Mary

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Carmelite Sisters on Having a Relationship with Mary

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Q. I just recently became Catholic and I'm still struggling with the Church's teachings on Mary. I respect her, but I don't feel the need to ask her for prayers if I can just ask God directly. Do you have any suggestions on how I can have a relationship with Mary?
Yes, I do! Being a convert myself I can relate to your situation. First I would ask you to spend some time now and then getting in touch with any unexamined attitudes you may have that may be part of your discomfort with Marian devotion. This could be anything from having been cautioned at some point that 'Catholics worship Mary' and the like, to some personal emotional discomfort with the very idea of 'mother'. Or, perhaps at some point you were exposed to some exaggerated or misguided teaching, preaching or devotions to Mary and learned your discomfort from this experience.

You mentioned not feeling "the need to ask her for prayers if I can just ask God directly". Certainly there is nothing in a healthy Marian devotion that would discourage us from approaching God directly. But the question itself makes me wonder if one of those unexamined attitudes I mentioned might be a tendency to see Mary and God as being in some kind of opposition or even competition. You surely know this idea would be completely contrary to the Church's understanding of Mary's role in Salvation history - but attitudes and prejudices can be very irrational things - well hidden and deeply buried they can remain a part of us in spite of the soundest catechesis!

Along similar lines I would encourage you to gradually include some Marian themes in your spiritual reading. Make a point of reading a variety of authors, however. When you really don't like the feel of a particular author don't be afraid to close the book and pick up another. No one has a 'monopoly' on Mary, and we all have our own path to follow. Give yourself the time and freedom to find yours. Relationship can take time after all.

Finally, though, and this is far more important than anything else I could say - is there a particular problem, worry, a heartache even - that you are carrying? I can understand where you might not be comfortable with this suggestion, but I am going to make it anyway. Entrust this burden, whatever it is, to Mary. Invite her to deal with it as she sees fit. Ask her "to show herself a mother" - and not only a mother, but your mother. I make this recommendation to you from the testimony of others, yes, but from my own experience as well.

If you will do this, I think 'relationship' may not take much time at all.

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How Can I Have a Relationship With Mary?

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Q. I just recently became Catholic and I'm still struggling with the Church's teachings on Mary. I respect her, but I don't feel the need to ask her for prayers if I can just ask God directly. Do you have any suggestions on how I can have a relationship with Mary?

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Our Love For Mary STRENGTHENS Our Love for God and Jesus Christ

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Our Love For Mary STRENGTHENS Our Love for God and Jesus Christ

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By loving the people that Jesus loved, it helps us to get to know him better and the more you love Mary the more you should love Jesus.

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To get to know someone God loves will solely amplify our love for God and His love for us.

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Mary is SO Important in Our Lives As Catholics

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Mary is SO Important in Our Lives As Catholics

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Many people believe that if you have a relationship with Mary, it takes away from your relationship with God.

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Immaculate Heart of Mary (Saturday following the Second Sunday after Pentecost)

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Immaculate Heart of Mary (Saturday following the Second Sunday after Pentecost)

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He notes that there are two planes of reality: spiritual (invisible) and material (visible). He says that the two planes become meshed together and that they become indistinguishable. The elvish cloaks are an example of this phenomenon because they are made of basic threads of the earth, but at the same time they contain supernatural characteristics. They provide an example for how the invisible and the visible become merged together so that you are unable to see the difference between the two.

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Sam and Frodo Wearing their Elven Cloaks

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Sam and Frodo Wearing their Elven Cloaks

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An Old Testament type is a person, place, event, or institution in the Old Testament that foreshadows the work of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. The Lembas Bread could be viewed as a pre-Christian type because it could have foreshadowed that Jesus would die on the Cross for us and that as a result, we would be able to receive his body and blood in the Eucharist.

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Article Regarding Sacramentality in LOTR

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Article Regarding Sacramentality in LOTR

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J. R. R. Tolkien is best known for his fantasy stories The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Many people are unaware of his devout Catholic faith - he was a daily communicant - and even fewer are aware of the fundamental importance of his faith on his creative work. I am aiming here to show that - even though it can be enjoyed without any knowledge of Catholicism - his work is deeply imbued with a 'sacramental' vision, ie. that throughout the stories a metaphysical and ethical framework is consciously employed which is deeply Catholic. I am particularly indebted to Tolkien's Sacramental Vision: Discerning the Holy in Middle Earth , by Craig Bernthal, and The Power of The Ring by Stratford Caldecott, for helping to lead me deeper into the Catholic Mystery which shines through the legendarium of Tolkien. Tolkien saw the supreme importance of the Blessed Sacrament. There is little doubt that this most orthodox of Catholic believers saw Christ's eternal sacrifice, present on all the altars of the world, as the sustaining source for his work.

A quick overview of Tolkien's birth and early life:

- Born in Bloemfontein, South Africa - 1892

- Father died, returned to England - 1896

- Obtained scholarship to King Edward's Birmingham - 1903

- Mother died - 1904

- From 1904 - 1911 because of the death of both of his parents Tolkien came under the guardianship of Father Francis Morgan at the Birmingham Oratory.

So what do I mean by his sacramental vision? It is simply that whilst any fantasy writer can employ symbolism, Tolkien's symbolism was raised to the highest level through its understanding of the Catholic mystery - that is, that if bread and wine can become Christ, then the whole of reality has been hallowed and can be a sign of a future ultimate victory over the forces of death and corruption - "All things made new". Tolkien purposefully included no actual religious elements in The Lord of the Rings, as he wanted the religious element to be absorbed into the story and the symbolism. We will see exactly how the story conveys this religious sense.

Profound effect

Note that both his parents died by the time he was 12. This would have a profound effect on his work - and his notion of evil and suffering, which we will look at later. At an early age Tolkien showed an aptitude for languages, and would invent his own with his friends. He later became a philologist, and the fantasy worlds he created were partly the result of working out the logic of the languages that he had invented.

In terms of faith, apart from his love of the Mass, the time at the Oratory also gave him a strong grounding in Thomist metaphysics, and certainly this was a key element in the way he portrayed evil, death, immortality and many other things in his stories. The Silmarillion was begun first in 1917 whilst he was in the trenches, and never completed - he worked on it his whole life. Tolkien called it his legendarium - a body of myth out of which would grow The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

One simple way that the Eucharist can be seen as having an impact on Tolkien's work is in the elvish bread called Lembas that is given to the members of the fellowship by Galadriel, the elven queen. It has an almost supernatural virtue of being able to sustain endurance by eating a small piece. Lembas means 'waybread' which would be a good description of viaticum 'food for the journey'.

Sacramental vision - Galadriel's gifts

I want to give some more examples of the sacramental nature of the stories. At a certain point in the story the fellowship - a group who have come together to destroy the One Ring - an evil means of control created by the dark lord Sauron - have come to a place on their journey where they can rest. Evil forces are gathering for the final battle, but in this wood, called Lothlorien, no evil can find them, because of the goodness of the Elves, and particularly of Galadriel, the Elven 'queen', who is a type of the Virgin Mary.

(A word about the Elves - certain kind of Elves and other characters such as Gandalf the wizard are best seen as analogous to angels in LOTR - they have a higher mission, and may have some sense of the future as agents of divine providence). So Lothlorien is a kind of Marian sanctuary, a place of refreshment, light and peace, where the weary pilgrims can find the strength to continue the battle.

Tolkien was clear that his Middle-Earth is not a different world, but our own world pre-history, and I believe was deliberately echoing ideas of England as 'Our Lady's Dowry' here. The gifts that are given are important because Galadriel can partly foresee the future, and knows what each will need the most in the coming struggle. So Sam is given Elven rope, Frodo, a phial containing the light of Elendil, a star, and so on.

If a sacrament was to be associated with this it would clearly be confirmation - the giving of strength, the conferring of gifts of the Holy Spirit. There are seven gifts given here, and they are linked to virtues that the fellowship need such as courage, wisdom and so on. So here we have an example of Tolkien's use of the sacramental worldview in his story-telling.

Marian resonance

Tolkien became conscious of and developed the strong Marian resonance of Galadriel. In fact when it comes to veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, he emphasises its role in his own creative development: "...Our Lady, upon which all my own small perception of beauty, both in majesty and simplicity is founded."

Sam's gift of elven rope has been seen indeed as a reference to the Rosary. In a later scene, Frodo and Sam are struggling towards the cracks of Doom, and Frodo falls off a cliff in the darkness, he is stuck on a ledge, and Sam cannot see at all and is unable to help him up. Frodo reminds Sam about the rope, and he pulls him out of the abyss. For Catholics, the Rosary has played an analogous role as a spiritual 'rope' as a means to enter heaven and as a means of fortification against adversaries, spiritual and temporal. This is vividly illustrated by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the fresco of the Last Judgement, where a rope which is clearly also a rosary is used by one person to assist souls to salvation.

Magic and Machinery

So it might make sense to talk about the realm of Lothlorien and the powers of people like Gandalf and Galadriel as 'magic' - and this is where many Catholics become slightly concerned about fantasy writers like Tolkien. Doesn't all this talk of magic and spells encourage impressionable young minds to become interested in occultism?

My answer would be that there is a real danger that some fantasy stories contribute to a kind of unhealthy distortion of the truth and superstition. For instance, in the Star Wars series, and in many other fantasy stories, a kind of Gnosticism prevails, in which good and evil are equal powers. But if true 'magic' is only obedience to the will of God and the grace that flows from this , then evil 'magic' in Tolkien is the result of the promise of the serpent in Eden - that we shall be like gods, by using our cunning and not through obedience.

All of which is really to say that evil magic is domination of the natural world through science and technology loosed from any sense of moral principle - the culture of death. Evil magic is exemplified in the figure of Saruman, the wizard who aligns himself with Sauron and uses technology to create twisted creatures called orcs through torturing and debasing the other races of elves and men. He also creates great machines of war through destruction of the natural world, by cutting down trees and wounding the earth.

Hobbits and the Shire

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit..." Famously Tolkien was marking papers one summer and there was a blank one on which he wrote this line - the rest of the story came about as an effort to discover what hobbits were.

Hobbits were creatures of simple tastes who liked the good things in life, food, drink and pipe-weed. The Shire where the hobbits live is a place of plenty, a preindustrial rural idyll modelled on the area of the Midlands where Tolkien grew up. Hobbits famously enjoy six meals a day, including 'second breakfast'.

In Tolkien's vision, the growing, preparation and enjoyment of food take up most of the hobbits' time-and serve a much higher purpose than the mere utilitarian re-fuelling of Mordor's orcs or modern society. The meals of the hobbits and the elves have social, even spiritual, purposes, helping to cement the bonds of friendship and strengthen the soul for hardships to come. In this, Tolkien is echoing an ancient spiritual tradition that extends back through his own Catholic faith, and the Anglo-Catholicism of his friends at Oxford, all the way through the Jewish and Christian testaments.

The elaborate family Sabbath and Passover meals are central to Jewish religious practice. The central act of Christian worship in the majority of denominations, the Eucharist, is essentially a ritualized meal and a re-enactment of the Last Supper. To put it simply: What and how we eat matters ... and there is a vast chasm existing between the nourishing, fresh, locally grown food eaten in the Shire (and in most traditional societies)... and the manufactured, pre-packaged, artificial "food products" consumed by the harried worker-bees of consumer society.

Good and Evil

Tolkien understood that while history lasts there will always be an admixture of suffering and evil; think of the parable of the Tares. However, this is not to admit pessimism or despair, because evil has no real substance; it is simply a privation of good. This is the Augustinian doctrine which the Church has long upheld. We can see it easily in Lord of the Rings when we look at the Ringwraiths - and fail to see them! They are invisible, as their very being has been eaten away by evil. Equally think about how Bilbo describes himself as feeling thinner, like butter spread over too much bread, after long possession of the Ring - evil eats away at the good - is parasitic upon it.

There are many truths about evil portrayed in Lord of the Rings. Evil is self-destructive - look at what happens on Mount Doom to Gollum. Evil is blind to its own weakness and possesses little imagination - Sauron's inability to see the Hobbits wandering into the heart of his lands, because of their very insignificance - it takes Gandalf in his goodness to see the important part the hobbits will play in world history.

The good creation has undergone a Fall in Middle Earth - elves have been twisted into orcs, the once-proud cities of Bree and Minas Tirith each fall prey to their own evils, the former only discovered when the hobbits return home. Even the Shire has been affected by the evil - they have to do their own job of res toration.

Eucatastrophe

The final clue in this epic journey is the word Tolkien invented to describe what he saw as a good quality in a fairy-story - and that word was eucatastrophe, this being the notion that there is a "sudden joyous 'turn'" in the story, where everything is going well, "giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy", whilst not denying the "existence of dyscatastrophe - of sorrow and failure". It also reminds us that catastrophe can be reversed.

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J. R. R. Tolkien is best known for his fantasy stories The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Many people are unaware of his devout Catholic faith - he was a daily communicant - and even fewer are aware of the fundamental importance of his faith on his creative work.

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Fr. Charles essentially says that even though the “elvish artifacts” are made from only the elements of middle earth, their value and meaning is much more than what they are composed of. This is analogous to Sacramentals because although they may be small, cheap, or not composed of much, they signify a much greater meaning and serve a much greater purpose than what they are simply made of. A household Crucifix is an example of this. It may not be composed of much and it may not be very large, but the value and deeper meaning of it is extremely significant.

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The Lembas Bread is different from the Eucharist because it is not the body and blood of any being. The Eucharist is the body and blood of Jesus Christ, but the Lembas Bread is simply a parting gift from Lotholorien. The Lembas Bread, alike to the Eucharist, strengthens you. It seems the Lembas Bread has a sole purpose of giving physical strength, while the Eucharist heals our soul, which strengthens us. Fr. Charles still considers it Sacramental because of the similarities between the two. The big similarity is that both are bread and strengthen us. Fr. Charles sees that Tolkien was slyly hinting that the Lembas Bread represented the Eucharist.

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The Athelas plant (Kingsfoil) was a special plant with healing powers that heal the body and the spirit and it also takes effect immediately. This is similar to Anointing of the Sick because in Anointing of the Sick, ordinary oil from the olive becomes in the hands of the priest a healing agent. Just as the Athelas plant heals the spirit and body, God heals our spirit and body in the special Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick. Tolkien once again successfully makes an analogy to the Catholic faith through his writing.

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The Horns of Rohan and the Horns of Eorl are made uniquely by humans but they have the supernatural power to summon courage and dispel fear and despair. This provides an example of a Sacramental effect because just like Sacramentals, the horns are made of ordinary things but have the power to provide strength. Sacramentals are symbols of our faith that provide us strength and courage, just like the Horns of Rohan and the Horns of Eorl.

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I think this means that if you really dive in to the deeper meaning of the Lord of the Rings, you will discover that God and grace are vital aspects behind the truth of the series. Although it may not be clear and overt (like light from an invisible lamp), it is evident from dissection of the deeper meaning of the series that God and grace are present throughout. This captures the essence of how the Catholic Imagination views the world because we see God through all of creation. This is analogous to seeing light from an invisible lamp because even though you cannot directly see the light, it is there if you believe it is.

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I think this means that God became human so that we could have an opportunity for eternal life in Heaven with God. Jesus Christ died on the cross so that the gates of Heaven could be opened up. For me this quote emphasizes the infinite amount of love God has for us. God loves us so much that he gave us His only Son so that we have the opportunity to spend eternity with Him in Heaven.

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Deprived means suffering a severe lack of basic material. Depraved means morally corrupt. I agree with the Catholic view of the world as "deprived, but not depraved". Humans are not morally corrupt (depraved), simply because we were made in God's image and he cares immensely for us. We are deprived though because temptation and greedy desires to sin often take over our mind. We are often so greatly tempted by Satan's evil works to sin and this leads us to suffering of a severe lack of basic material.

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One symbol of Catholicism in the LOTR series is the ring itself. The ring represents Original Sin, and whoever possesses the ring often has temptations to sin. It also represents the evil that lurks inside of people.  Frodo (a Christ like figure) destroys the ring, which symbolizes Jesus Christ dying on the cross for us so that our Baptism could free us of Original Sin. Gandalf is also a Christ like figure and this can be seen in various ways. Gandalf dies because he sacrificed himself for others, just as Jesus' death on the cross was the ultimate sacrifice for us. After Gandalf's death, he is resurrected as an angelic figure, just as Jesus himself rose from the dead and appeared to the people. Gandalf is resurrected as Gandalf the White, and it is clear that Gandalf is a Christ-like figure because of his main quality of sacrificing himself for others. Another element of Christianity is present in the series in that Saruman represents the devil. Saruman has a strong desire for evil and he is willing to do whatever it takes to make the world a horrible place. Saruman acts just like Satan because of the desire to sin and corrupt people. There is a strong contrast between Saruman and Gandalf that is alike to that of Satan and God. Overall, the Lord of the Rings contains several aspects of Catholicism.

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Tolkien's Input on the Lord of The Rings

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Tolkien's Input on the Lord of The Rings