Paperback: This little book, A Month with Mary (2006), was written by an Italian holy priest Father Dolindo Ruotolo (1882-1970). Originally written as spiritual thoughts to his spiritual daughter, the work is comprised of thirty-one meditations for the month of May.
Father Dolindo wrote A Month with Mary on pocket-sized pages joined into small fascicles of 8 to 12 pages. He sent them to Laura de Rosis every two to three days and later transcribed them with some modifications in volume III of his autobiography: The Story of My Life in the Plan of the Great Mercy of God.
This work is from 1912: one of those years which passed in the life of Father Dolindo with the cadence of a "Way of the Cross." But he, serene as ever, loved Christ the more, loved Our Lady the more and reflected on this love in these few pages to which he wished to give the significant title: A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary.
These meditations are written in the style of the Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis to provide a profound reform of heart.
A Month With Mary is translated from the Italian by Msgr Arthur Burton Calkins.
About the author: Dolindo Ruotolo (1882-1970) - a diocesan priest and Franciscan tertiary - was, with Father Pio of Pietrelcina, a twentieth century spiritual cornerstone of the Catholic Church. Fr Dolindo received the gift of understanding from above, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He devoted his best energies to studying and commenting Sacred Scripture so as to make it easy for everybody to understand. He was faithful to his priestly vocation, which cherished above all of God's gifts, spending himself heroically for the salvation of souls in humility before God and men.
Father Dolindo’s altar was a point of writing inspiration and his writing table his altar where he composed, in the minute writing characteristic of penetrating intelligence, innumerous pages of bible explanation. He knew that all the libraries in the world would never be big enough to contain all the works of Jesus and so he set his mind to become as Jesus and to serve him through lucid words and doctrine: enough to surprise whoever asked where he found the time, paper and ink.
His exegetic work takes up an entire library, a source and from such a source the soul drinks of bubbling water equal to that promised to the Samaritan by Jesus. The literary evaluation of the Word, of the up coming Vesper Mass, of the Fall of Communism, to the work of “a new Polish John”, these examples are only a small anthology of the prophecies testifying God’s presence.
His works are many, as is true for all saints, John said of Jesus: even if we wanted to spread all his works, there would not be library grand enough to bear witness to all of them, because the activity of a saint is continuous and on-going and it is this which makes up the Church in its plan of celestial glory.
About the translator: Monsignor Arthur B Calkins is a native of Erie, Pennsylvania, and was ordained a priest in 1970 for the Archdiocese of New Orleans. He is one of the most prominent among contemporary mariologists, having broad experience in both pastoral and scholarly work. His doctoral study, Totus Tuus: John Paul II's Program of Marian Consecration and Entrustment (New Bedford, MA: Academy of the Immaculate), has gone into three printings. His articles on Mariology and spirituality have appeared in both popular and scholarly publications as well as in the acts of congresses and symposia. He was named a corresponding member of the Pontifical International Marian Academy in 1985 and a corresponding member of the Pontifical Roman Theological Academy in 1995. He has been an official of the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" since 1991 and was named a Chaplain of His Holiness with the title of Monsignor in 1997. Msgr Calkins is the editor of Totus Tuus, the recently published anthology (in Italian) of the Marian texts of the late Pope John Paul II. This anthology was commissioned by the Archbishop of Bologna, Carlo Cardinal Caffarra.
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