Meaning of Marian Charism in the Church

The topic of my presentation may be explored according to two different approaches. The first one is more descriptive or historical and consists in a survey of the manifestations, understandings and implementations of Marian charisms throughout the history of the Church. The second one is more reflective or systematic and looks at the foundation or relevance of Marian charisms for the Church today. This being stated, a historical approach would evidently entail some systematic reflection and a systematic approach would necessarily take into account the current historical context of the Church. The way we do theology today is no longer the way earlier generations did it, even though the former is built on the latter. Since, however, other presentations will specifically consider the Marian profile of consecrated life within distinct periods of the history of the Church, I will try to offer a more systematic view of what a Marian charism could mean within the Church in the light of what we can retrieve from the datum of Revelation as found mainly, but not exclusively, in Scripture. Instead of describing what the meaning of Marian charisms has been, I will try to offer a proposal of what the meaning of Marian charisms could or should be