Hi, I'm Edward Sree, and welcome to all things Catholic Catholic where real faith meets real life.

I remember when I was a child people at my local parish would pray the Rosary before mass and

then recite a series of prayers known as the litany of Mary. You may be

familiar with this traditional Catholic devotion. It's when people call upon Mary under various titles

and ask her to pray for them. They'll say, holy Mary, pray for us, holy mother of God,

pray for us, holy Virgin of Virgins, pray for us. And I remember this litany going on and on with people addressing

Mary under 50 different titles and then at the end of every title they'd say, Pray for us.

So as a kid you can imagine I got a little tired, a little

distracted, but there was one title that always grabbed my attention, one

title that woke me up, it stood out among all the rest, it was this, Mary Ark of the Covenant,

pray for us. Now as a kid, that title was so fascinating. You see, famous movie Raiders of the Lost

Arc had recently come out so every time I heard this title Mary, Arc of the

Covenant I had images of Harrison Ford closing his eyes German Nazis melting before the power of God that was

unleashed when they opened up that ancient Israelite treasure known as the

Ark of the Covenant.

Now clearly as I grew up, I eventually realized that the primary background for understanding

this title Mary, Ark of the Covenant wasn't Hollywood, it wasn't Indiana Jones, but it was the Bible and God's word.

And that's what I want to unpack for you today.

A little bit of that biblical background about the Arc of the Covenant and what it tells

us about the Blessed Virgin Mary.

And we're going to see very practically how it's going to shut a lot of light on how we can turn

to Mary and she helps us get closer to God and to draw upon the strength and the power of God

...