The Passionists have always honored Mary, the Mother of Jesus, under the title of Mother of Holy Hope. It was a devotion promoted in a special way by the great missionary, Father Thomas Struzzieri, who later became a bishop. He carried a picture of our Mother of Holy Hope with him on missions. This picture was reproduced in the community as a reminder of Mary’s assistance in our spiritual needs.
The Blessed Virgin is a model and support of our hope. She remains so. Her feast is celebrated by the community on July 9th.
“One title that belongs rightly to Mary is that of Mother of Holy Hope. Hope is that virtue that anchors the ship of our soul in the stormy sea of this troubled world. It is a comfort left to us after the fall of Adam, a support in our weakness encouraging us to practice all the virtues.
Theologians say hope is a virtue planted in us by God enabling us to confidently expect eternal life and all that leads to it. Since Mary was hopeful to an heroic degree, she is appropriately called Mother of Holy Hope.
Though endowed with extraordinary graces and unstained by original sin, Mary never counted on any resource of her own. Rather, she knew God is the author of every good thing and the source of everything. She confided in God fleeing from persecution from her own country. She hoped in God even when she saw her divine Son die on cross and his disciples left him.
She stayed firm in what seemed like disaster, and strengthened those discouraged who turned to her as to a mother. She encouraged the weak, lifted up the fallen and urged the strong to ever greater trust.
We must not think Mary is not our mother now. No! Even now, enthroned in glory, she reaches with a mother’s hand to those who go to her. She is always a mother of holy hope.”
Blessed Dominic Barberi. CP
Lord God,
you have given us the Blessed Virgin Mary as mother of our hope.
Under her protection,
may we pass through this uncertain world with our hopes fixed on heaven
and so enter into your kingdom.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
The Victor's Place 
Just reading about Mary Mother of Holy Hope gives me so much hope. Thank you for sharing!
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Mary gives us hope, always.Best wishes.
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Fr Ted Walsh CP, a truly saintly man, was my spiritual director for a very short time. First the pandemic and then his Passage into Eternal Life, prevented my ever seeing him again. For my first session with him he took me up to his small room in the Monastery and showed my the portrait of Our Lady of Holy Hope on his wall as his most prized possession. He did not go into any explanations or preaching. We just contemplated the picture silently.
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Dear Father Victor, Through Our Lady of Holy Hope you bring us hope too. Your reflections are a study in hope, powerful and life-changing hope. They help us live spiritually in the real world, a world in need of such hope but for some reason not ready to accept it. May Our Lady of Holy Hope continue to help you inspire others, so that they may, in turn, be a source of hope for others. May God bless you always, Father Victor!!
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Lking at the painting, I noticed that Mary’s hands are not typically feminine, but large and strong.
She is able to hold both Christ and his cross.
Artistically drawn this way on purpose. God’s hands have hold on her, enabling her strength, enlarging her heart and causing her hope.
“Into your hands, I commend my spirit, Lord”
Hear “Hold onto to me” by Lauren Daigle
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