Gate of Heaven: Reflections on Mary, the Mother of God

＂Salve, porta,＂ declares the ancient Marian antiphon Ave Regina Caelorum. ＂Hail, Gate of Heaven.＂ This is just one of the countless titles lavished on Mary, the Mother of Jesus, throughout two thousand years of Catholic tradition: she is the New Eve, the Ark of the Covenant, the Seat of Wisdom, the Morning Star, the Mystical Rose--the list goes on and on.

But is all of this emphasis on Mary unbiblical or unnecessary? What is Marian devotion all about?

Gate of Heaven: Reflections on the Mother of God offers readers of all backgrounds--Catholic, non-Catholic, and even non-Christian--a meditative summation of the Church’s love for Mary. This unique collection features passages from Scripture, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and various saints and spiritual masters; a rich treasury of prayers, poems, and hymns; and a foreword and poetry from Sally Read, the author of The Mary Pages: An Atheist’s Journey to the Mother of God. Structured around the four Marian dogmas, four Marian antiphons, and four key roles of Mary revealed in Scripture--Daughter of Zion, Mother of Jesus, Mother of the Church, and Queen of Heaven--these pages invite us into the Church’s loving gaze, one that always looks through Mary to Christ, and through the gate to the heaven it contained.

Matthew Becklo is a husband and father, writer and editor, and the Publishing Director for Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire Catholic Ministries. He is the author of The Way of Heaven and Earth: From Either/Or to the Catholic Both/And. He has also contributed essays for Wisdom and Wonder: How Peter Kreeft Shaped the Next Generation of Catholics and The New Apologetics: Defending the Faith in a Post-Christian Era, and edited multiple books, including The Holy Hour: Meditations for Eucharistic Adoration and the Flannery O’Connor Collection. His writing is featured at Word on Fire, Aleteia, and Catholic World Report, and has also appeared in Inside the Vatican magazine and the Evangelization & Culture journal, and online at First Things, RealClear Religion, the Catholic Thing, and the Catholic Herald. He lives in New York with his wife, Elizabeth, and their four children.