What does it mean when Mary calls you, and what happens when people from every walk of faith begin to answer? In this episode I sit down with my dear friend Dr. Margarita Mooney Clayton, a theologian, author, and professor of practical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary and visiting research fellow at Oxford University, to talk about her upcoming book "When Mary Calls: Surprising Encounters with the Mother of God," a collection of true spiritual memoirs from people whose lives were transformed by an encounter with the Mother of God. We explore some of the most moving stories in the book, including a young Protestant woman who experienced three miscarriages and received a vision of Mary that literally saved her life, the hidden stained glass windows of Cuba that survived communist rule wrapped in tarps in someone's backyard, and the ways that sacred art, music, and embodied ritual are quietly drawing seekers back to a living faith. Margarita founded the Scala Foundation to restore culture through beauty, liberal arts education, and worship, and her work sits at the crossroads of everything I believe matters most right now in our world. I have been on my own journey toward Mary for most of my life, and this conversation brought so much of that into focus for me. If you have ever felt something was missing in your faith, or wondered why Mary seems to be calling to people across traditions, I think this episode will speak to you. Watch to the end, leave a comment telling me about your own experience with Mary, and please subscribe if you haven't yet.

Find more from Margarita:
Get the book (Publisher): https://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/9781631440922/when-mary-calls/
Get the book (Amazon): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1631440926?&tag=skyhorsepub-20
Scala Foundation: https://scalafoundation.org/
Scala YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ScalaFoundation
Graced Imagination Substack: https://www.gracedimagination.com/
Mother Mary in Cuba (Plough excerpt): https://www.plough.com/en/topics/faith/mother-mary-in-cuba
The Marian Gift of Dependence: https://comment.org/the-marian-gift-of-dependence/
Fatima and Perseverance in Trials: https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/fatima-and-perseverance-in-trials/

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— Chapters —
00:00 - Welcome and How Tammy Met Margarita
01:30 - Why Margarita Wrote "When Mary Calls"
03:35 - Mary as a Living, Active Presence Across Traditions
07:20 - Tammy's Own Search for Mary Since Childhood
09:50 - Sally's Story: Three Miscarriages and a Vision of Mary
18:05 - How Mary's "Yes" Changes the Way We See Suffering
22:30 - Sacred Art and the Annunciation: Mary as the New Eve
28:15 - What Protestant Churches Got Wrong About Mary
33:40 - Margarita's Cuban Heritage and Her Mother's Exile
38:55 - Returning to Cuba: Finding Faith Hidden Under Communist Rule
44:30 - Stained Glass Saved in a Backyard: Mary Outlasting Revolution
49:10 - Smuggling Rosaries Into Cuba and Nearly Getting Caught
56:00 - Walking Into the Cathedral to Escape the Secret Police
01:02:00 - How Sacred Images Carry Meaning Words Cannot
01:08:30 - Aidan Hart: A Protestant Icon Painter's Journey to Mary
01:15:45 - What Embodied Ritual Does That Scripture Alone Cannot
01:21:30 - Evan's Story: A Physical Healing and an Unexpected Encounter with Mary
01:27:00 - Why Mary Is Present in Every Tradition That Has Music
01:32:00 - James McMillan: Mary as the Paradigm of Christian Creativity
01:38:30 - Closing Reflections and Tammy's Own Journey Into Song