I felt so embarrassed. And angry at myself. Here was a non-Catholic attacking Mary's privileges, and I felt helpless to defend them. Sure, like any practicing Catholic, I believed in Our Lady's Immaculate Conception, Assumption, and Perpetual Virginity. But I couldn't come up with compelling arguments in defense of any of them. After that humiliating experience... I vowed that would never happen again. Fortunately, I had studied Latin in high school and college. I also had the good fortune to do some advanced Latin studies in Rome under the Carmelite Fr. Reginald Foster, who was the Papal Latinist for 40 years. I had a classmate in college, who had written a massive paper on St. Robert Bellarmine. I still remember the fascinating things he was telling me about him. One of the things I discovered was, when Pope Clement VIII named St. Robert a cardinal, he said... "The Church of God has not his equal in learning." Some years later, thanks to Divine Providence, I was able to get my hands on St. Robert's Opera Omnia (Collected Works). I went through each volume (of several hundred pages each), and translated every one of his writings about the Blessed Mother which I could find. "The Marian Writings of St. Robert Bellarmine" is that collection. This book includes St. Robert's Marian sermons and his writings on Marian apologetics, and even fragments he wrote about the Blessed Mother. It's amazing to see how well he defended Mary's Immaculate Conception and Assumption centuries before the Church formally defined them. Out of everything I've read on Marian apologetics, St. Robert still remains light years ahead of everyone else. I've also included some biographical information about St. Robert, showing how he lived his own devotion to Mary. I drew these passages from the 8 volume "Summa Aurea de Laudibus Virginis Mariae", which still hasn't been translated into English. So, you're getting all fresh material. Something else you'll enjoy is St. Robert's explanation of the Salve Regina (Hail Holy Queen). Whereas St. Alphonsus Liguori explained the Salve Regina from a devotional point of view, St. Robert explains it from an apologetics point of view. The other thing is that St. Robert immersed himself in the writings of the Fathers of the Church. He quotes them extensively in his defense of Mary's privileges. In fact, some of the passages he quotes still haven't been translated into English yet. So, you get to see those as well. Blessed Pope Pius IX wrote... "God has