Mother, Show us Jesus!

Today is the 20th anniversary of my mother's death. It's also the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In so many ways, I feel that Mary has become even more my Mother since my mom's passing... not taking her place, but continuing that unconditional merciful caring that my mom consistently showed to me.

However, that love isn't just or even primarily maternal. That love springs from a Source even deeper and more profound. I see the tableau of Jesus on the Cross over the figures of Mary and the Beloved Disciple. In that moment the purpose of Mary's birth was fulfilled. The Son whom she bore was bearing our sins away forever. That's the true Love of which maternal love is an imperfect although very beautiful image.

Then I see the great transaction- signaled by Jesus' handing over of His Mother to her new son, John. "Son, behold your mother.... Mother, behold your son." In those words Jesus not only commited his Mother to the care of the Beloved disciple. He also created a new relationship for me, for all of us, with the Mother of All Souls. She cares for us, and we care about Her.

So, today I am thankful for my earthly mother. And just as much for my heavenly Mother.

I know I've been posting a lot of B-16 recently. But here are some irresistable paragraphs from the Holy Father's Homily at Mariazell for the Nativity of Mary.

"To gaze upon Christ" is the motto of this day. For one who is searching, this summons repeatedly turns into a spontaneous plea, a plea addressed especially to Mary, who has given us Christ as her Son: "Show us Jesus!" Let us make this prayer today with our whole heart; let us make this prayer above and beyond the present moment, as we inwardly seek the Face of the Redeemer.

"Show us Jesus!" Mary responds, showing him to us in the first instance as a child. God has made himself small for us. God comes not with external force, but he comes in the powerlessness of his love, which is where his true strength lies. He places himself in our hands. He asks for our love. He invites us to become small ourselves, to come down from our high thrones and to learn to be childlike before God. He speaks to us informally. He asks us to trust him and thus to learn how to live in truth and love.

The child Jesus naturally reminds us also of all the children in the world, in whom he wishes to come to us. Children who live in poverty; who are exploited as soldiers; who have never been able to experience the love of parents; sick and suffering children, but also those who are joyful and healthy. Europe has become child-poor: we want everything for ourselves, and place little trust in the future. Yet the earth will be deprived of a future only when the forces of the human heart and of reason illuminated by the heart are extinguished -- when the face of God no longer shines upon the earth. Where God is, there is the future.

"To gaze upon Christ": let us look briefly now at the Crucified One above the high altar. God saved the world not by the sword, but by the Cross. In dying, Jesus extends his arms. This, in the first place, is the posture of the Passion, in which he lets himself be nailed to the Cross for us, in order to give us his life. Yet outstretched arms are also the posture of one who prays, the stance assumed by the priest when he extends his arms in prayer: Jesus transformed the Passion, his suffering and his death, into prayer, and in this way he transformed it into an act of love for God and for humanity. That, finally, is why the outstretched arms of the Crucified One are also a gesture of embracing, by which he draws us to himself, wishing to enfold us in his loving hands. In this way he is an image of the living God, he is God himself, and we may entrust ourselves to him.

"To gaze upon Christ!" If we do this, we realize that Christianity is more than and different from a moral code, from a series of requirements and laws. It is the gift of a friendship that lasts through life and death: "No longer do I call you servants, but friends" (Jn 15:15), the Lord says to his disciples. We entrust ourselves to this friendship. Yet precisely because Christianity is more than a moral system, because it is the gift of friendship, for this reason it also contains within itself great moral strength, which is so urgently needed today on account of the challenges of our time. If with Jesus Christ and his Church we constantly re-read the Ten Commandments of Sinai, entering into their full depth, then a great, valid and lasting teaching unfolds before us.

The Ten Commandments are first and foremost a "yes" to God, to a God who loves us and leads us, who carries us and yet allows us our freedom: indeed, it is he who makes our freedom real (the first three commandments). It is a "yes" to the family (fourth commandment), a "yes" to life (fifth commandment), a "yes" to responsible love (sixth commandment), a "yes" to solidarity, to social responsibility and to justice (seventh commandment), a "yes" to truth (eighth commandment) and a "yes" to respect for other people and for what is theirs (ninth and tenth commandments). By the strength of our friendship with the living God we live this manifold "yes" and at the same time we carry it as a signpost into this world of ours today.

"Show us Jesus!" It was with this plea to the Mother of the Lord that we set off on our journey here. This same plea will accompany us as we return to our daily lives. And we know that Mary hears our prayer: yes, whenever we look towards Mary, she shows us Jesus. Thus we can find the right path, we can follow it step by step, filled with joyful confidence that the path leads into the light -- into the joy of eternal Love. Amen."

Better Late than Never

I just picked up this homily of Holy Father Benedict XVI for the Feast of the Assumption from today's Zenit. They say things move more slowly in Italy in August. So, there's my excuse.

Anyway, here it is. Quite the masterpiece of reading the Scriptures with the signs of our times.

"Take Heart, It Is Love That Wins in the End!"

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, AUG. 25, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican translation of the homily Benedict XVI delivered Aug. 15, solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, at St. Thomas of Villanova Parish in Castel Gandolfo.

* * *

HOLY MASS ON THE SOLEMNITY
OF THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
St. Thomas of Villanova Parish, Castel Gandolfo
Wednesday, 15 August 2007

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In his great work "De Civitate Dei," St Augustine says once that the whole of human history, the history of the world, is a struggle between two loves: love of God to the point of losing oneself, of total self-giving, and love of oneself to the point of despising God, of hating others. This same interpretation of history as a struggle between two loves, between love and selfishness, also appears in the reading from the Book of Revelation that we have just heard.

Here, these two loves appear in two great figures. First of all, there is the immensely strong, red dragon with a striking and disturbing manifestation of power without grace, without love, of absolute selfishness, terror and violence.

At the time when St John wrote the Book of Revelation, this dragon represented for him the power of the anti-Christian Roman Emperors, from Nero to Domitian. This power seemed boundless; the military, political and propagandist power of the Roman Empire was such that before it, faith, the Church, appeared as a defenceless woman with no chance of survival and even less of victory.

Who could stand up to this omnipresent force that seemed capable of achieving everything? Yet, we know that in the end it was the defenceless woman who won and not egoism or hatred; the love of God triumphed and the Roman Empire was opened to the Christian faith.

The words of Sacred Scripture always transcend the period in history. Thus, not only does this dragon suggest the anti-Christian power of the persecutors of the Church of that time, but also anti-Christian dictatorships of all periods.

We see this power, the force of the red dragon, brought into existence once again in the great dictatorships of the last century: the Nazi dictatorship and the dictatorship of Stalin monopolized all the power, penetrated every corner, the very last corner. It seemed impossible in the long term that faith could survive in the face of this dragon that was so powerful, that could not wait to devour God become a Child, as well as the woman, the Church. But also in this case, in the end love was stronger than hate.

Today too, the dragon exists in new and different ways. It exists in the form of materialistic ideologies that tell us it is absurd to think of God; it is absurd to observe God's commandments: they are a leftover from a time past. Life is only worth living for its own sake. Take everything we can get in this brief moment of life. Consumerism, selfishness and entertainment alone are worthwhile. This is life. This is how we must live. And once again, it seems absurd, impossible, to oppose this dominant mindset with all its media and propagandist power. Today too, it seems impossible to imagine a God who created man and made himself a Child and who was to be the true ruler of the world.

Even now, this dragon appears invincible, but it is still true today that God is stronger than the dragon, that it is love which conquers rather than selfishness.

Having thus considered the various historical forms of the dragon, let us now look at the other image: the woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, surrounded by 12 stars. This is also a multidimensional image.

Without any doubt, a first meaning is that it is Our Lady, Mary, clothed with the sun, that is, with God, totally; Mary who lives totally in God, surrounded and penetrated by God's light. Surrounded by the 12 stars, that is, by the 12 tribes of Israel, by the whole People of God, by the whole Communion of Saints; and at her feet, the moon, the image of death and mortality.

Mary has left death behind her; she is totally clothed in life, she is taken up body and soul into God's glory and thus, placed in glory after overcoming death, she says to us: Take heart, it is love that wins in the end!

The message of my life was: I am the handmaid of God, my life has been a gift of myself to God and my neighbour. And this life of service now arrives in real life. May you too have trust and have the courage to live like this, countering all the threats of the dragon.

This is the first meaning of the woman whom Mary succeeded in being. The "woman clothed with the sun" is the great sign of the victory of love, of the victory of goodness, of the victory of God; a great sign of consolation.

Yet, this woman who suffered, who had to flee, who gave birth with cries of anguish, is also the Church, the pilgrim Church of all times. In all generations she has to give birth to Christ anew, to bring him very painfully into the world, with great suffering. Persecuted in all ages, it is almost as if, pursued by the dragon, she had gone to live in the wilderness.

However, in all ages, the Church, the People of God, also lives by the light of God and as the Gospel says is nourished by God, nourishing herself with the Bread of the Holy Eucharist. Thus, in all the trials in the various situations of the Church through the ages in different parts of the world, she wins through suffering. And she is the presence, the guarantee of God's love against all the ideologies of hatred and selfishness.

We see of course that today too the dragon wants to devour God who made himself a Child. Do not fear for this seemingly frail God; the fight has already been won. Today too, this weak God is strong: he is true strength.

Thus, the Feast of the Assumption is an invitation to trust in God and also to imitate Mary in what she herself said: Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; I put myself at the Lord's disposal.

This is the lesson: one should travel on one's own road; one should give life and not take it. And precisely in this way each one is on the journey of love which is the loss of self, but this losing of oneself is in fact the only way to truly find oneself, to find true life.

Let us look to Mary, taken up into Heaven. Let us be encouraged to celebrate the joyful feast with faith: God wins. Faith, which seems weak, is the true force of the world. Love is stronger than hate.

And let us say with Elizabeth: Blessed are you among women. Let us pray to you with all the Church: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Generous in Graces

Today is the Memorial of the Queenship of Mary.

I think of this day like the scene between Frodo and Galadriel in the "Lord of the Rings" movie. Those who have read the book or seen the movies will remember this pivotal scene, where Frodo encounters Galadriel. Glimpsing his fate through her mirror and understanding her humility, Frodo is strengthened for the journey which is his and his alone to travel.

A Queen, terrible and great,
crystalline in Her perfection.
Yet, kind in intention and compassionate,
She shares Her vision with a pilgrim on a great journey.

She is Strength in adversity,
a Light in darkness,
a Reminder and Strength for mission.

Such is our Lady's Queenship.
She is humble before God.
She is exalted because of grace,
and so is able
generously to give Her graces to us
who are also travellers on the Way.

In You All Find Their Home

In baseball, it's the place where you're safe. According to Robert Frost it's "the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in." There's no place like it.

Home.

Largely due to the Solemnity of the Assumption, twice in the last two days the Liturgy of the Hours has directed our attention to Psalm 87, which contains the following memorable lines:

"Of you are told glorious things,

O city of Cod!"

It is He, the Lord most high,

who gives to each his place.

In his register of peoples he writes,

"These are her children,"

and while they dance they will sing:

"In you all find their home."

I love that last line especially. Throughout history, the symbolicly powerful image of God's city has been applied to various entities.

For Israel, it is the navel of the earth, holy Jerusalem. For the Western Church, it is, alternatively, the heavenly City above and its dim-by-comparison earthly counterpart, Rome. For those in the East, it speaks of the not-yet-forgotten glories of new Rome, Constantinople and its spiritual successor, Moscow.

Not least of all, the wisdom of the Church has applied this image to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

It's a most apt image for Her.

Our Mother Mary IS a safe haven, a stronghold,

a place where people of diverse cultures and different background and deep needs all find a joyous welcome.

Anyone who trusts in Her Son Jesus has passed through the gates and finds his or her self enfolded in loving Arms of Mercy. We are Her children today as well as God's.

Welcome home.

Veni, Domine Jesu

Again from Spence's mom, via e mail, I received this beautiful message:

"Let us take our place, dear brothers and sisters,
at the school of the saints,
who are the great interpreters of true Eucharistic piety.
In them the theology of the Eucharist takes on
all the splendour of a lived reality;
it becomes 'contagious' and,
in a manner of speaking, it 'warms our hearts.'

Above all, let us listen to Mary Most Holy,
in whom the mystery of the Eucharist appears,
more than in anyone else, as a mystery of light.

Gazing upon Mary, we come to know
the transforming power present in the Eucharist.
In her we see the world renewed in love.

Contemplating her, assumed body and soul into heaven,
we see opening up before us those 'new heavens' and that 'new earth' which will appear at the second coming of Christ.

Here below, the Eucharist represents their pledge,
and in a certain way, their anticipation: 'Veni, Domine Iesu!' (Rev 22:20).

Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 62

What She became, we shall be

Back in 1993 I knew next to nothing about the Blessed Virgin Mary, a Lutheran pastor, perfectly unable to tell the difference between Her Immaculate Conception and Her Assumption. But both feasts bothered me, because they weren't "in the Bible."

In fact, Father Jim Berning, then Parochial Vicar of St Theodore's in Albert Lea, MN had a humongous portrait of Mary in his office. I remember that he once asked me whether I knew what it was. The Assumption? The Immaculate Conception? And of course I had to confess that I didn't.

I know better now.

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary wasn't formally defined as a dogma of the Catholic Church until 1950. However, the most ancient teachers in the Church, especially in the East, taught about Mary's glorification at death. Written stories about her death circulated among Christians as early as the third century A.D.

It makes one wonder about the reticence of New Testament writers to speak about Her. It falls into the same class as the doctrine about the Holy Trinity and Sacraments. You get glimpses of these teachings here and there in the New Testament. However, the truths are never as openly taught nor so clearly stated as the Church later would do after centuries of thought and reflection.

So it is with Mary. We see her, first in the proto-gospel prophecy of Genesis 3:15, and later primarily in the gospels of Luke and John and the book of Revelation. There she is always by our Lord's side and instrumental in His work of salvation.

But with this Feast we are not simply concerned with the individual fate of Mary.

What She became, we shall be.

And if you doubt that the Mother of God could or would be taken to heaven in a glorified state, then what about us?

Romans 8:30 talks about the Christian in this way;

"Those [God] predestined, he also called,;
and those He called He also justified;
and those He justified He also glorfied."

When you get down to it, Mary's Assumption is really setting the pattern for the rest of the Church, and following in the wake of Her beloved Son's glorifed fate.

Like Elijah and Enoch and perhaps Moses in the Old Testament, Mary simply got there first. In fact, this ascension to heaven makes real sense if, with the New Testament, we believe that Mary was the first Christian, the first to conceive Christ within her through the Holy Spirit.

So, this Solemnity fills me with holy longing to become all that God has called us all to be, predestined in Christ, justified in Christ, and soon to be glorified in Christ.

Just like our Mother Mary.

Giving the Blessed Virgin Mary Her Due

As a Protestant I was taught growing up that all of this Mary "stuff" was a late addition to, or more precisely a degeneration from, a true "Biblical" Faith.

According to this reading of history Constantine converted, and the downward slide began from there. The Church became a big evil organization, and the Dark Ages descended. In those Dark Ages Mary began to be worshipped and adored with the reverence which belongs only to the Triune God.

Wrong.

Here is a wonderful excerpt from Justin Martyr, who died in 165 A.D., written less than sixty years after the death of the last Apostle. Note the exalted position already given to the Mother of God even at this early date.

True, there has been development and change in the veneration of Mary over the many centuries of the Church's existence. But, like every great teaching of the Church, the seed was there from the very beginning.

Behind Justin Martyr stand the Scriptures themselves,

Mary....
beside Christ at Cana encouraging His vocation,
mourning at the foot of the Cross with young John as Mother of All Disciples,
crowned finally in the book of Revelation with a place of pre-eminent honor,
yet submitted fully to Her Son who is to rule the world.

She is the new Eve.
She is the God-Bearer.
She is the Spoiler of Satan' power.

"We realize that Jesus became man through the Blessed Virgin, and the disobedience caused by the snake ended in the same way in which it had begun.

Indeed, Eve, virgin and intact, conceived of the snake’s words and gave birth to disobedience and death; the Blessed Virgin Mary conceived of faith and joy when the Angel Gabriel announced to her that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon her and that the virtue of the Almighty would cover her with His shadow, so that the Holy One conceived in her womb would be the Son of God.

And Mary answered: “Let it happen to me as you have said.” Therefore Mary gave birth to the Child foretold in the Holy Scriptures… By Him, God ruins the snake’s empire as well as that of angels or any people who choose to resemble the snake. God frees from death all those who repent from their sins and believe in Him."

P. S. Tomorrow is St. Justin Martyr's Feast Day. So you'll be reading more from him tomorrow. Meanwhile, I'll close this special Feast Day with a prayer in the Spirit of the Day for Our Lady.... it expresses a true faith in God and our Mother Mary:

Visitation: Christ was there.

I attend Saturday morning Mass at the Convent of the Visitation-School in Mendota Heights on a regular basis. There at the end of Mass the sisters greet each other with the following words:

"God be praised. Good morning, my dear sister."

They bow to each other as they do it.

I think of that action today as we recall the pilgrimage the Blessed Virgin Mary made to visit her cousin Eizabeth. As at the Convent, so it was in the hill country of Judea, in the tiny hamlet.

Elizabeth awaited in joyful anticipation the birth of her son, John ,who would be called the Baptist. She found a kindred joy in greeting her cousin Mary who had come to assist her in her need.

There was fellowship in that greeting,

there was joy,

there was service,

and above all there was Christ.

He was present in the embrace of these two holy women.

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997) Foundress of the Missionary Sisters of Charity

from her book, No Greater Love.

"As soon as the angel had visited Mary, she went with haste to her cousin Elizabeth, who herself was expecting a child. A nd the child to be born, John the Baptist, leaped for joy in Elizabeth’s womb.

How marvelous! The all-powerful God chose a child yet to be born to announce his Son’s coming! In the mystery of the Annunciation and the Visitation, Mary is the very model of the life we should lead.

First of all, she welcomed Jesus in her existence; then, she shared what she had received. Every time we receive Holy Communion, Jesus the Word becomes flesh in our life – gift of God who is at one and the same time beautiful, kind, unique. Thus, the first Eucharist was such: Mary’s offering of her Son in her, in whom he had set up the first altar.

Mary, the only one who could affirm with absolute confidence, “this is my body”, from that first moment offered her own body, her strength, all her being, to form the Body of Christ. Our mother the Church raised women to a great honor before the face of God by proclaiming Mary as Mother of the Church."

It's HER Month!

I am working on a longer post about spiritual sight and mindfulness from my time at the retreat. However, I didn't want to get too far into May without noting that May is Mary's month. And what a month May is! Full of busy-ness, activity, growth ( personal and horticultural), and in Minnesota the beginning of the let's-get-outside-now-while-we-can season.

Mary is the orginal Earth Mother, clothed with Sun and with the moon under her feet. She hands the world over to her Son through the head-crushing heel which liberates the world from captivity to the Evil One.

"We now have a deeper understanding of the nature of the spiritual life that begins with our rebirth in baptism. Mary and the Church exert their influence on every soul. Christ is forever born, attacked and glorified on earth. All this is still seen indistinctly, as if veiled by a humiliating exterior.

But all is already present: new birth, eternity, the radiant light of the sun in the transfigured Lord. and so let us venerate the sublime woman who is our Mother Mary and Mother Church. Let us love her because it is she who gives birth-in-pain to the Christ life in ourselves. But one day this woman will also be carried away to God's throne in the wake of her Son, and all of us who are in Christ Jesus will go with her.

Thus Mary and the Church are a comfort to us amidst the troubles of the spiritual life that will be a daily dying as long as we are on earth. But at the same time they are also a guarantee of the "radiant dawn of eternity" which even now begins to shed its light in the secret depths of our hearts. Even now we are clothed with the sun; the moon of this passing world is already beneath our feet. Soon "the day will dawn and the sun will rise in our hearts.

As long as the darkness lasts let us turn our eyes to the great woman with the moon beneath her feet; in her we already see the consumation of all that in ourselves is yet to be fulfilled."

written by Father Hugo Rahner (+1968) a German Jesuit priest and a renowned Church historian.

What We Need

The Incarnation of the Human Values Necessary to My Life

"A German Catholic priest told that one day he saw a painting of the Blessed Virgin Mary hanging in place of honor in the cabinet of Field Marshal Hindenburg. As the priest did not hide his surprise, Hindenburg (who was a Lutheran) said, "I see in the Blessed Virgin the incarnation of the human values necessary to my life."

Is it possible to dream of a better definition of what Mary has brought to the world? To a world completely abandoned to proud egoism, Mary teaches the humility of Bethlehem. To a world dominated by money and greed, she recalls the poverty of Nazareth. To a twisted, dishonest world, she brings truth and simplicity. To a world that gets more and more hardened by hatred every day, she repeats her lessons of gentleness. To an impure and vain world, she offers the testimony of her fertile virginity. To an aged world, she brings her eternal youth."


H. Engelmann Excerpt from his book I Lost the Faith (J’ai perdu la foi, p.91)

More on "O Wisdom, Come."

I realize that this is a few days out of kilter, but I saw it and thought it a needful addition to my Advent meditation.

Medieval English Mystic Julian of Norwich begins the Westminster Manuscript of her Showing of Love by imagining the Virgin Mary worshipping her Child. The initial O in the manuscript is illuminated in blue with red penwork ornamentation, the text written in brownish ink. Beautiful!

It echoes the lovely Advent Antiphon, Sapientiae, where the pregnant Virgin worships and addresses her not yet born child as Wisdom.

Here it is, in the original:

{Ure gracious & goode/ lorde god shewed me in/ party the wisdom & the trewthe/ of the soule of oure blessed lady/ saynt mary. where in I vnder/stood the reuerent beholdynge/ that she behelde her god th at is/ her maker. maruelynge with/ grete reuerence that he wolde be borne of her that was a/ simple creature of his makyng.

Similar Words, Different Hearts...

A wonderful commentary on the Lukan contrast between Zechariah and Mother Mary in their respective responses to God.

From Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church

excerpted from Sermon 293, 1-2

“You have not trusted my words.” (Lk 1:20) “Blest is she who trusted.” (Lk 1:45)

"John the Baptist’s mother was an old and sterile woman; Christ’s mother was a young girl in the fullness of her youth. John was the fruit of sterility; Christ that of virginity…

The one was announced through the message of an angel; the other was conceived upon the angel’s announcement. John’s father did not believe in the news of his birth and he became mute; Christ’s mother believed in her son, and through faith, she conceived him in her womb. The Virgin’s heart first welcomed faith and then, becoming mother, Mary received a fruit in her womb.

The words spoken to the angel by Mary and Zechariah are, however, more or less similar. When the angel announced the birth of John to him, the priest answered: “How am I to know this? I am an old man; my wife too is advanced in age.” Mary responded to the angel’s announcement: “How can this be since I do not know man?”

Yes, they are almost the same words… Yet the former is reprimanded, the latter is enlightened. Zechariah is told: “Because you have not trusted…” But Mary is told: “This is the answer you demanded.” However again, the words of the one and of the other are almost the same… But the one who heard the words also saw the hearts; for him, nothing is hidden.

Each one’s language concealed what he thought; but if this thought was hidden from human beings, it was not hidden from the angel, or rather, it was not concealed from him who spoke through the angel’s mediation."

Wisdom's Quiet Children

Matthew 11:19... "Wisdom is justified by all her works."

There is an interesting ambiguity in the textual tradition of Matthew's gospel. A large group of ancient Greek manuscripts carry the phrase "by all her children" rather than "by all her works."

This is not the place to go into the background of Sophia or wisdom. Suffice it to say, she has a long and distinguished pre-history of her own, culminating for Christians in the first chapter of John's gospel. Between the Wisdom of Solomon and the Johannine gospel there is a theological equivalent of a sex-change. The Logos, s/he who participated in creating the world, descends from the heavenlies to redeem it. The reference here in Matthew may indeed be to Christ, however veiled it may sound to modern ears.

However, what is important to note is how quietly wisdom is vindicated by her own. All around the faithful in this passage there are criticisms hurled with labels and epithets attached. "You did this; you didn't do that, you ___________!" The wise children, however, say nothing in response. Markedly absent in this passage is any of the defensive posturing and verbal jousting which one would ordinarily expect from those who are wise.

Wisdom is at wisdom's best when her children go about their lives in a spirit of quietness and calm. Note to self: we do not need to respond to every situation or answer every challenge thrown down by the world. Wisdom's vindication in Matthew consists in the fact that the fruit of Her work is quiet. Indeed her goal is consistent and persistent virtues, faith hope and love, lived in the face of a world sorely in need of all three.

Grant this, Lord, unto us all.

The only verbal connection here with our blessed Mother is her famous title "Seat of Wisdom." Here is a small meditation with that connection:

MARY, you are the Seat of Wisdom because the Son of God, the eternal Wisdom, assumed flesh from you, dwelt in your virginal womb, and as an Infant rested in your arms. As the Son of God, Jesus is called Wisdom. The Father thinks of Himself from eternity. This thought of the Father is a distinct person—the Word, the Wisdom of God.

But the Son of God is also called Wisdom because in the work of redemption divine wisdom shows itself in the highest degree. After becoming Man, Jesus taught us wisdom. He taught us that temporal goods are vain and possess true value only in so far as they are means for obtaining our final destiny. He has reminded us to be most earnest about saving our souls.

Seat of Wisdom, you bore in your womb Him who is the personal and eternal Wisdom of God, and whose words and teaching give evidence of wisdom in the highest degree. Obtain for me the grace to embrace wisdom with my whole soul as I see it in the doctrine of your divine Son.

And finally, what sparked this post is a passage from Swiss Catholic Theologian Father Hans Urs von Balthasar:

The Virgin, harboring a mystery under her heart, remains in profound solitude. In a silence that almost causes the preplexed Joseph to despair. Incarnation of God means condescension, abasement, and because we are sinners, humiliation.

And he already draws his Mother into these humilations. Where did she get this child? People must have talked at the time, and they probably never stopped. It must have been a sorry state of affairs if Joseph could find no better way out than to divorce his bride quietly.

God's humanism at once begins drastically. Those whose lives God enters, those who enter into his, are not protected. They have to go along into a suspicion and ambiguity they cannot talk their way out of. And the ambiguity will only get worse, until, at the cross, the Mother will get to see what her Yes has caused and will have ot hear the vitirolic ridicule to which the Son is forced to listen.

Guadalupana, Strong Protector

December 12th is the Feast of Mary under the title "Our Lady of Guadalupe", the patron of the Americas who appeared to St. Juan Diego in the 16th century. As a sign to the unbelieving Spanish Bishop of Mexico to whom Juan was sent, the Aztec peasant's tilma, or robe, was imprinted miraculously with the image of Mary as a young peasant girl, but with many of the details mentioned in Chapter 12 of Revelation. Tests of the tilma have failed either to explain the origin of the image, or to account for its continued existence on a fibrous material which under normal conditions decomposes within 5o-60 years.

The icongraphy of the image is unmistakeably Aztecan. The Virgin is a young native girl rather than a Caucasian European. She wears the traditional brown belt only worn by those who have previously given birth. She herself looks pregnant again, as if about to bear anew her children, the Aztec peoples who converted following Her appearance. She is surrounded by the rays of the sun, the traditonal Aztec Sun god, and treads underfoot the moon, another Aztec diety. Her blue robe is decorated with stars, the third presence in the Aztecan pantheon.

Yet, this young girl is not a goddess herself. Her head is bowed in prayer, humbly asking God to bless Her people. What a strong image of both mercy and justice, of solidarity and intercession. She prays for all of us in the Americas, asking again the divine assistance with the single phrase "Fiat!" Let it be done... according to Your Word, oh God. Her yes to God which leads to the new creation echoes God's Word at the first creation, "Let it be done." So, the Guadalupana, like all the rest of us who are redeemed by Christ, has become a created co-creator.

She and we are called to create a New World which mirrors both God's justice and His love and mercy. How far we have to go before her prayers are answered.

God of power and mercy,

You blessed the Americas at Tepeyac

with the presence of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe.

May Her prayers help all men and women

to accept each other as brothers and sisters.

Through Your justice present in our hearts

may Your peace reign in this world.

She Dances to Angels' Music.

Presentation is everything! How often we've heard that adage in food preparation. It's the mantra of Food Channel addicts everywhere. But today Eastern Christians as well as those of us in the West celebrate another kind of presentation, the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And Her presentation tells us everything we need to know about Her and Her God.

Mary's presentation isn't specifically mentioned in Scripture. However, presentations of children are a commonplace theme in Hebrew tradition, from Samuel the prophet to John the Baptist. Extraordinarily pious parents were often expected to dedicate their children to the Lord, sometimes leaving them in the Temple precincts for upbringing and education.

So, it is no surprise to find in early Christian tradition (c. 120-170) a rather lengthy treatment of Mary's early life. The Protoevangelium of James recounts Anne's hesitation at bringing Mary to the Temple at the tender age of two and Joachim's aquiesence. Mary's special status is clearly recognized. Anne makes her bedroom a shrine or sanctuary to protect her. And when Mary is finally presented to the Lord at age 3, she hears the angelic choirs and dances to their music on the steps of the Temple.

Is it really so unexpected to see such reverence for our Blessed Mother so early in the tradition? The Protoevangelium utilizes motifs and language drawn from the infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke. The later Marian doctrines (her sinlessness, her closeness to God) are not outlined clearly. But the author of this second century book clearly understands Mary as possessing a very special place in salvation history, close to the Holy Heart of God.

And so she is.

I have found her to be all that the Church claims for her, and more. St Augustine of Hippo puts Mary in her proper, though exalted, place as the One who first did the will of the Father in bringing His Son to earth. We need to follow her as she follows God. We pray with Mary "let it be done to me according to Your Word."

From a sermon of Augustine (Today's Office of Readings):

Stretching out his hand over his disciples, the Lord Christ declared: Here are my mother and my brothers; anyone who does the will of my Father who sent me is my brother and sister and my mother. I would urge you to ponder these words. Did the Virgin Mary, who believed by faith and conceived by faith, who was the chosen one from whom our Saviour was born among men, who was created by Christ before Christ was created in her – did she not do the will of the Father?

Indeed the blessed Mary certainly did the Father’s will, and so it was for her a greater thing to have been Christ’s disciple than to have been his mother, and she was more blessed in her discipleship than in her motherhood. Hers was the happiness of first bearing in her womb him whom she would obey as her master.

Now listen and see if the words of Scripture do not agree with what I have said. The Lord was passing by and crowds were following him. His miracles gave proof of divine power. and a woman cried out: Happy is the womb that bore you, blessed is that womb! But the Lord, not wishing people to seek happiness in a purely physical relationship, replied: More blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.

Mary heard God’s word and kept it, and so she is blessed. She kept God’s truth in her mind, a nobler thing than carrying his body in her womb. The truth and the body were both Christ: he was kept in Mary’s mind insofar as he is truth, he was carried in her womb insofar as he is man; but what is kept in the mind is of a higher order than what is carried in the womb.The Virgin Mary is both holy and blessed, and yet the Church is greater than she.

Mary is a part of the Church, a member of the Church, a holy, an eminent – the most eminent – member, but still only a member of the entire body. The body undoubtedly is greater than she, one of its members. This body has the Lord for its head, and head and body together make up the whole Christ. In other words, our head is divine – our head is God.

Now, beloved, give me your whole attention, for you also are members of Christ; you also are the body of Christ. Consider how you yourselves can be among those of whom the Lord said: Here are my mother and my brothers. Do you wonder how you can be the mother of Christ? He himself said: Whoever hears and fulfils the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and my sister and my mother.

As for our being the brothers and sisters of Christ, we can understand this because although there is only one inheritance and Christ is the only Son, his mercy would not allow him to remain alone. It was his wish that we too should be heirs of the Father, and co-heirs with himself. Now having said that all of you are brothers of Christ, shall I not dare to call you his mother? Much less would I dare to deny his own words.

Tell me how Mary became the mother of Christ, if it was not by giving birth to the members of Christ? You, to whom I am speaking, are the members of Christ. Of whom were you born? “Of Mother Church”, I hear the reply of your hearts. You became sons of this mother at your baptism, you came to birth then as members of Christ.

Now you in your turn must draw to the font of baptism as many as you possibly can. You became sons when you were born there yourselves, and now by bringing others to birth in the same way, you have it in your power to become the mothers of Christ.

Mother of the Church, Mother of our Lord, Mother of us all, pray for us, that we may hear and heed God's Word.

Two Fun Facts about Our Lady

Our Lady and the respectful dust ... and the one of the "modern means of social communication"


Saint Eusebius (+ 371) is credited with the founding of the shrine that houses this wonder working statue of Our Lady. It is said that while visiting Jerusalem, the saint was inspired to discover three statues of Our Lady. He brought these statues back with him to his native Italy, enshrining one of them in a hermitage chapel at Oropa.

Throughout the centuries a strange phenomenon has been observed. Although the ornate statues of Our Lady and the Holy Child - carved of cedar wood and elaborately dressed - are behind glass, dust somehow accumulates and rests on the figures, robes, crowns, etc. However, never has a particle of dust fallen upon the faces of either Mother or Child.

In addition to the phenomenon of the so-called “respectful dust” and miracles worked at the shrine, Oropa has still another important distinction. It was here that Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937), “in the summer of 1895, while contemplating the Biellese Alps from the heights of Oropa, bethought that man might find a new energy in space, and the means to a new method of communication.” Marconi eventually invented the radio and sent his first radio message to the Vatican from Oropa, under Our Lady’s patronage.

Warm Hand Luke

Today we celebrate Saint Luke, Evangelist and also Patron of physicians and artists. He brought a warm hand to his work, both in the healing arts and through his portrayal of Christ in the third gospel. Luke's gospel is widely recognized as very human in tone, highlighting our Lord's relationships with women and children, and encorporating memories of His blessed Mother in its infancy narratives. Luke's gospel focusses on the nearness of God and the universality of God's presence. Lukan missionaries are to proclaim "the kingdom of God is at hand for you" (Luke 10:9). Luke's second volume, the book of Acts, details the expansion of the Church into the Gentile communities of which Luke was a part.

According to Orthodox tradition, St Luke was the first person to complete three pictures of the holy Mother of God carrying the Child of God in her arms. He showed them to the Holy Virgin for approval, while she was still alive. She received these holy pictures joyfully and said: “May the grace of Him to whom I gave birth be within them!” Later, St Luke made pictures of the Holy Apostles and bestowed upon the Church this pious and holy tradition of venerating the icons of Christ and His Saints.

St Luke came from the city of Antioch the Great. Of noble birth, he particularly excelled in the areas of medical science and pictorial art. Under the reign of Emperor Claudius (c. 42 AD.), while he was caring for the sick around Thebes in Beotia, he met the Apostle Paul, whose ardent words convinced him that the absolute truth for which he had been seeking for so many years could indeed be found among the disciples of Jesus Christ.

Near his life's end the Apostle Paul recalled fondly the faithfulness of Luke in the face of desertion by so many others (2 Timothy 4:10-17).

After he had been separated from his master, Luke returned to Greece to proclaim the Gospel there. He again set up his abode in the Thebes area where he died peacefully at the age of eighty. Wishing to glorify His faithful servant, God poured a miraculous liquid over his tom