If you’ve ever given something to a homeless person (money, food, etc.), you know that you didn’t do enough for him. The Master commands us,

“Give to him who asks, and if a man would borrow from thee, do not turn away” (Matthew 5:42).

At first glance, when one is initiated into the Christian faith and sees this command, it looks just like any other precept. However, when we have progressed in our relationship with the Master, we are compelled to obey this command not merely because God says so, but because the Holy Trinity, Love Himself, has made His home within us. This means that our obedience has been infused with Divine Love so that the overarching purpose for our continued obedience is the love of God and of neighbor. Now back to the homeless person.

You know what I’m talking about… You are walking out of that store on a cold winter night and out of the corner of your eye, you see a homeless person trying to keep warm. You go back into the store, purchase a good blanket and walk out to offer it to him. He thanks you, and you drive on home to your nice warm house where dinner is waiting for you. On the drive back, you feel an immense pressure in your heart. You desire to do more for him, much more. But you can’t. You have other duties to attend to with your family at home, and human prudence is compelling you to continue homeward. You enter into a kind of suffering. It’s a sense of helplessness mixed with sorrow. That man is going through a passion—a suffering he needs to endure. What you are feeling now is compassion—you are suffering WITH him.

Today, a week before Good Friday, Holy Mother Church commemorates the seven sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In Sacred Scripture and Tradition there are seven instances of profound sorrow in the life of Mary.

1. At the prophecy of Simeon: “You yourself shall be pierced with a sword – so that the thoughts of many hearts may be laid bare.” (Luke 2:35).
2. At the flight into Egypt; “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt.” (Mt 2:13).
3. Having lost the Holy Child at Jerusalem; “You see that your father and I have been searching for you in sorrow.” (Luke 2:48).
4. Meeting Jesus on his way to Calvary;
5. Standing at the foot of the Cross; “Near the cross of Jesus there stood His mother.” (John 19:25).
6. Jesus being taken from the Cross;
7. At the burial of Christ.

Now, these sorrows are obviously sorrowful. But there is an added layer of intensity when it comes to the Blessed Virgin Mary. You see, since Mary was preserved from Original and actual sin during her earthly life by virtue of her Immaculate Conception, the lens through which she experienced life was innocent. As we know from common knowledge, innocence compounds sorrow and suffering because it is not desensitized by sin and corruption. For that matter, a child reacts to horror with more grief and fear than say a grown man who is a hardened sinner would, precisely due to the state of their respective innocence. Also, with regards to the sorrows of Mary, since each one dealt with her Child, this made her more sorrowful still because her Child was and is the Son of God.

When Christ was threatened by prophecy, tyrants, and death, Mary was, if I may, helpless. Jesus came to die, this was His mission. Mary “gave to him who asks” when she said, “let it be done unto me, according to thy word.” When Heaven eventually needed to “borrow” her Son on account of our sins, she “did not turn away.” The mother stood (http://www.fisheaters.com/hymns.html#stabatmater). She suffered with Christ. She underwent her compassion while her Son underwent His Passion.

Unfortunately, one of the most overlooked elements in the interior life is redemptive suffering. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states,

“By His passion and death on the Cross, Christ has given a new meaning to suffering: it can henceforth configure us to Him and unite us with His redemptive passion” (#1505).

This particular teaching can also be found in the letter of St. Paul to the Colossians:

“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, for I fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ.” (Col:24).

When we, the members of the Body of Christ, suffer and unite our sufferings through prayer to the cross, Christ suffers with us and through us. The most excellent act of redemptive suffering was the sufferings of Christ, especially on the cross. The purpose for Christ’s suffering and death was our redemption. This means that when we suffer with Him, we become participants in His work of redemption! Christ went through a passion—a suffering He endured for our Salvation. With Him, we can have compassion—a kind of suffering with Him in order to participate in applying His saving work to souls. Through her sorrows, Mary went through this compassion more excellently than anyone ever will. She did so without sin and she did so as mother to her Divine Son. This is why Sacred Tradition gives her the title “Co-redemptrix”. Her suffering with and under the sufferings of Christ made her the participant par excellence in the work of the Cross.

Next time you find yourself on that long drive home after helping someone in need, and feeling that compassion (that suffering with that someone in need), unite your sufferings to Christ on the Cross. Say, “my Jesus, I unite the sorrow I feel for this person to your sorrows, and to the sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the foot of your Cross. May you make him happy in this life, and forever with you in the next. Amen.”

Oh Mary, Mother of Sorrows, pray for us!

“And the Lord God took man, and put him into the paradise of pleasure, to dress it, and to keep it. And he commanded him, saying: Of every tree of paradise you shall eat: But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in what day soever you shall eat of it, you shall die the death.” Genesis 2:15-17, D-R

The priest said something startling at the beginning of our infant Baptism class. “How many lives does a person need in order to get to Heaven?” Everyone looked around the room, baffled at this bizarre question. Father is an older gentleman. He is blind in one eye, has difficulty walking, and he is hard of hearing out of his right ear. When he says Mass, he becomes rather stern and serious. He doesn’t have the best singing voice and he tries very hard to follow the rubrics. From a distance, you would think him a curmudgeon. I love him to death. I had some one-on-one encounters with him well before the class, so I knew this is what he looks like from a distance and not the actual reality of the man who was asking this question at the start of class. I knew there was something more and that appearances were always deceiving when it came to this particular priest of God, so I waited for his wisdom patiently, and smiled. “Two! You need two lives to get to Heaven!” My patience faded. What in heaven’s name was this priest talking about?

When God commanded Adam to not eat of the one tree, He affixed a reprisal for disobedience: death. And Adam did die…nine hundred and thirty years later. Wait a minute. God said to Adam, “for in what day soever you shall eat of it, you shall die the death.” This means that on that day, in that instance of time, Adam would die. But he didn’t die right away, and almost lived a millennia after the fact. What in heaven’s name was this God talking about?

“Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world and by sin death: and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned.” Romans 5:12

It’s obvious from scriptures like this that we lost our gift of immortality after Adam sinned. Humanity was created to be incorruptible, Adam sinned, and as the chief of our race he forfeited immortal life for all of us. But that’s one life-lost, not two, and he didn’t die right away. The priest’s question and God’s chastisement are linked and here’s how:

“Know you not that all we who are baptized in Christ Jesus are baptized in his death? For we are buried together with him by baptism into death: that, as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life.” Romans 6:3-5

 

“By whom he has given us most great and precious promises: that by these you may be made partakers of the divine nature: flying the corruption of that concupiscence which is in the world.”

2 Peter 1:4

What was lost to Adam on the day he ate of the tree was the divine nature—God’s life. We call that life Sanctifying Grace, and it is restored to us at our Baptism. Adam had two lives before he rebelled: his own human nature and a created share in the very nature of God. On the very day of his sin, that gift of God’s life, that Grace, was revoked. He died the death—the loss of participation in the divine nature. His natural death which came much later was an indirect effect of this supernatural death.

After Father had explained it this way, I looked around the room and everyone looked relieved and satisfied. I felt the same. Father went on to explain that if Adam hadn’t sinned he would have passed both lives to his children. Adam and Eve didn’t have children until after the fall. Outside of Eden, while the divine nature wasn’t passed on naturally, human nature was—we can see clear results of this in their son Abel’s murder by his brother Cain. If they had children before the Fall, Grace would have been transmitted with the generation of the human souls of Adam’s children as it was for Adam. And this was the case for thousands of years afterward…until…

“…the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin.” Pope Pius IX, Definition of the Immaculate Conception

Mary was conceived with two lives. What was lost in the garden was interrupted in her Immaculate Conception and preserved so that in her womb she could generate the Son of God in the flesh—that second Adam. In Him, the Son of God and Son of Mary, our second life is restored to us. It is lived in union with Him and restores us to be partakers of the divine nature—God’s life (aka Sanctifying Grace) which is given at Baptism where we are “born again of water and the spirit” (John 3:3-5). Because of this, Mary is our Mother too. In her womb Grace Himself was transmitted to this fallen world and ultimately to our fallen nature. We share the same womb as this Divine Son in our Baptism, and so, Mary becomes our Mother too.

Hail, full of Grace, the Lord is with Thee!

It was 9am on a Saturday morning. My pregnant wife and I had just arrived at our destination after a half-our drive. It was our first birthing class and we were in no way prepared or excited to be there.

Within a few minutes of the start of our first birthing class, the nurse facilitator asked everyone for qualities of what they thought the ideal birthing experience would be. Two qualities inevitably came up, “painless,” and “all natural.” The nurse immediately pointed out that these qualities do exist together in one type of birthing experience. My mind locked onto the Blessed Virgin Mary.

According to Sacred Tradition, since Mary was immaculately conceived and perpetually a virgin, she did not experience pain during the birth of Christ. One of the curses of the fall was that in pain the woman would bring forth children (Gen. 3:16). By being immaculate, and thereby “full of Grace,” the Blessed Virgin Mary, that new Eve, brought forth her babe without the curses of Original Sin and therefore without pain. Remember that since she is the Ever Virgin and, as Saint Augustine says,

…a virgin conceiving, a virgin bearing, a virgin bringing forth, a virgin perpetual…

She therefore possesses all of the anatomical qualities of a virgin. And, if she possessed those qualities while “bringing forth” the Christ child, she must have done so painlessly and without detriment to said qualities.

Surprisingly, the nurse facilitator was not referring to the Mother of God. The painless and natural type of birth to which she was referring is called hypnobirth. She actually said this type of birth was how women were intended to give birth. As you might have guessed, hypnobirth is a combination of two words, hypnosis and birth. In hypnobirth, the woman giving birth is hypnotized. She is subconsciously compelled to detach her consciousness from her will to the point that she is aware of nothing, particularly the pain that comes from giving birth.

On the surface, this looks somewhat harmless. While we can see from reason that hypnosis is something we should be highly skeptical about, the Church doesn’t explicitly condemn its use. What about this then is so offensive? The fact that it is being portrayed as a natural way to give birth painlessly.

Remember that because of the fall, our nature became broken. Because of our brokenness, our natural reality is that it hurts to give birth. Supernaturally, Mary was not subject to our brokenness at the moment of her conception. What was once broken by Eve’s disobedience, is now, in the person of Mary, and in the miracle of her Immaculate Conception, restored to its right order. It was then natural for Mary to give birth to Christ without pain. Naturally pain-free birth is part of God’s singular and unique victory in Mary. To say that we have the same privileges as she does on a natural level, is to say that she is not unique, and ultimately not as important as she actually is. This way of thinking can take our eyes off of her, however so slightly, however so subtly, and harm our devotion to and confidence in her.

Now, this isn’t a blatant or obvious offense. It’s not some sexualized painting of one of her depictions, nor is it graffiti on the Pieta. It is subtle…like a serpent on his belly. There is one enmity that exists in our reality, a permanent opposition between the Woman, that Immaculate Virgin, and the dragon, that ancient serpent and murderer (Gen. 3:15). Since Satan is “the subtlest of all creatures”(Gen. 3:1), his attacks on his archenemy, the Woman, are wrought in subtlety. If he can cloud are clear view of the fairness our Mother possesses without us realizing it, over time he can gain ground on the battlefield of our souls. Mary is special. She is Immaculate. She is our life, our sweetness, and our hope, because through her and in her and by her the Son of God took on our flesh to crush the serpent’s head.

What then should we make of avoiding pain in childbearing by way of medication? Surely pain medication isn’t some subversive attack on the Immaculate Conception too. It’s a relief of symptoms. The reality of our fallen nature is still there and acknowledged, even if it is subdued by an epidural or narcotic. We don’t have the natural capacity to do this. It requires medical intervention. Hypnobirth claims to restore our natural capacity to have a painless childbirth without such intervention. And of course, it says nothing of the pain of contractions and/or the pain of the woman’s recovery after the birth if there are complications. It is therefore a lie and proves its origin from the father of lies. Say no to hypnobirth. If we can naturally restore Eden, so to speak, what’s so special about Mary? And ultimately, what’s so special about Christ? Praised be Jesus in Mary, praised be Mary in Jesus! Glory to God alone.

Devotion to Mary is not an option. The infallible teaching of the Catholic Church states,

“The Church’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship.”
(CCC, 971)

For something to be intrinsic, it must belong naturally and essentially to whatever it is intrinsic to. So, devotion to Mary is not an option, because devotion to Mary cannot be avoided. If a Christian were to try to avoid devotion to her, they would lose something of the true nature of what it means to be a Christian—of what it means to be like Christ and a member of His Mystical Body.

Why would devotion to Mary be necessary? Because God made it so, and His way is perfect as Sacred Scripture says,

“As for my God, his way is undefiled: the words of the Lord are fire-tried.”
(Psalm 17:30)

In the fullness of time, God sent His Son to us…yet more particularly, He sent His Son to Mary. It was she who from the beginning was chosen to be the God-bearer. It was she who from the beginning was chosen to partner with the Trinity to save His enemies. “I will put enmity between you and the Woman,” “the angel Gabriel was sent from God…to a virgin,” “the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,” “thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son.” This is why the Church stresses the necessity of Marian devotion…It is God Who has been devoted to Mary from the beginning. She is the perfect daughter of the Father. She is the mystical spouse of the Holy Ghost. She is the mother of the Son. There is no person who is more in union with the Trinity than she. Mary sits at the right hand of the King, “in gilded clothing, surrounded by variety” (Psalm 44:10). If we desire perfect union with the Trinity, we must draw near to whom He draws nearest to. Devotion to Mary is not an option.

“True devotion to our Lady is holy, that is, it leads us to avoid sin and to imitate the virtues of Mary.”
– St. Louis de Montfort

This is the fourth post in a 7-part series on St. Louis de Montfort’s formula for total consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It’s been a while, so here are some links to the past posts with a review snippet for each:

• True Devotion to Mary, an Introduction — St. Louis de Montfort’s formula is introduced, and the nature of devotion is examined
• True Devotion to Mary is Internal — deals with the interior disposition required for True Devotion to Mary
• True Devotion to Mary is Tender — deals with the necessary trust we must place in our Blessed Mother, and the confidence we have in her that she will help us in our afflictions.

What is it to be holy? Simple textbook answer: to be set apart for God. This is generally pretty easy to understand. We live in a fallen world that doesn’t fit the primordial framework of God’s creative plan. So, if we enroll ourselves back into that framework, we will consequently look, think, act, and sound differently compared to the world around us. We will be set apart from the rest. We will be holy.

Though this definition is easy to understand, what is often glazed over is the nature of holiness itself, that is, what it means to be called “holy”. There aren’t competing ideals of holiness in God’s plan. It’s not as if we have our human standard of holiness, and then there’s God’s standard, and we have to work at uniting the two in some way—there’s really only one, and that is Jesus Christ. The measure of our holiness is approximate to how we resemble Jesus. In other words, to how we resemble God. There is one supreme holiness, and it belongs to Him. Yet in a mysterious and glorious way, He enables us by His grace and calls for our participation into that same holiness. As St. Peter says while quoting Moses, “You shall be holy, for I am holy”(1 Peter 1:16)…and then our Master, “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect”(Matthew 5:48)… This is the desire of the Holy Trinity, the infusion of His holiness into our nature so that the sons of fallen Adam can become sons of the living God.

Having said that, what other standard is St. Louis raising here? To the outsider, it looks like a double standard: there’s Jesus’ way and then there’s Mary’s way. But, similar to what I’ve said in recent posts, there is no double standard here. What this is, is an example of success… and perhaps our greatest example. The virtues of Mary are the virtues of Christ. They have their source in Christ. We imitate her to the end that we conform our image to His, and she is so conformed to Him, in image and will, that every imitation of her and every honor paid to her is given to Him. Fr. Robert Barron has a great illustration that sheds some light, pun intended, on this principle:

“Mary is for us like the moon, which is to say she is a reflected light. Mary’s light comes not from herself, it comes from Christ. You see, it’s easier to look at the moon than at the sun. The sun is so brilliant that we can’t look directly at it, but we can see something of the sun’s light in the moon.”

According to St. Louis de Montfort, Mary’s ten principal virtues that we should imitate are:

1. deep humility
2. lively faith
3. blind obedience
4. unceasing prayer
5. constant self-denial
6. surpassing purity
7. ardent love
8. heroic patience
9. angelic kindness
10. and heavenly wisdom

I don’t know about you, but scanning through these virtues, any chance imitating them seems next to impossible. It would have been impossible for the Blessed Mother to attain these virtues too, had she not been given every grace at conception by the foreseen merits of her Divine Son. And there you have it…grace. Grace is what makes the impossible possible in attaining such virtue. Our Lord says, “without me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). He means in terms of Holiness. A life of virtue is what God desires for us, and Christ came to give us the means (His grace) to attain every virtue. So let us be holy, but let us be holy according to our Lady’s design. For she, like St. Paul, surely implores her children: “be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). Yet, unlike St. Paul, the Blessed Mother can truly say, “be imitators of me, as Christ is of me.”

Mother of divine grace, pray for us!

I encountered an interesting spin regarding a common Protestant objection to True Devotion on Facebook the other day which compelled me to think. Now, I don’t mean to sound snarky or arrogant. Being that I am a convert to Catholicism from Evangelical Protestantism, I feel pretty confident that I have heard just about every objection contrary to Marian devotion and therefore I’ve thought through most if not all of them—but this one urged more thinking.

Perhaps you have heard it before, but the objection goes something like this,

“if True Devotion to Mary requires one to consecrate one’s entire life to Christ through Mary, doesn’t that put an added layer over our relationship to the Father? Why not consecrate your entire life to the Father through the Son and the Holy Spirit?”

So, why not? Why all the fuss with the Blessed Virgin Mary (and in the case of True Devotion, not just a little fuss, but ALL the fuss)? Why not keep our eyes on the prize (i.e. our relationship to the Father) and utilize the one mediator for our Salvation? Why add another layer to the cake? Because the Kingdom of Heaven is not like a layer cake, it’s like yeast.

Again he said, To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed [in] with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened. Luke 13:20-21

In Haydock, we read that St. Ambrose interpreted this scripture like so:

“The flour represents us Christians, who receive the Lord Jesus into the inner parts of our soul, till we are all inflamed with the fire of his heavenly wisdom.”

So, if the flour is us Christians, and the yeast is our Lord Jesus Christ, then who is this woman?
Haydock again, but this time on the same parable found in Matthew 13:33,

“By the woman here mentioned, St. Jerome understands the Church gathered from all nations; or the power and wisdom of God, according to St. Augustine.”

Interesting. In Luke, St. Ambrose believes the flour is all Christians. However in Matthew, St. Jerome believes the woman represents Christendom; and St. Augustine, the power and wisdom of God. So, who’s right? They all are.

At this point, I would usually jump to the obvious conclusion. In the Catholic faith we believe that Mary is the Mother of all Christians, the image of the Church, and the Mother and throne of the Incarnate Wisdom of God—so, she is indeed that woman in the parable. However, there’s a pretty basic principle here that can help carry our True Devotion over the obstacles of Protestant objections, and that is, we participate in God’s plan of salvation. We demonstrate the power and wisdom of God, both to each other and to the world. At all times we are both the flour being leavened and the Woman mixing in the yeast. This is why the Church is termed as a “kingdom” and not merely a “kingship”. It’s not just God, it’s God and His people—the king’s domain (king • dom). It’s the head and the body. Some in this kingdom have proven themselves better at mixing in the yeast, we call them Saints. The Blessed Mother was the mixer par excellence, she was the Woman par excellence. And so, she remains. We turn our flour over to her entirely so that she can better apply that yeast, the Grace of Christ, which leavens us to the heights of Heaven.

No layers to this cake, only varying and dynamic degrees of participation in the kingdom of God.

We fly unto thee, oh Virgin of virgins, for you are our Mother!

It was a late Monday night in Spring. I couldn’t sleep. My undergrad courses were getting more and more intense as I was planning on graduating the following Winter. My mind was literally anywhere and everywhere—but my body was in bed, so it was time to catch some Z’s. I reached towards my night stand to turn the bedside light on and find a book to help ease the transition into dreamland, but was redirected when something else caught my eye.

Under a thin layer of dust and in a tangled pile near the edge of my bedside table was the Confirmation gift I received from my fiancee weeks before… a Rosary, with wooden beads and a Miraculous Medal above the Crucifix. I had put off praying a Rosary since my conversion and sacraments because I still had reservations about devotions to the Blessed Mother. But there it was, like a loyal friend in time of need. So I picked it up, shook off the dust, and started into the prayers.

It was Monday night, so I meditated on the Joyful mysteries. I was sincerely amazed at what followed. When I would study the events in the lives of Jesus and Mary before, all too often I would do so in isolation. What I mean is, when I’d consider a sacred mystery like the nativity of our Lord, I would consider that mystery out of context, so-to-speak. I would consider it without really considering the mysteries that came before it or the ones that would come after it, and how they were all coherently interconnected. But as I thumbed through each Ave, I saw the face of Christ take shape as if reflected in the eyes of His Mother.

In her eyes, wide with wonder, curiousity and pierced with ecstasy, I envisioned the Archangel joyously proclaiming his salutation and the Holy Name, “Hail, full of Grace…you shall call His name Jesus.” In her eyes, softened with consolation and charity, I saw the humbled & joyous face of her kinswoman as she uttered, “blessed are you among women…and how is this that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?” In her eyes, fixated in adoration, I saw the face of a tender child—the fruit of her womb and the glory of God. In her eyes, clouded with tears of pre-emptive sorrow, I could see St. Simeon, his arms wrapped around the divine infant and his face wrapped in profound concern for the Blessed Mother, “this child is destined to be a sign that is contradicted…and a sword shall pierce your own soul also.” In her eyes, still tender from three days of tearful searching for her lost son, though now welling up once more with tears of solace and joy, I saw that same divine infant…the one announced by the Angel, the one born of her womb, now in that same temple He was presented in on the day of His circumcision, amongst the Rabbis of His time and “about His Father’s business.”

Our Holy Father, the Venerable Pope Pius XII, said “the Rosary is the compendium of the entire Gospel.” In the Rosary, it’s as if the whole of the Gospel narrative is strung together, so we can see the face of Christ in it’s richest context—through the eyes of His pure and all-holy mother. In Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, we are introduced to the Way the Truth and the Life. In the Holy Rosary, we are planted into the very pages and words of scripture and tradition so that we may walk the Way, hear the Truth, and experience the Life in a personal and mystical way.

For the rest of that night, I slept like a babe in the arms of his mother.

“It was [Mary] herself who on that morning of the 8th of May placed her Jesus into my soul.”

– St. Thérèse of Lisieux

 

“The priest is Mary’s privileged child. It is she who trains him to piety in youth and shields his virtue; she it is who nourishes his fervor, who leads him by the hand to the foot of the altar and presents him to the Bishop, as once she offered Jesus in the Temple.”

– St. Peter Julian Eymard

Today is Holy Thursday. Today, we celebrate the institution of the Most Holy Eucharist and the beginning of the Catholic priesthood. Today we are given everything, and the Ever Blessed Mother of God is an inextricable part of that gift. Not as if she were an addition to these gifts, that is, we are not given the Eucharist, the Priesthood, and Mary, but rather we are given the Eucharist and the Priesthood by way of Mary according to the fruit of her spousal union with the Holy Spirit. The above quotes say it all. On the occasion of St. Thérèse’s first communion, Mary was there, reconciling her daughter to her Son. In every priestly ordination Mary is there, fulfilling her office of handmaid and presenting the priest, who ministers in the person of Christ, in the new Temple which is the Holy Catholic Church.

It was from Mary that the Word of God received His flesh and blood, and so it is from Mary perpetually and mystically that we receive His flesh and blood at every Holy Communion. This is an inexaustable mystery to reflect upon. By going to Jesus through Mary, the reality of the Incarnation becomes incredibly dense—as through flesh and blood. It is that “density” that we are after in our Holy religion. You see, when God became man, it was His desire to become man eternally. His will was to establish an everlasting principle of communion between God and man. The theologians call this principle the “Incarnational” principle. This is why we have sacraments. This is why we have sacred images. This is why we have bells, incense, candles, holy oil, holy water, holy salt, chant, all those things that add that “density” to our worship are there for this purpose and because of this principle. And it is by the birth of our Savior through the heart and womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and by extension in the Holy Eucharist, that this reality receives its density. In the words of St. Athanasius,

“The Saviour of us all, the Word of God, in His great love took to Himself a body and moved as Man among men, meeting their senses, so to speak, half way. He became Himself an object for the senses, so that those who were seeking God in sensible things might apprehend the Father through the works which He, the Word of God, did in the body”(On the Incarnation, § 15).

Just as we cannot have Jesus without Mary, and thereby His flesh and blood in Holy Communion without her divine motherhood, we cannot have any of it without the Priesthood. “Do this in memory of me,” were the words of our Master to the Apostles on that first Holy Thursday. This mandate, was not merely a command to give and receive bread and wine in the same manner, but to speak the words of the Incarnate Word over bread and wine and transform them into His Incarnate self. In order to fulfill this charge, the Church teaches that the ordination of priests causes a change in there person that allows them to minister in the very person of Christ, the son of Mary. You see, it is all interwoven. Bread and wine cannot be transformed in and of itself into our Divine Savior without the priest. The priest cannot simply change bread and wine into our Divine Savior without the words of that same Savior. Our Savior couldn’t give us His words without first being given to us through the womb of His Ever Blessed Mother. And we would never have heard of such a thing without the ministry of Christ’s priesthood throughout the ages, which He established on that Thursday 2,000 years ago.

Pray for your priests, stay close to our Lord in Holy Communion, and do it all through Mary to her Son, the Eternal High Priest.

Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament, pray for us!

On the Feast of the Annunciation (March 25th), Byzantine Christians sing the following hymn (which is known as an irmos):

“Let no uninitiated hand touch the living Ark of God; but let faithful lips, singing without ceasing the words of the angel to the Theotokos, cry aloud in great joy: Rejoice, O Full of Grace the Lord is with you.”

This hymn opens the believer’s eyes to the reality that the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament was a foreshadowing of the Mother of God, the Ever Blessed Virgin Mary. As the ark constructed by the children of Israel held the presence of God in the unique way that would lead to creative expressions in The Raiders of the Lost Ark (which itself hearkens back to accounts from the Old Testament where those who were not supposed to approach the holy ark were struck down for doing so) so too did Mary, the Living Ark of God, bear God’s presence through the Incarnation of Christ God.

God took on humanity in one particular person. This was not a grace bestowed to you, or to me, to Mother Teresa, or to whomever you currently look up to most on earth assuming you have not come to see the special importance of the Ever Blessed Theotokos. But granting that you have spent the time to ponder the awesome mystery of the Annunciation, you will see her as the living Ark of God, and you will follow the angelic witness who cried aloud by saying “Hail, Full of Grace”. You will see her as the one who held Grace Himself, first in her womb, then in her arms, and always in her heart.

Spend some time to think of our world prior to the Incarnation. In the Old Testament God appeared as an angel, in flames of fire and other manifestations that speak to mankind without taking on human nature. At this point which is 9 months before the celebration of the Birth of Christ, human history takes on a new level of intimacy with God. God does not merely speak to us, He becomes us, dwelling among us first in the womb of the Ever Blessed Virgin Mary.

What praise can we render to such a reality? What thanksgiving? What adoration? Nothing that we can compose will exhaust the beauty of this feast. Instead, we must approach in gratitude and love, and thank God for dwelling among us to save us.

It all began with the Annunciation. Thankfully, it will never leave us. We have a New and Living Ark of God who bore God Himself, born as an infant babe.

–J. Andrew Deane
J. Andrew Deane blogs at:
www.calledtocommunion.com
prayerofsaintephrem.wordpress.com

He is the “renowned offspring of David,” a Judahite and in the line of the great king. Being a king himself by right of his noble birth, he is placed as Lord over his master’s household, to be called “father” by the Father of all creation.

He is the “light of Patriarchs,” the beacon that all fathers and patriarchs of old were oriented towards. Greater than Abraham, more luminous than Jacob, though without seed outnumbering the stars, he holds in his arm and under his vanguard the Eternally begotten seed of the Father of lights.

He is the “spouse of the Mother of God.”

He is the “chaste guardian of the Virgin,” shielding the New Ark of the Covenant from defilement, because within her is the law made flesh, a high priest greater than Holy Aaron, and the true Bread from Heaven.

He is the “foster father of the Son of God,” fashioned in the likeness of the Heavenly Father. To the Son, his arms bear resemblance of the eternal arms of the Godhead. In his chaste embrace, the Son is glorified, and Wisdom itself grows in wisdom.

He is the “diligent protector of Christ,” he protects the Woman and her seed from the usurper of his father’s throne, and so keeps this office of guardian for her heel, protecting the mystical Body from that rebel who desires to usurp God’s likeness.

He is the “head of the Holy Family,” the model of perfection for every head of every family, seeking to become holy.

Joseph most just, raising the Son of Justice Himself.

Joseph most chaste, vowed in virginal purity, and consecrated to the Immaculate.

Joseph most prudent.

Joseph most strong.

Joseph most obedient, Joseph most faithful, responding to the call of God’s messenger and fulfilling, with all worthiness of trust, the commands of God.

Mirror of patience, lover of poverty, rightly deserving the riches of David’s house, but choosing Nazareth and forsaking all to find all.

Model of artisans, taking to himself as an apprentice the Son of God, the one who would be called the son of a carpenter.

Glory of home life, whose home in Nazareth housed the Glory of the Father.

Guardian of virgins.

Pillar of families.

Solace of the wretched.

Hope of the sick, patron of the dying, passing from this life to the next in the presence of the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Terror of demons! Protector of Holy Church!

Pray for us.