May is the month dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary
Mother's Day
Readings for the Rule of Saint Benedict for the Week: Ch 2:16 Qualities of the Abbot - Ch 3 Summoning the Brothers for Counsel
For the Lord, the Most High, the awesome.
MARY, GATE OF HEAVEN,
SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL,
PRAY FOR US.
May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of Him.
(Ephesians 1:17)
Welcome to the Ascension of the Lord, in the month of May dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and Mother's Day too. May our souls magnify the Lord and our spirits rejoice in God our Savior, then, for as Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote:
May is Mary's month, and I
Muse at that and wonder why:
Her feasts follow reason,
Dated due to season ...
All things rising, all things sizing
Mary sees, sympathizing
With that world of good,
Nature's motherhood.
Their magnifying of each its kind
With delight calls to mind
How she did in her stored
Magnify the Lord.
Well but there was more than this
Spring's universal bliss
Much, had much to say
To offering Mary May ...
This ecstasy all through mothering earth
Tells Mary her mirth till Christ's birth
To remember and exultation
In God who was her salvation.
For all mothers, then, we pray with heartfelt gratitude, respect, and deep admiration. Mary, Mother of God, please cover all mothers in your protective veil.
I am still with yesterday's (May 11, 2023) first reading at Mass taken from the Acts of the Apostles 18:23-28, which just happens to be related to today's second reading for Mass, one verse quoted above, from Saint Paul's Letter to the Ephesians. In the account from the Acts of Apostles, we heard about a Jew called Apollos who was an eloquent speaker. He was an authority on Scriptures, had been instructed in the Way of the Lord and, with ardent spirit, spoke and taught accurately about Jesus. However, Apollos knew only the baptism of John. When Priscilla and Aquila heard Apollos speak boldly in the synagogue, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. There are many things to learn from this story. I focus though on the importance of helping one another grow in understanding of the faith. It is one of the spiritual works of mercy, that is, instructing the ignorant. Apollos certainly wasn't ignorant. Still, he needed to go further and learn more. We are all called to grow in our understanding of the faith. So, we spend time in prayer, listening and asking God to help us understand, we open the Bible and spend time with a verse, phrase, or word, and reflect on how God is speaking to us. We look for books, like the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Cardinal Ratzinger's classic, Introduction to Christianity, or Romano Guardini's classic, The Lord, for example, and courses and people to help us. We are united as theologians on our knees, and theologians at the desk. After all, it was Saint John Henry Newman who said that we need an educated laity. We need an educated Church, no matter our state in life. So, in our desire to grow in wisdom and knowledge, we ask the God of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory to give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of Him. As we have the humility and courage to grow in our own understanding of the faith, and then instruct others, the Lord is with us. At the same time, we might remember something Saint John Damascene said of Mary: Mary "has captivated my spirit ... day and night I see her in my imagination. It is she, the Mother of Virtue, who gives me eloquence."
Our voices this week all speak of women in general, and mothers and Mary, Mother of God, more specifically. We begin with something we heard from Alice von Hildebrand some time ago. Her voice echoes.
A woman by her very nature is maternal - for every woman, either married or unmarried, is called upon to be a biological, psychological, or spiritual mother - she knows intuitively that to give, to nurture, to care for others, to suffer with and for them - for maternity implies suffering - is infinitely more powerful in God's sight than to conquer nations and fly to the moon.
(Alice von Hildebrand, 1923-2022)
Thank you, every woman, for the simple fact of being a woman! Through the insight that is so much of your womanhood, you enrich the world's understanding and help to make human relations more honest and authentic.
(Pope Saint John Paul II, "Letter to Women," 2, June 29, 1995)
I am at peace in the midst of fifty children. I am as a Mother encompassed by many children of different dispositions ... bound to love, instruct, and provide for the happiness of all, to give the example of cheerfulness.
(Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, 1774-1821)
Good Mistress, graciously look down on us; direct and guide our destinies wheresoever you will. Pacify the storm of our wicked passions, guide us into the quiet port of the divine will, and grant us the blessedness to come.
(Saint John Damascene, 675/6-749, Priest, Doctor of the Church)
Our Lady of Faith, Mother of all the lonely and the frightened of all the ages, help us to keep faith through the long days and the longer nights: faith in God who does not desert us, who is with us all the days, even unto the consummation of the world (Mt 28:20). Mother of all, you whose faith did not falter because your love was so great, make our hearts large, that God may fill them with His love forever.
(Sister Mary Jean Dorcy, O.P, 1914-1988, author, illustrator, especially of children's literature)
Mother Teresa's words follow, words many mothers might agree with.
May God break my heart so completely that the world falls in.
(Saint Teresa of Calcutta, 1910-1997)
And as we go forth this week, united in faith and prayer,
Let us ask for grace
and let us ask through Mary
because she has found what she sought
and she cannot be disappointed.
Let us ask for grace
but grace with God.
For with human beings
grace is a delusion.
Let others ask for merit
let us eagerly ask for grace.
Why?
Is it not by grace
that we are here?
(Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermon for the Feast of the Nativity of Mary)
SAINTS NEREUS AND ACHILLES, MARTYRS,
SAINT PANCRAS, MARTYR,
THE CARHTUSIAN MARTYRS,
BLESSED JANE OF PORTUGAL OP,
OUR LADY OF FATIMA,
SAINT ERCONWALD,
BLESSED IMELDA LAMBERTINI OP, PATRON OF FIRST COMMUNICANTS,
SAINT MATTHIAS, APOSTLE,
SAINT ISIDORE THE FARMER, PATRON OF MADRID,
SAINT CARTHAGE,
BLESSED ANDREW ABELLON OP,
BLESSED GILES OF VAOZELA OP,
SAINT SIMON STOCK,
SAINT BRENDAN,
SAINT JOHN STONE,
SAINT ERIK OF SWEDEN,
SAINT PACHOMIUS,
POPE SAINT JOHN I,
BLESSED ANTONIA MESINA,
SAINT PASCAL BAYLON, HEAVENLY PROTECTOR OF EUCHARISTIC CONGRESSES AND ASSOCIATIONS,
PRAY FOR US.
Today's photo: Sing hymns of praise.
© Gertrude Feick 2024
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