Since we are travellers and pilgrims in the world, let us ever ponder on the end of the road, that is of our life, for the end of our roadway is our home (St Columban, 8th sermon).
Showing posts with label Blessed Virgin Mary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blessed Virgin Mary. Show all posts
graciously grant that, sustained by her intercession,
we may attain in the heavenly Kingdom
the glory promised to your children.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Ave Regina Caelorum is one of four Marian antiphons or hymns sung at the end of Compline (Night Prayer), the last 'hour' of the Liturgy of the Hours. (Only one antiphon is sung each nithg.) It is the antiphon sung on the Solemnity of the Assumption and on today's feast. In the video above it is sung at the end of Mass in the Sistine Chapel the morning after Pope Francis was elected.
Ave, Regina
Caelorum,
Hail, O Queen of Heaven.
Ave, Domina
Angelorum:
Hail, O Lady of Angels
Salve, radix,
salve, porta
Hail! thou root, hail! thou gate
Ex qua mundo lux
est orta:
From whom unto the world, a light has arisen.
Gaude, Virgo gloriosa.
Rejoice, O glorious
Virgin,
Super omnes speciosa,
Lovely beyond all
others,
Vale, o valde decora,
Farewell, most
beautiful maiden,
Et pro nobis Christum exora.
And pray for us to
Christ.
Below is a setting by Palestrina, sung by a choir in Budapest, Hungary.
In this period I have recalled several times the need for every Christian, in the midst of the many occupations that fill our days, to find time for God and for prayer. The Lord himself gives us many opportunities to remember him. Today I would like to reflect briefly on one of these channels that can lead to God and can also be of help in the encounter with him. It is the way of artistic expression, part of that 'via pulchritudinis' — the 'way of beauty', of which I have spoken several times and whose deepest meaning must be recovered by men and women today.
Las Manañitas a La Virgen , 12 December 2007, sung in the Basilica of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Tepeyac, Mexico City,after the early morning Mass on her feast day, 12 December. Las Mañanitasis a traditional Mexican birthday song, also known in the Philippines, sung to the celebrant very early in the morning.
In his homily on 5 May during Mass on the occasion of the day of confraternities and popular piety Pope Francis said: When you express profound devotion for the Virgin Mary, you are pointing to the highest realization of the Christian life, the one who by her faith and obedience to God’s will, and by her meditation on the words and deeds of Jesus, is the Lord’s perfect disciple (cf. Lumen Gentium, 53).
Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, Philippines
In the Philippines we observe the Flores de Mayo, The Flowers of May, every year. It is basically a programme for children, mostly from poor families, led by volunteers throughout the country who teach the youngsters the basics of our Catholic faith. The children also bring flowers which they place before a statue of the Blessed Mother. At the end of each daily session of catechism and prayer the children lay flowers before a statue of the Blessed Virgin.
The popular piety of Filipino Catholics has been greatly influenced by Mexico, since Spain colonized the country from that country. Originally the Philippines was part of the Archdiocese of Mexico. When the Diocese of Manila, covering the whole country, was established in 1579 it was still linked to that archdiocese until it became one itself in 1595 and three other dioceses were established in the Philippines.
There is an exuberance in the piety of Filipinos but I think that the piety of Mexicans is even more exuberant, as shown in the video above. Renowned singers and musicians, along with the congregation, give a concert in honour of our Blessed Mother.
Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Our Lady of Guadalupe
The May-June 2013 issue of Misyon, the online magazine of the Columbans in the Philippines, has an article by Vissia Hernandez, a Filipina who visited Guadalupe, A Visit to Tepeyac.
I added the following video to the article. Marco Antonio Solís is a Mexican singer known throughout the Spanish-speaking Americas.
Himno a la Humildad,sung by Marco Antonio Solís
Con que gusto venimos con gran emoción a decirte lo que hay en nuestro corazón; hoy es dia de fiesta hasta en el mas pequeño rincon; hoy se muere el rancor y florece el perdon.
How we love to come with great feeling to tell you what is in our heart; today is a festive day even in the most remote corner; today hatred dies and forgiveness blossoms.
Virgencita . . . milagrosa, eres tú la estrella mas hermosa de la creación.
Beloved Virgin . . . miraculous, you are the most beautiful star in all creation.
Virgen morena, Reyna de la esperanza, hoy te cantamos el himno a la humildad. Eres la tierra donde la fe sembramos y cosechamos siempre de tu bondad.
Dark Virgin, Queen of hope, Today we sing to you a hymn to humility. You are the soil where we sow faith and always harvest from your kindness. (Hablado) Aqui venimos, madrecita, con nuestros cuerpos mas cansados que la ultima ocasión, pero con un amor tan grande para ti que no nos cabe en el corazon, por que eres consuelo divino, luz de todos los caminos. Gracias por quedarte siempre con tus fieles peregrines.
(Spoken) We come here, beloved Mother, with our bodies more tired that the last time, but with a great love for you that our hearts can’t contain, for you are the divine consolation, the light of all roads. Thank you for always being with your faithful pilgrims.
Virgencita adorada, no me puedo ir sin decirte mil gracias, tu sabes por que, y teniendo el momento, te quiero pedir por los que por justicia se mueren de sed.
Dear Blessed Virgin, I cannot leave without thanking you a thousand times, you know what for, and taking this opportunity, I want to petition you on behalf of those who have given their lives in the cause of justice.
Virgen morena, Reyna de la speeranza, hoy te cantamos el himno a la humildad; eres la tierra donde la fe sembramos y cosechamos siempre de tu bondad.
Dark Virgin, Queen of hope, Today we sing to you a hymn to humility. You are the soil where we sow faith and always harvest from your kindness.
[Thanks to Fr Jovito Dales for help with the translation.]
One think that is striking about these videos is that the singers, musicians and people face the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe when they sing to and play for her. The concert is in her honour. Nobody would say that Marco Antonio Solís was singing 'with his back to the people'. Can we learn, or re-learn, something about the celebration of the Mass from this?
Readings(Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India
[optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)
Gospel
John 2:1-11(Revised Standard Version – Catholic
Edition)
On the third day there was a
marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; Jesus also was
invited to the marriage, with his disciples. When the wine failed, the mother
of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." And Jesus said to her,
"O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come." His
mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." Now six
stone jars were standing there, for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding
twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with
water." And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, "Now
draw some out, and take it to the steward of the feast." So they took it. When
the steward of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know
where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the
steward of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, "Every man
serves the good wine first; and when men have drunk freely, then the poor wine;
but you have kept the good wine until now." This, the first of his signs,
Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory; and his disciples
believed in him.
Feast of the Sto Niño
On the third Sunday of January the Church in the Philippines celebrates the Feast of the Sto Niño, the Holy Child. These Sunday Reflections focus on the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C. But you may want to read an article by a good friend in Cebu, Judge Simeon Dumdum, Jr, which I featured on this blog in 2009, The Sleeping Sto Niño.
To complicate matters for me, here in the Diocese of Bacolod, as Sunday is 20 January, we celebrate the Solemnity of St Sebastian, patron of the Cathedral, of the Diocese and of the City, and will observe the Feast of the Sto Niño the following Sunday.
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B
Last Sunday I featured the late King Baudouin of the Belgians. This week I feature him again, with Queen Fabiola. The story of how they met is quite remarkable and the late Cardinal Suenens tels the story in his biography of the King, Baudouin, King of the Belgians, The Hidden Life.
The video above has as background music and Irish song that I learned in Grade Three, The Dawning of the Day, in Irish Gaelic Fáinne
Geal an Lae, the version I learned. An Irish song is not at all inappropriate as the matchmaker of the marriage of Baudouin and Fabiola was an Irish woman, Veronica O'Brien.
Veronica was envoy of the Legion of Mary to France and some other European countries. Much 'cloak and dagger' work was involved in finding a wife and queen for the young king. Much more importantly, much prayer was involved too, prayer that was basically a searching for God's will. They became formally engaged in Lourdes, France, King Baudouin travelling incognito, as he always did when he went there.
The couple were married in Brussels on 15 December 1960. The video shows photos of both the civil and church ceremonies. In a number of European countries a separate civil ceremony is required by law and takes place before the church celebration. The King wrote in his spiritual diary for that day: Normally we are awake by day and dream at night, but this time it's as if I'm in a dream all day.
On 8 July 1978 Baudouin wrote in his diary: My God, I thank you for having led us by the hand to the feet of Mary, and every day since then, I thank you, Lord, that we have been able to love each other in your Love, and that that love has brown each day.
And Queen Fabiola wrote to Veronica: I knew Our Blessed Lady was a Queen and a Mother, and all sort of other things, but I never knew that she was a Matchmaker!
Quoting the Queen led Cardinal Suenens to quote a Spanish verse:
Cristo dijo a su Madre
el dia de la Asunción
no te vaya de este mundo
sin pasar por Aragón.
Christ said to his Mother
on the day of the Assumption:
do not leave this world
without passing through Aragón.
Before her marriage the Queen was Doña Fabiola de Mora y Aragón.
The Cardinal quotes freely from Baudouin's diary about Queen Fabiola.
Fill Fabiola with your holiness. May she live her life in your joy and your peace. Teach me to love her with your own tenderness . . .
Fabiola is so loving; she warms my heart. Her silent, yet active presence is a source of great joy to me. My God, how you have spoiled me!
Thank you, Jesus, for having nurtured in me an immense love for my wife. Thank you for having given me a spouse whose love for me is second only to her love for You. May we both grow in you, Lord.
When Veronica O'Brien met Fabiola in Spain she asked the young woman, who had no idea why where things were leading, why she had never married. She replied, What can I say? I have never fallen in love up to now. I have put my life into the hands of God. I abandon myself to Him, maybe he is preparing something for me.
Veronicarecounted all of this in a letter to the King and concluded, It was utterly astounding, because I knew exactly what God was preparing for her.
Thirty years later the King wrote in his spiritual diary: Mary, show me what I should do so as not to miss an opportunity of loving, of denying myself for your sake, of living the present moment to the full, as if it were my last, and of loving my darling Fabiola infinitely more. yes, Mother, teach me to love her with tenderness, gentleness, thoughtfulness, respect, and teach me to have faith in here . . .
And Baudouin, addressing the Lord, wrote, Teach me too to respect her personality with its difference adn its inconsistencies. Jesus, I thank you for having given me this wonderful treasure.
Both King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola in these extracts reflect the spirituality of a book that Cardinal Suenens had given the King before he met his future queen and wife, Abandonment to Divine Providence by Jean-Pierre de Caussade SJ. One English translation of this masterpiece has the title The Sacrament of the Present Moment, which captures the essence of the book, that God's will is in the present moment.
Shortly before he left for Motril, Spain, in 1993, where he died suddenly, King Baudouin confided to Cardinal Suenens and Veronica, I love Fabiola more and more each day: what an inspiration she is to me!
This led the Cardinal to quote Jean Guitton, the first lay person to be invited to Vatican II as an observer, Love is always fruitful, were it only because it transforms those who love.
One of the great sorrows in the life of Baudouin and Fabiola as a married couple was that they had no children. The Queen had five miscarriages. Reflecting on this, the King said to a group visiting the Palace, We have pondered on the meaning of this suffering and, bit by bit, we have come to see that it meant that our heart was freer to love all children, absolutely all children.
In a letter to a young mother the King wrote about a children's party that he and the Queen had hosted at the Palace: In one corner there was a group of handicapped children, several of them with Down's syndrome. I brought over a plateful of toffees to a little girl who had scarcely any manual control. with great difficulty, she succeed in taking a toffee but, to my astonishment, she gave it to another child. then for a long time, without ever keeping one for herself, she distributed these sweets (candies) to all the healthy children who could not believe their eyes. What a depth of love there is in those physically handicapped bodies . . .
One by one the children left. We really felt as if they had become in some sense our children. I think they felt it too. It was a very special afternoon; the presence of the Lord was really tangible. There was such peace and joy. that was pure gift!
I have read Baudouin, King of the Belgians, The Hidden Life, a number of times and each time I am moved by it. I see in it a reflection of what's in today's gospel: his gratitude to God, like the gratitude of all at the wedding feast, not mentioned explicitly but clearly there; his and Fabiola's submission to God's will through Mary: Do whatever he tells you; and the extraordinary generosity of Jesus, God and Man, turning water into the equivalent of about 500 or 600 bottles of the best wine, a generosity that led Baudouin and Fabiola, who couldn't have children of their own, to see that our heart was freer to love all children, absolutely all children.
When we allow him, Jesus can turn the very ordinary in our lives into the extraordinary, just as a little girl with physical and mental disabilities revealed the presence of God to the King of the Belgians, just as Fabiola, his wife and queen, was a daily revelation of God's loving presence to him.
God has the same desire to reveal himself to each of us every day, specifically in the present moment. And He has given us his Mother, who is our Mother also, to guide us with her words of absolute faith, do whatever he tells you.
Second reading from the Mass of the Solemnity, Mary Mother of God (Galatians 4:4-7, RSV Catholic Edition)
But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir.
Introit
Salve, sancta Parens, eníxa puérpera Regem, qui caelum terrámque regit in saecula saeculórum.
Entrance Antiphon
Hail, Holy Mother, who gave birth to the King,
who rules heaven and earth for ever.
The recording by the Benedictines of the Abbey of Solesmes, France, is of the fuller version used in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, the 'Traditional Latin Mass', which includes the Gloria Patri and repeats the antiphon.)
The Church also observes New Year's Day as World Day of Peace, though not liturgically. the theme of Pope Benedict's message for World Day of Peace, 1 January 2013, is Blessed are the Peacemakers. Two paragraphs are of particular relevance in the context of proposed legislation in a number of countries, including the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, and of recent legislation approved in the Philippines. And our focus during the seasons of Advent and Christmas is on the Birth of a Child.
Those who insufficiently value human life and, in consequence, support among other things the liberalization of abortion, perhaps do not realize that in this way they are proposing the pursuit of a false peace. The flight from responsibility, which degrades human persons, and even more so the killing of a defenceless and innocent being, will never be able to produce happiness or peace. Indeed how could one claim to bring about peace, the integral development of peoples or even the protection of the environment without defending the life of those who are weakest, beginning with the unborn. Every offence against life, especially at its beginning, inevitably causes irreparable damage to development, peace and the environment. Neither is it just to introduce surreptitiously into legislation false rights or freedoms which, on the basis of a reductive and relativistic view of human beings and the clever use of ambiguous expressions aimed at promoting a supposed right to abortion and euthanasia, pose a threat to the fundamental right to life.
There is also a need to acknowledge and promote the natural structure of marriage as the union of a man and a woman in the face of attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different types of union; such attempts actually harm and help to destabilize marriage, obscuring its specific nature and its indispensable role in society.
I used the video above recently. It's message is not only the powerful words of the Beatitudes given us by Jesus but the dignity of those who proclaim them here. Some say, in all sincerity, that if it is known before birth that a child has a disability, especially a mental one, better that that child not be born. They are really saying that the persons in this video, whose names appear at the end, were not worthy of being born, or would have been spared a life of suffering had they been aborted. Pope Benedict is speaking to those who see things in this way.
I have a close friend whose first child, a son, was born with severe mental and physical disabilities, due to something that happened during the birth. She told me that it has taken her nearly five years to accept this reality. But there is no way that she and her husband regret the birth of their son, whom they have loved to bits from the moment of his birth, indeed from the moment they knew their first child was on his way. And their daughter, now four, loves her older brother to bits in the same way.
How often persons who are pro-life in word and in deed are taunted or dismissed as caring only for the lives of the unborn. My friends are taking care of their son, with professional help, 24/7. There are countless others caring with all their hearts for those in need.
Pope Benedict's words are a message of hope to the many who lovingly care for persons with special needs at whatever stage of life and he is telling them that they are truly peacemakers. He is also quietly challenging those who see things differently.
Gospel Luke 2:16-21 (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)
The shepherds hurried away and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. When they saw the child they repeated what they had been told about him, and everyone who heard it was astonished at what the shepherds had to say. As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen; it was exactly as they had been told.
When the eighth day came and the child was to be circumcised, they gave him the name Jesus, the name the angel had given him before his conception.
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An Soiscéal Lúcás 13:33-37 (Gaeilge, Irish)
San am sin d’imigh na haoirí anonn go Beithil go deifreach, agus fuair siad Muire agus Iósaef, agus an naíonán ina luí sa mhainséar. Agus ar a fheiceáil dóibh, d’inis siad an ní a dúradh leo mar gheall ar an leanbh seo. Agus cách a chuala, b’ionadh leo na nithe a dúirt na haoirí leo. Agus thaiscigh Muire ina cuimhne na nithe seo uile, ag machnamh orthu ina croí. Agus chuaigh na haoirí ar ais ag glóiriú agus ag moladh Dé faoinar chuala siad agus a bhfaca siad, de réir mar a bhí ráite leo.
Nuair a bhí ocht lá caite agus é le timpeallghearradh, tugadh Íosa mar ainm air, mar a thug an t-aingeal air sular gabhadh sa bhroinn é.
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My mother once told me a story about her mother-in-law, my grandmother Jane Coyle, that made me smile. I was Jane’s first grandchild and my father John was her only child. When my mother would take me over to my grandparents’ house, as she often did, the neighbours would drop by to admire the infant, as people do. Some would say I looked like my father while others would say I was more like my mother.
My mother discovered that after we had gone, especially if some had remarked that I looked like her, my grandmother Jane would go to the next-door neighbour and ask, ‘Doesn’t my grandson look like my son?’ (Jane Coyle died when I was three and was buried the day my brother was baptised).
One of my favourite lines in the Bible – I quoted it in Sunday Reflections for Christmas Day – is ‘God takes delight in his people’ (Psalm 149). This is from the Grail translation of the psalms, the version used in the English-language editions of the Breviary, the Prayer of the Church. Psalm 149 appears in Morning Prayer of the Church on the first Sunday of the four-week cycle and on all solemnities and feasts. I had been praying this psalm regularly for many years before the line jumped out at me some time in the early 1990s. I can’t remember how or why.
I have some idea of the delight that God takes in us and in me from the kind of delight that I and most people I know take in a newborn child, even one whose circumstances of birth aren’t ideal. Murillo captures the delight of the shepherds, the light reflected from the infant Jesus showing it in their faces. We see St Joseph in the background. The light of Jesus is reflected most strongly in the face of Mary, who looks so young and almost vulnerable, a quieter delight on her face, taking in the wonder of what has happened. But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart (Luke 2: 19). She is wearing red, the colour associated with the Holy Spirit, rather than the conventional blue. And Mary said to the angel, "How shall this be, since I have no husband?" And the angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God (Luke 1:34-35).
The eyes of all in Murillo’s painting, and our eyes, are drawn to the Baby Jesus, the painter capturing the truth of St John’s words: In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:4-5).
Murillo’s painting is similar in ways to Gerrit van Honthorst’s Adoration of the Child that I used on Christmas Day and that you can see below. I do not know if Murillo was familiar with the earlier painting in which Mary is also wearing red and holding the cloth in almost the same way. Again, all eyes are on The light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Both paintings capture the beautiful blessing that God asked Moses to give to his people and that we listen to in the First Reading today: The LORD bless you and keep you: The LORD make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you: The LORD lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. "So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them" Numbers 6:24-27). God truly takes delight in us, his sons and daughters. The birth of Jesus invites us to take delight in God who became Man.
[Scripture quotations from Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition].
Look toward the Lord and be radiant; let your faces not be ashamed (Cf Ps34[33]). Communion Antiphon, Third Sunday in Ordinary Time.
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Today is the eighth day of the Octave of Christmas. I came across this video on a couple of blogs today. The normally fearful Linus is not afraid to explain the meaning of Christmas by quoting the words of St Luke directly on the stage. At the words of the angel, 'fear not' he drops his security blanket, rather like the Apostles after Pentecost.
And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. Who having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said to her: Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God.
Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end. And Mary said to the angel: How shall this be done, because I know not man? And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she also hath conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren: Because no word shall be impossible with God. And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.
The Angelus, Jean-François Millet, painted 1857-59
The Angel of the Lord declared to Mary: And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Behold the handmaid of the Lord: Be it done unto me according to Thy word.
Hail Mary . . .
And the Word was made Flesh: And dwelt among us.
Hail Mary . . .
Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray:
Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord.
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