December 8 is the glorious solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. It is a day that all Catholics should celebrate
with joy and thanksgiving because this amazing gift to Mary is also a gift for us!
What is the purpose of the Solemnity?…(continue reading)
But she, not finding where her foot might rest, returned to him into the ark: for the waters were upon the whole earth: and he put forth his hand, and caught her, and brought her into the ark. And having waited yet seven other days, he again sent forth the dove out of the ark. And she came to him in the evening, carrying a bough of an olive tree, with green leaves, in her mouth. Noe therefore understood that the waters were ceased upon the earth. And he stayed yet other seven days: and he sent forth the dove, which returned not any more unto him.
Genesis 8:8-12
The Coptic Christians, whose ancient communities are enduring a prolonged martyrdom in the Middle East, have long given the Blessed Virgin the title of The Beautiful Dove because they see a type or figure of our Lady in this story from Genesis. In common with all of Christendom prior to the time of Luther the Copts find the New Testament present within the Old. In its pages, the stories, the people, the artefacts used, the sacrifices offered and so on everything which Jesus and the Apostles make plain can be seen under a veil as it were. Christians have long delighted in piercing that veil and in unfolding into plain sight the truths which we can now see thanks to the revelation of Christ and the faith passed on through the Apostles. The three journeys of the dove are types of, respectively, the girlhood of Mary, her role as Mother of God and her Assumption into heaven.
The earth covered in waters represents a world drowned in narrow materialism, sin and self-regard. From the moment of her Immaculate Conception our Lady became a pilgrim: in this world but not of it. Noah and his family in the Ark stand for the anawim the humble righteous ones looking with hope for the coming kingdom which would dry up the waters and flood the world instead with the spirit of love and devotion. Mary became in a special way the representative and ambassador of the anawim. She flew forth across the waters filled with love and hope but could find nowhere where here foot might rest. She was sustained only by the wings of faith and the winds of the spirit…click here to read more
The painting is a detail from The Annunciation by Fra Filippo Lippi
God, the Father: Creator of Heaven and Earth. Father Almighty. God of Love. One of three Persons in the Trinity. Through Him, all things were made.
Jesus: The Son of the Living God, Begotten not made, one if being with the Father. Agreeing submitting His Will to the Father, Jesus suffered an horrific death for the sake of all humankind. “Not my Will,” He said, “But Your Will be done.”
Holy Spirit: The Third Person of the Trinity. The Comforter. The Guide. The Paraclete
The Resurrection of the Body: Jesus defeated death when He rose from the dead. By His death we were saved. By His Resurrection, we, too, will rise, one day.
The Truth – The Catholic Church speaks the truth, even if it’s not a popular truth to speak. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Article 1: Section 1950: The Moral Law.
“The moral law is the work of divine Wisdom. Its biblical meaning can be defined as fatherly instruction, God’s pedagogy. It prescribes for man the ways, the rules of conduct that lead to the promised beatitude; it proscribes the ways of evil which turn him away from God and his love. It is at once firm in its precepts and, in its promises, worthy of love.”
Read More at:: His Unending Love
A friend of mine recently ask me what my thoughts on Our Lady Of Fatima were, and it got me to thinking a lot on the subject. I remember when I was first learning about the Catholic Church and hearing all of the wonderful things that people had witnessed in the Church I heard about Our Lady of Fatima. When I first heard about Fatima I remember I was instantly amazed at what the children had witnessed there, and I remember that I believed it right off, I had no doubts in my mind that it truly did happen and I found the account amazing.
As I read about the three children I was almost jealous in a way that it had happened to them,
and not to me. Could you imagine seeing Our Lady, listening to Her speak? Oh how wonderfully
blessed those kids were, I don’t really think they understood at the time what a profound
impact that this would have in so many millions of peoples lives. It never fails to amaze me
the many different ways that God makes His presence known, and the fact that He uses Our Lady
shows how much love He has for His Mother, and it is that love that He has for His Mother, that
makes me love Her so very much.
She is my Spiritual Mother and I have often talked to Her just like I did when my mother was alive. She can understand me in a way that no one else can, and to talk with Her gives me such a peace in my heart. At the beginning of April I am going to be reading yet another book on Our Lady of Fatima, and I am going to be sharing my thoughts on it chapter by chapter on a separate page on my blog. If you would like feel free to get the book and read it along with me. The title is Our Lady Of Fatima by William Thomas Walsh.
Feel free to visit my blog at http://www.mymotherismymodel.blogspot.com
Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
John 4:35
And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace.
Ruth 2:2
….Ruth sets out to glean the ears of corn which the reapers leave behind in order to be able to feed Naomi, her mother-in-law, and herself. When, in the Gospels, Jesus speaks of harvesting He usually means gathering in souls to the kingdom of heaven. Since He speaks through the Old Testament as well as the New it is worth considering the possibility that references to the same subject in the one will have the same purpose as in the other. When to this harvest is added the figure of Ruth following ‘after him in whose sight I shall find grace‘ we are irresistibly reminded of the words of St Gabriel ‘Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God.’ (Luke 1:30) It seems then legitimate to read this passage as an allusion to the role played by the Mother of God in bringing into the kingdom those who escape from the hands of the reapers.
What Mary gleans are those who have heard the Good News about Jesus but have not benefited by it. They lie on the earth having missed salvation but not yet consigned to destruction….to read more click here
And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent
John 17:3
There are degrees of knowledge, particularly knowledge of persons. The longer we know them and the more intimately then the better we know them. In a life beyond the veil of death when we shall encounter Divinity face to face then, certainly we shall know Him far better than we can today. Nonetheless eternity starts now, that is, eternity enters into us and we into it to precisely the extent that we know God. Every moment where we meet Jesus, in the Gospels, in the sacraments, in prayer, in our neighbours is an occasion where time expands into timelessness. There can be no doubt that the human who entered most fully into this intense relationship with the Father, through the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit was Mary His mother. In the Old Testament Book of Ruth we can see a type or figure of this relationship.
Ruth is one of these Very Small Books of the Bible that I referred to in my blog Sense & Sensuality. It is a curious work to be incorporated into the Jewish scriptures and there is no obvious reason to account for its presence. It is a lovely story certainly but the Jews had many lovely stories that didn’t make the canonical cut. In the context of Jewish historical narrative it does tell us who King David’s great-grandmother was but since, as it turns out, she was not only not a Hebrew but, worse than that, she came from their hated neighbours the Moabites, against marrying whom there were strict regulations in much of Old Testament times, you might think that the Jews would be inclined to downplay this fact rather than canonise it. The author of Ruth and the compilers of the canon probably saw in the story not simply an historical account but one which was also profoundly symbolic….Click here to read more
Mary shows us our destiny Unlike Christ, Mary was a mere human to whom God gave special graces. When Jesus took His mother into Heaven, body and soul, He showed us what is in store for those who die in a state of grace. At the end of time, He will raise us bodily from the dead. The faithful will have glorified bodies in Heaven. We will not be ghosts for all eternity. We will be complete, perfect versions of ourselves. This is one reason prayers like the Salve Regina call Mary our “hope.”
Mary shows us our purpose God made us to be united with Him in love. In her death, bodily resurrection, and Assumption, Mary embraced Christ’s mission. Since she was free from original and actual sin, Mary did not have to die. The Church has not defined infallibly that Mary died, but the general consensus of Church Fathers, along with the Church’s Liturgy, teaches that she did. In choosing to follow her Son’s example as closely as possible, she most likely chose to participate in our redemption through dying like He did.
God calls us to be conformed to Christ as well. We must die because of original sin. However, we can unite our suffering and death to Christ’s and help to advance the salvation of the world. We can also choose to die to ourselves in the course of ordinary events.
Continue reading at Contemplative Homeschool.