There is a heaven,
Many rooms
And God illuminates everything
I only know that it's beautiful
Where the angels and saints
They praise God,
Where Jesus sits
at the right hand of the Father,
Next to the Holy Spirit.
Where Mary is,
the Most Holy Virgin.
A heaven
That even though I wanted it
I couldn't imagine
Because
No eye has seen
And no ear has listened
From what awaits us,
Where love reigns,
the tears dry.
In Eastern traditions, the Virgin Mary is known in Greek as "Theotokus," which literally translates to "Mother of God." Yesterday, I read an explanation on EWTN about this. It explains that any mother's motherhood encompasses our entire being; that is, even though we are both body and soul, we don't have one mother for our body and another for our soul. Similarly, Mary, having given birth to the Son of God, who is both true God and true man, Jesus, is the mother of his entire being, and consequently, she is the Mother of God.
Here is a translation of the explanation given by James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore from 1877 to 1921. It was published by EWTN in English in an email message about a novena that I received (this is a version translated back from the translation in Spanish and may differ from the original):
When we call the Blessed Virgin Mary the Mother of God, we affirm our belief in two things: First, that her Son, Jesus Christ, is truly man; otherwise, she would not be a mother. Second, that He is truly God; otherwise, she would not be the Mother of God.
In other words, we affirm that the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Word of God, who in His divine nature is eternally begotten of the Father and consubstantial with Him, was begotten again in the fullness of time by being born of the Virgin, thus taking upon Himself, from her womb, a human nature of the same substance as His own.
But it can be said that the Blessed Virgin Mary is not the Mother of the Divinity. She had no part, and could not have had any part, in the generation of the Word of God, because that generation is eternal; her motherhood is temporal. He is her Creator; she is His creature. Make of her, if you will, the Mother of the man Jesus or even of the human nature of the Son of God, but not the Mother of God.
I will answer this objection by posing a question. Did the mother who bore us have any part in the production of our soul? Was this noblest part of our being not the work of God alone? Yet, who would for a moment dream of saying "the mother of my body" and not "my mother"?
The comparison teaches us that the terms father and son, mother and child, refer to persons and not to the parts or elements of which persons are composed. Therefore, no one says, "the mother of my body," "the mother of my soul"; but in every respect, "my mother," the mother of me who lives and breathes, thinks and acts, one in my personality, even though uniting in her a soul created directly by God and a material body derived directly from the maternal womb.
Likewise, insofar as the sublime mystery of the Incarnation can be reflected in the natural order, the Blessed Virgin, under the shadow of the Holy Spirit, communicating to the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, as mothers do, a true human nature of the same substance as her own, is therefore truly and genuinely His Mother. It is in this sense that the title of Mother of God, denied by Nestorius, was reclaimed for her by the General Council of Ephesus in 431; in this sense, and in no other, has the Church called her by that title.
God is love. From the beginning of time, He had a plan for humanity, a plan for our salvation. And in that love, God thought of Mary, the Virgin Mother, Mother of God and our Mother, and of course, of salvation through Jesus, our Lord. We cannot speak of Mary without thinking of Jesus. Already in Genesis, God gives us hope when He says to the serpent in Genesis 3:15, “ I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head.” This new woman is the Virgin Mary, and her offspring is Jesus. Thus, God promises us a new mother and a savior, a new Eve and a new Adam. And just as through Eve's disobedience we find death, it is through Mary's obedience that God gives us the hope of eternal life through Jesus. For without the Virgin Mary's "yes," the life of Jesus would not have been possible. And it is this Jesus who brings life to humanity, new life through grace. Therefore, the Virgin Mary occupies a very important place in God's plan of salvation. I recently heard on an EWTN program that the Virgin Mary can be compared to the Ark of the Covenant, because just as the Ark of the Covenant represented God's presence among the people of Israel, the Virgin Mary is the ark, the virginal womb that carried within her God the Son, Emmanuel, God with us. Isaiah 7:14 tells us, “ Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Emmanuel.” This young woman could be none other than the Virgin Mary, the Most Holy and Chaste Virgin before, during, and after childbirth. This is a dogma of faith, but this ark that carried within her God the Son, this Mother of God, could not be stained by sin; therefore, she is a Virgin and was conceived without original sin. I don't remember the saint's name because I heard it several years ago, but this is what he said about the Virgin Mary's virginity: "God willed it, He could, and He did it." The God of creation willed to create the Virgin Mary to be the Mother of Jesus, and He chose her from the beginning. The mystery of the Incarnation of Jesus is undoubtedly the greatest miracle of all time. Through Mary, the prophecies are fulfilled, and God Himself is present in our lives through Jesus, God the Son, who shows us His humility and His love and dwells among us.
Already celebrated by the 11th century, this solemnity is inserted in the context of Advent-Christmas, uniting the messianic expectation and the glorious return of Christ with the admired memory of the Mother.
In this sense, this liturgical period should be considered a particularly suitable time for the worship of the Mother of the Lord.
Mary is the all-holy one, immune from all stain of sin, almost formed by the Holy Spirit and made a new creature. Already prophetically foreshadowed in the promise made to the parents of the victory over the serpent, Mary is the Virgin who will conceive and give birth to a son whose name will be Emmanuel.
The dogma of the Immaculate Conception was proclaimed by Pius IX in 1854.
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who truly is full of grace and blessed among women, in view of the birth and saving death of the Son of God, was from the first moment of her conception, by a singular privilege of God, preserved immune from any stain of original sin, as solemnly defined by Pope Pius IX, on the basis of a doctrine of ancient tradition, as a dogma of faith, precisely on the day that is celebrated today.
Not the memory of a Saint, we commemorate today: but the highest and most precious solemnity of Her who is called Queen of the Saints. The Immaculate Conception of Mary was proclaimed in 1854 by Pope Pius IX.
But the history of devotion to Mary Immaculate is much older. It predates the proclamation of the dogma by centuries, even millennia, which, as always, has not introduced anything new, but has simply crowned a very long tradition. Even the Fathers of the Eastern Church, in extolling the Mother of God, had used expressions that placed her above original sin.
They had called her: "Ashamed, guilty, beauty of innocence, purer than the Angevins, purest lily, unpoisoned seed, cloud more splendid than the sun, immaculate."
In the West, however, the theory of the Immaculate Conception encountered strong resistance, not out of aversion to the Virgin, who remained the most sublime of creatures, but to uphold the doctrine of Redemption, accomplished solely through the sacrifice of Jesus. If Mary had been immaculate, that is, if she had been conceived by God outside the law of sin, the doctrine would have been incompatible with the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.
Original sin, common to all the children of Eve, meant that she would not have needed Redemption, and therefore Redemption could no longer be called universal. The exception, in this case, did not confirm the rule, but rather destroyed it. The Franciscan John Duns Scotus, called Scotus because he was a native of Scotland, and known as the "Subtle Doctor," managed to overcome this doctrinal obstacle with a subtle but convincing distinction. The Virgin Mary, too, had been redeemed by Jesus, but with a preventive Redemption, before and after time. She was preserved from original sin in anticipation of the merits of her divine Son. This was fitting, it was possible, and therefore it was done. John Duns Scotus died at the beginning of the 14th century. After him, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception made great progress, and devotion to her spread ever more widely.
From 1476 onwards, the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary was introduced into the Roman calendar. In the squares of Italy, celebrated preachers wove praises of the Immaculate Virgin: among them, Saint Leonard of Port Maurice and Saint Bernardino of Siena, who with his witty and moving voice said to the Sienese: "Now tell me: what shall we say of the knowledge of Mary being filled with the Holy Spirit, having been born without any sin, and thus remaining always clean and pure, always serving God?"
In 1830, the Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Catherine Labouré, who then promoted a "miraculous medal" bearing the image of the Immaculate Conception, that is, the one "conceived without sin." This medal sparked intense devotion, and many bishops petitioned Rome for the official definition of this dogma, which was already in the hearts of almost all Christians.
Thus, on December 8, 1854, Pius IX proclaimed the "woman clothed with the sun" exempt from original sin, all pure, that is, Immaculate. It was an act of great faith and extreme courage, which aroused joy among the faithful of the Virgin and indignation among the enemies of Christianity, because the dogma of the Immaculate Conception was a direct denial of the naturalists and materialists. But four years later, the apparitions of Lourdes appeared as a wondrous confirmation of the dogma that had proclaimed the Virgin "all beautiful," "full of grace," and without any stain of original sin. A confirmation that seemed like an expression of gratitude for the abundance of graces that flow from the heart of the Immaculate Conception upon humanity. And from the devotion to the Immaculate Conception came the immediate spread, in Italy, of the feminine name Concetta, in Spain that of Concepción: a name that repeats the highest attribute of Mary, "sine labe originali concepta", that is, conceived without stain of sin, and, therefore, Immaculate.
Source: (Parish Archives)
I've been wondering how Mary experienced Advent. And since writing helps me think, I started writing here. First, Mary had trust, and more than trust, faith in the words the angel communicated to her, words that came from God. She believed she would be the mother of Emmanuel, God with us. She believed and offered her fiat, which changed the course of history. So, to await Jesus, to await Christmas, we must first believe that God became man. And we must have trust in God despite everything. Mary trusted despite what her "yes" implied; she didn't stop to think about what would happen. She trusted and said "yes" to the Lord's will. Mary, the Virgin Mary, was not passive. Despite her pregnancy, she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth to help her. And she was able to transmit her joy to the baby in Elizabeth's womb. Likewise, we must not remain unmoved by the coming of Jesus. We must share our Christian joy with others, bring Jesus to those who need him, offer help, comfort, advice, and joy. It seems the Bible doesn't tell us much about Mary, but the angel called her "full of grace." Perhaps we won't reach Mary's level of grace, who was conceived without original sin, but we should still aspire to a state of grace to receive Jesus this Christmas. The purple color we see in churches this Advent season is a sign of penance. And many parishioners, as well as priests, often wear purple vestments to Mass. Let us then do penance for our sins, go to confession, and prepare ourselves to worthily receive Jesus this Christmas and celebrate his birth with renewed faith, joy, and acceptance of God's will, which at this time is that Jesus be born and remain in our hearts, not only during Christmas, but throughout our lives.
August 23, 2019
Sometimes I feel guilty about a poem I wrote for another blog, where my name is God's princess when I proclaim His Word at Mass. Yesterday I felt that way. It's because it's my turn to proclaim at Mass. But God, who loves us so much, reminded me of something. Some time ago, I read on Facebook the true story of a girl who asked a priest if the Virgin Mary was actually our mother. The priest said yes. She asked again, "Is she a queen?" The priest replied, "Yes." At that moment, the girl smiled and said to her mother, "It's true, it's true, I am a princess!" Then God made me feel better; every woman is a princess of God!
“[On the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary], we are contemplating a little girl like every other, yet at the same time the only one who was ‘blessed among women’ (Luke 1:42). Mary was the immaculate ‘Daughter of Zion,’ destined to become the Mother of the Messiah.”
- Pope St. John Paul II
I'm always looking for You. I haven't seen You. Never. Do I chase after your impressions? Do I wipe them away? I long for them, I ...
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