Saint Luke records Jesus as reading from the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue: "The spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me . . . to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour." (Luke 4:18)
Then, with all eyes on Him, Christ added: "Today, in your hearing, this scripture has been fulfilled." (Luke 4:21)
This declaration marks the consummation of the Messianic prophecies.
Dr Luky Whittle
Image with thanks to Freepik AI generated content by CN Whittle
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THE AVE MARIA IN ART AND LETTERS
On 25 March, a gestation term before Christmas day, the Catholic Church celebrates the annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary of the incarnation of her divine Son.
In the words of St Luke, Mary was greeted by the Archangel Gabriel in the words: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.” In Latin the words translate to “Ave, gratia plena”. Early Christians added the names of Jesus and Mary to the greeting in which they added the salutation of her pregnant elderly cousin Elizabeth: “Blessed art Thou among women and blessed is the Fruit of Thy womb.” The greeting is concluded in the words: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”
For centuries the Ave Maria formed part of the Christian’s daily prayer. We find Chaucer early in the second millennium informing that heavenly favours are available by the simple expedient of the recitation of an “Ave Marie or tweye” (a couple of Hail Marys). In Life magazine’s Christmas edition in 1995, Robert Sullivan estimated the number of Hail Marys recited daily at two billion (a billion or tweye) – although, of course, no scientific way of quantifying prayer exists, as many of our prayers are sent up in private.
The
cult of the Blessed Virgin may now be entering a hitherto unsuspected
dimension. On 20 December 2003 “The Economist” traced alleged links in the veneration
of Mary between Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In the 20 December 2003 the writer named the thousands of lines of “subtle and expressive religious poetry
addressed to Mary, the Mother of Jesus” as one of the great cultural
achievements of the Christian era.
England was no exception. In
Anglo-Saxon or Old English, spoken in England from about 700 AD until about the
first century of the second millennium, we find references to Mary in the
so-called Christ poems, ascribed to the pen of Cynewulf, a ninth-century writer
probably resident in Mercia, the West-Midland of England of the early ninth
century.
In
Christ I – the Advent Lyrics a description of Mary’s virginity is given in the
following lines, as heart-stirring as they are simple:
The woman was young,
A virgin free from sin,
Whom he chose to be his mother
It came to pass without man’s embrace
So that for the sake of the child’s
birth the bride became pregnant.
No woman’s reward, before nor since in
the world, occurred in this way
It was kept secret. God’s mystery.
Paintings of the Annunciation abound, particularly in the works of the old masters. One widely known one housed in Florence’s Uffizi Gallery is Sandro Botticelli’s masterpiece painted in 1489 and 1490. It shows the Blessed Virgin kneeling beside a wooden lectern. She appears to be looking inward rather than outward, her hands at once beckoning and resisting Gabriel who kneels before her, a huge St Joseph’s lily in his hand. The angel has wings which could belong to him or perhaps symbolise a hovering Holy Spirit, awaiting Mary’s fiat: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done unto me according to thy word.” (Lk 1:38).
The Irish-born playwright Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) could have been referring to the Botticelli picture when he concluded his poem “Ave Maria, gratia plena” in these words:
“With
wondering eyes and heart I stand
before
this supreme mystery of Love:
some
kneeling girl with passionless pale face,
an
angel with a lily in his hand,
and
over both the white wings of a Dove.
In medieval poetry which teems with poetry about the mystery of the Annunciation we often encounter the Eva-Ave theme. Eve (Latin: Eva), the earth mother and Adam broke faith with God. Their innocence was reclaimed by the immaculate Virgin Mary and her Divine Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. During the Reformation the Douai-trained Jesuit priest Robert Southwell (1561-1595) who during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I was beheaded in the Tower of London for his Catholic faith, wrote:
Spell
Eva back and Ave shall you find
The
first began, the last reversed our harms
An
Angel’s witching words did Eva blind
An
Angel’s Ave disenchants the charms
Death
first by woman’s weakness entered in
In woman’s virtue life does now begin.
Using the same inspiration The born Catholic turned Anglican priest and metaphysical poet John Donne (1573-1631) calls Mary “Thy Maker’s maker and thy Father’s mother”. A fellow metaphysical poet, the Protestant George Herbert, wrote the heart-stopping “Ana-(Mary/Army)gram,” which consists of only two lines.
How
well her name an Army doth present
In whom the Lord of Hosts did pitch his tent.
With the rise of the Oxford Movement in
the nineteenth century, the composition of English Marian poetry which had
abounded before the Reformation began to come back into its own. Gerald Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), an
Anglican turned Catholic priest is arguably the major exponent of Marian poetry
during this century, although his works were only introduced to the public at
large after the start of the twentieth century.
He took his inspiration from medieval religious lyrics, resuscitating
sprung rhythm, a poetic conceit last used in the work “Piers Plowman” in the
fourteenth century. In his organic
poetry he compares the Blessed Virgin “to the air we breathe”, saying:
She, wild web, wondrous robe
Mantles the guilty globe,
Since God has let dispense
Her prayers his providence:
Nay, more than almoner,
The sweet alms’ self is her
And men are meant to share
Her life as life is air.”
The sheer volume of Annunciation art and poetry is a sign that though it passes without pomp and circumstance, the annual feast of the Annunciation represents a landmark in the faith of all Christians. It marks the day when Mary was requested to allow herself to be used as a bridge between God and the human race. In reply to Gabriel’s invitation she joyfully proclaimed: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be it done unto me according to thy word.”
It is Mary’s joyous obedience to God’s
redemptive plan which is the reason why
Christians throughout the ages have turned to her in good times and in
bad for intercession with the Lord. And
as in Chaucer’s time and in the ten centuries before it we still do so using
the prayer beginning with the Angelic salutation: “Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.”
Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ, supported Him from His Incarnation to His Resurrection, and beyond. We honour the Mother of the Son of God and we honour all mothers. Motherhood is a calling which demands much love and self-sacrifice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFXD0m1-HS4
With thanks to The Chosen and Youtube
REDEMPTORIS CUSTOS is the Apostolic Exhortation on St Joseph.
The Introduction begins with a quote from Matthew, followed by Saint John Paul II's own comment. Called to be the Guardian of the Redeemer, "Joseph did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took his wife" (cf. Mt 1 :24).
Inspired by the Gospel, the Fathers of the Church from the earliest centuries stressed that just as St. Joseph took loving care of Mary and gladly dedicated himself to Jesus Christ's upbringing, he likewise watches over and protects Christ's Mystical Body, that is, the Church, of which the Virgin Mary is the exemplar and model.
On the occasion of the centenary of Pope Leo XIII's Encyclical Epistle Quamquam Pluries, and in line with the veneration given to St. Joseph over the centuries, I wish to offer for your consideration, dear brothers, and sisters, some reflections concerning him "into whose custody God entrusted his most precious treasures." I gladly fulfill this pastoral duty so that all may grow in devotion to the Patron of the Universal Church and in love for the Savior whom he served in such an exemplary manner.
In this way the whole Christian people not only will turn to St. Joseph with greater fervor and invoke his patronage with trust, but also will always keep before their eyes his humble, mature way of serving and of "taking part" in the plan of salvation.
I am convinced that by reflection upon the way that Mary's spouse shared in the divine mystery, the Church - on the road towards the future with all of humanity - will be enabled to discover ever anew her own identity within this redemptive plan, which is founded on the mystery of the Incarnation.
This is precisely the mystery in which Joseph of Nazareth "shared" like no other human being except Mary, the Mother of the Incarnate Word. He shared in it with her; he was involved in the same salvific event; he was the guardian of the same love, through the power of which the eternal Father "destined us to be his sons through Jesus Christ" (Eph 1:5).
Apostolic Exhortation Redemptoris Custos of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II on the Person and Mission of Saint Joseph in the Life of Christ and of the Church
Quamquam Pluries Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII on Devotion to Saint Joseph
St Joseph Rosary - Oblates of St Joseph
https://osjusa.org/prayers/st-joseph-rosary/
With thanks to vatican.va, osjusa.org and youtube. Image with thanks to St-joseph free clipart
LOVE LETTERS
TO MARY THE VIRGIN
written by poets old and new
A COLLECTION OF MARIAN PRAISE POETRY
CLASSIFIED RESOURCE SUITABLE
FOR USE IN MARIAN STUDIES
Dr Whittle gathered Marian poems stemming from the first millennium to the end of the nineteenth century during research. She used “A ring-Decorated Maiden” from the quill of Cynewulf as the Marian poem to represent the genre of Marian poetry as it appeared in the first millennium AD.
A number of mediaeval English lyrics in praise of Mary are included in this volume. One or two examples from the pen of more generally known later poets such as Robert Southwell, John Donne, Gerard Manley Hopkins and Patrick Kavanagh have likewise been incorporated.
Overall, however, the vast majority of the poems included in this collection were composed by often anonymous American nun-poets, mainly during the second quarter of the twentieth century. Further examples of their Marian poetry as well as that of many others may be found in the files of the Marian Library at Dayton Ohio.
To access the book, please click in the link below:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sAoRi0GPGevtv4_B_KHtjHGbZawW4m4Y/view?usp=share_link
Happy Christmas and a Blessed New Year
to all Marian Praise readers.
May blessings be with you and your loved ones
at this time of peace, joy and goodwill.
Happy Easter to all Marian Praise readers.
May blessings be with you and your loved ones
at this time of peace, joy and goodwill.
An old tradition holds that Jesus visited His Mother
immediately after His Resurrection.
Mary said 'yes' to God, and thus our Savior was
born to the world. Mary continued her 'yes' to God
and thus Jesus lived in the protection of His family
until the time came for His Messianic ministry.
Mary stood at the foot of the cross as Jesus suffered
and died to save all humanity from sin.
How great is our joy! How deep our rejoicing!
Jesus has risen from the dead. The shackles of sin
which bound us have been broken. We have been
given the promise of eternal life.
Alleluia!
