Mar. 17 - Wk 2 - Day 7 - seeking to understand Mary

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Sometime ago I saw an icon of the “Dormition” (the falling asleep, rather than death) of Mary. The Church in proclaiming the Dogma of the Assumption does not state whether Mary simply died or as the Eastern Churches believe she simply fell asleep on earth and was assumed bodily into heaven. We are free to accept either concept since it has not been defined as to how, or if, Mary died. She was conceived immaculate; she had no sin so we may believe either way. Here is the icon:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.monasteryicons.com/images/large/dormition-of-mary-icon-459.jpg
It blessed me because in this icon we see both Mary seemingly in the repose of sleep and also Jesus holding her as a child. I remembered Jesus’ words to His disciples, ““Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” I’m not sure if that is what the iconographer had in mind but the icon continues to bless me in the thought that I too want to be more and more “child-like” as Mary was on this earth, that like her the Lord will see me as His child and welcome me into heaven.

On this last day of our week of seeking to understand Mary, may we pray earnestly for this grace from the Holy Spirit. Let us trust in Mary’s intercession. St. Augustine speaking to our Blessed Lady says, “You are worthy to be called the mould of God.” Mary is a mould capable of forming people into the image of the God-man. Anyone who is cast into this divine mould is quickly shaped and moulded into Jesus and Jesus into him.

Litany of the Holy Spirit HERE
Ave Maris Stella HERE
Five Decades of the Most Holy Rosary

 

[patricius79]

I love St. Augustine’s and St. Louis’s teaching about Mary being the mould of God. After trying the chiseling thing for years, with no success, how beautiful it is to just give it all to Mary!

 

[MariaChristi]

I love St. Augustine’s and St. Louis’s teaching about Mary being the mould of God. After trying the chiseling thing for years, with no success, how beautiful it is to just give it all to Mary!

Thanks for your reply, dear brother, Pat,

Yes, how humble our Mother’s example is for us! As we first “meet her” in the Gospel of Luke. Mary gives to us, it seems to me, that child-like example of one who loves with her whole heart, as she ponders God’s Word to her. She does not “complicate” things with any form of sinful selfishness but simply asks how she can accomplish God’s Will.

When Mary hears the Angel Gabriel’s message of assurance that the Holy Spirit will overshadow her, she believes and says her “Yes” to the Truth she hears and says: “Behold the Handmaid of the Lord”. Her “Yes” expresses perfect self-knowledge of her own being as a human creature; and her humble, loving obedience to the Holy God Who created her.

All the saints, it seems to me, found in Mary, our Mother and Model, a “mould” to pour themselves into, as St. Augustine and St. Louis describe devotion to Mary, in order to come closer and closer to Jesus and ultimately to the beauty of the Beatific Vision of God. Some wrote about it, while others simply lived it in hidden lives, on earth.

God is glorified in all His Saints. Let us, learn from all His Holy ones, but especially from Mary whom Jesus gave to us from His Cross saying: “Behold your Mother”.

 

[patricius79]

Thanks dear sister.

I’m reading a little from JPII’s Encycical Mother of the Redeemer.

This is so beautiful:

*45. Of the essence of motherhood is the fact that it concerns the person. Motherhood always establishes a unique and unrepeatable relationship between two people: between mother and child and between child and mother.*Even when the same woman is the mother of many children, her personal relationship with each one of them is of the very essence of motherhood. For each child is generated in a unique and unrepeatable way, and this is true both for the mother and for the child. Each child is surrounded in the same way by that maternal love on which are based the child’s development and coming to maturity as a human being.

It can be said that motherhood “in the order of grace” preserves the analogy with what “in the order of nature” characterizes the union between mother and child. In the light of this fact it becomes easier to understand why in Christ’s testament on Golgotha his Mother’s new motherhood is expressed in the singular, in reference to one man: “Behold your son.”

…The Redeemer entrusts his mother to the disciple, and at the same time he gives her to him as his mother. Mary’s motherhood, which becomes man’s inheritance, is a gift: a gift which Christ himself makes personally to every individual. The Redeemer entrusts Mary to John because he entrusts John to Mary. At the foot of the Cross there begins that special entrusting of humanity to the Mother of Christ…And since Mary was given as a mother to him personally, the statement indicates, even though indirectly, everything expressed by the intimate relationship of a child with its mother. And all of this can be included in the word “entrusting.” Such entrusting is the response to a person’s love, and in particular to the love of a mother.
w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_25031987_redemptoris-mater.html

 

[MariaChristi]

Thanks dear sister.

I’m reading a little from JPII’s Encycical Mother of the Redeemer.

This is so beautiful:

*45. Of the essence of motherhood is the fact that it concerns the person. Motherhood always establishes a unique and unrepeatable relationship between two people: between mother and child and between child and mother.*Even when the same woman is the mother of many children, her personal relationship with each one of them is of the very essence of motherhood. For each child is generated in a unique and unrepeatable way, and this is true both for the mother and for the child. Each child is surrounded in the same way by that maternal love on which are based the child’s development and coming to maturity as a human being.

It can be said that motherhood “in the order of grace” preserves the analogy with what “in the order of nature” characterizes the union between mother and child. In the light of this fact it becomes easier to understand why in Christ’s testament on Golgotha his Mother’s new motherhood is expressed in the singular, in reference to one man: “Behold your son.”

…The Redeemer entrusts his mother to the disciple, and at the same time he gives her to him as his mother. Mary’s motherhood, which becomes man’s inheritance, is a gift: a gift which Christ himself makes personally to every individual. The Redeemer entrusts Mary to John because he entrusts John to Mary. At the foot of the Cross there begins that special entrusting of humanity to the Mother of Christ…And since Mary was given as a mother to him personally, the statement indicates, even though indirectly, everything expressed by the intimate relationship of a child with its mother. And all of this can be included in the word “entrusting.” Such entrusting is the response to a person’s love, and in particular to the love of a mother.
w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_25031987_redemptoris-mater.html

Thanks, dear brother Pat,

Pope St. John Paul II wrote as a true son of Mary, who heard the words of Jesus so deeply in his own heart. JPII obeyed Jesus just as John the Apostle did, in taking Mary into his life. Each of us is loved by Mary as a unique child of God. How very well St. JPII has expressed this in the words you quoted!

Today we begin Week 3 and by the power of the Holy Spirit and the intercession of Mary we begin seeking to "understand better, Jesus, the Son of Mary Who is God, the Word made Flesh.

 

[Vico]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Sometime ago I saw an icon of the “Dormition” (the falling asleep, rather than death) of Mary. The Church in proclaiming the Dogma of the Assumption does not state whether Mary simply died or as the Eastern Churches believe she simply fell asleep on earth and was assumed bodily into heaven. We are free to accept either concept since it has not been defined as to how, or if, Mary died. She was conceived immaculate; she had no sin so we may believe either way. Here is the icon:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.monasteryicons.com/images/large/dormition-of-mary-icon-459.jpg
It blessed me because in this icon we see both Mary seemingly in the repose of sleep and also Jesus holding her as a child. I remembered Jesus’ words to His disciples, ““Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” I’m not sure if that is what the iconographer had in mind but the icon continues to bless me in the thought that I too want to be more and more “child-like” as Mary was on this earth, that like her the Lord will see me as His child and welcome me into heaven.

On this last day of our week of seeking to understand Mary, may we pray earnestly for this grace from the Holy Spirit. Let us trust in Mary’s intercession. St. Augustine speaking to our Blessed Lady says, “You are worthy to be called the mould of God.” Mary is a mould capable of forming people into the image of the God-man. Anyone who is cast into this divine mould is quickly shaped and moulded into Jesus and Jesus into him.

Litany of the Holy Spirit HERE
Ave Maris Stella HERE
Five Decades of the Most Holy Rosary

Her soul is received into heaven by Christ, shown both enveloped in the mandorla surrounded by angels and topped with the six winged Seraph; “with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.” (Isaiah 6:1–3)

It also emphasizes that the faithfully departed are highly exalted as has already been accomplished in The Blessed Mother of God.

Byzantine Catholic Troparion of the Dormition - Tone 1

O The - o - to - kos, in giv - ing birth you preserved vir - gin - i - ty;
and in your fall - ing a - sleep you did not for - sake the world.
You are the Moth- er of Life and have been trans-ferred to life,
and through your pray’rs you de - liv - er our souls from death.

 

[MariaChristi]

Her soul is received into heaven by Christ, shown both enveloped in the mandorla surrounded by angels and topped with the six winged Seraph; “with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.” (Isaiah 6:1–3)

It also emphasizes that the faithfully departed are highly exalted as has already been accomplished in The Blessed Mother of God.

Byzantine Catholic Troparion of the Dormition - Tone 1

O The - o - to - kos, in giv - ing birth you preserved vir - gin - i - ty;
and in your fall - ing a - sleep you did not for - sake the world.
You are the Moth- er of Life and have been trans-ferred to life,
and through your pray’rs you de - liv - er our souls from death.

Dear Vico,

Thanks for your reply. I also had read an interpretation of the icon as being Christ holding the soul of Mary, and I can understand that interpretation seeing her body asleep beneath the image of Christ holding the Child. However, Mary ascended into heaven - bodily, that is Church teaching in the dogma, so while we can accept the artistic expression in the icon, it seems to me we need to remember Mary’s body and soul are not separate in heaven. She is in heaven, in her glorified Body and Soul – at least that is how I understand it.

One day, all the just will be glorified as Mary is now, but that is not until the Final Judgment when our bodies and souls will be reunited and there will only be heaven or hell. Purgatory will be no more for souls to become fully purified. It seems the sufferings of the end times will be sufficient for the final cleansing of all who have any temporal punishment due to sin.

Mary is the Glorious Icon of the Church, as the Catechism so beautifully teaches:

966 “Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death.” The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son’s Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians:

In giving birth you kept your virginity; in your Dormition you did not leave the world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life. You conceived the living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death… . . she is our Mother in the order of grace

MARY - ESCHATOLOGICAL ICON OF THE CHURCH

972 After speaking of the Church, her origin, mission, and destiny, we can find no better way to conclude than by looking to Mary. In her we contemplate what the Church already is in her mystery on her own “pilgrimage of faith,” and what she will be in the homeland at the end of her journey. There, “in the glory of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity,” “in the communion of all the saints,” The Church is awaited by the one she venerates as Mother of her Lord and as her own mother.

In the meantime the Mother of Jesus, in the glory which she possesses in body and soul in heaven, is the image and beginning of the Church as it is to be perfected in the world to come. Likewise she shines forth on earth until the day of the Lord shall come, a sign of certain hope and comfort to the pilgrim People of God.

 

[Vico]

Dear Vico,

Thanks for your reply. I also had read an interpretation of the icon as being Christ holding the soul of Mary, and I can understand that interpretation seeing her body asleep beneath the image of Christ holding the Child. However, Mary ascended into heaven - bodily, that is Church teaching in the dogma, so while we can accept the artistic expression in the icon, it seems to me we need to remember Mary’s body and soul are not separate in heaven. She is in heaven, in her glorified Body and Soul – at least that is how I understand it.

One day, all the just will be glorified as Mary is now, but that is not until the Final Judgment when our bodies and souls will be reunited and there will only be heaven or hell. Purgatory will be no more for souls to become fully purified. It seems the sufferings of the end times will be sufficient for the final cleansing of all who have any temporal punishment due to sin.

Mary is the Glorious Icon of the Church, as the Catechism so beautifully teaches:

One thing to remember with icons is that they are not art, but show truths symbolically. The symbols used in icons are static since they were established, unlike art which varies through time. Various truths are shown side by side with multiple scenarios. Now, technically speaking the body and soul are not united from the time of bodily death to the time of its resurrection. The icon can show the body and soul apart to teach a truth: the gates of Heaven are wide open and ready to receive newly departed soul of Mary held by the Son of God.

The Church has not defined if the Mother of God experienced physical death or not. The tradition is that she did. Munificentissimus Deus (1950), defined that Mary, “after the completion of her earthly life”.

Saint Pope John Paul II taught in Mary and the Human Drama of Death in L’Osservatore Romano, Weekly Edition in English 2 July 1997, page 11

Having been closely associated with Christ’s redemptive work, it was fitting for Mary to share the experience of death before partaking of the Resurrection
“The experience of death personally enriched the Blessed Virgin: by undergoing mankind’s common destiny, she can more effectively exercise her spiritual motherhood towards those approaching the last moment of their life”, the Holy Father said at the General Audience of Wednesday, 25 June, as he reflected on the dormition of the Mother of God. Here is a translation of the Pope’s catechesis, which was the 53rd in the series on the Blessed Mother and was given in Italian.

1. Concerning the end of Mary’s earthly life, the Council uses the terms of the Bull defining the dogma of the Assumption and states: “The Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, when her earthly life was over” (Lumen gentium, n. 59). With this formula, the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, following my Venerable Predecessor Pius XII, made no pronouncement on the question of Mary’s death. Nevertheless, Pius XII did not intend to deny the fact of her death, but merely did not judge it opportune to affirm solemnly the death of the Mother of God as a truth to be accepted by all believers.

ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/jp2bvm53.htm

 

[MariaChristi]

One thing to remember with icons is that they are not art, but show truths symbolically. The symbols used in icons are static since they were established, unlike art which varies through time. Various truths are shown side by side with multiple scenarios. Now, technically speaking the body and soul are not united from the time of bodily death to the time of its resurrection. The icon can show the body and soul apart to teach a truth: the gates of Heaven are wide open and ready to receive newly departed soul of Mary held by the Son of God.

The Church has not defined if the Mother of God experienced physical death or not. The tradition is that she did. Munificentissimus Deus (1950), defined that Mary, “after the completion of her earthly life”.

Saint Pope John Paul II taught in Mary and the Human Drama of Death in L’Osservatore Romano, Weekly Edition in English 2 July 1997, page 11

Having been closely associated with Christ’s redemptive work, it was fitting for Mary to share the experience of death before partaking of the Resurrection
“The experience of death personally enriched the Blessed Virgin: by undergoing mankind’s common destiny, she can more effectively exercise her spiritual motherhood towards those approaching the last moment of their life”, the Holy Father said at the General Audience of Wednesday, 25 June, as he reflected on the dormition of the Mother of God. Here is a translation of the Pope’s catechesis, which was the 53rd in the series on the Blessed Mother and was given in Italian.

1. Concerning the end of Mary’s earthly life, the Council uses the terms of the Bull defining the dogma of the Assumption and states: “The Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, when her earthly life was over” (Lumen gentium, n. 59). With this formula, the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, following my Venerable Predecessor Pius XII, made no pronouncement on the question of Mary’s death. Nevertheless, Pius XII did not intend to deny the fact of her death, but merely did not judge it opportune to affirm solemnly the death of the Mother of God as a truth to be accepted by all believers.

ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/jp2bvm53.htm

Thanks Vico, I think we are in agreement.