Category: Uncategorized

Health of the Sick

For those unfamiliar with the life of St. Therese of Lisieux, this is a painting that tries to express the moment in her life when everyone had given up hope of her recovery from a mysterious illness. Suddenly, the statue of Mary seemed to come to life and smile at the sick girl, and she immediately recovered.
What was this strange ailment the young Therese suffered from? Today, we might diagnose it as a nervous breakdown. This over-sensitive child, already suffering the loss of her mother, now realized she would lose her “second mother”, her oldest sister Pauline, who entered the Carmel in Lisieux. Although Pauline was close by, and the family visited her whenever possible–as often as once a week–Therese, as the littlest of the “little girls” was not allowed private conversation with Pauline, or even an opportunity to join in the general conversation. She was expected to “be seen and not heard”, The few moments at the end of the visit when Pauline spoke with directly were later described by Therese as “crumbs”. This went on for years.
However, one day when her melancholy and distress seemed to be at the worst, the miracle occurred. The Virgin smiled at her, and all her previous illness vanished. For the rest of her life–including the years when she suffered horribly from tuberculosis and other ailments prior to her death at age 24–she never again lost her peace.
We could also think of the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, in southern France. The spring first discovered by St. Bernadette in the nineteenth century is still pouring its healing waters on the innumerable people who come seeking cures every year. There are some miraculous healings: paralyzed people who walk again, cancers that disappear, and so on. But it is said that for everyone who bathes in the waters, there is a spiritual healing. The physical ailment they brought with them to Lourdes may not disappear, but they somehow gain a new acceptance and peace with their situation, and they thank God for this. The ability to accept the will of God peacefully is a healing we don\’t hear much about, but it is a true healing nonetheless, when we can let go of our resentment toward Him and welcome His peace instead.
Mary, health of the sick, in this time of pandemic help us to remember that you are our Mother, who always intercedes for us before God. We beg for healing and an end to this pandemic, but if this is not God\’s will, please obtain for us the peace we desperately need.

Morning Star

The first star to appear in the evening–and the last to disappear as the sun rises–is not a star at all. It is the planet Venus. Pagan thought connected this planet with the goddess called Venus and had special rites and prayer according to the planet\’s position in the sky, both over time and in the course of the day. (Because, after all, Venus is still up there, though we can\’t see it when the sun is shining brightly!) 
In his novel Perelandra, C. S. Lewis presented the planet not so much as a pagan deity but as an entity whose aspect is feminine, just as Mars (or Malacandra) was seen as a masculine entity in his novel Out of the Silent Planet. He suggests that the pagans had the right idea about certain things (such as the apparent gender of the planets) although they were very wrong about many other things. But what does all this have to do with Mary? 
Mary is called the Morning Star because she was and is the Mother of Jesus. Just as we know morning is coming when we see the stars wink out, one by one, leaving only Venus shining brightly, so too the many prophets and different people who foreshadowed the coming of Christ fade into history as the Virgin Mary takes her preeminent role as the true herald of salvation. Her willing fiat is the first sign of a new creation in the world. At the same time, just as the morning star fades from sight as the sun rises, so too does Mary willingly surrender the attention of the world to her son Jesus, Who is our Savior.
Mary, Morning Star, help me to be aware of when God is asking me to shine and when He is asking me to step back. May I be gracious in allowing others to take the starring role in life when You ask this of me. 

Gate of Heaven

Mary is called Gate of Heaven for a simple reason: we all want to go to Heaven, and devotion to Mary is a sure way of getting there. As a true mother, she sees the good in all her children–and also sees how we let our weaknesses and foibles get in the way of our own desire to be good. And, instead of treating us harshly, she shows mercy. Mary is always interceding with her Divine Son to have mercy on all peoples.

Mary, Gate of Heaven, show us the true path we must follow. Guide us in the certain ways of holiness, and help us to live as your devoted children on earth, so that we may be with you forever in Heaven. 

Ark of the Covenant

Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, loud noises, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
Revelation 11:19-12:1

Raiders of the Lost Ark was a great movie, but the true meaning of the ark is even greater. It was only recently that chapters and numbers were added to the Bible; for many years, people just read the above passage all in one piece, as we show it here. They understood that the Ark of the Covenant which appeared in Heaven was actually Mary, carrying within her the true Law in the person of the Son of God. The physical ark–constructed according to God\’s direction in order to hold the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments–was a foreshadowing of the true Ark, Mary. And just as the ancient ark was carried into battle to ensure victory, just as the ark blessed the people who approached it reverently, so Mary is our standard in war, the woman who makes the devil tremble. And we still call upon her name, asking her to intercede for us with her Son. Everything shown in the Old Testament proves to be a shadow of the reality which comes in the New Testament. 

Mary, Ark of the Covenant, remind us to turn to you when we are in need of help. You are the greatest intercessor before God; be our saving help always. 

House of Gold

The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high; and he overlaid it with pure gold. He also made an altar of cedar.  And Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold, and he drew chains of gold across, in front of the inner sanctuary, and overlaid it with gold. And he overlaid the whole house with gold, until all the house was finished. Also the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary he overlaid with gold.
–1 Kings 6:20-22
 
 King Solomon is a foreshadowing, or type of Christ in this passage: he made his temple beautiful beyond all imagining, using not only gold but many other precious metals, wood, stone, jewels, and textiles. It was fitting that the Lord of Lords should have the most perfect place to dwell on earth, as He did in Solomon’s temple within the Ark of the Covenant. The temple itself becomes a foreshadowing of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary is the House of Gold because she was the all-holy one who gave birth to Jesus. Jesus is the King of Kings, and so it is fitting that He should rest in Mary\’s virginal womb until the time came for His birth, the most pure and immaculate place possible.
 
Holy Mary, House of Gold, help us all to remember that we are temples of the Holy Spirit. Let us never forget this dignity which is ours, and may it keep us from behaving in ways contrary to the freedom that a child of God should have. 

Tower of Ivory

The unusual sounding title, “Tower of Ivory”, is another found in the Song of Songs: 
 
Your neck is like an ivory tower.
Your eyes are pools in Heshbon,
    by the gate of Bath-rab′bim.
–Song of Songs 4:4ab
First our lover compares his beloved\’s neck to the tower of David, a tower made ready to withstand a battle. Now, he compares his beloved’s neck to a tower of ivory. Many times the phrase “ivory tower” is used to describe someone (especially someone in the academic field) who is completely separated from reality, but still claims to understand what is going on in the world. Thankfully, this is a meaning we would never ascribe to Our Lady.
Mary is an ivory tower in the sense that she is strong, upright, courageous, pure and lovely. Mary is an example of true strength. It took immense courage to accept God\’s will when Gabriel presented it to her. That courage carried her forward through her marriage to Joseph and the birth of her only Son. Mary was strong when she let Him go on His way, knowing the plan of God had to be fulfilled. She stood beside Him when He hung on the cross, unafraid of what might happen next. And throughout her life, she possessed the loveliness and purity of one who has given her entire life to Christ. This is not necessarily a matter of physical attributes (although in Mary’s case, this was true as well). It is primarily the beauty of one who allows the splendor of God to shine through. Blessed Raymond of Capua, OP,  the follower and biographer of St. Catherine of Siena, once had a mystical experience where he saw the face of Christ upon the face of St. Catherine. In this same way, Christ shines through us when we allow Him to possess us completely. Mary knew this without being told. But she did not remain aloof from the world. Instead, she was right there in the midst of everything, the good and the bad, the marketplace and the synagogue, the well and the sewer. She was untouched only in the sense that she, unlike almost everyone else around her, saw God in all things and in everything that happened in daily life.
Mary, Tower of Ivory, help me to live as you did, in the world but not of the world, placing all my trust in your only Son Jesus Christ, allowing His radiance to shine through me more and more.

Tower of David


Your neck is like the tower of David,
    built for an arsenal,
whereon hang a thousand bucklers,
    all of them shields of warriors.
Song of Songs 4:4
A tower in its simplest idea is a fabric for defence against enemies. David, King of Israel, built for this purpose a notable tower; and as he is a figure or type of our Lord, so is his tower a figure denoting our Lord’s Virgin Mother.
She is called the Tower of David because she had so signally fulfilled the office of defending her Divine Son from the assaults of His foes. It is customary with those who are not Catholics to fancy that the honours we pay to her interfere with the supreme worship which we pay to Him; that in Catholic teaching she eclipses Him. But this is the very reverse of the truth.
For if Mary’s glory is so very great, how cannot His be greater still who is the Lord and God of Mary? He is infinitely above His Mother; and all that grace which filled her is but the overflowings and superfluities of His incomprehensible Sanctity. And history teaches us the same lesson. Look at the Protestant countries which threw off all devotion to her three centuries ago, under the notion that to put her from their thoughts would be exalting the praises of her Son. Has that consequence really followed from their profane conduct towards her? Just the reverse—the countries, Germany, Switzerland, England, which so acted, have in great measure ceased to worship Him, and have given up their belief in His Divinity while the Catholic Church, wherever she is to be found, adores Christ as true God and true Man, as firmly as ever she did; and strange indeed would it be, if it ever happened otherwise. Thus Mary is the “Tower of David.” —St. John Henry Cardinal Newman 

Mary, Tower of David, be our protection and strength.