Category Archives: Days and Seasons

“Daughters of Jerusalem:” the Children of Our Lady

Posted on by
6
Mary, the Mother of God, nurtures and is nurtured in glory by her Beloved, her Son; the eight angels reveal the mystery of the Eighth Day, the glorious Kingdom of God, which is manifest in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. At the altar, we enter into the eschatological reality of the Paschal Mystery, as we worship together— one Body of Christ, in heaven and on earth.

“Is he your Son, O Virgin of virgins? Is he your beloved, O most beautiful of women? ‘Clearly so… he is my Son, O daughters of Jerusalem (Song of Songs 5:9, 16). My beloved is love itself… and is found in whosoever is born of him.'”

In one of his sermons for the Nativity of the Mother of God, St. Guerric of Igny places these words from the Song of Songs on the lips of the Virgin Mary when he–the preacher–asks the Virgin to tell the congregation listening to the sermon about her Beloved, who is her Son. In this sermon, the “daughters of Jerusalem” are the monks and visitors listening to the sermon. These daughters of Jerusalem are also claimed as children of the Virgin as well: St. Guerric preaches that “she desires to form her Only-begotten in all those who are her children by adoption…. she nurtures them every day until they reach the stature of the perfect man, the maturity of her Son [Ephesians 4:13], whom she brought forth once and for all.” All those in whom love is found are members of her Son and thus her children by adoption and she nurtures them to share more completely in that Love which took flesh in her womb.

Just as St. Paul labored to give birth to Christ in his spiritual children (Galatians 4:19), the Mother of God is the mother of all those in whom Christ is born. “She herself, like the Church of which she is the type, is the mother of all who are reborn to life,” St. Guerric preached. What Mary gives the world, clothed with flesh, the Church gives us clothed with words, bread, wine, water, and oil. As the daughters of Jerusalem, we–no less than those who heard St. Guerric first preach his sermons–are privileged to nurture Love within us and among us as children of Mary, members of her Only-begotten.

St. Guerric of Igny (died 1157) was a scholar who became a disciple of St. Bernard of Clairvaux and took monastic vows to remain in St. Bernard’s community. But in 1138 St. Guerric was sent by St. Bernard to be the second abbot at the new monastery of Igny, near Rheims. As abbot there, St. Guerric became famous for the sermons he preached. His sermons for Advent-Christmas-Epiphany-Purification are especially stunning. Find translations of his sermons here.

Mary, Pentecostal Teacher of the Church

Posted on by
Reply
17th century Icon of Pentecost (from the border of Russia and Finland)

Some icons of Pentecost show Mary the Mother of God in the centre, occupying the “Teacher’s Seat.” Mary was present at Pentecost; she is the ultimate exemplar of a Christian. With Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven, the Holy Spirit acts within people, and through the saints, Christ is manifest in the world. Mary is therefore shown in the “teacher’s seat” as the best example we have, and the person on earth who most resembled Jesus Christ (both physically, as His mother, and spiritually as His disciple).

By the 9th century the Church came to recognize Mary as the Stella Maris, the Star of the Sea, an image reminiscent of sailors who would chart their course by the stars. Mary points the way to Christ.

The presence of the Apostle Paul in the icon, even though at that time he had not yet converted on the road to Damascus, hints that this icon is more than a purely historical picture. Sometimes, the evangelists Luke and Mark are also shown, despite also not having been present in the upper chamber at Pentecost. The gathering, then, is a representation of the Church. The Apostles are shown as equals, with no individual among them taking the central seat of authority. They are seated in a semi-circle, representing a unity and harmony similar to that found in Icons of the Holy Trinity. As in icons of the Holy Trinity, a semi-circle, rather than a full circle, is used so that we as observers are drawn into the unity.

See a Pentecost sermon that includes the role of the Mother of God here, preached at St. Matthew’s, Sheffield (a Church of England parish).

When the Mother of God Went to Hell

Posted on by
2
Icon of the enthroned Virgin and Child with SS. George, Theodore and angels, 6th century, Saint Catherine’s Monastery. An antiphon from the Saltair Mhuire, attributed to Domhnall Albannach Ó Troighthigh, in a manuscript dated 1477, reads, “Ave Marie mater Domini nostri Iesus Christi regina celi domina mundi imperatrix inferni misere mei & totius populi Christiani Amen.” (“Hail, Mary — mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, Queen of heaven and Lady of the world, Empress of hell: have mercy on me and on all Christian people. Amen.”)
.

There was an early Christian folktale that the damned in Hell got a short reprieve every year: their suffering was reduced–or stopped altogether–for the fifty days between Easter and Whitsunday (Pentecost) or Trinity Sunday. Around the year AD 1000, this reprieve was said to be the result of the prayer of the Mother of God who was said to have gone to Hell to see the suffering of the damned. Escorted by St. Michael the Archangel, she went on a tour of the Underworld and was moved to tears at what she saw. She pleaded with her Son to spare the damned as much of their suffering as possible. So it became common practice in the Middle Ages to offer special prayers for the dead at Pentecost as the punishment of the damned began again.

In one story, a man makes a deal with the devil and sells his soul in exchange for special favors from the devil during life. As the man was dying, he is sorry about his decision and begs the Mother of God to help him. Mary is infinitely merciful, so she does. She girds her loins for battle, descends into hell, and steals back the contract giving the man’s soul to the devil!

In this story, Mary’s mission to hell is portrayed as warfare. The tale evokes the devil’s anger, and uses the language of violence and theft to describe Mary’s actions. In her guise as empress of hell–that is, more powerful even than Satan–she is not the mother of mercy, she is the “queen of vengeance” against the devil and the powers of Hell.

I think these stories are all trying to express an intuition about the power of the Mother of God to save us from ourselves and our own worst choices and behavior. They also show the inability of Hell to confine anyone who really wants to escape, underlining the original understanding that when Christ smashed down the gates of Death and Hell, everyone who wanted to escape did and now only those who choose to remain in Hell–unable to accept responsibility for their actions and thus unable to accept forgiveness–are there.

Curious about these stories? Read more here and here. This is another good one to read. See how many of them there are?