Annunciation

 

You can stare, in slack-jawed rightist consternation at the unfolding coup in our country, or you can take time off from the news cycle and reflect on the Annunciation and the Angelic Salutation. Being unhealthily saturated with former, I went down the latter path today. How does the angel address the Virgin?

χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη, ὁ κύριος μετὰ σοῦ, which means: χαῖρε - "hail" or "rejoice." κεχαριτωμένη - "O graced" or "favored one." κύριος μετὰ σοῦ? The Lord is with you. And note, the word κεχαριτωμένη appears nowhere else, either in Scripture or any other literature, It's singular to the Annunciation. So is the grace attributed by the Archangel Gabriel to Mary, the Mother of God.

She is blessed beyond reckoning for her virtue and the task that God's commanded of her, to bear His Son into the world for our redemption. Jesus, "God Saves," both in Himself and by His actions, will come into the world through the Virgin's agency. The Word will be made Flesh for our salvation thanks to the assent of Mary's fiat, "I am the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto according to thy word."

Here we find a template or model of the Church writ large, the Mystical Body of Christ which bears the Savior into the world sacramentally. We see, too, a pattern which describes our own lives as Christians. God wants to be born and come alive in us because He loves us, and because He does He asks our permission to do so, as He asked Mary.

She says yes, with purity and humble, obedient, courageous faith. The weapons, when you think on it, which will crush the serpent's head. This is especially relevant now. 

Pray hard that we're given the grace to mirror Mary's quality of soul and for her powerful intercession that evil, darkness and deceit is driven far from us and from this country.

Ave Eva,

LSP

The Feast of the Assumption

It's the great Feast of the Assumption today, which some people object to because "it's not in Scripture." Neither is Sola Scriptura of course, but apologetics aside, I found this reflection helpful. Via Domini res gestas:

Today the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, Theotocos and Christotocos, is taken into heaven to that court where the King of kings sits upon his starry throne. While angels and saints rejoice together with Christ, it is fitting that we too celebrate and rejoice with them today. Our true Solomon, the King of Peace, seats his Mother, the true Bathsheba, at his right hand today in the heavenly Jerusalem above all the choirs of angels. Today the ark of the covenant of the Lord is brought into the temple and placed in the Holy of Holies. This is the same ark that John saw in the Book of Revelation. Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of the covenant could be seen in the temple.  After writing this at the close of Chapter 11, as if to clarify the vision, he follows it immediately with the opening verse of Chapter 12:

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon was under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. Without doubt this woman is the Virgin Mary, for John adds that she gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all nations... Her child was caught up to God and his throne. (St. Laurence Brindisi)

Note Serpent and Crescent crushed underheel

A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon was under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. I should be very wary of going up against that, to say nothing of her child. But here's a closing hymn from the Benedictines of Notre Dame de Fontgombault, Ave Maris Stella, Hail Star of the Sea:

Some say the Faith's dead. That's not true, though perhaps it's hiding, for a time.

Ave,

LSP

Assumption

It's the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, so take a break from pondering the iniquities of Agent Sztrok, Wacky Dog Omarosa, Russia Hysteria Syndrome and consider this instead.

From Pius XII's encyclical Munificentissimus Deus:

It is to be hoped that from meditation on the glorious example of Mary men may come to realize more and more the value of a human life entirely dedicated to fulfilling the will of the Heavenly Father and to caring for the welfare of others. We also hope that while materialistic theories [such as Communism] and the moral corruption arising from them are threatening to extinguish the light of virtue, and by stirring up strife, to destroy the lives of men, the exalted destiny of both our soul and body may in this striking manner be brought clearly to the notice of all men.

The value of human life, I'd say that's under attack right now at pretty much every level, not least from the nihilists who are working feverishly to destroy what's left of Christian culture in the West. 

They won't succeed but in the meanwhile...

Ora pro nobis,

LSP