Father’s Column 5/8

Posted on May 8, 2016 View all news

Laudetur Jesus Christus! Gelobt sei Jesus Christus! Sia lodato Gesù Cristo! Praised be Jesus Christ!

On behalf of Fr. Lawrence, Fr. Adrian, Br. Brent, and the staff of Old St. Mary’s Parish, I wish every mother a very happy Mothers’ Day.

The vocation of motherhood is sacred gift given by God to the world. This vocation has been sanctified on account of the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary being blessed and consecrated to carry the Son of God. Today, though a secular holiday, we pray and give thanks for our mothers and our grandmothers who are responsible for helping to form us into the men and women that we are. We pray for those mothers who have gone before us to their eternal reward, and ask the Lord to overlook their faults and welcome them into the Kingdom of Heaven.

I present to you this reflection on the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary by St. Bernard. Have a happy Mother’s Day and a blessed week ahead!

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“Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Mary called God, the Lord of Angels, her son. Which of the angels would have dared to do so? … But Mary, knowing herself to be his Mother, doth boldly apply the word Son to that Majesty whom the angels do serve with awe; neither doth God despise to be called what he hath made himself. For a little after, the Evangelist saith: And he was subject unto them. Who to whom? God to men. I say that God, unto whom the angels are subject, and who is obeyed by the Principalities and Powers, was subject to Mary.

Marvel thou at both these things, and choose whether to marvel most at the sublime condescension of the Son, or at the sublime dignity of Mary. Either is amazing, either marvelous. That God should obey this woman, is a lowliness without parallel; that this woman should rule over God, an exaltation without match. In praise of virgins, and of virgins only, is it sung that these are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. Of what praise then thinkest thou that she must be worthy who even leadeth the Lamb? O man, learn to obey. O earth, learn to submit…

O happy Mary, lowly and virgin; and wondrous virginity, which motherhood destroyed not, but exalted; and wondrous lowliness, which the fruitful virginity took not away, but ennobled; and wondrous motherhood, which was both virgin and lowly. Which of them is not wondrous? which of them is not unexampled? and which of them doth not stand alone? … What wonder is it that God, of whom we see and read, that He is wonderful in his holy places, should have shown himself wonderful in his Mother? O ye that be married, honor this incorruption in corruptible flesh; O holy maidens, gaze in wonder at motherhood in a maid; O, all mankind, take pattern by the lowliness of the Mother of God.” – St. Bernard