Posted on September 15, 2019 View all news
Laudetur Jesus Christus! Gelobt sei Jesus Christus!
Sia lodato Gesù Cristo! Praised be Jesus Christ!
Just a reminder that catechism begins this coming Tuesday. Thank you to our catechists who are generously giving of their time this year to teach our children about the Faith. If you have any questions regarding catechism for our children, please see Sr. Marie Cecile. Catechism for our adults will begin in a few weeks. This year we will focus on spirituality and growing in holiness. The first session or two will focus on the Pontifical Mass to prepare us for Bishop Schneider’s visit on October 17. Please watch for more information on when adult catechism will begin.
I would like to publicly congratulation Bro. Henry who was ‘aggregated’ into the Cincinnati Oratory last Sunday, on the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lady. This makes Bro. Henry a permanent member of the Oratory and gives him a passive voice at our General Congregation meetings. Passive voice means that he can speak and give his opinion, whereas active voice means one can vote on the matters at hand. Bro. Henry is now entitled to use the post-nominal C.O. after his name. Congratulations!
Please find the second part of Bl. John Henry Newman speaking on the fitness of devotion to the Blessed Virgin, since she always points us to her son. Have a blessed week ahead!
“You see, then, my brethren, in this particular, the harmonious consistency of the revealed system, and the bearing of one doctrine upon another; Mary is exalted for the sake of Jesus. It was fitting that she, as being a creature, though the first of creatures, should have an office of ministration. She, as others, {349} came into the world to do a work, she had a mission to fulfill her grace and her glory are not for her own sake, but for her Maker’s; and to her is committed the custody of the Incarnation; this is her appointed office,—”A Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and they shall call His Name Emmanuel”. As she was once on earth, and was personally the guardian of her Divine Child, as she carried Him in her womb, folded Him in her embrace, and suckled Him at her breast, so now, and to the latest hour of the Church, do her glories and the devotion paid her proclaim and define the right faith concerning Him as God and man. Every church which is dedicated to her, every altar which is raised under her invocation, every image which represents her, every litany in her praise, every Hail Mary for her continual memory, does but remind us that there was One who, though He was all-blessed from all eternity, yet for the sake of sinners, “did not shrink from the Virgin’s womb”. Thus she is the Turris Davidica, as the Church calls her, “the Tower of David”; the high and strong defence of the King of the true Israel; and hence the Church also addresses her in the Antiphon, as having “alone destroyed all heresies in the whole world”.
And here, my brethren, a fresh thought opens upon us, which is naturally implied in what has been said. If the Deipara is to witness of Emmanuel, she must be necessarily more than the Deipara. For consider; a defence must be strong in order to be a defence; a tower must be, like that Tower of David, “built with bulwarks”; “a thousand bucklers hang upon it, all {350} the armour of valiant men”. It would not have sufficed, in order to bring out and impress on us the idea that God is man, had His Mother been an ordinary person. A mother without a home in the Church, without dignity, without gifts, would have been, as far as the defence of the Incarnation goes, no mother at all. She would not have remained in the memory, or the imagination of men. If she is to witness and remind the world that God became man, she must be on a high and eminent station for the purpose. She must be made to fill the mind, in order to suggest the lesson. When she once attracts our attention, then, and not till then, she begins to preach Jesus. “Why should she have such prerogatives,” we ask, “unless He be God? and what must He be by nature, when she is so high by grace?” This is why she has other prerogatives besides, namely, the gifts of personal purity and intercessory power, distinct from her maternity; she is personally endowed that she may perform her office well; she is exalted in herself that she may minister to Christ.” – Blessed John Henry Newman