Greetings,
Sorry there was no post yesterday. A funeral took up so much of the day that
there was no time to post.
I keep getting “Join Twitter” messages. I know that it must be some automatic
thing. I have no idea what it is or how
to sign up for it. Just so you know.
This weekend marks the end of the Year of Faith. The YOF coincided with the 50th
anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council and the 20th
anniversary of the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. During this year we have been looking at the
constitutions of the Church on Friday Potpourri which we were encouraged to do
during this year. We did not finish and
it has been suggested that we should continue to look at the Catechism and the
VII documents to help guide our faith.
So, with your indulgence, we will continue to look at these documents
for a little while on Fridays.
Chapter VIII of Lumen
Gentium
With paragraph 52 the documents turn a special eye to the
Blessed Virgin Mary in a chapter entitled, “Our Lady.” Wishing for us full redemption, God in His
supreme goodness and wisdom, sent His Son to be born among us. Just like a good general or leader of a
nation, He did not rule from a desk in a fancy office but walked with and among
His people and shared our life. It
reminds me of the Food Stamp Challenge that some politicians are taking up at
the moment to try to live on the Food Stamp allowance that they give to those
in need. Walk the walk and all that.
This mystery continues to be unfolded within the Body of
Christ which is connected to Christ as its Head. The Body is the Church (us, those in
purgatory, and the saints in glory) united as one in Christ. First among all of us is Mary. As Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said of her,
she is “Our tainted nature’s solitary boast.”
Mother!
whose virgin bosom was uncrost
With the least shade of thought to sin allied;
Woman! above all women glorified,
Our tainted nature's solitary boast;
Purer than foam on central ocean tost;
Brighter than eastern skies at daybreak strewn
With fancied roses, than the unblemished moon
Before her wane begins on heaven's blue coast;
Thy Image falls to earth. Yet some, I ween,
Not unforgiven the suppliant knee might bend,
As to a visible Power, in which did blend
All that was mixed and reconciled in Thee
Of mother's love with maiden purity,
Of high with low, celestial with terrene!
With the least shade of thought to sin allied;
Woman! above all women glorified,
Our tainted nature's solitary boast;
Purer than foam on central ocean tost;
Brighter than eastern skies at daybreak strewn
With fancied roses, than the unblemished moon
Before her wane begins on heaven's blue coast;
Thy Image falls to earth. Yet some, I ween,
Not unforgiven the suppliant knee might bend,
As to a visible Power, in which did blend
All that was mixed and reconciled in Thee
Of mother's love with maiden purity,
Of high with low, celestial with terrene!
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