… and there at the foot of the Cross stand Mary, His Mother whom He gave to us to be our Mother; and John, His beloved apostle; and Mary Magdalene, forgiven for she has loved much.
Innocence, Penitence and Priesthood.
The three kinds of souls always to be found at the foot of the Cross.
———————————————
Oh Mother, how great my soul rejoices to know that you are your children’s Perpetual Help! How Great our God is! That He gave us such a Lovely Mother, as holy and perfect as He was pleased to make her be!
GLORIA PATRI, ET FILIO, ET SPIRITUI SANCTO, SICUT ERAT IN PRINCIPIUM, ET NUNC, ET IN SAECULA SAECOLORUM AMEN!
When God turned back eternity and was young,
Ancient of Days, grown little for your mirth
(As under the low arch the land is bright)
Peered through you, gate of heaven–and saw the earth.
Or shutting out his shining skies awhile
Built you about him for a house of gold
To see in pictured walls his storied world
Return upon him as a tale is told.
Or found his mirror there; the only glass
That would not break with that unbearable light
Till in a corner of the high dark house
God looked on God, as ghosts meet in the night.
Star of his morning; that unfallen star
In that strange starry overturn of space
When earth and sky changed places for an hour
And heaven looked upwards in a human face.
Or young on your strong knees and lifted up
Wisdom cried out, whose voice is in the street,
And more than twilight of twiformed cherubim
Made of his throne indeed a mercy-seat.
Or risen from play at your pale raiment’s hem
God, grown adventurous from all time’s repose,
Or your tall body climed the ivory tower
And kissed upon your mouth the mystic rose.
———–
Mama Mary, unworthy, lowly and sinful that I am; I love you. ♥
Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), Dominican tertiary, Doctor of the Church, co-patron of Europe
Dialogues, ch. 4 (©Classics of Western spirituality)
“Whoever exalts himself will be humbled“
Saint Catherine heard God say to her:
“You ask for the will to know and love Me, Supreme Truth. Here is the way, if you would come to perfect knowledge and enjoyment of Me, Eternal Life: Never leave the knowledge of yourself. Then, put down as you are in the valley of humility you will know Me in yourself, and from this knowledge you will draw all that you need. No virtue can have life in it except from charity, and charity is nursed and mothered by humility. You will find humility in the knowledge of yourself when you see that even your own existence comes not from yourself but from Me, for I loved you before you came to being. And in My Unspeakable Love for you I willed to create you in grace.
So I washed you and made you a new creation in the blood that My Only-begotten Son poured out with such burning Love. This blood gives you knowledge of the Truth when knowledge of yourself leads you to shed the cloud of selfish love. There is no other way to know the Truth. In so knowing Me the soul catches fire with Unspeakable Love, which in turn brings continual pain.
Indeed, because she has known My Truth, as well as her own sin and her neighbors’ ingratitude and blindness, the soul suffers intolerably. Still, this is not a pain that troubles or shrivels up the soul. On the contrary, it makes her grow fat. For she suffers because she loves Me, nor would she suffer if she did not love Me.”
*As meditation / reflection guide for the Holy Gospel today, March 2, 2010.
*If you wish to go to Today’s Mass Readings and Homily at EWTN, please click HERE. If you wish to read the Gospel today, click HERE.