MARIAN THOUGHTS FEAST OF MARY…MOTHER OF GOD

                                                                                                                                                         {Personal Thoughts / Reflections on the Birth of our Mother, Mary, written late in the evening, whilst enjoying a recording of a soft piano, playing Chopin’s Nocturnes}
                                                                                                                                                                   1….The Birth of Mary
Greetings, Hail, Mary.                                                                                                         
Now that the evening shadows have lengthened their fingers and erased the last pink rays of the sun, to such an extent, that the sky is now alight with the twinkling of silver stars against the dark blue of the firmament. They are playing a silent nocturne of silver light and love. They have created an atmosphere for meditating on the wonders of the Creator.

“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in the whole earth!                                                                                                                                              When I look at the heavens, which You have created,                                                                                                                                                        the work of your fingers; the stars , the moon, all you have created.                                                                                                                                                    O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name.”  (Ps.4)

The village hamlets are all going to sleep, window by window. The mothers are giving their beloved ones the last, long, good-night kiss to lull them to sleep, whilst praying  to their Guardian Angels to watch over them in the coming night.

Who knows, Mary, how many times, your dear mother, Anna, looked at your beloved father, and softly whispered:
 “Joachim, dear, come and look, how sweet our baby daughter Mary is. Blessed be God, just look at her, what a bundle of joy. How grateful we are to God for such a great gift. Blessed be God.”

How right was your dear mother, Mary; for God has created You just for Him. You, Mary, are the masterpiece of His whole creation.
God created the ‘rose’, the beautiful scented flower, a symbol of love,                                                                                                                                                           God created the ‘lily’ dressed in white, immaculately chaste,                                                                                                                                                       God created the corn of wheat, dancing in the wind with a golden joy,                                                                                                                                                             God created the pure, spring water, playing hide and seek among the rocks,                                                                                                                                                           God created the majestic mountains, awesome to look at, covered in snow,                                                                                                                                                          God created the tender love between the mother and her child,                                                                                                                                                            God created music through man, to relax the mind, to strengthen the hearts.                                                                                                                                                         God created all that is beautiful to behold,                                                                                   God created all that is good in His sight,                                                                                           God created all that is chaste, without blemish,                                                                                                                                                                                     God created all that is blessed,                                                                                                               God created all that is full of His love.
God paused. HE looked at all that He had created.                                                                                                                                                        HE looked at all that was beautiful, all that was good, all that was chaste, all that was blessed, all that was full of love……

…and God said: 
                                                                                                                                                              “From all this beauty and love, now I create you, Mary, and you will be adorned with grace, you will be full of grace, and you will be mine, my beloved Mother.”

……and, Mary …. You were born,                                                                                                            Full of grace,                                                                                                                                            Blessed amongst women,                                                                                                                Immaculate and chaste,                                                                                                                           You are all beautiful,                                                                                                                                                      O Mary, cradle of Love,                                                                                                                         Mother of Your Creator,                                                                                                                                                       All nations call you blessed.

Yes, Mary, your dear mother, Anna was so right, that evening, long ago, now lost in time, when with your father she stood, watching over You in a cradle, asleep, a bundle of joy, and she thanked God, for you were a great gift to them. God bless them.

I, too thank God, and praise You, Mother dear, for “You are all beautiful, and good, You’re clothed with the sun.”
Thank You, Mary, for accepting me as your child. Hasten the day, when I shall meet You, face to face, Mother Dear.

TO YOU ALL

“I wish you all, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, a Blessed and a Healthy New Year 2012.”
May your life in the New Year be full of Peace, not the Peace where there is no strife, no wars or no troubles, but that interior Peace, the Peace that only God can give. The Peace that results from intimate union with HIM. When we are free from all types of problems, such as, ill-health, family problems, social problems, and poverty, we might feel comfortable, maybe happy, but we might still lack the interior PEACE. May you have PEACE through HIM.

Yes wealth might provide us with a big, spacious, expensive house, a mansion, but never a HOME. Wealth might give us access to too much sex life, but we will never discover LOVE. Wealth might help us to consult all the medical experts in medicine, but cannot always restore HEALTH, much less to ACCEPT. The answer is always, to consult HIM. May you all be wealthy in your relations with HIM.

May your life in the New year be full of Love, not the Love commercialized by the media, the cheap love of self and egoism, but the Love which springs out of the ocean of Love, out of the Source of Love, that Love which is a ‘spark’ from from God Who is Love itself. May you discover the source of LOVE and live in it.

May your life in the New Year be full of health, not the health that makes us strong and unbeatable in the face of rivals, nor the health that puts our mind at rest and forget others who are weak, sick and poor, but that health of Mind and Spirit. Let us never forget that a bed-ridden person, with all the ailments in the world might be a ’happy’ person, whilst others who are healthy and strong, yet, they lack peace of heart …….. these are the sick persons. May you all have health in HIM.

May every day in the New Year be always a New Life, not a new life because you do not grow older in years, not because you look younger every day, not because you feel stronger every day, but because you feel close and closer to HIM, who sustains each and every one, because of your intimacy with LIFE itself…..”I am the LIFE”. May you all have a NEW LIFE in HIM.

We can have a New Life every single day of our life, whenever we receive the Source of life in us, whenever we receive the Holy Eucharist, whenever we become one with Christ. We might be old in age, but the Eucharist gives us new life, new strength, new peace, and fills us with Love, and keeps us young in HIS Love.

This is what I wish from the bottom of my heart, whenever I greet someone with the Seasonal Wishes of ‘A Happy New Year’. This Greeting has become so commonplace, even toddlers can say it, but, what we really mean by that wish is hidden deep down in our hearts.

May you ALL have a New Life full of Peace, Love, Health and New Life throughout the New Year, through Jesus Christ.

THE EPIPHANY

We shall soon be celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany. But what does Epiphany mean? The term ‘epiphany’ comes from the Greek, epiphania which means "to show" or "to make known." It is our mission to make Jesus known! As the Three Kings went to adore Him, to give Him homage as their new King, as their Saviour, we, as His followers, are bound to do the same.

They offered Gifts. We can’t offer Him Gifts, personally, as the Wise men did, but we can still offer Him Gifts, because we see Jesus Christ in others, in neighbours, in the poor, in the aged, in the sick and the lonely...and in the Missions.

We are duty bound to offer Gifts to all the Christs around us, in the whole world, and this, to show our gratitude to God who has offered Himself to us.

Yes, it’s till some days away, the Feast of Epiphany, the Calendar date is actually on the 6th January. But my intention is to be well-prepared for this great Feast and prepare ourselves for it. After all, Gaspar, Melchior and Balthasar, travelled for quite a number of days to reach the new-born King. So why should we not do likewise.
But I have to speak about the very curious... though providential, atmosphere, that existed before the Birth of Jesus.

The three wise men were interested in the study of astrology. So they used to follow all movements of the stars. Now it happened that on the very first day of the month of Mesori, Egyptian Calendar, there was in the sky the star Sirius, which shone so brightly, brighter than any others, it’s light was extraordinary.

One might ask, but how is it that just because a bright star shone in the firmament, three men leave on a long journey, in search of a King. The reason is simple. There was, all over the known world, in those days a ’great expectation’ that something extraordinary was going to happen. That an important person was about to be born.

So much so that even the pagan writers and poets wrote about this expectation. The fact that even pagan authors wrote about it, it’s not something to be ignored.

The Roman Sutonius wrote in ‘The Life of Vespasianus’ that there is a strong belief that destiny has decreed that from Judea, is to be born a world leader. Josephus Flavius, who was a pagan wrote that the Jews...and he was a Jew.. believed that one of their nation, therefore a Jew, was to become a Governor of the of the world.

The Roman poet, Virgil, wrote that ‘golden days’ were ahead. So we can see that God’s plans will come true, though HE might use the influence of pagans, of those who do not believe in Him, so that HIS plans will be accomplished.

Yes, we can easily say that “Great Expectations” was not written by Charles Dickens, it was God’s own work, much longer before the English author was born. So Jesus Christ was born in an atmosphere of expectation. He was expected by all. YET, as we read in St.John: “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.”

His own people rejected Him, even His Birth...’there was no place at the inn’, as we already stated , He had to come in through the back door, the Creator, the Master, the Ruler of the Universe, entered a cave in the dark of the night.

And this is a point of great, deep Reflection, just think..”the humility of GOD becoming man for men and yet was ignored, was unaccepted.” Let us meditate on these Thoughts about the Epiphany so that we will be worthy of approaching the infant Jesus, as the Wise men were.

SHOULD WE SING CHRISTMAS CAROLS…….

CHRISTMAS HAS COME…..BUT NOT GONE. Let us not pack up the spirit and message of Christmas, as we do with the Christmas Trees the tinsel and other decorations,…for another year.
We sang Carols, because we know the music score by heart….but did we actually read , understand and mean whatever we sang? I hope in God we have.
“Joy to the world, the Lord is come.” That is what we all sang, over and over again, among other carols. THIS is the reason for all the joy, for all the singing, for all the feastings, for all the parties, for all the organized lunches and dinners, for all the street decorations, BECAUSE “the Lord is come.”
As the well-known Carol says, the world is rejoicing because the Lord has come, as our king. THAT is a very good reason to REJOICE. But can we recall from our study of History of any king or queen, for that matter, whose reign lasted for only twenty four hours? Yes, there is a king whose reign lasts for only one single day…for some, unfortunately, Jesus reigns as a king, ONLY for that particular day of Christmas.

Let us all be faithful subjects of our king, Jesus Christ, not just for one particular day in the calendar, the 25th of December. Let us be faithful….as many are.. throughout the years, every single day, every single minute and every second of our life. Let us feel proud of being subjects of such a King, a unique King, for HE is a King and a Saviour. No earthly king was ever acclaimed to be a saviour. Jesus is the one and only King and Saviour, the word JESUS means just that, SAVIOUR. Look up the History pages of any country in the world, you will not find any monarch who was acclaimed to be a monarch and a saviour.

The reason why we sang, “O Silent Night, O Holy Night.” Silent, because when two hearts meet, no words are needed, the hearts speak in silence. We know the reason for singing Holy, because it is a sacred, a holy night, when the meeting with our Baby King and Saviour took place.

For this reason the Saints and Angels sing. That is what we have sung and pleaded the fields, the floods, the rocks, the hills and the plains to repeat and re-echo the sounding joy. This is what we have sung and prayed; that all nations may prove the glories of HIS righteousness, and the wonders of HIS love.

We have sung in a loud voice, loud and clear, so that all might hear, and attend to our pleas; that there might be no more sins and sorrows amongst us, no thorns to infest the ground, from where wheat and the vine might grow, so that HE might come, spread HIS blessings and remove the curse.

HE did give proof, if proof was ever needed, of HIS integrity and love, of HIS righteousness. THIS is the reason why we sang “REJOICE”. Let US be like the stars, the millions of stars, mentioned in the carol, that twinkle in the clear night sky, with every twinkle we send a message, loud and clear, “Blessed be God”, “Blessed be God”, “Blessed be God.”
May the Christmas spirit, the Christmas Message remain with us all, through the years to come till that day when face to face with HIM, we can sing in glory;
“Joy to the world, the Lord is come…for us.”

Otherwise it makes absolutely NO sense singing, or sending cards and messages with the words: “I wish you a Merry Christmas”. A blessed, daily, Christmas to each and every one till the day we meet our King and Saviour in paradise.

A Christmas message to all my Sisters and Brothers in Christ.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY SISTERS IN CHRIST! I say, CONGRATULATIONS to you ALL. You are ALL pregnant, including; maidens, married mothers, grandmothers, nuns, and girls. CONGRATULATIONS ALL.

Wonder of Wonders, CONGRATULATIONS to you, my Brothers in Christ, yes, even we, men, are pregnant, including myself, at the age of 77. WE ARE ALL PREGNANT WITH JESUS.

Just like Mary, when the Holy Spirit came down upon us we became pregnant with Christ , and we are expected to deliver Christ. This is a special ‘pregnancy’ that has no age, we could be as old as Elisabeth and even younger than Mary.

We deliver Jesus when we start living HIS WORD. What great NEWS, dear brothers and sisters, we CAN give birth, we can deliver Baby Jesus, whenever we want to.

Let’s make this Christmas a ‘special Christmas’ by delivering, by giving birth to Jesus, and we keep delivering HIM, on every possible occasion. In this way we would be, quote: “His mother and His brothers and sisters”, as you know, these are Jesus’ own words.

Do we realise, then, that Christmas, the Birth of Jesus, could be, and it SHOULD be, every single day, every single minute of our lives. Imagine living Christmas for the rest of our lives. We do not need to wait for the 25th of December any more, because it would be a continuous celebration.

“Peace to all men of goodwill” , sang the angels from on high. If we deliver Jesus we will be the men of goodwill, and thereby we have the “Guarantee” of the angels, that we shall have PEACE.

All you, who are pregnant, do not look down at your tummy to see the bulge, you will never see it, but , yes, you will feel the morning sickness, the mid-day sickness and the evening sickness, when we feel that sickness, that would be a sign that we have to give birth to HIM, Who brings love and Peace to all. When we feel ill at ease in social gatherings, during parties, season’s dinners, it will be the time due to deliver your baby, to deliver Jesus.

I shall be stopping the Postings, for a week, (as I shall be due, quite soon), but, hope in God, I shall be back after the Christmas calendar period.

“MAY YOU ALL HAVE A BLESSED AND HAPPY DELIVERY”

THE DIVINE MATERNITY

“Merciful Father, as you have sent the Holy Spirit on Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, to write all that You wished and wanted, we pray You, send the same Holy Spirit on us, so that we may understand, appreciate Your Word, and make it our plan of life. This we ask for the merits of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.”

58 … St. Paul, also speaks about the Divine Maternity. When God ordained, decided, that HE should come to earth, HE chose the mediation of a woman. HE wanted to have a natural mother just like we all have. These are the words according to Paul, 4,  4:

 “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,”

Though Paul does not mention Mary by name, yet it is well known that this “woman” IS Mary. In truth,

“Christ, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen,”  (Rom. 9,5) IS also the “Son of Mary”  (Mk. 6,3;   Mt.13, 55;   Jn.6, 42)

A curious question might come up, “Who was the first person who realized, understood, perceived, rather, inspired about Mary’s Divine Maternity?

A straightforward answer is, St.Elisabeth. She was the first person on earth to have acknowledged, understood, or inspired, that the person who was standing in front of her, all smiles whilst greeting her, was pregnant, but Mary’s  was a Divine Maternity.

Let’s try and imagine with our mind’s eye, two women; an aged one and a fiteen year old, both pregnant, in an embrace of love, crying for joy…I suppose. Joy for Mary, on seeing Elisabeth in her old age, blessed by God, about to give birth, and Elisabeth, on her side, seeing her young relative, pregnant ….. and what a pregnancy! Elisabeth’s great joy, is found in the words uttered by her:

“And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”     (Lk.1, 43)

Though Elisabeth uttered these words with her own mouth yet it must have been the Holy Spirit who inspired her what to declare, re. Lk.1, 41.

So this is the answer to satisfy the curiosity of the question as to who was the first person to realise, and declare Mary’s Divine Maternity. /59.

           

Certain Information taken, with kind permission, from the book “Who is Mary” by H.G.Mons. Sylvester Magro ofm, Bishop of Benghazi. A very dear friend.

THE VIRGIN MOTHER OF GOD, MARY

“Merciful Father, as you have sent the Holy Spirit on Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, to write all that You wished and wanted, we pray You, send the same Holy Spirit on us, so that we may understand, appreciate Your Word, and make it our plan of life. This we ask for the merits of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.”

57 …The Holy Bible, especially the New Testament gives us ample proof, and without doubt, that the ‘Son of Mary’ is also the ‘Son of God’, “one nature with the Father” (Creed). So to show, to prove that Mary is in truth the ‘Mother of God’, we shall quote from the Gospel those texts that mention the Maternity of Mary and the Divinity of the Son to whom she gave birth.

 

We start with a quotation from St.Matthew 1, 23.

“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” which means “God with us”.

It is evident that this Virgin is Mary and her Son, Immanuel (God with us) is Jesus. Thus, according to Matthew, the Blessed Virgin who conceived and gave birth to Jesus, is the mother of “Immanuel” of “God with us” (1, 23).

Certainly Mary did not give, pass on ‘Divinity’ to her son, but from her was born HE “in whom there is the fullness of Divinity”, (John 1, 14). Thanks to Mary’s ministry, HE “who is one with the Father” (John 10, 30) has taken upon Himself, has put on human nature, and looked, seemed from the outside as a human.” (Phl.2, 7)

Thereby we can say that the Blessed Virgin is the Mother of God-man. Mary became the Mother of HIM who became man whilst remaining God.

In St.Luke we read quite clearly that the Son who was conceived of the Virgin Mary, shall be called the “Son of God”, (Lk.1,31-32). So we are talking about the Son of Mary, whilst at the same time, He is the Son of God.                  /58    

Certain Information taken, with kind permission, from the book “Who is Mary” by H.G.Mons. Sylvester Magro ofm, Bishop of Benghazi. A very dear friend.

MARY FULL OF GRACE

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, I ask you to pray the Introductory Prayer with great Faith, especially before reading today’s posting. We need the help of the Holy Spirit to grasp the truth in today’s posting. Read it over and over again, if needs be, till it is clear, lucid in your mind. May the Holy Spirit enlighten us all.

Merciful Father, as you have sent the Holy Spirit on Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, to write all that You wished and wanted, we pray You, send the same Holy Spirit on us, so that we may understand, appreciate Your Word, and make it our plan of life. This we ask for the merits of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.”

56 … Blessed John Duns Scotus (1265/66 – 8^th November 1308), besides being known as the «Subtle Doctor»,  is also referred to as the «Marian Doctor».  It was he who presented a systematic theology of the Marian privilege of the Immaculate Conception, which the Catholic Church officially proclaimed as a Dogma of Faith in the Apostolic Constitution Ineffabilis Deus of Pope Pius IX (8^th December 1854).

Scotus builds a theology centred upon Christ, who is eternally predestined by God the Father to assume human nature in the Incarnation.  According to the Subtle Doctor the Incarnation was not primarily intended to be the condition for the redemption of humanity from sin.  In God’s provident plan, the Incarnation of the Word in the person of Jesus Christ was, first and foremost, the apex of the act of creation by God the Father.  All creation has been fashioned according to the image of the Incarnate Word, and is the result of a pure and free act of love on the part of God. 

Creation, in this way, enters in a mysterious but real way into a loving relationship with God as a Trinity of Persons.  Each and every creature, being complete in itself and unique in its essence, is a model of God the Son, who became Incarnate in order to glorify His Father for the beauty of creation.  This vision is a direct result of Franciscan spirituality at its best.  It is true that, in the history Redemption, the Incarnation was then orientated toward the salvation of humankind from sin, but this aspect, important though it may be, could not be the only reason for the Incarnation.  Otherwise God would not be seen as the personification of the primacy of the free will, expressed in love which overflows from Him onto His creatures.

It is in this Christological view of the world and of redemption that Scotus speaks about the Virgin Mary as Mother of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word of God.  She becomes the embodiment of all perfection in creation, freed from sin and from its effects through the saving power of Jesus Christ, the universal Mediator between God and humankind.  It was fitting that God would choose a Mother for His Son, who would be totally free form any stain of original and actual sin, in order to become a channel of grace to us all. 

The presentation of the common opinion regarding Mary’s Conception
            The Son of Mary was the Redeemer of all, and with his death he merited the salvation of his Mother and of all humankind.  However, if his Mother had not been conceived in original sin, since she did not commit any actual sin, she could not possibly have needed a Redeemer, since she would have been without sin.  If she would have been conceived without original sin, the doors of heaven would not have been closed to her, and they would not have been opened at the moment of the death of her Son.  From this follows that, if she had died before her Son died on the cross, she could immediately have seen God face to face.   /57

Excerpts quoted from a study by Fr.Noel Muscat ofm,    “John Duns Scotus and his defence of the Immaculate Conception.”