Above: The Madonna in Sorrow, by Sassoferrato, 1600s
Image in the Public Domain
“Holy Mary, Mother of God….”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Assigned Readings for This Feast:
Isaiah 61:10-11
Psalm 34 or Psalm 34:1-9
Galatians 4:4-7
Luke 1:46-55
The Collect:
O God, you have taken to yourself Blessed Mary, mother of your incarnate Son: Grant that we, who have been redeemed by his blood, may share with her the glory of your eternal kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
One day in the middle 1990s, when I was late in my undergraduate college career, I sat in a mall food court in Brunswick, Georgia, with my parents and one my mother’s coworkers, a woman of the Protestant Pentecostal/Charismatic persuasion. I had just purchased a two-CD set of settings of the Stabat Mater (a Roman Catholic devotional text about Jesus’ mother at the foot of the cross) composed in the 1600s and 1700s. My mother’s coworker made a remark about the death of the Holy Mother of Our Lord, and I responded by affirming St. Mary’s assumption. At that moment I realized how far I had moved from my Protestant upbringing and how glad I was to have done so. I knew also that I did not live in the same theological universe as did many Protestants.
The Western Christian Church calendar contains multiple feasts of the Mother of God; this is the generic one on the Episcopal calendar. (This is, however, the Feast of the Assumption of Mary on the Roman Catholic calendar.) All such events are really feasts of Jesus, for St. Mary does not matter except within the context our Lord and Savior. Jesus honored his mother; may we do likewise.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 13, 2010
THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR C
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From the Stabat Mater text:
Love’s sweet fountain, Mother tender,
haste this hard heart, soft to render,
make me sharer in Thy pain.
Fire me now with zeal so glowing,
love so rich to Jesus flowing,
that I favor may obtain.
Holy Mother, I implore Thee,
Crucify this heart before Thee-
Guilty it is verily!
Pingback: Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year C « ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS BY KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
Pingback: Feast of St. Fiacre (September 1) « SUNDRY THOUGHTS
Pingback: Violence, Grace, and Scandal « BLOGA THEOLOGICA
Pingback: Feast of Sts. Proclus of Constantinople and Rusticus of Narbonne (October 25) « SUNDRY THOUGHTS
Pingback: Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year C « SUNDRY THOUGHTS
Pingback: Devotion for Wednesday After the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year A (ELCA Daily Lectionary) | ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS
Pingback: Greatness in Service | BLOGA THEOLOGICA
Pingback: Devotion for Saturday Before Proper 17, Year C (ELCA Daily Lectionary) | ORDINARY TIME DEVOTIONS
Pingback: Service and Glory | BLOGA THEOLOGICA
Pingback: Feast of St. Ambrose of Milan, St. Monica of Hippo, and St. Augustine of Hippo (August 28) | SUNDRY THOUGHTS
Pingback: Feast of St. Alipius (August 16) | SUNDRY THOUGHTS
Pingback: Feast of Sts. Callixtus I, Anterus, Pontian, and Hippolytus (October 14) | SUNDRY THOUGHTS
Pingback: Feast of Sts. Caterina Volpicelli, Giulia Salzano, and Ludovico da Casoria (May 17) | SUNDRY THOUGHTS
Pingback: Feast of Blesseds John Forest and Thomas Abel (May 22) | SUNDRY THOUGHTS
Pingback: With Single Mind and Fervent Heart | BLOGA THEOLOGICA
Pingback: Feast of Sts. Flavian and Anatolius of Constantiople, St. Agatho, St. Leo II, and St. Benedict II (July 3) | SUNDRY THOUGHTS
Pingback: Feast of Sts. Eumenios and Parthenios of Koudoumas (July 10) | SUNDRY THOUGHTS
Pingback: Feast of St. Sixtus III (August 19) | SUNDRY THOUGHTS
Pingback: Feast of Blesseds Amadeus of Clermont and Amadeus of Lausanne (August 27) | SUNDRY THOUGHTS
Pingback: Feast of St. Romanus the Melodist (October 1) | SUNDRY THOUGHTS
Pingback: Feast of St. Mary of Egypt (April 3) | SUNDRY THOUGHTS
Pingback: Devotion for the First Sunday of Advent, Year C (Humes) | ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS
Pingback: Trust in God, Part III | BLOGA THEOLOGICA
Pingback: Glorification, Part II | BLOGA THEOLOGICA
Pingback: Feast of Sts. Adelard of Corbie and Paschasius Radbertus (April 26) | SUNDRY THOUGHTS
Pingback: Feast of Blessed Caterina Cittadini (May 5) | SUNDRY THOUGHTS
Pingback: The Defeat of Arphaxad | BLOGA THEOLOGICA
Pingback: Feast of St. Siricius (November 26) | SUNDRY THOUGHTS