God's work in our world (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

    God’s work in our world generally does not make the headlines. God doesn’t break into our world or into our consciousness by showy displays of power. God works more discretely, in quiet, touching our soul, conscience, and that part of inside of us where we still unconsciously bear the memory of once, long before birth, we were touched, caressed, and loved by God. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI, Facebook, July 19, 2017     

Image source: Stefanov Alexander, Quiet Sunrise, available for purchase at: https://www.russianpaintings.net/artists/artist_stefanov_alexander_222444/quiet_sunrise_222739/

Nothing is sweeter than love (St. Thomas à Kempis)

      Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing stronger or higher or wider; nothing is more pleasant, nothing fuller, and nothing better in heaven or earth, for love is born of God and cannot rest except in God, Who is above all created things. 

--St. Thomas à Kempis, Imitation of Christ 

Image source: https://www.projectrhea.org/rhea/index.php/Walther_MA271_Fall2020_topic17

Eyes on God (St. Jane de Chantal)

Hold your eyes on God 

and leave the doing to him. 

.

--St. Jane Frances de Chantal 

Image source: René Magritte, The False Mirror (1929), https://www.moma.org/collection/works/78938 

Quotation source

The sea remains the sea (Henri Nouwen)

Dear Lord, 

Today I thought of the words of Vincent van Gogh: It is true there is an ebb and flow, but the sea remains the sea. You are the sea. Although I experience many ups and downs in my emotions and often feel great shifts and changes in my inner life, you remain the same. Your sameness is not the sameness of a rock, but the sameness of a faithful lover. Out of your love I came to life, by your love I am sustained, and to your love I am always called back. There are days of sadness and days of joy, there are feelings of guilt and feelings of gratitude; there are moments of failure and moments of success; but all of them are embraced by your unwavering love… O Lord, sea of love and goodness, let me not fear too much the storms and winds of my daily life, and let know there is ebb and flow, but the sea remains the sea. 

Amen. 

--Henri Nouwen      

Image source: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, The Wave (1879), http://the-creative-business.com/waves-10-amazing-sea-paintings-by-famous-artists/
Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 30, 2022: Be my rock of refuge, a stronghold to give me safety...

Be my rock of refuge, a stronghold to give me safety…

Do we recognize the strength of God girding our lives? 

   The prophet Jeremiah is in a difficult situation. Designated to be a prophet by God before God knew him in the womb, appointed a prophet to the nations, Jeremiah will meet with turmoil and rejection; he will feel crushed, but will not in fact be so: Be not crushed on their account, God tells him, for it is I this day who have made you a fortified city, to deliver you. Jeremiah’s is not a happy lot, but the Lord will support him and will not abandon him. Psalm 71 similarly recognizes that our salvation rests in the Lord: In your justice rescue me and deliver me, the psalmist sings, reminding himself of all the times the Lord has been his strength, from his mother’s womb. 

   When Jesus speaks in the synagogue in Nazareth in Luke's Gospel, he is rejected by the townspeople whose amazement in his teaching is diminished because they know his lineage: Isn’t this the son of Joseph? they ask. When, in their fury, they lead him to the brow of the hill, to hurl him down headlong, Jesus passes through midst of them and goes away. His truth runs contrary to the truth they hold; they have already defined him and ultimately, they disparage him for the words for which they had previously praised him. The hand of God is at work among them, but they don’t seem to realize it, and they lose their chance to recognize the strength of God touching their lives, God’s very presence among them, in the synagogue. 

   God knows us from birth and gives us the capacity to do the extraordinary, but this is only possible if love is behind our faith, driving it. None of the Corinthians’ gifts matter, Paul tells them, if love does not drive their actions, love emanating from the depths of who they are. Paul himself has not perfected such love; he is still on the journey, too. But he knows that his actions come from the heart, where God dwells. One day, God willing, he shall know fully, as he is fully known, and so shall we. In the meantime, we must constantly remind ourselves, as Paul does, that Christ is alive in us, embodied in a love that is patient and kind and bears all things. So let us gird our loins, knowing that our Lord is our strength, our rock and our fortress, and, ultimately, our salvation. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class. 
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

The transformative speech of God (Bishop Robert Barron)

   On his return to Nazareth, the Lord identifies himself as a prophet. Jesus is not just one more in a long line of prophets but rather the personal and perfect embodiment of the transformative speech of God. As Pope Benedict puts it in Verbum Domini: Now the word is not simply audible; not only does it have a voice, now the word has a face, one which we can see: that of Jesus of Nazareth.

   Therefore we are not surprised that the Gospels consistently portray Jesus’ words as irresistibly powerful. At the tomb of his friend, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out! and the dead man came out. Precisely because Jesus is the divine Word, what he says, is. Origen of Alexandria said that just as all of Jesus’ acts were like words, so all his words were like acts. 

   The Church, which is Jesus’ Mystical Body, is the privileged bearer of his Word to the world down through the ages until the Lord returns. This is why the Church continues to unleash transformative power. 

--Bishop Robert Barron, Gospel Reflection, July 31, 2020 

Image source: Sadao Watanabe, The Raising of Lazarus, O’Brien Hall, OLMC. For another version, see: http://portlandartmuseum.us/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=45032;type=101

Knowledge of the Word (St. Boniface)

   Can there be a more fitting pursuit in youth or a more valuable possession in old age than a knowledge of Holy Scripture? In the midst of storms, it will preserve you from the dangers of shipwreck and guide you to the shore of an enchanting paradise and the ever-lasting bliss of the angels. 

--St. Boniface
 

Image source 1: Stephen Gjertson, Peace, Be Still, http://dymphnaswell.blogspot.com/2011/05/art-and-beauty-tuesday-stephen-gjertson.html 

Image source 2: www.drjockers.com 

Quotation source

Make the Word of God a blessing (Cambria Tortorelli / Sr. Joan Chittister)

   As disciples of Christ, we are called to serve those in need and to advocate for justice on their behalf in a way that, to quote Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister, makes the Word of God a blessing rather than a bludgeon. 

--Cambria Tortorelli 

Image source: https://godtv.com/todays-blessing-grace-and-love/ 

Quotation source

Miracles would happen (Henri Nouwen)

   In Jesus, no division existed between his words and his actions, between what he said and what he did. Jesus’ words were his action, his words were events. They not only spoke about changes, cures, new life, but they actually created them. In this sense, Jesus is truly the Word made flesh; in that Word all is created and by that Word all is re-created. 

   Saintliness means living without division between word and action. If I would truly live in my own life the word I am speaking, my spoken words would become actions, and miracles would happen whenever I open my mouth. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source:  https://www.facebook.com/mountcarmelmv/photos/4437108856350502; see also  https://drawingontheword.com/speech-acts-examples-bible/
Quotation source

We kill the prophets (Philip Berrigan)

   The poor tell us who we are, the prophets tell us who we could be, so we hide the poor and kill the prophets. 

--Philip Berrigan 

Image source: James Tissot, Jesus Unrolls the Book in the Synagogue (1886-1894), https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/4471 
Quotation source

To see the Scriptures for what they are (Scott Hahn & Curtis Mitch)

   What we get out of the Bible will largely depend on how we approach the Bible. Unless we are living a sustained and disciplined life of prayer, we will never have the reverence, the profound humility, or the grace we need to see the Scriptures for what they really are. You are approaching the word of God. But for thousands of years, since before he knit you in your mother’s womb, the Word of God has been approaching you. 

--Scott Hahn & Curtis Mitch 

Image source: https://reknew.org/2017/06/jesus-word-god/ 

Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 23, 2022: Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life...

Your words, Lord, are spirit and life…

Does the Word of God speak to your heart?

   Psalm 19 suggests that the people of Israel believed that the law of God, as inscribed in the five books of the Torah, enriched their lives and improved their understanding of their relationship with God and with each other. The command of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eye, the psalmist sings; when properly interpreted, Scripture gives wisdom to the simple. Unfortunately, the community that gathers to hear Jesus in his hometown, Nazareth, has no interest in Jesus’ interpretation of the passage he presents to them. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Jesus reads in Luke’s Gospel, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. But his audience believes they have heard all they need to hear; once Jesus adds, Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing, they will make their rejection of him clear. They, like the Corinthians to whom Paul is writing, are too focused on themselves to understand the gifts they have been given, including the gift that is Christ, God’s Word itself; they will therefore remain at a distance from the Lord.

    Only the community described by Nehemiah seems ready to open fully to God’s words. When Ezra the priest reads out of the book of the law – the Torah – from daybreak to midday, all the people listen attentively. Indeed, they are so moved by the words of God that they weep with emotion. Ezra must interpret the law for then; like Luke the Evangelist, Ezra realizes that God’s words and Word need to be examined and understood anew in their context, and then expanded on, that all might integrate them into their daily life. This is precisely the function of the homily at Mass: to interpret God’s Word so that it makes sense to us in our time.

    Do we think about the prophecies of God being fulfilled in us now, because we are Body of Christ, united in his love, through one baptism? Can we hear God’s Word? That Word tells us who we have the potential to be, giving us hope. Prophecies are possibilities. We are commissioned at our baptism as priests, prophets and kings. As such, we must speak God’s Word, bringing glad tiding to poor, proclaiming liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, and letting the oppressed go free… all of which is possible, if only the Word of God speaks to our hearts. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class. 
Image source:  www.wordclouds.com
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May you use the gifts that you have received (St. Teresa of Avila)

May today there be peace within you.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content knowing that you are a child of God.
Let His presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, and bask in the sun. It is there for each and every one of you. 

--St. Teresa of Avila 

Image source:  Sadao Watanabe, Wedding at Cana (1968), https://collections.artsmia.org/art/34798/wedding-at-cana-watanabe-sadao
Quotation source

Reclaiming the word celebration (Henri Nouwen)

     It is of great importance to reclaim the word celebration as one of the core words of the Christian life. Celebration is not a party on special occasions, but an ongoing awareness that every moment is special and asks to be lifted up and recognized as blessing from on high. There is Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, and the many feast days of the saints. There are countless birthdays, anniversaries, and memorial days. And then there are days to welcome and to say farewell, to receive guests and to visit friends, to start a project and to finish it, to sow and to reap, to open a season and to close it. 

   But even these moments do not exhaust the full meaning of celebration. Celebration lifts up not only the happy moments, but the sad moments as well. Since ecstatic joy embraces all of life, it does not shy away from the painful moments of failure, departure, and death. In the house of love even death is celebrated, not because death is desirable or attractive but because in the face of death life can be proclaimed as victorious. 

 --Henri Nouwen, The Road to Daybreak 

Image source: https://awesomeaj.com/2017/03/22/experience-happiness-like-never-before/

If Jesus can change water into wine (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

  When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. 

   Our fears which seek to control us when change is imminent, they need to be overcome. Times, they are a-changin’. If Jesus can change water into wine, what else can he change? Can he change hardened hearts? Can he change closed minds? Can he change how and why we live? Can he change hate? Can he change the world around us so that it will suit our needs, or will he change us so we can change the world? 

   I have to ask myself, what changes need to occur in my life so that I can be more like Jesus? Do I need to broaden the circle of who I will love, and who I will let love me? Do I need to give more and take less? Do I need to see my neighbor in more and more people, or less and less? 

--Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Image source: John August Swanson, Wedding Feast, https://johnaugustswanson.com/default.cfm/PID=1.2.9-12.html 

Quotation source

Celebrate this day! (Br. David Steidl-Rast)

   You think this is just another day in your life. It’s not just another day; it’s the one day that is given to you today. It’s given to you; it’s a gift. It’s the only gift that you have right now, and the only appropriate response is gratefulness. If you do nothing else but to cultivate that response to the great gift that this unique day is, if you learn to respond as if it were the first day of your life and very last day, then you will have spent this day very well. 

--Br. David Steidl-Rast

 

Image source 1: Pablo Veronese, The Wedding at Cana (1563), detail, https://www.theartist.me/artwork/the-wedding-at-cana/ 

Image source 2:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wedding_at_Cana#/media/File:Paolo_Veronese_008.jpg

For a fascinating analysis of the painting, including alternative source material:  https://ivc.lib.rochester.edu/the-language-of-the-banquet-reconsidering-paolo-veroneses-wedding-at-cana/

Quotation source

Your gift (David Viscott)

The meaning of life
is to find your gift. 

The purpose of life
is to give it away. 

--David Viscott           

Image source: https://medium.com/thrive-global/7-inspiring-reasons-why-you-should-use-your-talents-or-gifts-79d5063d4c4e
Quotation source

The exuberance and intoxication of the divine life (Bishop Robert Barron)

   In [John’s] Gospel we read about the wedding at Cana. Jesus’ mother is the first to speak, as John tells the story: They have no wine. On the surface level, she is indeed commenting on a social disaster, running out of wine at a party, and she is asking Jesus to do something to make things better. 

   But let’s go deeper. Wine, in the Scriptures, is a symbol of the exuberance and intoxication of the divine life. When God is in us, we are lifted up, rendered joyful, transfigured. Therefore, when Mary says, They have no more wine, she is speaking of all of Israel and indeed all of the human race. They have run out of the exuberance and joyfulness that comes from union with God. 

  And this is precisely why Jesus calls her woman. We can be easily misled into thinking that he was being curt or disrespectful. But he was addressing her with the title of Eve, the mother of all the living. Mary is the representative here of suffering humanity, complaining to God that the joy of life has run out. 

--Bishop Robert Barron, Gospel Reflection, January 20, 2019 

Image source: He Qi, Wedding at Cana, https://worldreligionlessons.weebly.com/art--religion.html

Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 16, 2022: Proclaim God's marvelous deeds to all the nations!

Proclaim God’s marvelous deeds to all the nations…

What causes you to celebrate? 

    When the exile of the people of Israel in Babylon comes to an end, do they celebrate? Cyrus the Great sends the people home, asking only that they rebuild the temple and pray that their God might favor him, but when the people arrive, they find their land is ruined and they must start to rebuild from scratch. It must have been devastating. Yet the prophet Isaiah makes it clear that vindication will come, and that which has been called desolate will be the Lord’s delight: For the Lord delights in you and makes your land his spouse. The restoration of relationship with the Lord is ample cause for celebration; God rejoices in them as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride, asking only that they bind themselves to him anew, through covenant. It is indeed time to celebrate that the God of Israel is the source of all life, and to proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations, as in Psalm 96. 

    Jesus likewise comes to celebrate a new life. The story of the wedding at Cana in John’s Gospel is a joyful celebration in anticipation of the kingdom to come. The water changed into wine is no ordinary beverage; water that was originally meant to purity people for the feast has now become an extraordinary vehicle of celebration. For Jesus is God’s gift to us, the fulfillment of God’s promise and a light that reveals the glory and the kingdom of God. Here, again, God is the source of life, revealed, as Paul notes in the Letter to the Corinthians, by the Holy Spirit, and, through the gifts or charisms given to each individual, by each of us. Whether our gift be the expression of wisdom or knowledge or faith or healing or prophecy, let us recognize the work of the Spirit among us, and let celebrate all of those gifts as part and parcel of the revelation of God, source of our life and Eternal Spouse, at work in our lives! 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Grace covers everything (Unknown)

     Snow is God’s reminder of what grace was designed to look like. It doesn’t pick and choose where it falls; it covers everything.

--Unknown         

Image source: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/news/picture-climate-what%E2%80%99s-snow-cover-got-do-it
Quotation source

Grace is love (Fr. Tom Bonacci)

   Grace is not transactional. Grace is love. The Spirit of God is a companion and you never know how it will manifest. Share it. Live life insightfully without vengeance.

--Fr. Tom Bonacci

Image source: Brojoe Joseph, Baptism of Jesus, https://globalworship.tumblr.com/post/155609343460/baptism-of-jesus-art-from-india-brojoe-joseph

God's grace (St. Faustina)

It is up to us whether 

we will cooperate with God’s grace 

or waste it.

--St. Faustina       

Image source: https://www.thewordsmithblog.com/how-to-cooperate-with-god/

Love's hidden thread has drawn us to the font (Malcolm Guite)

Love’s hidden thread has drawn us to the font,

A wide womb floating on the breath of God,

Feathered with seraph wings, lit with the swift

Lightening of praise, with thunder over-spread,

And under-girded with an unheard song,

Calling through water, fire, darkness, pain

Calling us to the life for which we long,

Yearning to bring us to our birth again.

Again, the breath of water is on the waters

In whose reflecting face our candles shine,

Again, he draws from death the sons and daughters

For whom he bid the elements combine

As living stones around a font today,

Rejoice with those who roll the stone away.

--Malcolm Guite, St. John the Baptist: 2 Baptism 

Image source:  Lorenzo Scott, Baptism of Jesus (1987), https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/baptism-jesus-33953.  See also:  https://media.ascensionpress.com/2019/01/13/why-did-christ-have-to-be-baptized/

Poem source

Grace (St. Ignatius of Loyola)

   Grace: This is to ask for what I desire. Here it will be to ask for an intimate knowledge of our Lord, who has become man for me, that I may love Him more and follow Him more closely.

--St. Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises #103

Image source: Dr. P. Solomon Raj, Baptism of Christ, https://globalworship.tumblr.com/post/137131385875/baptism-of-christ

With you I am well pleased (Danny O'Regan)

    The Baptism of the Lord is that gentle moment when the spirit comes to take away our insecurities, quiets us, and assures us, With you I am well pleased. That isn’t just a message to Jesus, it is a message to all of us. We no longer have to prove our love and overcompensate; we live out our Baptism as we live out our understanding of being loved. It is often by our gentleness and peaceful spirit that we encounter the prince of peace in one another. 

    We celebrate this feast day with a recognition that it is the calming waters of our own Baptism and our continued call to be a people in the world that offers this peace to one another.

--Danny O’Regan, Former DRE, OLMC
 January 13, 2019

Image source: Ivanka Demchuk, Baptism of Christ (2015), https://artandtheology.org/2018/01/06/contemporary-icons-of-the-baptism-of-christ/

Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 9, 2022: The grace of God has appeared, saving all...

The grace of God has appeared, saving all…

Are you living out your faith, at one with Christ?

   The people of Israel had a hard time holding onto their faith during their time of exile. But the prophet Isaiah has words of encouragement for them: Here comes with power the Lord God! Isaiah wants them to hold onto their faith, that they might speak comfort and hope to a city destroyed. The prophet reassures them that the Lord will do extraordinary things for them: every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low to facilitate their return home at the end of their captivity. They need to restore their own faith in the power of God at work in them, though they may not be where they think his power works. Psalm 104 reminds us that the Lord is great indeed; everything that happens, happens because of God’s will and care for his people. Though all God does may be beyond our comprehension, still, we hold to our faith, dependent on God’s mercy and generosity, always.

   In Luke’s Gospel, John the Baptist similarly calls the people back from their wayward ways, offering them hope for a messiah: one mightier than I is coming… He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Like the people of Israel hundreds of years before, John’s community is called back to faith, and must restore their hope and trust in God who loves them, for the one who is sent is God’s beloved Son, who will himself be baptized, not because he needs a radical transformation of heart, as the people do, but because it offers him a connection to humankind, an entrance into our humanness that will allow him to take our sin to the cross with him. The Letter to Titus reminds us that Jesus gave himself for us to deliver us from all lawlessness, and to cleanse for himself a people as his own. Our own baptism has made us one with Christ; through our faith, we are heirs, but we must ever maintain that faith, restoring it when necessary, and most importantly, living it, giving evidence of that faith to our world. The grace of God is at work in us; that is extraordinary. If we live with an awareness of that gift, we can live as one with Jesus, trusting in God’s promise and hoping that one day, he will bring us home as well.

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

The Magi teach us to move (Bishop Robert Barron)

   The story of the Magi is a summary of the principal dynamics of the spiritual life. Watching the night sky with scrupulous attention for signs of God’s purpose, the Magi evoke the importance of alertness in the spiritual order. We must keep our eyes open to see what God is up to. 

   Once they saw the star, they moved, despite the length of the journey. Sometimes people know what God wants them to do, but they don’t act, either out of fear, laziness, or the influence of bad habits. The Magi teach us to move. 

   When they spoke to Herod of the birth of a new King, he tried to use them to destroy the baby. When you walk the path that God has laid out for you, expect opposition. 

   The wise men came to Bethlehem and gave the child their precious gifts. When you come to Christ, break open the very best of yourself and make it a gift for him. 

   Finally, they returned to their home country by another route. As Fulton Sheen commented so magnificently: of course they did, for no one comes to Christ and goes back the same way he came! 

--Bishop Robert Barron, Gospel Reflection, January 3, 2020 

Image source: Edward B. Webster, The Nativity (1956), https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/nativity-27046

They fell down and worshipped (Fulton Sheen)

Coming from a land
that worshipped stars…
they fell down and worshipped
him who made the stars.

--Venerable Fulton Sheen

Image source: Egino Weinert, Adoration of the Magi (1967-1968), https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/art-villeroy-boch-galerie-adoration-of-the
Quotation source

The Light and Spirit of this small and vulnerable babe (Barbara R. Quinn)

   When the light of the Epiphany star sears our souls, it also casts a beam of light across and beyond any horizon we might have imagined before, calling us to a new vision. Yes, our days are punctuated by normal, everyday common doins’, but when we make space for God’s grace to inhabit us and soak us through to the depths of our hearts, we are amazed and drawn out of our everydayness to see and do the unimaginable. God’s light will show us amazing possibilities for our world.

   [So many things are possible] if we let the Light and Spirit of this small and vulnerable babe penetrate our hearts, allowing us to see beyond the darkness of our too small worlds, the shrunken horizons of our own making… if we are faithful to our everyday calls like shepherds and ever ready to travel towards new and wider horizons like the wise Magi sojourners… if we trust that God teaches us to see to the inside of our daily realities where the power of God is at work, always beckoning us deeper and forward.

--Barbara R. Quinn, RSCJ

Image source: Gentile da Fabriano, The Adoration of the Magi (1423), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adoration_of_the_Magi#/media/File:Gentile_da_fabriano,_adorazione_dei_magi.jpg 

Quotation source (and full article)

Will you come and see the light? (Brian Wren)

Will you come and see the light from the stable door?
It is shining newly bright, though it shone before.
It will be your guiding star, it will show you who you are,
Will you hide, or decide to meet the light?

Will you step into the light that can free the slave?
It will stand for what is right, it will heal and save.
By the pyramids of greed there’s a longing to be freed.
Will you hide, or decide to meet the light?

Will you tell about the light in the prison cell?
Though it’s shackled out of sight, it is shining well.
When the truth is cut and bruised, and the innocent abused,
Will you hide or decide to meet the light?

Will you join the hope, alight in a young girl’s eyes,
of the mighty put to flight by a baby’s cries?
When the lowest and the least are the foremost at the feast,
will you hide, or decide to meet the light?

Will you travel by the light of the babe new born?
In the candle lit at night there’s a gleam of dawn,
and the darkness all about is to dim to put it out:
will you hide, or decide to meet the light? 

--Brian Wren        

To hear Will You Come and See the Light? performed by Michael Joncas, Marty Haugen, and David Haas, click on the video below:

Image source: Epiphany window, Epiphany Catholic Church, South El Monte, CA, 

https://www.facebook.com/epiphanycatholicchurch/photos/a.556966041107251/2127113537425819
Video source

Mary, the mother through whom all things were given new life (St. Anselm)

   To Mary, God gave his only begotten Son, whom he loved as himself. Through Mary, God made himself a Son, not different but the same, by nature Son of God and Son of Mary. The whole universe was created by God. God was born of Mary. God created all things, and Mary gave birth to God. The God who made all things gave himself form through Mary, and thus he made his own creation. He who could create all things from nothing would not remake his ruined creation without Mary.

  God, then, is the Father of the created world and Mary the mother of the recreated world. God is the Father by whom all things were given life, and Mary the mother through whom all things were given new life. For God begot the Son, through whom all things were made, and Mary gave birth to him as the Savior of the world. Without God’s Son, nothing could exist; without Mary’s Son, nothing could be redeemed. 

--St. Anselm              

Image source: https://www.motherofallpeoples.com/post/god-the-father-and-mary-co-creator-in-the-light-of-theology-of-the-body 
Quotation source