Mary, Immaculate (Gerard Manley Hopkins)

The Blessed Virgin Mary Compared to the Air We Breathe

In this beautiful poem, a short excerpt of which you will find below, 19th-century Jesuit priest and poet Gerard Manley Hopkins explores Mary's role in the Incarnation, and her own Immaculate nature.  To read the entire poem, click here. It is a lovely meditation for today's Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

This air, which, by life’s law, 

My lung must draw and draw 

Now but to breathe its praise,

Minds me in many ways 

Of her who not only

Gave God’s infinity 

Dwindled to infancy

Welcome in womb and breast,

Birth, milk, and all the rest

But mothers each new grace 

That does now reach our race—

Mary Immaculate,
Merely a woman, yet 

Whose presence, power is 

Great as no goddess’s 

Was deemèd, dreamèd; who

This one work has to do—

Let all God’s glory through,

God’s glory which would go

Through her and from her flow

Off, and no way but so. 

--Gerard Manley Hopkins

To read Gerard Manley Hopkins' complete poem, click here.

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Complete poem

Jesus prepares a cradle for us...

A woman with child prepares the cradle, the linen and the swaddling clothes, and even arranges a nurse for the child she hopes to bring forth, though it be not yet in the world.  So our Lord, in his goodness, as it were pregnant with you, wishing to bring you forth to salvation and make you his child, prepared upon the tree of the cross everything you would need.  He got ready your spiritual cradle, linen and swaddling clothes, your nurse and everything suitable for your happiness.  These are all the means, all the attractions and graces by which he guides you and wants to lead you to perfection.

My God, how deeply this truth should be fixed in our memory.  It is possible that I have been loved and loved so tenderly, by my Savior? … This he did as though there was no other soul in the world… Imprint this in your spirit!

–St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life

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Sunday Gospel Reflection, December 7, 2014: Prepare the way of the Lord!

Prepare the way of the Lord!

Have you done your winter cleaning yet? 

It’s time to prepare the way of the Lord, we are told in this Sunday’s readings – to ready our hearts for Jesus’ coming into our lives, coming at Christmas, coming in the end times, coming to meet us here and now.  So perhaps we’d better start with a bit of cleaning… 

The people in exile in the Book of Isaiah don’t have much reason for hope, yet God is now about to speak tenderly to them, to remind them that all that God has promised will come – they have only to prepare the way: Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!  For God is about to come into their lives in a big way:  Here comes with power the Lord God!  Wait with patience, therefore, but get busy, clean out any obstacles to his journey into your heart, where, as Psalm 85 promises, kindness and truth shall meet, justice and peace shall kiss.  It is a hope not yet realized, a promise whose fulfillment we await…  And while we wait, we prepare, by straightening up all that has become messy in our lives, conducting ourselves in holiness and devotion, eager to be found without spot or blemish, as the author of 2 Peter suggests…  There is so much to do to prepare a way for the Lord!

For the faithful of Mark’s Gospel, John the Baptist is a means by which some of that cleaning and preparation can take place.  John reminds the people of the promise that is their hope; his call is a call to repentance.  His job, too, is to prepare the way, opening hearts to conversion, allowing the Lord to come triumphantly along the way, the path that has been made straight for him.  He encourages the people – as we are encouraged in Advent – to prepare the way by tearing down the walls that sin has created in our lives, so that the Lord might come to be born in us, and through us.  Prepare, not just by waiting, but by doing, by living and loving as fully as you can… so that your hearts are clean, and open, when the Lord arrives.

This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
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All bow...

At these words, all bow... 

You may have noticed that, as we pray the Creed, the missalette reads:  [At the words that follow up to and including and became man, all bow.]  This insertion is followed by the line, and by the Holy Spirit
 was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.

So why do we bow here?  Tradition has it that we owe the gesture to King Louis IX (Saint Louis) of France, who would genuflect during the Creed in honor of the Incarnation.  The act of bowing is thus related to the celebration of Christmas, which is first and foremost a celebration of the Incarnation of our Lord, God-made-flesh, the divine becoming human and dwelling on earth.  We bow during this part of the prayer, then, to honor this gift from God that is central to salvation history, an act that we are called to hold in our hearts; the bow marks our deeply held belief in the Incarnation.  As our words proclaim that belief, we join to those words a gesture that marks our profound reverence for Jesus’ coming to earth, to live, and die, as a man. 

Image source: Andrea Mantegna, Adoration of the Shepherds, 1450-1451

Baby King (Kathy Mattea)

Baby King (Kathy Mattea)

Baby King, Baby King

You got to get ready for a baby king

You might dance, daddy,

You might sing

But you never seen nothin’ like a baby king

It was a bright and sunny summer morn and she said

(Get ready for a baby king)

It wasn’t too long ‘fore he was born

(Get ready for a baby king)

You could hardly tell by the look on his face

(Get ready for a baby king)

That pretty soon he was gonna run the place

(Get ready for a baby king)

Now he is strong and he is wise

(Get ready for a baby king)

He sees right through your old disguise

(Get ready for a baby king)

Now you might think that you got it down

(Get ready for a baby king)

Wait till baby king comes to town

(Get ready for a baby king)

[refrain]

No Virgin Mary brought him here

(Get ready for a baby king)

But the angels whispered in his tiny little ear

(Get ready for a baby king)

Then they sent him down from up above

(Get ready for a baby king)

Just to show you how to really love

(Get ready for a baby king)

[refrain]

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