Es ist ein Ros entsprungen (Dante and the Virgen de Guadalupe)

One of my favorite songs of the season is the German carol "Es ist ein Ros entsprungen" which is often translated into English as "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming." The second verse, roughly translated into English without poetic license reads:

The rosebud that I mean, of which Isaiah told is Mary, the pure, who brought us the floweret. At God’s immortal word, she has borne a child remaining a pure maid.

Thinking about this song the other day, I thought it particularly appropriate to link the image of the rose described in the lyrics to the feast we celebrate today, that of Our Lady of Guadalupe. To remind you of the story, I turn to the infallible Wikipedia for its narrative of the events:

Two accounts published in the 1640s, one in Spanish and the other in Nahuatl, tell how, during a walk from his home village to Mexico City early on the morning of December 9, 1531 (the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in the Spanish Empire), the peasant Juan Diego saw a vision of a young girl of fifteen or sixteen, surrounded by light, on the slopes of the Hill of Tepeyac. Speaking in the local language, Nahuatl, the Lady asked for a church to be built at that site in her honor, and from her words Juan Diego recognized her as the Virgin Mary. Diego told his story to the Spanish Archbishop, Fray Juan de Zumárraga, who instructed him to return and ask the Lady for a miraculous sign to prove her claim. The Virgin told Juan Diego to gather some flowers from the top of Tepeyac Hill. It was winter and very late in the season for any flowers to bloom, but on the hilltop (which was usually barren), Diego found Castillian roses, and the Virgin herself arranged them in his tilma, or peasant cloak. When Juan Diego opened the cloak before Zumárraga on December 12, the flowers fell to the floor, and in their place was the Virgin of Guadalupe, miraculously imprinted on the fabric.

Roses were instrumental in the miraculous apparition that occurred in 1531. Our Lady has long been addressed by the title of Rosa Mystica or Mystical Rose in the liturgical life of the Church. Dante added his ideas when he described the highest heaven in his Paradiso as a magnificent rose (of which the Virgin Mary had the highest place). This rose was the closest any created creature could come to the presence of God himself.

Now, I am no mystic or philosopher, but I can suspect some reasons as to the rose being such an important symbol throughout history. There is a pious legend that says that all of the roses in Eden had no thorns. The roses we know are very beautiful flowers that are blemished with thorns, just as humanity is blemished with sin. So, the rose, in a way, points to our spiritual journey toward God's presence, where all of our blemishes will be taken away, and we will stand before God's throne as the unique beautiful creatures that we are.

We can be comforted by this thought when we consider God's hand in the "pruning" process. Last week for the mass of the Immaculate Conception, we heard in the Gospel that "nothing shall be impossible for God." If God can be born of a virgin, if that virgin can be created as an unblemished rose, if that virgin can appear to a Mexican peasant to confirm God's presence among his people, what reason have we to doubt the power of God in our own lives? No matter how down we get, or how far away from God we are, nothing shall be impossible for God, if we but let him prune us of our thorns.

You are all fair, my love; there is no flaw in you

Today is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a holy day of obligation for all Catholics. It is on this day that we recall the conception of Mary without sin in the womb of her mother, Anne. God, in his mercy and providence, preserved Mary from all stain of sin from the moment of her conception onward, so that she would become a sanctified vessel for bearing Our Lord. 

Our Lady, under the title of her Immaculate Conception has been invoked as patroness of the United States since 1792, when John Carroll, the first bishop of Baltimore (and the first Catholic bishop in the United States), asked her special protection for the nation. Pope Pius IX formalized this act in 1847. It is to her, especially on this memorial of her conception, that we Americans should ask for her intercession before God's throne for the sake of our nation. 

Since Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception is our patroness, we have honored her in this country with the building of a spectacular church in our nation's capital. The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. is truly an architectural monument of great beauty. It is the largest Catholic church in the United States, the eighth largest religious structure in the world, and the tallest building in the District of Columbia. Construction began in 1920 and was completed in 1959, though interior decoration continues to this day, with the main dome's mosaics yet to be completed as planned.

I have had the great privilege of visiting this splendid basilica during the course of a high school trip to Washington to take part in the March for Life. It is truly an awe-inspiring and beautiful place. The architecture is a curious - but successful - mix of Byzantine and Romanesque motifs. One gets the feeling that the architects took the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, the Basilica of St. Mark in Venice, and the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul and melted them together. Marian symbols and quotations abound, and the crypt is lined with chapels devoted to Our Lady under her many titles. The crypt also displays several other pieces of interest, most interestingly the papal tiara of Pope Paul VI. 

The photo shows the high altar and the sanctuary decorated for Christmas. The mosaic in the apse (i.e. the background of the photo) is a particularly stern depiction of Jesus in majesty.

Some Novenas

The Catholic Church has a deep history and profound heritage of formal prayer. One form of prayer that is particularly common is that of a novena, which is essentially a nine-day prayer. Quoth The Catholic Encyclopedia:

A nine days' private or public devotion in the Catholic Church to obtain special graces. The octave [eight days] has more of the festal character; to the novena belongs that of hopeful mourning, of yearning, of prayer. "The number nine in Holy Writ is indicative of suffering and grief" (St. Jerome, in Ezech., vii, 24; — P.L., XXV, 238, cf. XXV, 1473). The novena is permitted and even recommended by ecclesiastical authority, but still has no proper and fully set place in the liturgy of the Church. It has, however, more and more been prized and utilized by the faithful. Four kinds of novenas can be distinguished: novenas of mourning, of preparation, of prayer, and the indulgenced novenas, though this distinction is not exclusive.

We bring this to your attention, O Reader, for today, Nov. 30 traditionally begins two interesting novenas: that of St. Andrew, and that of the Immaculate Conception. Since the feast of Mary's Immaculate Conception is celebrated December 8th, many have begun the novena today, so that the ninth and final day of prayer corresponds with the feast day (a holy day of obligation, we must recall). The prayers of this novena can be found here.

The Christmas Novena of St. Andrew is of a slightly different nature. It is not a novena, per se, because it lasts longer than nine days. It begins today, the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, and ends on Christmas. The form of the novena is the recitation of the prayer below fifteen times each day:

Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold. In that hour, vouchsafe, O my God! to hear my prayer and grant my desires, through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His Blessed Mother. Amen.

We understand that doing anything fifteen times a day seems like a lot to ask, but, we are positive there are many among us who check Facebook and Twitter much more than this per day. And, really, the prayer is no longer than your garden variety Hail Mary. Incorporating prayers such as these into our daily life can help us to conform our prayer to the mind of the Church and tune us in to the desires God has for us. Advent formerly had more of a penitential character, and in the Eastern Churches it is still observed as a time for fasting in anticipation of Christ's birth. Praying a novena - a regular, disciplined prayer - can be a bit of a small penance to help us on our way toward Christmas. And, any prayer whatsoever during this busy time of passing things can help to keep us grounded in eternal things.

So, we encourage all of you out there to copy and paste the Christmas Novena of St. Andrew (or any other prayer you like) to a little sticky note - or some similar application - and keep it on your desktop of your computer for the whole of Advent. If you are not technologically inclined, write it out on a real sticky note and put it on your real desktop in your room - somewhere you will see it. Rest assured, I will be keeping all of you in my intentions. Best wishes to you for a prayerful and joyous Advent!

Our Lady of Sorrows

Last night at Bible study, we were discussing the sufferings of Christ on the Cross, and his endurance of all human suffering in that hour of his death. This was sort of a happy coincidence, since yesterday was the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, when the cross itself is celebrated as the instrument through which God chose to grant us his salvation. It is perhaps fitting, then, that the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows follows the feast of the Cross, and is celebrated today.

Consider the point of view of Christ's mother during his ordeal. Mary was powerless to protect her son, resigned to see him tortured and brutally killed, yet she was there, showing her maternal love, at the foot of the cross. In that moment of his death, she truly was a Lady of Sorrows - sorrow for both her son's immediate death and sorrow for the sins that placed the pain upon him. In that hour, the prophecy of Simeon was fulfilled: "Behold, this child is set for the fall and resurrection of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be contradicted. And your own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts thoughts will be revealed" (Luke 2:35).

So, at the foot of the cross, Mary suffered in relation to her son. Her soul was pierced with a sword of suffering. Perhaps the figurative sword was the pain of seeing the effects of sin, since she was so detached from it (often, we cannot even begin to grasp the profoundly damaging effects of sin). In any event, Mary as Our Lady of Sorrows gives us a phenomenal icon of hope, even in suffering. Though her heart was pierced with a sword of pain, Our Lady never fell into despair - for despair is the very opposite of Christian hope.

I think despair is more prevalent today than in other times. With all of our advancement in technology and knowledge, I think we are tempted to despair that all of it is for nothing - that the world is meaningless and our lives are just as meaningless. Despair kills charity and removes joy. But, even should we suffer the piercing swords of despair, doubt or suffering, we need only remember Our Lady of Sorrows, and her eventual transformation to Our Lady of Joy through the saving power of her Son.

*    *    *

The painting is one of the most moving I've ever seen of the Madonna and her Child. It was painted by the French artist Adolphe Bourguereau and is entitled "Our Lady of Sorrows."

The Visitation

Today (May 31st) is the feast of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary to her cousin Elizabeth. We hear it recorded by St. Luke in this way:

39 And Mary rising up in those days, went into the hill country with haste into a city of Juda. 40 And she entered into the house of Zachary and saluted Elizabeth.

41 And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. 42 And she cried out with a loud voice and said: Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43 And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold as soon as the voice of your salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed are you that have believed, because those things shall be accomplished that were spoken to you by the Lord. (Luke 1:39-45)

Compare this greeting and subsequent salutation with the arrival of the Ark of the Covenant in the hill-country of Obededom.

9 And David was afraid of the Lord that day, saying: How shall the ark of the Lord come to me? 10 And he would not have the ark of the Lord brought in to himself into the city of David: but he caused it to be carried into the house of Obededom the Gethite. 11 And the ark of the Lord abode in the house of Obededom the Gethite three months: and the Lord blessed Obededom, and all his household.

12 And it was told King David, that the Lord had blessed Obededom, and all that he had, because of the ark of God. So David went, and brought away the ark of God out of the house of Obededom into the city of David with joy. And there were with David seven choirs, and calves for victims. 13 And when they that carried the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed and ox and a ram: 14 And David danced with all his might before the Lord: and David was girded with a linen ephod. 15 And David and all the louse of Israel brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord with joyful shouting, and with sound of trumpet. (2 Samuel 6:9-15)

St. Luke, in his description of the Mother of God visiting her cousin Elizabeth, makes allusion to the Ark of the Covenant being brought to the city of David in the Old Testament. This connection reinforces the position of Mary as the Ark of the New Covenant - Jesus Christ himself. Consider the connections:

• The salutation: Elizabeth says, "And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" David says, "How shall the ark of the Lord come to me?"
• The setting: Mary goes to visit Elizabeth "In the hill country of Judah." The house of Obededom was located in the hills of Judah
• The duration of the visit: Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months (Luke 1:56). "And the ark of the Lord abode in the house of Obededom the Gethite three months."
• The reaction: "For behold, as soon as the voice of your salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy." "And David danced with all his might before the Lord."

These connections reinforce the continuity and fulfillment exhibited by the New Testament in relation to the Old Testament. Mary bore Christ in a similar way that the Israelites bore the Ark of the Covenant. Both Christ and the contents of the Ark were manifestations of God's covenant with his people. The contents of the Ark prefigured Christ:

• The stone tablets of the Law, the written word of God - Jesus is the final Word of God made flesh (John 1)
• Manna from the wilderness - Jesus, the Eternal Bread from Heaven - the Eucharist (John 6)
• The Rod of Aaron, symbol of the priesthood - Jesus, the Eternal High Priest (Letter to the Hebrews)

The devotion and honor that the Israelites gave to the Ark of the Covenant is continued in the devotion and honor that Catholics give to Mary, the Mother of God. Both bore the means of God's relationship with humanity. Mary, of course, being the perfection and fulfillment of the ark, and Jesus being the perfection and fulfillment of the Law.

Pilate and Mary

It struck me the other day that Mary and Pilate are the only two mortals mentioned in the Creed. It is interesting indeed how these two offer fundamentally opposed realities for us to choose between each day in our lives. For a refresher, here is the chunk of the Creed that is relevant:

For us men and our salvation, he came down from heaven, by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary and became man. For our sakes he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered, died and was buried. On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the scriptures.

On the one hand, we have the supreme Christian example of our Blessed Mother, Mary. She, in accepting the Lord (the first person to ever have this privilege), devoted herself to a life with Christ - through good times and through the bad times. Her life was intimately tied to Truth itself, Jesus, the divine logos, the Word made flesh. In taking on this phenomenal challenge of Christian life, Mary was assured that it was not going to be all sunshine and rainbows. When Mary and Joseph presented Jesus in the Temple, Simeon, the priest had this to say: Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, and thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed." (Luke 2:34-35).

The phrase 'and thy own soul a sword shall pierce' stands out to me as a prophecy that would send others running. In this modern world of ours, pain and suffering are seen as things to be avoided, covered up, suppressed, ignored, and if possible, defeated. Not so for Mary. For her, the suffering and sorrow prophesied by Simeon was something that she would eventually have to face full-on without any help of pain-killers or anti-depressants. She witnessed the crucifixion and passion of her own son, the ultimate sorrow of human history, with courage and dedication. The truth revealed by Christ: the truth of agony of sin and the joy of redemption, was experienced by the Blessed Virgin in its entirety. She, like the Church, reflected the truth of the Son in her actions. She clung to the truth revealed by God, even on the hill of Calvary, though the sorrow pierced her own soul.

The actions of Pontius Pilate, on the other hand, are far more indicative of many people in today's world. During the course of Jesus' trial, Pilate asks "What is truth?" This question, though one of the central questions of the meaning of our existence, was not asked in a truthful way. It was asked ironically to truth itself. Pilate, a middle manager of the Roman Empire, was not interested in truth; he was interested in his job. He, in his position of authority, had the opportunity to uphold the truth of Christ's innocence, but instead decided to save his reputation and Roman employment. In the end, he was ruined: legend has it that he committed suicide after being relocated to Gaul.

How many people today are like Pilate? Many ignore truth to have a convenient, pain-free life. How many people just ignore the entire concept of truth altogether? The problem of course, is that without any common recognition of truth, reality falls apart. When people ignore truth as revealed by both God and nature, they are free to imprison themselves in their own self-constructed realities. Pilate, in his denial of Christ and his caving to Jewish pressure, was acting under selfish motivations that would save him from suffering. However, the question must be asked: if one can't suffer for truth, what will one end up suffering for?

Mary, on the other hand, had a firm grounding in the truth revealed by God - the entire truth of human and divine existence, which due to the sinful nature of things includes the dreaded s-word - suffering. However, Mary's suffering was not in vain. In her clinging to the truth, she was able to rejoice in the triumph of Christ and unite herself to God more fully in her glorious Assumption at the end of her earthly life - a far more palatable end than that of Pilate.

So, when we see what the Creed says, we can see the two fundamental paths open to us each day. We can be like Pilate, deny truth, ignore our God-given reason, forget our purpose, fall to selfishness and end in ruin. Or, we can accept Jesus, the logos of God, whole and entire, and follow wherever it may lead, even through the valley of the shadow of death, until He calls us home.

The first image is of Our Lady of Sorrows, from an Alsatian altarpiece. The second is 'Ecce Homo' by Antonio Ciseri

O Oriens

O ORIENS, splendor lucis aeternae et sol iustitiae: veni et illumina sedentem in tenebris et umbra mortis.

O STAR who rises (Zechariah 3:8, Jeremiah 23:5), splendor of the eternal light (Wisdom 7:26) and sun of justice (Malachi 3:20): come and enlighten those who lie in darkness and the shadow of death (Isaiah 9:1, Luke 1:79).

One of our titles for Mary is Stella Maris or Star of the Sea. Our Blessed Mother, with the Savior in her womb, leads lost souls through darkness, just as a star can help a sailor travel dangerous waters. Advent is the season of Mary, of her joyful and hopeful expectancy. She is awaiting the birth of the guiding star, just as we await Him in our various periods of darkness.

The antiphon refers to Christ as more than a mere star, he is the star who rises and brings light to us like the sun. He rises and brings us with him, guiding us along on our earthly pilgrimage. His light rises in us when we follow his words. The splendor of the eternal light stands as a promise of God to his creation; that he has not abandoned us, and always seeks to lead us home. His love is as permanent as the stars above, and his justice and mercy are as pure and radiant as the light of the sun.

But, following a star requires endurance and commitment. The magi, in coming to pay homage to Jesus endured a journey far from what they were familiar with, yet they were committed to honoring the Lord. Mary and Joseph also offer an example when they sojourned to Egypt to protect their son. We can come to know Jesus through many means, but we should pray to remain strong in that relationship with him. We should pray and work to keep our sights fixed on Christ, the guiding star, whose rising is from the dead; which enlivens our hope for life here and beyond. The journey of faith is long and treacherous, it is not a one-time event. In our ever-developing quest towards conversion of heart and increased holiness, the star of Christ's grace can illumine our prayers and deeds and steer us toward the ultimate happiness in his love.

Our Lady, Star of the Sea, pray for us

Our Lady of Guadalupe

December 12 is an increasingly important liturgical celebration for the Catholic Church in the Americas. On that day we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, one of the most iconic images of the Blessed Virgin in the world.

The story goes something like this:
Two accounts published in the 1640s, one in Spanish and the other in Nahuatl, tell how, during a walk from his home village to Mexico City early on the morning of December 9, 1531, (the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in the Spanish Empire), the peasant Juan Diego saw a vision of a young girl of fifteen or sixteen, surrounded by light, on the slopes of the Hill of Tepeyac. Speaking in the local language, Nahuatl, the Lady asked for a church to be built at that site in her honor, and from her words Juan Diego recognized her as the Virgin Mary. Diego told his story to the Spanish bishop, Fray Juan de Zumárraga, who instructed him to return and ask the Lady for a miraculous sign to prove her claim. The Virgin told Juan Diego to gather some flowers from the top of Tepeyac Hill. It was winter and no flowers bloomed, but on the hilltop Diego found flowers of every sort, and the Virgin herself arranged them in his tilma, or peasant cloak. When Juan Diego opened the cloak before Zumárraga on December 12, the flowers fell to the floor, and in their place was the Virgin of Guadalupe, miraculously imprinted on the fabric.

More impressively:
Catholic sources describe the many miraculous and supernatural properties of the image. The tilma has maintained its structural integrity over nearly 500 years, while replicas normally last only about 15 years before suffering degradation it repaired itself with no external help after a 1791 ammonia spill that did considerable damage, and in 1926 an anarchist bomb destroyed the altar, but left the icon unharmed. In 1929 and 1951 photographers found a figure reflected in the Virgin's eyes; upon inspection they said that the reflection was tripled in what is called the Purkinje effect, commonly found in human eyes. An ophthalmologist, Dr. Jose Aste Tonsmann, later enlarged an image of the Virgin's eyes by 2500x and found not only the aforementioned single figure, but images of all the witnesses present when the tilma was first revealed before Zumaragga in 1531, plus a small family group of mother, father, and a group of children, in the center of the Virgin's eyes, fourteen persons in all.

Numerous Catholic websites repeat an unsourced claim that in 1936 biochemist Richard Kuhn analyzed a sample of the fabric and announced that the pigments used were from no known source, whether animal, mineral or vegetable. Dr. Philip Serna Callahan, who photographed the icon under infrared light, discovered from his photographs that portions of the face, hands, robe, and mantle had been painted in one step, with no sketches or corrections and no visible brush strokes.

 Our Lady of Gaudalupe has been declared patroness of the Americas, and has developed a strong devotion in Hispanic countries - especially Mexico. In areas of the United States where there are large Hispanic populations, December 12 is a great time of celebration. I know in Grand Rapids, the Spanish-speaking parishes have elaborate, traditional Mexican ceremonies on the feast day.

With the increasing demographic shift in American Catholicism, from its Northeastern Irish cradle to the Southwestern Hispanic energies, Our Lady of Guadalupe has been an important unifying devotion, given her significance throughout the New World.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.

Much of the historical content of this post was taken from the Wikipedia article on the subject.