FEAST DAY OF THE MATERNITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY; 11th October

FEAST DAY OF THE MATERNITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY; 11th OCTOBER



There are some who look at the consequences of the sexual revolution, feminism and the cultural narratives surrounding us today and see a sophisticated form of slavery, where women, in being told they can "have it all," have traded and lost the very essence of what is beautiful about being female.
When we look around us, do we see the cost described by Father Rutler, who said:
"Our world has become an orphanage, which is what happens when we get rid of the cross and the 'Woman who stood by it'"?*
Carrie Gress, "The Anti-Mary Exposed", Tan, (2019), at p. 83.
The Feast Day this Sunday is a celebration of motherhood and those features of the feminine that are fundamental and innate to a fulfilling and enriched experience of life. That Woman, the icon of whom is imprinted on the body and soul of every woman, gives us the capacity to reach up to build a personal bond with her Son, one that is transformative. She is the "mystical river" as described by Pope Pius X,* by whom an internal transformation of the soul is enabled whereby our interior being is restored to its original beauty, by recognising and embracing a God who so loved us that He died for us.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen spoke of the role of women in the ascent of culture:
"Culture derives from woman-for had she not taught her children to talk, the great spiritual values of the world would not have passed from generation to generation. After nourishing the substance of the body to which she gave birth, she then nourishes the child with the substance of her mind. As guardian of the values of the spirit, as protectress of the mortality of the young, she preserves culture, which deals with purposes and ends, while man upholds civilisation, which deals only with means."
* Carrie Gress, ibid., at p. 16.
*"The World's First Love", quoted by Carrie Gress, ibid., at pp. 15-16.
Dante Alighieri relates the prayer of St Bernard to the Blessed Virgin for her intercession that grace may be granted to him, (Dante), to behold God:
“O Virgin Mother, Daughter of thy Son,
Lowliest and loftiest of created stature,
Fixed goal to which the eternal counsels run,
Thou art that She by whom our human nature
Was so ennobled that it might become
The Creator to create Himself His creature.
Thy sides were made a shelter to relume
The Love whose warmth within the timeless peace
Quickened the seed of this immortal bloom;
High noon of charity to those in bliss,
And upon earth, to men in mortal plight,
A living spring of hope, thy presence is.
Lady, so great thou art and such thy might,
The seeker after grace who shuns thy knee
May aim his prayer, but fails to wing the flight.
Not only does thy succour flow out free
To him who asks, but many a time the aid
Fore-runs the prayer, such largesse is in thee.
All truth, all mercy are in thee displayed,
And all munificence in thee is knit
Together all that’s good in all that’s made.
This man who witnessed from the deepest pit
Of all the universe, up to this height,
The souls’ lives, one by one, doth now entreat
That thou, by grace, may grant to him such might
That higher yet in vision he may rise
Towards the final source of bliss and light.

*The Divine Comedy, Book 3, Paradise, (Canto XXXIII), Penguin, 1962, at p. 343.
Picture: Pregnant Virgin Mary - Basilica Se de Nossa Sehora da Assuncao Catedral de Evora, Spain.

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