Advent's Marian Interludes

Details: 10 December 2010

Two Big Ones

Each year, as we in the Church celebrate the weeks before Christmas in the beautiful and spiritually enriching liturgical season of Advent, our journey toward the Solemnity of our Savior’s Nativity is enlivened and assisted by two special feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary. While neither of them are directly related to Advent and Christmas, they, like all Marian feasts, cannot but be related to the Christmas mystery and the reality of the incarnation of God’s eternal Word, because God chose Mary to be an important instrument and part of that mystery and reality. After Christmas, on its Octave Day the liturgical calendar celebrates the Solemnity of Mary’s Divine Maternity. But it is before Christmas when we celebrate what a little boy in his CCD class once called "the two big ones", the Solemnity of her Immaculate Conception on December 8th, and her apparitions in Mexico in 1531, to Saint Juan Diego, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 12th.

The words which the Blessed Virgin Mary addressed to Saint Juan Diego contain also for us, especially during some of the pre-Christmas stress and strain that many undergo at this time of the year, a measure of consolation and reassurance: "My dear little son, I love you. I desire you to know who I am. I am the ever-virgin Mary, Mother of the true God Who gives life and maintains its existence. He created all things. He is in all places. He is Lord of heaven and earth. I am your merciful Mother, the Mother of all those who live in this land, and of all mankind, and of all who love me, who cry to me, of those who have confidence in me. Here I will see their tears. I will console them and they will be at peace. Do not be distressed, my little son. Am I not here with you, I who am your Mother? Are you not under my protection? Am I not one of your own kind?"

Pope Benedict XVI said, "What an immense joy to have Mary as our Mother! She is our guiding star in the storms of life. Every time we experience our frailty and the promptings of evil, we can turn to her and our hearts will receive light and comfort. Even in the trials of life, in the storms that cause faith and hope to vacillate, let us recall that we are her children and that she will help us to remember that our existence is deeply rooted in the infinite grace of God." The Pope notes, "Mary is a Mother whom anyone can dare to address in any kind of need in weakness or in sin, for she has an understanding for everything and is for everyone the open power of creative goodness. In her, God has impressed His own image."

Immaculate

Nine months before her birthday on September 8th, we also celebrate Mary’s conception in the womb of her mother, Saint Ann. This celebration, which always occurs in Advent because of the nine month interval, happens because God has revealed that from the first moment of Mary’s existence He decided to keep her free from all stain of sin, redeeming her in anticipation of Christ’s saving death and resurrection. Thus, it would only be the ever sinless Mary who would then be worthy to become the Ark of the New Covenant, the "Theotokos", the Mother of God, "our tainted nature’s solitary boast", the very special vessel and instrument for the miraculous and virginal conception and birth of Christ.

Blessed John Henry Newman said, "Who can estimate the holiness and perfection of her who was chosen to be the Mother of Christ? If to him that has, more is given, and holiness and divine favor go together, what must have been the transcendent purity of her, whom the Creator-Spirit condescended to overshadow with His miraculous presence? What must have been her gifts, who was chosen to be the only earthly relative of the Son of God, the only one He was bound by nature to revere, and who had the privilege of instructing Him day by day in His human nature as He grew in wisdom and stature? (Luke 2:51-52)."

Advent Connection

Saint Katharine Drexel said, "Our Lady, while she awaits the birth of her Child, appears to us as a perfect mystery of recollection and absorption in God. She bears the wonder of God below her heart. She is conscious that He dwells within her and she is full of tranquil faith in the angel’s message, in the signs of the nearness of the approaching Savior, Whom even she does not yet behold."

Caryll Houselander wrote, "Advent is the season of the secret, the secret growth of Christ, of divine Love growing in silence. For nine months the Baby grew within His Mother. By His own will she formed Him. She had nothing to give Him but herself. She carried Him and prayed. Washing, weaving, kneading, sweeping, she carried Him and prayed. Breaking and eating the bread and drinking of wine of the country, she gave Him nourishment. Jesus depended on Mary. He made Himself absolutely helpless. Her breathing was His breathing. Her heartbeat was His heartbeat. She herself was to be His food, His warmth, His shade, His home, His cradle, and His rest." A holy priest observed that "this means we must be conscious especially in Advent that we are called to be true to Christ, carrying Him in our hearts as He was with Mary. He depends on us to spread His love among men. As Christ’s followers we are obliged to bring Him to others in our world, as Mary brought Him to Elizabeth, her cousin, and so as well to Elizabeth’s yet unborn baby, John the Baptist" (Luke 1:39-45).

Saint Katharine Drexel said of Advent, "Our inner world conceals a wealth of sacred mysteries. We bear God within our souls by grace and with Him the kingdom of heaven and eternal life. All this dwells within us although it is invisible. Yet we must not yield to doubt and wavering because we cannot see God. His traces are there for us to see in the whole of creation, giving fresh life and growth everywhere. We live in the midst of innumerable mysteries which are known by faith alone. This fact should constantly spur us to Christian activity and increase our joy in God, while banishing all melancholy and dejection. Saint Paul instructs us and the Church during Advent reminds us that joy is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and it our duty to "rejoice in the Lord always" (Philippians 4:4). "Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into His presence singing with exceeding great joy!" So we are commanded by Sacred Scripture.

Speaking of Mary

Archbishop Fulton Sheen, speaking of Mary, said, "Here was a Mother, a Madonna, who did not look up. She looked down to heaven, for This Child was heaven in her arms. This Child came not to save people from insecurity or to make them rich and powerful, but to save them from their sins. Hence, He was given the name Jesus, which means Savior. It was an irreplaceable name, before which the heavens and the earth tremble and before which our knees must bend and bow. God preexisted His own Mother...so we can understand that, when He took on human flesh and became a Baby, He climbed upon her as an ivory tower to kiss upon her lips a mystic rose."