St. Mary Major History & Architecture
We sing the Magnificat in with Mary
Historical Mary? - A first century Jewish woman living a hard-scrabble life in a land violently occupied by a foreign power.
First Millenium
We fly to Thy protection,
O Holy Mother of God;
Do not despise our petitions
in our necessities,
but deliver us always
from all dangers,
O Glorious and Blessed Virgin. Amen.
Sub tuum praesidium confugimus,
Sancta Dei Genetrix.
Nostras deprecationes ne despicias
in necessitatibus nostris,
sed a periculis cunctis
libera nos semper,
Virgo gloriosa et benedicta
Second Millenium
Lumen Gentium
The council treated Mary in Chapter 8 of Lumen Gentium - the document on the Church rather than a separate document because Mary belongs “within the Church” rather that outside of it.
Dogmas:
Jan 1 -
Aug 15 - Assumption
December 8
z
Eastern Christianity
Reform Christianity
* I do not know...
—– Mary's yes to God.
vv vv
Woman's yes to man.
—–
The Spirit comes
Most high overshadows
Holy one is born of God
Elizabeth conceives
Nothing is impossible
Let it be….
—–
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====Magnificat====
(Lk1)
* “My soul proclaims God's greatness,
* and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
* for you have looked on the humble estate of your servant.
* For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
* for you who are mighty has done great things for me,
* and holy is your name.
—–
* And your mercy is for those who fear you
* from generation to generation.
* You have shown strength with your arm;
* You have scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
* You have brought down the mighty from their thrones
* and exalted those of humble estate;
—–
* You have filled the hungry with good things,
* and the rich you have sent away empty.
* You have helped your servant Israel,
* in remembrance of your mercy,
* as you spoke to our ancestors,
* to Abraham and Sarah and to their offspring forever.”
—–
Starts with the mystic lost in God:
* My soul proclaims the greatness
* My spirit rejoices
Moves to the prophetic
* Your mercy
* Shown strength / scattered
* Brought down / raised up
* Filled / emptied
* Helped / spoke
—–
Occupy Bethlehem
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—-
Yes to God's Project in the Fiat
No to the Project of Oppression in the Magnificat
—–
====Did you not know?====
Finding in the Temple (Lk2)
* His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”
* “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he was saying to them.
* Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.
====Do whatever he tells you====
John 2
* When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”
[And] Jesus said to her,
* “Woman, how does your concern affect me?
* My hour has not yet come.”
His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.”
—–
=====Part Four - Mystic and Prophet=====
====Inkblot====
Migrate feminine images back to God.
Develop / share a meaningful marian spiritual practice or image, or a challenge
—–
=== Parable of the Trapeze by Danaan Parry ===
Sometimes I feel that my life is a series of trapeze swings.
I'm either hanging on to a trapeze bar swinging along or, for a few moments in my life, I'm hurtling across space in between trapeze bars.
Most of the time, I spend my life hanging on for dear life to my trapeze-bar-of-the-moment.
It carries me along at a certain steady rate of swing and I have the feeling that I'm in control of my life.
I know most of the right questions and even some of the answers.
But every once in a while as I'm merrily (or even not-so-merrily) swinging along, I look out ahead of me into the distance and what do I see? I see another trapeze bar swinging toward me.
It's empty and I know, in that place in me that knows, that this new trapeze bar has my name on it.
It is my next step, my growth, my aliveness coming to get me. In my heart of hearts I know that, for me to grow, I must release my grip on this present, well-known bar and move to the new one.
Each time it happens to me I hope (no, I pray) that I won't have to let go of my old bar completely before I grab the new one.
But in my knowing place, I know that I must totally release my grasp on my old bar and, for some moment in time, I must hurtle across space before I can grab onto the new bar.
Each time, I am filled with terror.
It doesn't matter that in all my previous hurtles across the void of unknowing I have always made it.
I am each time afraid that I will miss, that I will be crushed on unseen rocks in the bottomless chasm between bars.
I do it anyway. Perhaps this is the essence of what the mystics call the faith experience.
No guarantees, no net, no insurance policy, but you do it anyway because somehow to keep hanging on to that old bar is no longer on the list of alternatives. So, for an eternity that can last a microsecond or a thousand lifetimes, I soar across the dark void of “the past is gone, the future is not yet here.”
It's called “transition.”
I have come to believe that this transition is the only place that real change occurs.
I mean real change, not the pseudo-change that only lasts until the next time my old buttons get punched.
I have noticed that, in our culture, this transition zone is looked upon as a “no-thing,” a noplace between places. Sure, the old trapeze bar was real, and that new one coming toward me, I hope that's real, too.
But the void in between? Is that just a scary, confusing, disorienting nowhere that must be gotten through as fast and as unconsciously as possible?
NO! What a wasted opportunity that would be.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the transition zone is the only real thing and the bars are illusions we dream up to avoid the void where the real change, the real growth, occurs for us.
Whether or not my hunch is true, it remains that the transition zones in our lives are incredibly rich places.
They should be honored, even savored. Yes, with all the pain and fear and feelings of being out of control that can (but not necessarily) accompany transitions, they are still the most alive, most growth-filled, passionate, expansive moments in our lives.
We cannot discover new oceans unless we have the courage to lose sight of the shore.
So, transformation of fear may have nothing to do with making fear go away, but rather with giving ourselves permission to “hang out” in the transition between trapezes.
Transforming our need to grab that new bar, any bar, is allowing ourselves to dwell in the only place where change really happens.
It can be terrifying. It can also be enlightening in the true sense of the word.
Hurtling through the void, we just may learn how to fly.
—–
- Pneumatological mariology that considered Mary in light of the Holy Spirit offered a fruitful approach.
- I explore a theology of Mary as friend of God and prophet in the communion of saints.
http://aclerkofoxford.blogspot.com/2010/07/sunday-lyric-restless-mind.html
Jesus Christ the Apple Tree.
Jesus as tree of life.
=== To a Snowflake ===
by Francis Thompson
snowflake formation snowflake
* What heart could have thought you? –
* Past our devisal
* (O filigree petal!)
* Fashioned so purely,
* Fragilely, surely,
* From what Paradisal
* Imagineless metal,
* Too costly for cost?
* Who hammered you, wrought you,
* From argentine vapor? –
* “God was my shaper.
* Passing surmisal,
* He hammered, He wrought me,
* From curled silver vapor,
* To lust of His mind –
* Thou could'st not have thought me!
* So purely, so palely,
* Tinily, surely,
* Mightily, frailly,
* Insculped and embossed,
* With His hammer of wind,
* And His graver of frost.”
—–
=====Part Four - Mystic and Prophet=====
*
* Mary is first disciple.
* Mary is companion of disciples.
* Mary is archetype of the spiritual life.
* Mystical writers have often been objects of suspicion and persecution by church authorities
* Even Satan can be disguised as an angel of light
* Yet there are still angels of light.
* Attributing mystical experience to Mary is 'safe.'
* Yet it risks confining the experience to Mary.
* Three-fold way - Mysticism
* Love God with a free heart, letting go of whatever is lesser or gets in the way.
* Inward silence, empty and free from images of all things which they ever saw or of which they ever heard.
* Loving adherence to God.
* The beloved has fallen into the lover in mutual surrender.
* The spirit immerses itself, and knows not how, nor where, nor in what it is. Self-annihilation
* Spirit beholds a Darkness beyond reason, dead and lost to self, one with God without difference and without distinction. And when it feels itself one with God, then God alone is its peace and its enjoyment and its rest.
* Prophecy - One is sent down by God from these heights into the world is full of truth and rich in all virtues. And they seek not their own but the glory of God Who has sent them. They must always spend themselves on those who have need of them; for the living fount of the Holy Spirit, which is their wealth, can never be spent.
==== Hildegard of Bingen ==== O Viridissima Virga (O Greenest Rod) * O branch of freshest green, * O hail! Within the windy gusts of saints * upon a quest you swayed and sprouted forth. * * When it was time, you blossomed in your boughs— * “Hail, hail!” you heard, for in you seeped the sunlight’s warmth * like balsam’s sweet perfume. * * For in you bloomed * so beautiful a flow’r, whose fragrance wakened * all the spices from their dried-out stupor. * * They all appeared in full viridity. * * Then rained the heavens dew upon the grass * and all the earth was cheered, * for from her womb she brought forth fruit * and for the birds up in the sky * have nests in her. * * Then was prepared that food for humankind, * the greatest joy of feasts! * O Virgin sweet, in you can ne’er fail any joy. * * All this Eve chose to scorn. * * But now, let praise ring forth unto the Highest! ===== Trinities ===== Created and Uncreated Trinities originate in the French School and are taken up by the first Sisters of St. Joseph. ====Uncreated Trinity==== Creator - Redeemer - Spirit ====Created Trinity==== Jesus - Mary - Joseph ====Evangelical Trinity==== ===Treasure=== * Mt 13:44 The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. ===Seeker=== * Mt 13:45*6 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it ===Seeking=== * Mt 13:47 Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. ====Cosmic Trinity==== ===Love * Loving * Beloved === * It's too easy to remake trinity in our image - two men and a bird * Can we instead make ourselves in the trinitarian image.
* Reach out to someone who looks different than me.
* Reach out to someone who sounds different than me.
* Reach out to someone who talks different than me.
* Relationship and love heals implicit bias.
* What if cell network is more real than superhighway network.