Monday, December 10, 2012

A Virgin A Day #10

Who is Mary and how has our understanding of her role changed through time and history? She has been ours for 2000 years but our regard for her has declined and resurged repeatedly.  Schisms, heretical christian thought, fundamentalism have all diminished or enhanced our regard for her.  

For some she is a mere impression, the fossilized remains of something once living but now only a shadow embedded in rock.  For others, she is vibrant and alive, glowing and pulsing with life.


So I ask again - Who is Mary?  Scholars within my Catholic tradition have put a lot of thought to this question.  Countless volumes have been written - prose, poetry, scholarly and mystical thought.  Entire museums are dedicated to the art made as a reflection of her uniqueness.


Recently I received an email notice of a video, just under two minutes, containing comments about the decline and resurgence of devotion to Mary.  This is what led me to ask the question "How has our understanding of Mary changed?"   This is what I found, in brief:



First point: "When one recognizes the place assigned to Mary by dogma and tradition, one is solidly rooted in authentic christology.


This first point is followed by a second: "The mariology of the Church comprises the right relationship, the necessary integration between Scripture and tradition.


Third point: "In her very person as a Jewish girl become the mother of the Messiah, Mary binds together, in a living and indissoluble way, the old and the new People of God, Israel and Christianity, synagogue and church.


Fourth point: "The correct Marian devotion guarantees to faith the coexistence of indispensable 'reason' with the equally indispensable 'reasons of the heart,' as Pascal would say.


 Fifth point: "To use the very formulations of Vatican II, Mary is 'figure,' 'image' and 'model' of the Church.


Sixth and last point of this synthesis: "With her destiny, which is at one and the same time that of Virgin and of Mother, Mary continues to project a light upon that which the Creator intended for women in every age, ours included, or, better said, perhaps precisely in our time, in which—as we know—the very essence of femininity is threatened.



For an expansion and detail of what my favorite Catholic writer present, please click HERE.

5 comments:

Magical Mystical Teacher said...

I was so entranced by the red leaf that I almost missed Her face!

Handmaid of the Lord

rebecca said...

thank you magical mystical teacher, your comment invited me to take a closer look.

your thoughts annie are so thoughtfully composed and offered so beautifully.
for me it is the pure presence of love that fills me just by whispering her name, or visualizing her face.
it's that simple.

Pear tree cottage! said...

Annie for me she is the mother of life as we know it, she is very much alive in ech and everyone of us who hold love of family and life withn us......Mary is part of our very reason we pry, hope and cherish every day of our lives.....You are a wonderful woman Annie and this very night your post has helped me get through a sad day.....another mother I know has left her children and found love under anothers roof.....while her small sons and husband work through each day alone........the reasons this all happened is unknown to me but my heart breaks for the little ones and their mother and father.....as I said your beautiful post has helped me tonight.....thank you! my friend. Lee-Ann

Delphyne said...

Wonderful image - be leaf, belief.

Paula Scott Molokai Girl Studio said...

I don't think anything was left unsaid by the others that commented here! I wholeheartedly agree. A very poignant post.