Tag: luke 1:43

Posted in ADVENT, ADVENT REFLECTIONS, FATHERS of the Church, ONE Minute REFLECTION, Quotes on SALVATION, The MOST HOLY REDEEMER, Our SAVIOUR, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 2 July – “Behold the King is coming, let us hasten to meet our Saviour”

Posted on by AnaStpaul

One Minute Reflection – 2 July – “The Month of the Most Precious Blood” – The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Song 2:8-14 – Luke 1:39-47 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

“And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” – Luke 1:43

REFLECTION – “Behold the King is coming, let us hasten to meet our Saviour” (Advent Liturgy). Solomon put it very well when he said: “As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country” (Prv 25:25). He certainly brings good news who announces the coming of the Saviour, the reconciliation of the world and the good things of the world to come. “How welcome the feet of them who preach peace and bring good tidings!” (Is 52:7)…

Such messengers are waters of refreshment and a draught of saving wisdom to a soul athirst for God. For such a soul, the herald of the Coming and of the other Mysteries of the Saviour, draws and proffers water “with joy from the springs of the Saviour” (Is 12:3). And so, it seems to me, the soul is heard to reply to the messenger … in the words of Elisabeth. It has drunk of the same spirit as she has and says: “And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed art thou who hast believed because those things shall be accomplished which were spoken to thee by the Lord.”

And really, brethren, we should go to meet the coming Christ with joy in our heart … “O my Saviour and my God! (Ps 42:5) what an honour that Thou should have saluted Thy servants. How much the greater that Thou shouldst have saved them? … Thou hast given us salvation! not only by greeting with the kiss of peace in Thine Incarnation, those Thou had previously saluted with words of peace but,more, by effecting their salvation through Thy death on the Cross.” Let us, therefore, rise up with joyful eagerness and hasten to welcome our Saviour. Let us adore Him and salute Him at a distance, crying out to Him: “Deliverance, Lord, deliverance! Lord, grant us the victory! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord” (Ps 117:25-26).” – Blessed Guerric of Igny (c1080-1157) Cistercian Abbot (2nd Sermon of Advent).

PRAYER – Bestow upon Thy servants, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the gift of heavenly grace that as the child-bearing of the Blessed Virgin marked the beginning of our salvation, so may the solemn Feast of her Visitation bring us an increase of peace.Through Jesus Christ, Thy Son our Lord, Who lives and reigns with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen (Collect).

Posted in DOCTORS of the Church, FATHERS of the Church, FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, MARIAN REFLECTIONS, ONE Minute REFLECTION, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 2 July– ‘ … It was thou … ‘

Posted on by AnaStpaul

One Minute Reflection – 2 July– “The Month of the Most Precious Blood” – The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Song 2:8-14; Luke 1:39-47 – – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

“ And how have I deserved that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?” – Luke 1:43

REFLECTION – “Most blessed are thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb” … For all ages will call thee blessed, as thou said (Lk 1:48). The daughters of Jerusalem, that is to say, the Church, saw thee and proclaimed thy happiness … For thou art the royal throne near which the Angels stood contemplating their Master and Creator, Who was seated on it (Dan 7:9). Thou hast become the spiritual Eden, more sacred and more divine than the former one. The earthly Adam lived in the former, in thou lives the Lord Who came from Heaven (1 Cor 15:47). Noah’s ark was a prefiguration of thee, it saved the seed of the second creation, for thou gave birth to Christ, the world’s Salvation, Who submerged sin and pacified the floods.

It was thou whom the burning bush described ahead of time, whom the tables depicted, on which God wrote (Ex 31:18) which the Ark of the Covenant told about; it is thou whom the golden urn, the candelabra, … and Aaron’s staff which blossomed (Num 17:23) clearly prefigured. … I almost left out Jacob’s ladder. Just as Jacob saw Heaven united with the earth by means of the two ends of the ladder and the Angels descending and ascending and as the One who is really the strong and invincible One engaged in a symbolic struggle with him, thus thou, thyself, became the mediator and ladder, by which God came down to us and took upon Himself the weakness of our substance, embracing it and closely uniting it to Himself.” – St John Damascene (675-749) Monk, Theologian, Father and Doctor of the Church – Added by Pope Leo XIII in 1883 (1st Sermon on the Death and Assumption).

PRAYER – Bestow upon Thy servants, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the gift of heavenly grace that as the child-bearing of the Blessed Virgin marked the beginning of our salvation, so may the solemn Feast of her Visitation bring us an increase of peace.Through Jesus Christ, Thy Son our Lord, Who lives and reigns with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen (Collect).