Tag: the eminent dignity of the mother of god

Posted in MARIAN REFLECTIONS, MOTHER of GOD, The IMITATION of MARY, Thomas a Kempis

Thought for the Day – 20 May – The Grandeurs and Tenderness of Mary

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Thought for the Day – 20 May – The Imitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary By Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471)

Extracts from The Imitation
of the Blessed Virgin Mary
By Thomas à Kempis CRSA (1380-1471)
Imprimatur 17 February 1947

SERMON (VII)
The Eminent Dignity of the Mother Of God

I. In the suggestive language of poetry, when we compare God to the sun, we liken Mary to the moon, as the planet which comes immediately after the greatest.
Thus it is in reality – Mary is, after God, the most beautiful and the greatest marvel of the universe.
The dignity and the grandeur of a being is due to its functions.
What grandeur more sublime, what dignity more striking
than those of “Mother of God?”
The Greeks had created purposefully, in order to designate it, a word which applies only to Mary –Theotokos, “she who has brought forth God.”

II. In the enumeration of the privileges of Mary, the beauty, the sweetness, the power, the force and the majesty, nothing equal is found here on earth.
Just as the Temple of Solomon was unique in the world, thus Mary, is unique in the order of creation.
But, if grandeur frightens ordinarily, here it attracts, for to the grandeur, is attached too, tenderness – the tenderness of a Mother!

III. Hence, the Author asks Mary, in the final prayer, for the assistance of her power and the protection of her love – “Tutamen et solomen.”

MEDITATION
The Grandeurs and Tenderness of Mary

The enumeration of the privileges of Mary is her most beautiful eulogy, says St Germain.
Thou art, O my Mother, the panegyric of all the ages and of all spheres.
Thou ary great and thou art powerful, yjou art sovereign and thou art mistress, thou art Queen and thou art woman, thou art she, who is always named and thou
art she, who cannot be named at her worth.
Thou art the Mother and thou art the ineffable.
Thy tenderness is that of a virginal heart, inserted into the flesh of a Mother.
Just as the mother gives us both of her soul and of her body in forming us within her womb, thus thou gives us of thy heart and of thy substance when we receive Jesus, thy Son, in the Eucharist.
O inaccessible grandeur, O ineffable tenderness!

Practice:
Often recite the Litanies of the Holy Virgin which are
a summary of her privileges.

Thought:
O Mary, thou surpassest in greatness and sweetness, all
creatures – “Tn snpergressa es universas, O Maria! Thy sweetness extends throughout the universe, o Mary!

Fr & Dr Célestin Albin de Cigala (1865-1928)
Faculty of Paris (1947)
Doctor of Theology and Philosophy

Posted in MARIAN REFLECTIONS, MOTHER of GOD, QUOTES on TIME, St Francis de Sales, The IMITATION of MARY, Thomas a Kempis

Thought for the Day – 14 May – The Eminent Dignity of the Mother of God

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Thought for the Day – 14 May – The Imitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary By Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471)

Extracts from The Imitation
of the Blessed Virgin Mary
By Thomas à Kempis CRSA (1380-1471)
Imprimatur 17 February 1947

SERMON
The Eminent Dignity of the Mother of God

I. The dignity of a person or of a being, is measured by its
function.
There is not on earth, nor even in Heaven, a function equal to that of the Divine Maternity of Mary.
Mary is truly Theotokos, Mother of God and, at the same time, Mother of the Saviour because, in Jesus, the Divinity and the Humanity are substantially united.
There is, therefore, no dignity superior to the dignity of Mary.

II. This eminent maternal dignity confers, on Mary, divine
prerogatives, at the same time, it infuses into her, human
tenderness superior to the most exquisite tenderness of mothers on earth.
Even from the viewpoint of the physical function, of the beauty of the woman and of the mother, Mary is, above all those who have been outstanding in the world by their charms and attractions.
St Dennis, the Areopagite, a refined Athenian and disciple of St Paul, having gone to Jerusalem and having seen Mary, found her so beautiful, he wished to prostrate himself before her, as before a goddess.
Thus should we do in spirit!

III. It is what the disciple promises enthusiastically in the prayer addressed to Mary.

MEDITATION
The Use of Time

Between the past which escapes us and the future which does not belong to us, there is the present which alone we possess.
This is the time of action and of duty.
To employ the present well, is to enrich your life; to waste it, is to die with it.
The first rule to use time well, is to use it and not to lose it!
Next, to use it in time and not to act at random.
Finally, to use it profitably and not without goal and rule; put off nothing, delay nothing until later!
This is the secret, par excellence, of success.
Mary, here again, can serve us as model.
She was undoubtedly, the valiant and diligent woman of whom the Gospel speaks.
She fulfilled, with perfection, the motto of the noble Romans.
Mary, indeed, was at once Israelite by birth and Roman by adoption.
She is the perfect type of woman in the double sense of: fernina et mulier.
Let us reproduce this model and this type.

Practice:
St Francis de Sales purchased by an alms, each hour
which he thought to have lost or misused – imitate
him!

Thought:
The thought of Mary is a consolation and a protection: “Solamen et dictarnen – Comfort and diration.”

Fr & Dr Célestin Albin de Cigala (1865-1928)
Faculty of Paris (1947)
Doctor of Theology and Philosophy