Living Out the Consecration

It is currently the liturgical season of Advent, the time of preparation for the celebration of the birth of our Lord on Christmas Day. I have been praying the morning and evening Advent prayers of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary as a way of living out my consecration to Jesus through Mary. I went to Mass on Monday evening to celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a holy day of obligation. Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. December is a lovely month for Marian devotion!

On the day of my consecration, which was the Feast of the Presentation of Mary, I took my daughter to her art class at a Catholic school. I lit a candle at the Mary altar in the church and prayed the consecration prayer written by Fr. Gaitley. I also went into the chapel and prayed before Jesus in the tabernacle, and I prayed the Rosary.

While I have done a consecration to Mary a couple of times before, this was the first time I had done a formal preparation. I consecrated my husband and daughter as well. It felt different this time, more real. I feel like I truly belong to the Blessed Mother now.

I am pushing myself to consistently work on my book about Mary and the sacred feminine in Christianity, with a renewed focus on the Immaculata as Temple of Wisdom. As winter sets in, it will be the ideal time for contemplation, introspection, prayer, and creativity. I encourage all Catholics to draw close to our spiritual Mother and live in the light of her grace.

Am I not here who am your Mother?
Are you not under my shadow and protection?
Am I not the fountain of your joy?
Are you not in the fold of my mantle, in the cradle of my arms?
--Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego

33 Days to Morning Glory (Part 3)

To give oneself fully to the Mother of God, that is the quest of this consecration. After St. Louis de Montfort and St. Maximilian Kolbe, 33 Days to Morning Glory explores the teachings of Blessed Mother Teresa and St. Pope John Paul II.

Mother Teresa shows us Jesus' thirst for love and for souls and Mary's instrumental role in the personal calling that Mother received. Mother leads us to say "yes" to Mary, and Mary teaches us to say "yes" to Jesus.

John Paul was my favorite of the four. He takes us to the foot of the cross and really makes us look. He shines a spotlight on the blood and water pouring from Christ's side as the source of our redemption. The Pope's particular consecration is to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and is tied directly to the Divine Mercy. I am continuously inspired and amazed at the depth and breadth of the Catholic Faith!

The day of consecration is fast approaching, and I am a little behind in my reading. I will be making the consecration on Nov. 21, the Presentation of Mary. Tradition says that Mary was presented by her parents to be raised in the Temple at the age of three, the gift of Anne and Joachim to God for the unexpected blessing of a child. They knew she was special. Some fantastical legends accompany this story, found in the Protoevangelium of James, but I think they attempt to express the deep love and honor that Christians had for Mary from the beginnings of the Church. Her holiness and embodiment of Wisdom did not go unnoticed. Let us then further explore the connection between Mary, Wisdom, and the Holy Spirit.

I envision, in a mystical way, that the "feminine" nature of God (who is neither male nor female), who is personified as Lady Wisdom (or Sophia) in the Bible, is hidden at the heart of the Trinity. This can be visualized by the symbol of the triquetra, three interlocking circles. At the point of intersection of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is Wisdom, forming a shape like a dove or a flower. She is part and parcel of all three members of the Holy Trinity. She is not a 4th person, but rather is hypostasized within each of the three. Thomas Merton described Wisdom as the "ousia", or divine essence, of God.

Another possible mystical vision of Sophia is to think of her origins in terms of "call and response". From eternity, the Father calls to himself. His Wisdom responds, and the Son proceeds from the Father. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son as the particularly, but not exclusively, "bridal-maternal" person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is, as the Bible tells us, also the Spirit of Wisdom. Wisdom is, however, contained in each member of the Trinity, and while distinct persons, they are part and parcel of one another. Therefore, Jesus truly is Wisdom Incarnate.  But as Sophia is hidden at the heart of the Trinity, in Jesus she also remains mysterious.

Yet another perception of Wisdom is that she exists somehow in two modes, as the likes of St. Augustine imagined. Sophia may indeed be at once divine and "creaturely".  Sophia at the heart of the Trinity (as ousia of God) represents her divine nature, while she is simultaneously manifest in a mysterious and personal way in the Virgin Mary. This explains why Wisdom is sometimes expressed as divine and at other times created in Sacred Scripture. This is also why, along with Mary's title as Seat of Wisdom, that the Church finds it fitting to accomodate the biblical passages of Wisdom to Mary.

Perhaps the theory that makes most sense, and lines up most precisely with Fr. Gaitley's theology and insights gleaned from the four saints, is that the Lady Wisdom of the Old Testament prefigures Mary as the eternal sanctuary of the Holy Spirit. In this mystical union of Mary and the Holy Spirit (especially in the "bridal-maternal" sense previously discussed), Wisdom is reflected in both her divine and "creaturely" dimensions.  I do not believe, as some have argued, that Wisdom is merely the personification of an attribute of God.

I am no theologian, and when I read the great ones like St. Maximilian, my head can start to spin. What I have endeavored to do is to simplify the theology of Holy Wisdom, Hagia Sophia, in a way that I can comprehend and that will hopefully help others who read what I have written. The Church gives the faithful ample room for understanding the meaning of Wisdom, of who she is. This mystery is a blessing in that the fullness of the story is as yet unwritten, and I truly believe that the answer lies in Marian devotion and consecration. Our Blessed Mother is the key that unlocks everything.

33 Days to Morning Glory (Part 2)

 Throne of Wisdom by Jan Van Eyck

Perhaps a question is begged in this discussion of Fr. Gaitley's 33 Days to Morning Glory, being, why consecrate ourselves to Mary at all? Why not go "straight to Jesus" as the Protestants declare? In traditional Catholicism one encounters the phrase, to Jesus through Mary. St. Louis de Montfort believed that Marian consecration is the quickest, easiest, and safest way to go to Jesus. Because Jesus came to us through the Blessed Mother, he wills that the faithful go to him through her. This is so simple and makes such logical sense!

One of Mary's traditional titles is Mediatrix of All Grace. This was St. Maximilian Kolbe's favorite title for her. The Father wills that Mary be the chief dispenser of divine grace. Kolbe seemed to believe that the Holy Spirit works only through the Immaculata. This, however, does not appear to be the model followed by the postconciliar Church, except in certain countries in which traditional Marian devotion and folk piety have been maintained. Leading the way for a revival of a mariology that is central to Catholic faith in the Americas are the peoples who venerate Our Lady of Guadalupe. In such a figure as Guadalupe, we can apprehend a theology and devotion to Mary as Temple of Wisdom, especially as the Virgin here is wearing a sash which symbolizes pregnancy. I propose this title as a more fitting desigantion for the Virgin than we find in either "spouse" or "quasi-incarnation" of the Holy Spirit, as I discussed in Part 1 of this article. Why "Temple of Wisdom"?

Another traditional title for Mary is Seat (or Throne) of Wisdom. Artwork representing Mary as Seat of Wisdom shows the Child Jesus sitting on her lap. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Mary is named the dwelling of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Because Jesus is not only the Word, but Wisdom Incarnate, Mary is also the dwelling of Wisdom. Another biblical name for the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Wisdom, so here we have an additional way in which Mary is the dwelling of Wisdom. As we can see, Kolbe's apprehension of Mary as a unique sanctuary of the Holy Spirit is quite on target. 

Let us consider that the word for Spirit in Hebrew is Ruah, which is of feminine gender; in Greek it is Pneuma, a neutral (genderless) word; and in Latin, it is Spiritus, of masculine gender. (These are the languages from which the Bible in English is translated.) It could be argued that either masculine or feminine pronouns used in reference to the Holy Spirit would be grammatically correct. Technically, the pronoun "it" would be most accurate in Greek, though this of course would not be a fitting way to refer to God.

Let us go on to consider that in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, the words for Wisdom are unanimously feminine in gender--Chokmah, Sophia, and Sapientia, respectivley. It may feel a bit odd, then, to refer to Jesus, a male person, as Wisdom Incarnate; especially considering that Wisdom is not only grammatically a "she" in the Old Testament books in which she is most prevalent--Proverbs, Wisdom, and Sirach--but she is clearly depicted as a bride and mother. Because Wisdom is a feminine "spirit" and personified as a woman in the Bible, and because Mary is the Seat of Wisdom, passages from the Wisdom books (including the Song of Songs) are accomodated to Mary both in the liturgy and in the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The faithful are all called to be temples of the Holy Spirit and Wisdom. We receive the Holy Spirit at Baptism and are released then from the condition of original sin, and at Confirmation we again receive the Spirit and the associated seven gifts, one of which is wisdom. To be protected from inheriting original sin, Mary must have received the Holy Spirit and Wisdom at the moment of her conception. We will explore these themes surrounding Mary as Temple of Wisdom in greater detail in future installments of this article, so please stay tuned!

33 Days to Morning Glory (Part 1)

We are nearing the end of October, a traditional month for honoring Mary, particularly as Our Lady of the Rosary. I am in the 2nd week of Michael E. Gaitley's 33 Days to Morning Glory: A Do-It-Yourself Retreat In Preparation for Marian Consecration.  I recently began a Facebook fellowship group for those doing the retreat and anyone interested in Marian devotion, using the same name as this blog, "True Marian Devotion".  I have been working for some time on writing a book about the sacred feminine in Christianity, and all of these things have converged, as is often the case, to bring about renewed contemplation on certain themes.

So I am here once again, in the hopes of fleshing out some ideas and perhaps going a bit deeper into the relationship between the Virgin Mary and the biblical Lady Wisdom. Fr. Gaitley's focus in 33 Days to Morning Glory hinges upon the idea of Mary as the "spouse" of the Holy Spirit. He contends that at the Annunciation, "the deep bond between Mary and the Holy Spirit...was revealed as nothing less than a two-become-one marital union (see Gen 2:24)."  St. Maximilian Kolbe, whose theology is being contemplated this week of the retreat, takes the notion further, calling Mary the "quasi-incarnation" of the Holy Spirit.

I don't want to declare that both of these men are wrong, but I do wish to express why these views make me uncomfortable. First, Mary had a human spouse, who we know as St. Joseph. Referring to Mary as the spouse of the Holy Spirit is not to suggest that Mary had two husbands, but rather to present an analogy of a mystical, spiritual unity, in which the two retain their individual natures yet work together toward a common purpose; that of the sanctification of humanity. Mary gives the Holy Spirit a face, thus the "quasi-incarnation" status.

Nevertheless, Joseph's instrumental role as Mary's spouse is seriously obscured, and Mary, a woman, is made the personal embodiment of the Holy Spirit, who is traditionally spoken about in masculine terms. All three members of the Holy Trinity are designated using masculine pronouns, despite the teaching of the Church that God is neither male nor female, but pure spirit, and regardless of the many feminine images found in the Bible for God. The masculine language is said to reflect the transcendent nature of God, and I don't doubt that teaching's validity.

Such poetic renderings as "spouse" and "quasi-incarnation" endeavor to explain a great mystery, and Fr. Gaitley and St. Kolbe have not said anything contrary to Catholic faith or morals in this regard. But could we, perhaps, unearth a more fitting theology for our times? It is relevant at this point to consider that, historically speaking, references in Christianity to the divine in feminine terms have been rare and have been a cause for fear and grave concern among those who view God as exclusively male. The backlash from Scott Hahn's theology, in First Comes Love, which describes the Holy Spirit as being the particularly "bridal-maternal" person of the Trinity, caused the author to move this material from chapter 10 to an appendix at the back of the book.

Yet the Church certainly supports the notion that God has not only a transcendent nature, but an immanent one; and that the Church herself (Ecclesia in Latin) and the Blessed Virgin Mary reflect God's feminine, receptive, immanent qualities. The Holy Spirit indwells the members of the Body of Christ, even being called the "soul" of the Church. In such a way, the Holy Spirit also reflects God's immanence, as does Jesus' Real Presence in the Eucharist.

How can all of these conflicts potentially be resolved? One path is to explore the way of Wisdom. I will expound upon such a theology in Part 2 of this article.

Hail Mary: Gentle Woman

In this hymn is beautifully illustrated the mystical connection between the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and Holy Wisdom (the Divine Sophia, feminine heart of the Trinity).

HAIL MARY, FULL OF GRACE, THE LORD IS WITH YOU
BLESSED ARE YOU AMONG WOMEN,
AND BLEST IS THE FRUIT OF YOUR WOMB, JESUS
HOLY MARY, MOTHER OF GOD, PRAY FOR US SINNERS
NOW AND AT THE HOUR OF OUR DEATH, AMEN


(REFRAIN:)
GENTLE WOMAN, QUIET LIGHT
MORNING STAR SO STRONG AND BRIGHT
GENTLE MOTHER, PEACEFUL DOVE
TEACH US WISDOM, TEACH US LOVE


YOU WERE CHOSEN BY THE FATHER
YOU WERE CHOSEN FOR THE SON
YOU WERE CHOSEN FROM ALL WOMEN
AND FOR WOMAN, A SHINING ONE

(REPEAT REFRAIN)

BLESSED ARE YOU AMONG WOMEN
BLEST IN TURN ALL WOMEN TOO
BLESSED THEY WITH PEACEFUL SPIRITS
BLESSED THEY WITH GENTLE HEARTS

(REPEAT REFRAIN)

Maternal Intercession in a Chaotic World

Madonna and Child by Marianne Stokes

Have you noticed lately that the Catholic Church is loudly calling upon the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and that even Protestants are beginning to remedy their neglect? It's hard to believe that there was a time not so long ago when Marian devotion was considered passe, sacrificed on the altar of ecumenism. But something must be done about the evils of abortion, euthanasia, the threat to religious freedom, war, mass shootings in schools and movie theaters, etc., etc., etc... And when the going gets tough, the Church calls on the Mother of God. Why? Because she hears the cries of the world, and she takes them to her Son, as He wills it to be. Jesus takes them to the Father, and then something gets done. Mary is powerful and permeated with divine grace. She is our life, our sweetness, and our hope. She knows what it is like to be pregnant under dangerous and uncertain circumstances, to give birth and to see your child die. She is the spiritual Mother of us all.

So on a day like this, the 40th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade and the Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion, we are horrified. 55 million children dead, murdered with the consent of their mothers. I think of Mary, whose fiat brought salvation to a world of sinners, and I know she must cry bitter, bitter tears. Every day. What irreplaceable souls are lost forever to this fallen world?

Novenas to Our Lady are coming back into fashion. Rosaries are being prayed in homes and churches, in cars and on buses and planes. Pilgrimages to Marian shrines continue to grow. It gives you some hope, doesn't it? Can you feel that a monumental, sea change is coming? Stella Maris, Star of the Sea, pray for us. Mother of Sorrows, pray for us. Mother of Consolation, hear the cries of the unborn and the mothers who regret their terrible choice. Help us to give a voice to the voiceless. Speak to the hearts of expectant mothers. Give us the courage to surrender all in our lives to your maternal care. May we give birth to the God of peace.

The Feminine Face of God

Woman of Revelation 12

It is apparent that the once common reference to Mary among Catholics as "the feminine face of God" has been suppressed since Vatican II.  Some modern, feminist theologians are perfectly happy with the status quo of a marginalized Mary.  Yet they are not satisfied with the lack of feminine names and imagery used for God and the excessively patriarchal language that has dominated Christianity.  Instead of focusing on Mary as Queen of Heaven, they seek to feminize the Holy Spirit. This seems to me to signify a failure to connect the theological dots.

The problem is solved if one follows the Marian teachings of St. Maximilian Kolbe, who understood Mary as the "quasi incarnation" of the Holy Spirit.  The union of the Blessed Mother with the third person of the Trinity is not equivalent to the hypostatic union of the human Jesus with the divine Son of God.  He often clarified that Jesus' mother is completely human (though she partakes in the divine nature of her Son, as do all heavenly saints).  Yet the union between Mary and the Spirit is so profound as to make them function as one being, while each retains her own, personal nature.  Together they provide motherly intercession in the work of the salvation of humankind.  Both have traditionally been given the title, Advocate by the Church.  Kolbe saw Mary as bride of the Holy Spirit, but more specifically as divine Sanctuary. 

In my spiritual contemplation I have come to the same conclusion as Catholic writer Thomas Merton, that the spirit Sophia of the Wisdom Books of the Bible is the ousia of God, contained in each member of the Trinity.  In my own words, Sophia is the feminine nature of God at the heart of the Trinity, who is revealed most perfectly in the Holy Spirit and manifested personally in the Virgin Mary and cosmologically in Ecclesia, Holy Mother Church.  For this reason it is fitting to refer at times to the Holy Spirit as "she", the immanent Mother-Love of God who indwells all members of the body of Christ.  Now we can understand Mary as revealing the feminine face of God, in her role as Mother of God and Mother of the Church.  A choice does not need to be made between Mary in her full cosmological presence and the naming of the Holy Spirit, when appropriate, as the "feminine" member of the Godhead (always keeping in mind that God is pure spirit, neither male nor female).  The two concepts, in essence, are complementary, together revealing the mystery of the sacred feminine.