Feast of the Visitation

And Mary said:

"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;

Brother Michael the Lessor TOR
He had a dream...
October 1976 - Feast of St. Francis

my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed: 

the Almighty has done great things for me,

and holy is his Name.

He has mercy on those who fear him

in every generation.

He has shown the strength of his arm,

he has scattered the proud in their conceit.

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones

and has lifted up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things,

and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has come to the help of his servant Israel

for he has remembered his promise of mercy,

the promise he made to our fathers,

to Abraham and his children forever."

Mary remained with her about three months

and then returned to her home.

Those that know me, know that Michael the Lesser is a fugitive from the monastery.  That's me in the picture above, mugging for the camera.  I was Brother Michael TOR.  I still own the cord that's around my waist and the crucifix, which was a gift to me from Brother Ambrose who was my boss at the mission goods store where I was assigned to work, hangs on the wall in my living room.  Those were two years that I would not trade for anything. They were hard years in a way because you were living in a small community and little petty things tended to grow in importance and little annoyances became major issues.  But, for the most part, it was a good life. I remember one day I was cleaning the sacristy and took a couple of old rugs out to beat.  As I came out of the house onto the back porch, I saw the sun glowing through the trees in the and in the distance I heard a crow cawing and it was a moment in my life where everything was in line, everything was perfect, and those moments, I have learned, come few and far between.  

As brothers, we said the daily office. In the morning was Lauds, and if you ever wanted to know what a cacophony sounded like, come and listen to twenty-four late teen and early twenty-something men try to chant in the morning.  After dinner was Vespers and the best hour of the day was Compline or as it was sometimes called, night prayer.  There was a rhythm to the day and it was punctuated by these times of prayer.  What used to annoy almost all of us is that Compline started promptly at ten o'clock, the same time that the news began.  Father Pat could give a rat's patoot about that, we never started Compline late.  

But, it is Vespers that I want to mention today.  Part of Vespers is the Canticle of Mary which is the reading at Mass today. For two years my evening featured this beautiful prayer that was said by our Blessed Mother when she visited her cousin, Elizabeth.  I got to really, really love this part of our daily public prayer.  If you read through the prayer you will begin to understand who Mary is.  Protestants say that we worship Mary.  Of course, nothing could be further from the truth.  Mary would not approve of our worshiping her.  She always points the way to Jesus.  She had just been chosen to be the very Mother of God and she does not puff herself up with pride, no, she begins her prayer with the words, "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord."  She at once shows her great humility.  Mary speaks very little in Scripture, but when she speaks, she points the way to God. 

On this great feast day, my fondest hope is that I can imitate Mary in her great humility.  There never has been anyone who could claim to have any greater honor.  The old Ark of the Covenant has been replaced by the new and the tabernacle of Israel was now a virgin mother who carried inside her who would be the very Bread of Life for us. 

There are those that think that our prayers to Mary somehow diminishes Jesus.  Nothing can be further from the truth. Mary brings our prayers to her Son.  She pleads for us to get another chance.  To us, she always points to her Divine Son and she is quoted as saying, "Do whatever he tells you to do."

In all things, we are called to imitate Christ.  We are to imitate His love for the poor, for those who are in distress and we are to imitate Him in loving His mother.  Scott Hahn, a convert to Roman Catholicism, says that if we admit that Jesus lived a perfect, sin-free life, then we have to admit that He never even one of the ten commandments.  He goes on to say that if this is true then Jesus honored His father and His mother perfectly.  Further, if we are adopted sons and daughters of God, then our spiritual mother is the Blessed Virgin Mary.  We, in imitation of Christ, give her the same honor that her Son gives to her.  Honoring Mary, therefore, takes nothing away from God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit. So, if you have a problem with honoring Mary, please talk to Jesus, He is the one who started it!  

Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee.  Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. (1)   Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death. Amen. 

Footnotes
(1) These are the words of the Angel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary when she agreed to become the Mother of God.  It forms the first half of the prayer called "The Hail Mary"