December 9
“The Father of mercies willed that the Incarnation should be preceded by assent on the part of the predestined mother, so that just as a woman had a share in the coming of death so also should a woman contribute to the coming of life.’
-Lumen Gentium #56
December 8
Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary
Mary Immaculate
“Pure as the snow,” we say. Ah! never flake
Fell through the air
One-tenth as fair
As Mary’s soul was made for Christ’s dear sake.
Virgin Immaculate,
The whitest whiteness of the Alpine snows,
Beside thy stainless spirit, dusky grows.
“Pure as the stars.” Ah! never lovely night
Wore in its diadem
So pure a gem
As that which fills the ages with its light.
Virgin Immaculate,
The peerless splendors of they soul by far
Outshine the glow of heaven’s serenest star.
-Eleanor C. Donnelly
December 7
“Within the sphere of humanity and in the natural world, there had to be a pure and spotless being capable of receiving the divine element, a feminine principle enlightened by grace.”
-Nicholas Berdyaev
December 6
“God the Father communicated to Mary His fruitfulness, inasmuch as a mere creature was capable of it, in order that He might give her the power to produce His Son and all the members of His Mystical Body.”
-St. Louis Grignion de Montfort
December 5
“Surrender to God is the only absolute power with which creature is endowed.”
-Gertrud von le Fort
December 4
“Mary is the attentive Virgin, who receives the word of God with faith, that faith which in her case was the gateway and path to divine motherhood, for, as St. Augustine realized, “Blessed Mary by believing conceived Him [Jesus] whom believing she brought forth.”
-Pope Paul VI, Marialis Cultus
December 3
“To be a field for the word means to be earth which allows itself to be absorbed by the seed, which assimilates itself to the seed, renouncing itself so as to make the seed germinate. With her motherhood Mary transfused into it her very substance, body and soul, so that a new life might come forth…Mary makes herself completely available as the soil, she allows herself to be used and consumed so as to be transformed into him.
-Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI) on Mary’s motherhood
December 2
“Evangelical surrender is directed towards receiving God’s word. It is like the ploughing which enables the soil to be ‘good soil’ capable of receiving the divine seed, the seed of life.”
-Father Marie-Dominque Philippe, O.P.
December 1
“… [Mary] was predestined first of all to be Mother of God. And the precise reason why the fullness of glory and grace was given her was to make her of it to be the mother of Christ, as St. Thomas expresses it.”
-Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P.
November 30
“God formed man to be imperishable;
the image of his own nature he made them.
But by the envy of the Devil, death entered the world,
and they who are in his possession experience it.
But the souls of the just are in the hand of God,
and no torment shall touch them.
They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead;
and their passing away was thought an affliction
and their going forth from us, utter destruction.
But they are in peace.
For if before men, indeed, they be punished,
yet is their hope full of immortality;
Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed,
because God tried them
and found them worthy of himself.
As gold in the furnace, he proved them,
and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself.
In the time of their visitation they shall shine,
and shall dart about as sparks through stubble;
They shall judge nations and rule over peoples,
and the Lord shall be their King forever.
Those who trust in him shall understand truth,
and the faithful shall abide with him in love:
Because grace and mercy are with his holy ones,
and his care is with his elect.”
-1 Wisdom 2:23–3:9
