At this stage most preachers will be on the way to preparing next Sunday's homily. Some will have just begun to think about it. Some will not have even started! Everyone works at a different pace. If you have any good ideas to share, in order to help out the stuck, feel free to leave an idea.
Sunday's feast is beautiful in its meaning. It points toward heaven. I am reminded of the gate of a Cistercian monastery not to far from my parish. There are two beautiful eagles adorning the gate posts. The monks often point them out; their eyes fixed on the heavens, with their talons firmly on the ground. There is no point in using the beautiful words of faith, if that faith is not experienced day to day in life. Mary is Queen of Heaven, because she received the King of Heaven to earth, by the message of an angel.
Two brief thoughts...
ReplyDelete1. Mary is the one who belonged and belongs 100% to God. That's the key to understanding today's feast.
2. This Feast is about the Victory of God. That's central to the First and Second Readings. That victory is global - but it also needs to be personal. Mary is our model here.
Speaking of Rev. 12:1ff: "What I would maintain is this, that the Holy Apostle would not have spoken of the Church under this particular image, unless there had existed a blessed Virgin Mary, who was exalted on high and the object of veneration to all the faithful. No one doubts that the 'man-child' spoken of is an allusion to our Lord; why then is not 'the Woman' an allusion to his mother?" — Ven. John Henry Cardinal Newman, "Letter to Pusey"
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