Ad Jesum per te, Maria : 2/33

The Psalms of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary

By way of preparation for the great Feast of the Annunciation, I am re-posting a daily commentary on each of the Psalms of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin. The commentary was compiled by Father Ethelred L. Taunton and published in 1903. 

To read the commentary on today's Psalm, click on the following link: 👉   Psalm 8

Previous Psalms

Psalm 94

👈 This is an image of King David, author of the Psalms. By Willem Vrelant (early 1460s), Bruges, Belgium. 

Prayers 

The following prayers follow the model written by St Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort and are recited in preparation for the renewal of our family's consecration to Lord Jesus, Christ our King, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the Feast of the Annunciation.

Veni Creator Spiritus [To see a translation of this hymn to the Holy Spirit, click here:  👉 Veni Creator Spiritus ]

Ave Maris Stella

 

Magnificat

 

Gloria 

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The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

I have for some time been closing my posts with a triple seal:

* the beautiful icon of the Holy Mother of God known to many as the Vladimirskaya Icon; 

* the Sub tuum præsidium, said to be the oldest prayer to Our Lady;     and

* a short prayer of consecration to the Immaculate heart of Mary.

Over the coming weeks, I shall include a short commentary on one or other of these prayers, (recalling that holy icons are traditionally said to be written like prayers rather than painted).

The Vladimirskaya Icon: Christ's embrace

The Holy Infant has placed his left arm around the neck of Mary and his right hand is stretched forward with his hand over her heart. His cheek is pressed tenderly against Mary's. There is a striking similarity between the way this embrace is portrayed and certain words in the Canticle of Canticles:

His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me

Læva ejus sub capite meo, et dextera illius amplexabitur me.  [Canticles (Solomon) ii. 6]

The Douay-Rheims heading introduces this text with the words: Christ caresses his spouse: he invites her to him. The words in Chapter ii are repeated in Chapter viii, following another heading which reads: The love of the church to Christ: his love to her.

This imagery of Mary as being in a sense the Bride of Christ and as such also representing the Church, is found in the writings of numerous Church Fathers. Notable among these is St Nephraem* who writes extensively of Marian typology.

*St Ephraem (b. Nisbis, d. 373). While he lived he was very influential among the Syrian Christians of Edessa, and his memory was revered by all, Orthodox, Monophysites, and Nestorians. They call him the "sun of the Syrians," the "column of the Church", the "harp of the Holy Spirit". More extraordinary still is the homage paid by the Greeks who rarely mention Syrian writers. Among the works of St. Gregory of Nyssa (P.G., XLVI, 819) is a sermon ... which is a real panegyric of St. Ephraem. Twenty years after the latter's death St. Jerome mentions him as follows in his catalogue of illustrious Christians: "Ephraem, deacon of the Church of Edessa, wrote many works [opuscula] in Syriac, and became so famous that his writings are publicly read in some churches after the Sacred Scriptures. I have read in Greek a volume of his on the Holy Spirit; though it was only a translation, I recognized therein the sublime genius of the man" (Illustrious Men 115). [Adapted from Catholic Encyclopedia]

St Ephrem evokes the reality that Mary has a double type. She is the antitype of the Faithful-Israel, God's bride (Ezek xvi. 8-14; Hos iii. 1-3; Isa lxii. 4-5; Jer xxxi. 31), and, at the same time, is a type of the redeemed Church, the bride of Christ (Eph v. 25-27) who, by giving His life for her, shows “the greatest possible demonstration of love.” [Adapted from Typology of Mary in the writings of East Syriac Fathers, Theology, Volume 5 (2017) by the Very Rev’d Archdeacon William Toma of Chicago, Illinois]

This demonstration of love through giving His life finds a typological pre-echoing in the image of Samson's death. One of the very few other references in Scripture to both words left and right (læva and dextera) is found in the account of Samson's death, which includes the verse:

And laying hold on both the pillars on which the house rested, and holding the one with his right hand, and the other with his left

Et apprehendens ambas columnas, quibus innitebatur domus, alteramque earum dextera, et alteram læva tenens,  [Judges xvi. 29]

Commonly interpreted as a type of Christ, (see, e.g., the instances at Samson the Christ-like Judge), Samson is shown in this verse with his arms stretched to the left and right between two pillars, just as Christ's arms were stretched out on the Cross between the two thieves. For his part too, and for all his weaknesses, Samson offered his life out of love for his people and in order to destroy evil.

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Let us ask for a share in the fire of the love between Christ and Mary as we present our petitions to our gentle Queen and Mother:

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

WE fly to thy patronage, O holy Mother of God; despise not our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us from all dangers always Glorious and blessed Virgin. Amen.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.