Ad Jesum per te, Maria : 7/33

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 86

Previous Psalms

Psalm 8        Psalm 18        Psalm 23         Psalm 44

Psalm 45      Psalm 94     

👈 Taken from a book of hours, this is an image of King David, author of the Psalms, by Willem Vrelant (early 1460s), Bruges, Belgium.

Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary 

The following prayers follow the model for consecration 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 

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 : Mary, the Stars and the Shepherds

 

For I will behold thy heavens, the works of thy fingers: the moon and the stars which thou hast founded. [Psalm viii. 4]

In the previous post, we considered the Holy Trinity as represented by the Holy Infant Jesus and the two stars on Mary's maphorion (shawl).* 

The stars may also remind us of the night sky when shepherds were watching their flocks near Bethlehem:

And there were in the same country shepherds watching, and keeping the night watches over their flock. [Luke ii. 8]

This is the same country where the patriarch Jacob pastured his flocks near the Flock Tower (see the account of the birth of Benjamin and the death of his mother in Genesis Chapter xxxv). Centuries later, David tended the flock of his father Jesse in same these fields near Bethlehem [1 Kings xvii. 15]

Here the shepherds heard the good tidings of great joy:

 

...this day, is born to you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. [Luke ii. 11]

How fitting that some commentators interpret the stars on Mary's maphorion* as representing angels, for as St Luke goes on to recount:

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army, praising God, and saying: Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will. [Luke ii. 13-14]

Another perspective is to view the two stars as representing  Jacob and David, who were themselves not only ancestors but also types of the Messiah. The Holy Infant then becomes the third element, being not only the lineal descendant of the Patriarch and the shepherd/prophet/king David, but being also a shepherd Himself:

 

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep. [John x. 11]

Finally, it is worth noting that there is a tradition in Christian art that three shepherds went to adore the Christ child; they were differentiated by age – a youth, an old man, and one in middle age (see A Guide to Christian Iconography: Images, Symbols, and Texts; by  Richard Stracke, Emeritus Professor of English, Augusta University).

The interlinking of types and images is breath-taking: the angel announces the birth of the Saviour to shepherds. Three shepherds seek out the Lamb of God [John i. 29]. Tradition has it that they offer a lamb to this Divine Infant who will later style Himself the Good Shepherd and offer Himself up for sacrifice:

He shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer, and he shall not open his mouth. [Isaiah liii. 7, writing 500 years before the Nativity]

 * (μαφόριον), a shawl covering a woman's head and shoulders, mentioned in papyri of the 4th–6th c.

 

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Through our gentle Queen and Mother, let us pray with the shepherd-psalmist David who wrote:

The Lord is my shepherd; how can I lack anything?

He gives me a resting-place where there is green pasture, leads me out to the cool water’s brink, refreshed and content.

As in honour pledged, by sure paths he leads me;

dark be the valley about my path, hurt I fear none while he is with me; thy rod, thy crook are my comfort.

    [Psalm xxii. 1-4. Knox translation]

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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.