The Psalms of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary
To read the commentary on today's Psalm, click on the following link: 👉 119
Previous Psalms
👈 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.
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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 : Our Lady and Sara
The icon presents to us the images of a boy and a lady: the Holy Infant Christ Jesus and His Blessed Mother who is frequently known as Our Lady. This title has roots going back to the time of Abraham, for his wife's name was Sara, which signifies Lady. Sara is understood by many patristic writers and other learned commentators as being a type of Our Lady.
The following text is my translation of a passage taken from La triple couronne de la bien-heureuse vierge mère de Dieu (The Triple Crown of the Blessed Virgin Mother of God), by Fr F Poiré, It was published in 1634 and is cited in True Devotion to Mary by St Louis-Marie de Montfort.
Both St John Chrysostom and St Bonaventure view Sara as representing the Mother of God. The first parallel between the two is hidden under the name Sara, which signifies Lady... St Bonaventure writes that the word Sara can also mean coal, which he links to the ardour of the Mother of God's love, adding:
O blessed coal, whence hath leapt the flame all heavenly and divine, which is none other than Jesus Christ.
A second parallel is one which St Bonaventure bases on Chapter xx. of Genesis, where it is written that Abraham, entering Gerara with Sara his wife, asked her to say she was his sister : this she could say without lying, as Scripture bears witness, granted that she was his cousin and consequently his sister according to the usage of the Hebrews. In this way, she would be able to save his life. The Sainted Doctor directs this stratagem to the Blessed Virgin:
Dear Blessed Lady, our very own Sara, most humbly do we beg thee to say that thou art our sister; for by this means alone can we hope to receive a welcome from God and to guarantee the safety of our lives and souls.
A third parallel derives from fruitfulness in sterility. Saint John Damascene avers that it was entirely reasonable for barrenness to conceive and bring forth a son before virginity did the same; only through such miracles could the greatest of all miracles come to pass. St John Chrysostom proposes that God planned in advance for a barren woman such as Sara to conceive and bring forth a son, so that this would prepare our minds for a Virgin to conceive and give birth, through a similar exercise of God's power.
If a Jew asks you how a Virgin could possibly have brought forth a child into the world, draw his attention to Sara and point out how she was advanced in years and barren. Tell him that, despite these two great obstacles, she was nevertheless able to become a mother. In the case of the Blessed Virgin, there was but one obstacle, namely that she knew not man. In this way, you will make him admit that barrenness prepared the way for virginity to conceive.
Lest you have any remaining reason to doubt that God permitted Sara to conceive in order to facilitate, to ennoble and to prepare for The Virgin's conception, remember that the Angel Gabriel made use of a similar example by pointing out to Mary the experience of her cousin Elizabeth, as though to say: Thou desirest to know how shall this be done that I have told thee; I tell thee that The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee. Seek not a natural order or arrangement where all is supernatural and divine.
Saint Ambrose writes that a barren woman's pregnancy comes first so that no doubt may be placed on the Virgin's pregnancy. St Gregory of Nyssa adds that the former was a foreshadowing and preparation for the latter. Let us hear the golden words of the eloquent prelate from Ravenna on this subject:
In order to lend greater brightness and lustre to the Virgin birth, God willed to bring about beforehand the fruit of a despairing barrenness and old age so that in seeing a body barren and worn out with old age, growing green and young again, nobody would doubt that virginity could retain its flower whilst at the same time bearing fruit, and that chastity's title and honour, and the seal of perfect integrity, could remain intact at the entrance and coming forth of the very Author of nature.
A last parallel is that Sara had only one son, but he was worth millions of others; he was a source of rejoicing for his father and mother, of happiness for the whole world and a source of blessings for all the nations of the earth. St Jerome writes:
This is what we have all the more reason to believe in the case of the true Isaac, Son of Mary: that is to say, Jesus, the joy of His Mother, the Redeemer of the world, the delight of all Adam's children and of all the ages to come.
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Prayer
Dearest Mother Mary, daughter of the Father, with the Holy Ghost as thy Spouse and Lord Jesus Christ as thy Son: please intercede for the repose of my mother's soul, and for the salvation of the souls of my spouse and my progeny. Ask thy Son to heal the wounds, repair the damage and undo the scandal caused by my sins so as to allow us all to meet merrily in Heaven.
Mater Misericordiæ, pray for us!
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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.
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