Ruminations of an Irascible Hermit.: September 2021

Wednesday, September 8, 2021

Nativity of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of God

Today is the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary where we celebrate her birthday

I just wanted to share some of the beautiful poetic things written about her from the Divine Office from Lauds/Morning prayer to help you meditate on and increase your love and devotion to Out Lady 🙏

Antiphon 1:

Today is the birthday of the glorious Virgin Mary, of the seed of Abraham, who arose from the tribe of Judah and the stock of David.

Antiphon 2:

When the sacred Virgin was born, then the world was filled with light. Blessed and holy is the stock which bore such blessed fruit.

Benedictus antiphon:

Your birth, O Virgin Mother of God, announced joy to the whole world, for from you has risen the Sun of justice, Christ our God. He released us from the ancient curse and made us blessed; he destroyed death and gave us eternal life.

If reading these doesn’t inflame your heart with love for Our Lady and make you want to Praise God then I don’t know what will!!

Monday, September 6, 2021

Spiritual aridity draw us into Divine Union

All of us by virtue of our baptism are God’s “Beloved” and are called to be cherished souls… however many of us never move past formal prayer, a relationship with God that is purely transactional - if I be a “good person” and go to Sunday Mass I’ll go to heaven, I pray when I need something.

But God desires more than this, He calls us into intimate union with Himself. All the spiritual masters and Saints teach that God will give us a taste of himself, a “spiritual consolation” and then withdraw from us so that we seek after Him, and through our seeking, our love and desire for Him becomes purified - we seek His friendship truly because he is ultimate Goodness, Truth & Beauty - instead of seeking a relationship where we can get something out of it.

Disclaimer

Please note. I am a Catholic layman, not a qualified theologian or philosopher. What I say and write here are my own personal thoughts and ideas, although I always try to conform my writings to the Magisterium of the Church.

I- with firm faith believe and profess everything that is contained in the symbol of faith: namely,

I believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven: By the power of the Holy Spirit, he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered, died and was buried. On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. I believe in the one holy catholic and apostolic church. I acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

With firm faith I believe as well everything contained in God's word, written or handed down in tradition and proposed by the church--whether in solemn judgment or in the ordinary and universal Magisterium--as divinely revealed and called for faith.

I also firmly accept and hold each and every thing that is proposed by that same church definitively with regard to teaching concerning faith or morals.

What is more, I adhere with religious submission of will and intellect to the teachings which either the Roman pontiff or the college of bishops enunciate when they exercise the authentic Magisterium even if they proclaim those teachings in an act that is not definitive.