From the prayers of Saint Catherine of Siena: In Mary was sown the Word of God (Propers for the Order of Preachers)

 

From the prayers of Saint Catherine of Siena: In Mary was sown the Word of God (Propers for the Order of Preachers)

 

O Mary! Mary! Temple of the Trinity! O Mary, bearer of the fire! Mary, minister of mercy! Mary, seedbed of the fruit! Mary, redemptress of the human race—for the world was redeemed when in the Word your own flesh suffered: Christ by his passion redeemed us; you, by your grief of body and spirit.

 

O Mary, peaceful sea! Mary, giver of peace! Mary, fertile soil! You, Mary, are the new-sprung plant from whom we have the fragrant blossom, the Word, God's only-begotten Son, for in you, fertile soil, was this Word sown. You are the soil and you are the plant. O Mary, chariot of fire, you bore the fire hidden and veiled under the ashes of your humanness.

 

O Mary, vessel of humility! In you the light of true knowledge thrives und burns. By this light you rose above yourself, and so you were pleasing to the eternal Father, and he seized you and drew you to himself, loving you with a special love. With this light and with the fire of your charity and with the oil of your humility you drew his divinity to stoop to come into you—though even before that he was drawn by the blazing fire of his own boundless charity to come to us.

 

O Mary, because you had this light you were prudent, not foolish. Your prudence made you want to find out from the angel how what he had announced to you could be possible. Didn't you know that the all-powerful God could do this? Of course, you did, without any doubt! Then why did you say, "since I do not know man?" Not because you were lacking in faith, but because of your deep humility, and your sense of your own unworthiness. No, it was not because you doubted that God could do this. Mary, was it fear that troubled you at the angel's word? If I ponder matter in the light, it doesn't seem it was fear that troubled you, even though you showed some gesture of wonder and some agitation. What, then, were you wondering at? At God's great goodness, which you saw.  And you were stupefied when you looked at yourself and knew how unworthy you were of such great grace. So you were overtaken by wonder and surprise at the consideration of your own unworthiness and weakness and of God's unutterable grace. So, by your prudent questioning you showed your deep humility. And, as I have said, it was not fear you felt, but wonder at God's boundless goodness and charity toward the lowliness  smallness of your virtue.

 

You, O Mary, have been made a book in which our rule is written today. In you today is written the eternal Father' s wisdom; in you today human strength and freedom are revealed. I say that our human dignity revealed because if I look at you, Mary, I see that the Holy Spirit' s hand written the Trinity in you by forming within you the incarnate Word, God only-begotten Son. He has written for us the Father's wisdom, which thin Word is; he has written power for us, because he was powerful enough to accomplish this great mystery; and he has written for us his own—the Holy Spirit's—mercy, for by divine grace and mercy alone was such a mystery ordained and accomplished.

 

RESPONSORY          See Lk l: 48

Rejoice with me, all you who love the Lord; for although I am only a little one, I have pleased the Most High, * and I have given birth to God and man. All generations will call me blessed, for God has looked kindly on a lowly servant, * and I have given birth to God and man.