Sermon of St. Laurence of Brindisi: Mary has the privileged position of intervening in our favor

 

Sermon of St. Laurence of Brindisi:  Mary has the privileged position of intervening in our favor

 

Mary is the light of the world, the cause of all consolation and joy, as Queen Esther was to the Jews, who saw her as a new light rising in gladness and triumphant glory. It gave the keenest delight to the Jews to have beside so great a king, so powerful a ruler, a queen like Esther: for she was Jewish by birth, she risked her own life to save her people, and there was nothing she could not obtain from that very powerful prince, who loved her beyond measure for her extraordinary charm and almost divine beauty.

And what a' delight it is to us to have Mary beside the supreme King, the King of kings, the Most high God, the eternal Ruler of the universe, and to know that her power over his divine majesty is much greater than Esther's ever was over Assuerus. There is nothing she cannot obtain from God and she watches over the interests of us all, not simply because she is of our flesh and blood but because she loves us with a deep and true and heartfelt love, as parents love their dearest children.

 

And did not Mary almost die for us when she stood by Christ's cross, filled to overflowing with the spirit of Abraham (or rather, with what that spirit foreshadowed) and there in spirit gave her Son to God in sacrifice and with true charity offered him for the salvation of the world? She stood by the cross,  yes; but she could not have done it if the Spirit had not sustained and supported her.

 

Mary's extraordinary love for us actually has the quality of God's love. She is so like God in spirit that we can truly say of her, as of him, that she so loved the world, that she gave up her only-begotten Son, so that those who believe in him may not perish, but have eternal life.2 What a joy it is, then, what a delight to the whole world to have such a patron to plead its cause with the God of all power. There is nothing she cannot obtain from God, and since she loves us with a mother's love, there is no good thing she does not desire for us.

A Lesson on Love From St. Peter Chrysologus

 

A Lesson on Love From St. Peter Chrysologus

 

DO YOU THINK THAT a mortal heart grasps the extent of the Lord's charity towards us? Do you think that a mind burdened by the weight of an earthly body can understand or realize God's affection towards us? For whatever sparkles, shines, and gleams with the splendor of heaven, whatever on earth bursts forth with flowers, whatever pleasant taste there is in fruit, and whatever joy there is in living beings, have all been made out of love for us, and have been designed to serve us. But although they are great, nevertheless, they are small insofar as indicating heavenly love towards us. To us the principalities of heaven, the heavenly powers, the celestial dominions, to us the choirs of angels give service with tireless vigilance. But even these are small and inferior as signs of the intimate bond God has with us, and as paltry in value as the creature is inferior to his Creator.

 

2. God, whose face cannot be seen, who is imperceptible to our sight, who cannot be grasped by our senses, who is inaccessible to our mind, and not even completely known when his voice is heard, how often, in how many ways, with how many varieties, and with what diversity has he adapted himself to human vision! How he has offered and submitted himself to communion and familiarity with human beings, when he made Noah a partner in his design! He forewarned him that very shortly the world was to be purified by a flood, and he carried out his plan for the whole world under his supervision over the little seed-vessel that was the ark.'

 

When he came as a guest to Abraham, he very graciously accepted the invitation, he did not refuse what was offered, he ate what was served like one who was hungry' and weary, and in this divine exchange he received and accepted human kindness like one who was in need. Shortly thereafter the dead members of the old man revive, the sterile womb of the childless old woman is now awakened, and the nature that had been buried in a living corpse rises to life to reveal its Author, and although her time had already passed, she who had believed the one Creator produces very many descendants.

 

To Moses he comes as a ball of fire in the bush, then he discusses with his servant what must be done, he is busy in Egypt with various acts of power, and he is revealed at the will of his servant. He imposes scourges or he removes them, and in the sea the avenging waves show by their obedience how great he is and how much he has given to the human being, when with its swell all dried up the wave yields to the holy ones, and it provides a wall out of water that solidified, it offers a defense for those to be freed, and with all its might it crashed down in triumph over the fiercest of enemies.

 

In his wondrously intimate bond with the Israelites God keeps company with them in their camp; at one moment he strikes a number of pagans with a thunderbolt, at another he pours down hail, at yet another he levels them with the noisy din of trumpets, so that without a battle and without a wound, God goes ahead of the battle lines and leads them to victory. He was present to their needs, he granted individuals their prayers, he responded quickly to what was asked, he revealed what was hidden, he foretold the future, he brought to light what was sought, he conferred the kingdom, he bestowed wealth, he provided rain in due season, he supplied fertile lands, and with prosperity and honor he endowed his children who kept holy the bond of marriage.

 

But he considered this to be still too little, if he were to show his affection towards us by bestowing blessings on us, but not also by enduring adversities. After all this he entered his own world in poverty, he lay in a cradle: thus, as a human being by his crying he implores, he seeks, he pleads for the loving kindness that he himself has shown to you. The Parent of a119 has made use of you as a parent, and the One who is higher than every height lived under your authority; 10 the One whom terrifying things fear was frightened, the Refuge of all fled, the Ruler of the heavens is a guest in the homes of sinners, the Judge of the guilty is fed on their bread.

 

And why should I say more? The Ruler of all ages is seized, the Founder of the earth is arrested, the Bestower of pardon to humanity is judged, the Examiner of hearts is struck, the Giver and Restorer of life is punished, the Resurrection of all is buried, so that the slow mind of human beings and their very dull intellect would learn of God's fondness towards them by his death at least. For that intellect had not perceived or recognized God's charity towards humanity from his prophecies and innumerable gifts. God, therefore, who made us exist, who granted us life, also taught us how to pray, because he wanted to furnish everything, since he willed that he be invoked by means of his own prayer.

 

 

St. Peter Chrysologus

Born at Imola, 406; died there, 450. His biography, first written by Agnellus (Liber pontificalis ecclesiæ Ravennatis) in the ninth century, gives but scanty information about him. He was baptised, educated, and ordained deacon by Cornelius, Bishop of Imola, and was elevated to the Bishopric of Ravenna in 433. There are indications that Ravenna held the rank of metropolitan before this time. His piety and zeal won for him universal admiration, and his oratory merited for him the name Chrysologus. He shared the confidence of Leo the Great and enjoyed the patronage of the Empress Galla Placidia. After his condemnation by the Synod of Constantinople (448), the Monophysite Eutyches endeavoured to win the support of Peter, but without success.

 

A collection of his homilies, numbering 176, was made by Felix, Bishop of Ravenna (707-17). Some are interpolations, and several other homilies known to be written by the saint are included in other collections under different names. They are in a great measure explanatory of Biblical texts and are brief and concise. He has explained beautifully the mystery of the Incarnation, the heresies of Arius and Eutyches, and the Apostles' Creed, and he dedicated a series of homilies to the Blessed Virgin and St. John the Baptist. His works were first edited by Agapitus Vicentinus (Bologna, 1534), and later by D. Mita (Bolonga, 1634), and S. Pauli (Venice, 1775) — the latter collection having been reprinted in P.L., LII. Fr. Liverani ("Spicilegium Liberianum"), Florence, 1863, 125 seq.) edited nine new homilies and published from manuscripts in Italian libraries different readings of several other sermons. Several homilies were translated into German by M. Held (Kempten, 1874).

 

(Taken from Catholic Encyclopedia)

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: THE EXAMPLE OF CHRIST CRUCIFIED

 

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: THE EXAMPLE OF CHRIST CRUCIFIED

 

Christ assumed human nature in order to restore fallen humanity. He had therefore to suffer and to do, according to human nature, the things which could serve as a remedy against the sin of the fall.

 

Man’s sin consists in this that he so cleaves to bodily goods that he neglects what is good spiritually. It was therefore necessary for the Son of God to show this in the humanity he had taken, through all he did and suffered, so that men should repute temporal things, whether good or evil, as nothing, for otherwise, hindered by an exaggerated affection for them, they would be less devoted to spiritual things.

 

Christ therefore chose poor people for his parents, people nevertheless perfect in virtue, so that none of us should glory in the mere rank or wealth of our parents.

 

He led the life of a poor man, to teach us to set no store by wealth. He lived the life of an ordinary man, without any rank, to wean men from an undue desire for honors.

 

Toil, thirst, hunger, the aches of the body, all these he endured, to encourage men, whom pleasures and delights attract, not to be deterred from virtue by the austerity a good life entails.

 

He went so far as to endure even death, lest the fear of death might at any time tempt man to abandon the truth. And lest any of us might dread to die even a shameful death for the truth, he chose to die by the most accursed death of all, by crucifixion.

 

That the Son of God, made man, should suffer death was also fitting for this reason, that by his example he stimulates our courage, and so makes true what St. Peter said, Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example that you should follow his steps (i Pet. ii. 21). (Contra Armen. Sarac. 7) Christ truly suffered for us, leaving us an example in anxieties, contempts, scourgings, the cross, death itself, that we might follow in his steps. If we endure for Christ our own anxieties and suffer ings, we shall also reign together with Christ find the happiness that is everlasting. St. Bernard says, " How few are they, O Lord, who yearn to go after Thee, and yet there is no one that desireth not to come to Thee, for all men know that in Thy right hand are delights that will never fail. All desire to enjoy Thee, but not all to imitate Thee. They would willingly reign with Thee,but spare themselves from suffering with Thee. They have no desire to look for Thee, whom yet they desire to find." (De humanitate Chris ti, cap. 47.)

On the Conversion of St. Paul: Homily of St. Bede the Venerable, Priest

 

On the Conversion of St. Paul: Homily of St. Bede the Venerable, Priest

 

He is a perfect man who, going, sells all that he has and gives to the poor, and coming, follows Christ, for he shall have a never- ending treasure in heaven. And hence at Peter's well-chosen question Jesus says to men of this kind, "Amen I say to you, that you who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of his majesty, you also shall sit on twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel."

 

He taught those who labor for His name's sake in this life to hope for a reward in the next; that is, in the regeneration, when they who were born as men into this frail life shall have been regenerated into life eternal by rising again. And truly it is a just reward that they, who here disregard the glory of human greatness for the sake of Christ, who could not be drawn away from following His footsteps by any motive, should there sit With Him as glorified judges.

 

But let no one think that only the twelve apostles (for Matthias was chosen in the place of the apostate Judas) will be judges; just as not only are the twelve tribes of Israel to be judged. Otherwise, the tribe of Levi, which is the thirteenth, would escape judgment. And Paul, who is the thirteenth Apostle, would be deprived of his privilege of judging, although he himself says, "Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more the things of this world?"

 

For you should know that all who, after the example of the apostles, have left all things and followed Christ, are going to sit in judgment with Him, just as every race of mortal men- is to be judged. For since universality is often denoted in Scripture by the number twelve, the great number of all those who are to judge is shown by the twelve seats of the Apostles, just as by the twelve tribes of Israel the universality 'Of all those to bo judged is designated.

 

On the Conversion of St. Paul: Sermon of St. Augustine, Bishop

 

We have heard today from the Acts of the Apostles how the Apostle Paul was changed from a persecutor of the Christians to A preacher of Christ. Christ struck down the persecutor that He might raise him up a teacher of His Church. He struck him and healed him; He slew him and re-enlivened him. For Christ is the Lamb that was slain by the wolves and that now changes the wolves into lambs. In Paul was fulfilled that which was clearly prophesied by the Patriarch Jacob at the time when he blessed hig sons, laying hands on those who were then present, but looking forward to the happenings of the future.

 

Paul tells us himself that he was of the tribe of Benjamin. When Jacob, blessing his sons, came to Benjamin, he said, "Benjamin, a ravenous wolf." What then? Shall Benjamin always be a ravenous wolf? God forbid.  "In the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil." This is exactly what was fulfilled in Paul.

 

Now, if it please you, we will consider how he devoured the prey in the morning, and how he divided the spoil at night. Here morning and evening signify beginning and end. So we may read, "In the beginning he shall devour the prey, and in the end he shall divide the spoil." First, then, in the beginning he devoured the prey, as we read that he, having received letters from the chief priests, went forth in order that, if he should find any Christians, he might bring them to the priests for punishment. He went breathing out threats and slaughter; Indeed, he was devouring the prey. When the first martyr, Stephen, was stoned for confessing the name of Christ, Saul gave his consent to the crime, and, as though it were not enough for him to cast stones, he kept the garments of all those who did it, thus venting his rage more than if he had cast stones with his own hands. Thus, in the morning he devoured the prey. How did he divide the spoil in' the evening? Struck down by the voice of Christ from heaven, and receiving from above a prohibition to further raging, he fell upon his face, first to be prostrated, then to be raised up; first to be wounded, then to be healed.

This hymn sufficed nicely for Vespers and Lauds in the Common of Holy Women before the reform of the Breviary. Silvio Cardinal Antoniano, 16th C.,

 

Fortem Virili Pectore

This hymn sufficed nicely for Vespers and Lauds in the Common of Holy Women before the reform of the Breviary. Silvio Cardinal Antoniano, 16th C.,

Fortem virili pectore
Laudemus omnes feminam,
Quae sanctitatis gloria
Ubique fulget inclita.

Haec Christi amore saucia,
Dum mundi amorem noxium
Horrescit, ad caelestia
Iter peregit arduum.

Carnem domans ieiuniis,
Dulcique mentem pabulo
Orationis nutriens,
Caeli potitur gaudiis.

Rex Christe virtus fortium,
Qui magna solus efficis,
Huius precatu, quaesumus,
Audi benignus supplices.

Deo Patri sit gloria,
Eiusque soli Filio,
Cum Spiritu Paraclito,
Et nunc, et in perpetuum. Amen.

 

High let us all our voices raise,
In that heroic woman’s praise;
Whose name, with saintly glory bright,
Shines in the starry realms of light.

Fill’d with a pure celestial glow,
She spurn’d all love of things below;
And heedless here on earth to stay,
Climb’d to the skies her toilsome way.

With fasts her body she subdued;
But fill’d her soul with prayers’ sweet food;
In other worlds she tastes the bliss,
For which she left the joys of this.

O Christ, the strength of all the strong!
To whom all our best deeds belong!
Through her prevailing prayers on high,
In mercy hear thy people’s cry.

To God the Father, with the Son,
And Holy Spirit, Three in One,
Be glory while the ages flow,
From all above, and all below.

The First Martyrs of Rome

 The First Martyrs of Rome

First Martyrs of the Church of Rome

Henryk Siemiradzki, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

June 30: First Martyrs of the Church of Rome—Optional Memorial

Died c. 64

Quote:
At Rome, in the time of Nero, the commemoration of many holy martyrs, who were accused of having set fire to the city, and cruelly put to death in various manners by the emperor’s order. Some were covered with the skins of wild beasts and lacerated by dogs; others were fastened to crosses, others again were delivered to the flames to serve as torches in the night. All these were disciples of the Apostles, and the first fruits of the martyrs, which the Roman Church, a field so fertile in martyrs, offered to God before the death of the Apostles. ~Roman Martyrology

Reflection: Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus was the fifth Roman Emperor who reigned from 54–68 A.D. He was known to be extravagant, impulsive, tyrannical, violent, and a madman. He murdered his first wife and even his own mother. In the year 64, when Nero was twenty-seven and had been Roman emperor for ten years, a fire broke out in Rome. The fire burned for nine days, destroying most of the city. Many believe that Nero himself had the fire set to make room for a new palace. When people started to question him, he blamed the Christians for the fire. At that time, Christians were a small minority within Rome and were seen as a menace and disruption to the traditional Roman way of life and the traditional Roman gods. Nero then systematically had as many Christians as he could arrested, tried, and murdered in the most brutal ways. One ancient pagan historian from that time named Tacitus recounts it this way:

Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace…Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired.

Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle, and was exhibiting a show in the circus, while he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or stood aloft on a car. Hence, even for criminals who deserved extreme and exemplary punishment, there arose a feeling of compassion; for it was not, as it seemed, for the public good, but to glut one man’s cruelty, that they were being destroyed.

These first Christian martyrs in the city of Rome are remembered and honored by the Church today. Saints Peter and Paul were among them, but numerous unknown others also gave their lives. Some of them were sewn into the bellies of animals while still alive and then fed to wild dogs to be torn to pieces. Others were coated with wax and lit on fire at night as torches in Nero’s gardens while he entertained guests. Still others were crucified like our Lord. These persecutions went beyond mere execution for a crime. They manifested an evil of the most diabolical nature.

Though these martyrdoms were expected to eliminate Christianity from the Roman Empire, those expectations were never realized. Instead, the courageous witness of these men and women planted and watered the seeds of faith that would continue to grow, blossom, and produce an abundance of good fruit.

For nearly three centuries, the persecution of Christians varied under different Roman Emperors. The most severe persecutions within the empire would occur two centuries later during the reigns of Emperors Decius (249–251) and Diocletian (284–305). It was not until the year 313, when Emperor Constantine the Great legalized Christianity with the Edict of Milan, that imperial persecutions ceased.

Today’s feast is strategically placed just one day after the Church honors Saints Peter and Paul, the two most notable martyrs during this Neronian persecution. By celebrating Saints Peter and Paul first, followed by a feast for every other martyr who died alongside them, the Church invites us to place ourselves not only in the shadow of Saints Peter and Paul, but also to join with these many unknown Christians who shed their blood for their faith. Though the physical shedding of one’s blood for Christ is a rare occurrence today, the depth of resolve Christians must have is the same. Every Christian, of every time and circumstance, must be so completely devoted to Christ that nothing, not even martyrdom, must deter us from our resolve.

As we ponder these unnamed heroes of our faith, prayerfully unite yourself to them. Look to Saints Peter and Paul as your chief inspiration and then resolve to become one of these unnamed witnesses who follow behind them. In Heaven, every sacrifice will be known and will become a cause for the glory of God. For now, many of our sacrifices are hidden and known only to us and to God. Rejoice in your own hidden sacrifices and know that those sacrifices unite you with those whom we honor today.

Prayer: Holy First Martyrs of Rome, you each endured much torment, hatred, and abuse, ultimately shedding your blood as the result of your deep courage and love of Christ. Please pray for me, that I may be counted among your numbers in Heaven by manifesting the same depth of love and courage that you did. First Martyrs of Rome, pray for me. Jesus, I trust in You.

 

Félix María Arocena Solano

 

The Presence of Mary in the Mystery of Worship (La presencia de María en el misterio del culto)

Félix María Arocena Solano

To the offering of Christ are united not only the members still here on earth, but also those already in the glory of heaven. In communion with and commemorating the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints, the Church offers the Eucharistic sacrifice. In the Eucharist the Church is as it were at the foot of the cross with Mary, united with the offering and intercession of Christ (Catechism of the Catholic Church: 1370).

The Blessed Virgin Mary is intimately united both to Christ and to the Church and is inseparable from both. She, therefore, is united in that which constitutes the very essence of the liturgy: the sacramental celebration of Salvation for the glory of God and the sanctification of man. Mary is present at the liturgical action because she was present at the salvific event.

She is next to every baptismal font where the members of the Mystical Body are born to the divine life, in faith and in the Holy Spirit, since it was through faith and the power of the Spirit that their divine Head, Christ, was conceived. She is found next to each altar where the memorial of the Passion and Resurrection is celebrated since she was present, adhering with all her being to the plan of the Father, in the historical-salvific fact of the Death of Christ. She is close to every cenacle where, through the laying on of hands and the holy anointing, the Spirit is granted to the faithful, since with Peter and the other Apostles, with the nascent Church, she was present in the Pentecostal effusion of the Spirit. With Christ, the High Priest, the Church, the liturgical   community, Mary is incessantly united with both, Christ and the Church, in the saving  event and in the liturgical memorial.

So St. John Paul II said: “In the celebration of the annual cycle of the mysteries of Christ, the holy Church venerates with special love the blessed Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, united to her with an indissoluble bond to the saving work of her Son”.

Mary in the liturgy: she is "united with an indissoluble bond to the salvific work of her Son". It is an expression pregnant with meaning that deserves a quiet pause of contemplation and reflection in the light of the theology of the Sacrosanctum Concílium. The text offers a unique appreciation of the association of Mary to the Mystery of the Incarnation, as a principle and foundation of the totality of her association with the saving Economy. Following the thread of the words of the Pope, it can be said that the one who participated in the historical mysteries of his Son intérfuit mystériis is now present in the mysteries made present in the liturgical memorial adest in mystériis.

Hence, the presence of Mary in the saving events of the life of Jesus are the presuppositions for understanding the presence of Mary in the mysteries of the celebrated historical events of the life of her Son, renewed in the liturgy. The mysterious presence of Mary in the liturgy depends on the fact that Christ himself wanted to assume as the constituent element of his salvific action (the theandric act) the action of the Virgin (purely human act). In this case, the act of the Virgin, insofar as assumed by the Word and constitutively inserted in her salvific action, is, therefore, subsistent in Him and, hence, susceptible of being mysteriously re-presented in the liturgical celebration. This hypothesis is based on a double theological intuition.

A)    The first is built on the basis that the saving acts of Christ have been assumed to glory; carried out in history, they remain alive and effective meta-history. It is a theological argument collected in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: "In the Liturgy of the Church, Christ means and performs mainly his paschal mystery. During his earthly life Jesus announced with his teaching and anticipated with his acts the paschal mystery. When his time came (cf. Jn 13, 1; 17, 1), he experienced the only event in history that does not just happen: Jesus dies, is buried, rises from the dead and sits on the right hand of the Father "once for all "(Rm 6, 10; Hb 7, 27; 9, 12). It is a real event, it happened in our history, but absolutely unique: all other events happen once, and then pass and are absorbed by the past. The paschal mystery of Christ, on the contrary, cannot remain only in the past, because by his death he destroyed death, and all that Christ is and all that he did and suffered for men participates in divine eternity and dominates thus all times and in them it remains permanently present. The event of the Cross and of the Resurrection remains and attracts

B)    The second intuition refers to the fact that not only the historical acts of Jesus have been assumed to glory, but also those of his Mother. The latter have been so insofar as they are indissolubly linked to the very acts of Christ (Sacrosanctum Concílium, 103). The historical acts of Mary, inserted in the same economy of the Salvific Event, inseparable from it insofar as the Event had not occurred in its salvific historicity without the presence and cooperation of the Mother of the Lord who always worked in communion with her Son and in the synergy of the Holy Spirit they also remain forever.

It is in this sense that I have just noted where we find a "pre-understanding" of that other important text of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: "The Marian dimension of the Church precedes its Petrine dimension". [CCC, 773.] From the Petrine dimension, certainly, elements as substantial as its fundamental hierarchical structure emerge for the Church ... but, at the same time, the Church is original and constitutively Marian. Mary is present in the consilium salutis from the first moment, as a person actively involved in it. Consilium, project, plan of which She is, at the same time, fruit and cooperatively active with a personal uniqueness, unique and unrepeatable. Thus, the Marian dimension of the Church and, therefore, of its liturgy is not something merely devotional, demanded for affective reasons or sentimental pietism. The Second Vatican Council, confirming the teaching of the whole tradition, recalled that in the hierarchy of holiness, precisely the woman, Mary of Nazareth, is a figure of the Church. She "precedes" everyone on the path of holiness; in her person the Church has already reached the perfection with which she exists immaculate and without blemish. "[ Eph 5, 27.  In this sense affirms John Paul II in an Apostolic Letter it can be said that the Church is, at the same time, "Marian" and "apostolic-petrine". Carta Apostólica Mulieris dignitatem, 27]

But le us return to our theme: Mary's mystic presence in the liturgy. In the Roman Canon, Mary Most Holy is preceded by the significant adverb imprimis, (especially, in a particular way ...) which refers to the singularity of the presence of the Virgin, unparalleled with the angelic presence or with others in the communion of the Saints, because of the glorious and celestial condition of the person of Mary in body and soul.

The questions that we proposed at the beginning of our reflection were of this tenor: can we speak of a presence of Mary in the celebration of Christian worship? In what sense? On what theological bases can we dispose? How much of analogy and distinction? The answers must necessarily be sober. Answers that illustrate but do not exhaust all that the questions they intend to cover. Mary is present in the liturgy in a way "analogous" to how her Son is present. This word "analogous" is taken from the analogy fidei, from the analogy mysteriorum, and points to the nexus of unity of all the mysteries in relation to the unique Mystery of Christ.

In line with these final paragraphs, I take the opportunity to highlight two liturgical testimonies, the one patristic and the other offered by J. Castellano, which could corroborate, each from their own angle, the question we are dealing with: the mysterious presence of Mary Most Holy in the liturgy. They are two different witnesses who, in their respective fields, point to the same feeling:

The first consists in the very significant Byzantine liturgical use, according to which, during the preparation of the gifts, the priest takes a particle of bread not consecrated and says: "In honor and memory of the most blessed, glorious and sovereign Mother of God and ever Virgin Mary and through her intercession, welcome, Lord, this sacrifice that we present on your altar. " The priest then takes that particle of unsacred bread, places it on the right of the consecrated Bread and says: "Standing at your right is the Queen, bejeweled with gold from Ophir, dressed in pearls and brocade (Ps 44)" [ ] M.B. ARTIOLI, Liturgia eucaristica bizantina, Torino, 1988, p. 40-41].

The second testimony is the confession of faith of St. Germain of Constantinople who, through a theology that is simultaneously prayer, during a homily on the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin and while conversing with her, confesses and interprets the faith of the Church in the presence of Mary in the liturgy and, beyond the liturgy, in the life of the People of God:

"O Most Holy Mother of God ... just as when you lived on earth, you were no stranger to the life of Heaven, so you are no stranger either, after your Assumption, to the life of men, rather you are spiritually present to them. .. As in the time you lived bodily with those who were your contemporaries, so now your spirit lives next to us. The protection with which you assist us is a clear sign of your presence in our midst. We all hear your voice and the voice of all of us also reaches your ears ... You watch over us. Even though our eyes are not able to contemplate you, or very happy, You yourself are gladly with us and manifest in different ways to those who are worthy of you”[ S. GERMÁN DE CONSTANTINOPLA, Homilia I de Dormitione, 4; PG 98, 341-348.].