Holy Mother: Eric Clapton, Luciano Pavaroti

Eric Clapton: Holy Mother

Mary as Hermit Mentor and Model

While I realize Mary of Bethany (by some historians and theologians considered to be also referred to as Mary Magdalene) was a hermit in the south of Gaul (France), living in a stone hut known as the cave of St. Baum, this morning thoughts of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, the Mother of God, rise with the sunlight.

Such hard work yesterday, with daughter and son-in-law traveling here to help another day with installing cabinets and also lending much-appreciated hands with ceiling board installation.  We worked a long day, and today the back pain is radiating in various directions through this mortal frame.  Truly, this is a literal Sabbath day of mostly bed rest.

Yet I am pondering Mary, Jesus' mother and our mother, and also bequeathed as mother of the Church.  Perhaps I am still sorting through accepting being an immolation during Mass, of participating in silence, faculties suspended, the movement of His Real Presence within my heart, mind and soul--the sole life in this my temporal body, in the Mass, united temporally and mystically with the Body of Christ in all members.

 

The Virgin Mary allowed herself to be indwelt and overcome by the Holy Spirit.  She accepted; she agreed.  She did not know what would be the experience.  How exactly would the Holy Spirit bring about the baby in the womb, the birth, the life of the child, the mysterious yet auspicious locutions regarding his future?

Mary continued living her life, doing her present moment tasks, living out her spiritual journey in obedience to the will of God.  From all we know of her personally, spiritually, emotionally, intellectually, theologically, we grasp her quiet ways, her focus on God, in love, of the devotion in her vocation as wife and mother and daughter of God.

In Mary's later years (some researchers suggest she lived about fourteen years following the Crucifixion of Jesus), there is evidence that she lived in a small stone house in Ephesus.  It is also suggested that she lived there with but one maid servant.  Some of the apostles, particularly John, would visit her when in that area of Turkey. 

It is also written in documents of the early centuries, that she meditated in the garden--the bit of land behind her house.  She used stones to "mark" the meditations she developed surrounding the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  Her doing so is considered the origination of the Stations of the Cross.

Mary's death was atypical as was her grace of being conceived without sin.  Rather than "death," her passage from this earthly life into eternity is considered a "dormition." 

What comes to my mind and heart is that Mary is a great mentor and model for me as a hermit.  She is a role model for being recollected in spirit and in His Real Presence:  Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Her life image presents itself to me as being the embodiment of the Nine S'--a means of hopeful unfolding of my chosen Gospel Rule of Life.

Silence.  Solitude.  Slowness.  Suffering.  Selflessness.  Simplicity.  Stability.  Stillness.  Serenity.

In life and in dormition, for all eternity, Mary emanates the power of presence, the life of one existing in the Order of the Present Moment perpetually.  She is not advocating much other than the spiritual view, the spiritual life, yet in a very practical understanding and enacting of our daily tasks and trials.  

Repeatedly through the centuries in visitations to living beings, through visions, dreams, and locutions, Mary asks that we pray.  (She often appears holding a rosary.)  She adjures us to cease sinning.  She intones that we obey, follow, adhere to the teachings of, and love (as she loves) Jesus, the Christ:  Messiah.

Just accept.  Be an immolation.  Consider and love Mary as mother and mentor who accepted the unknown in faith and love; she also accepted being an immolation.  I am grasping more and more that being an immolation is really not all that painful if one dies to outer and personal expectations and desires.  Die to all that, and being an immolation becomes grace-filled, lovely, freeing, and genuine.

Do not fear.  The Holy Spirit will accomplish God's will in us when we acquiesce to His loving will, when we fall in love with His Real Presence:  Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Every aspect of the Virgin Mary's life, then and now, models perfect direction for anyone--yet markedly so, amazingly so, when considering the hermit calling.  (In the life, heart, and soul of Mary is a role call to the Gospel Rule and Nine S' for each of us, no matter the vocational living out in this life, in one degree or another.)  Accept.  We are the handmaids of the Lord.  We are also the handmaids of the Handmaid of the Lord.  We can learn and live much in this awareness and actuality.

Let it be done unto me according to Thy Word, O Lord.  Come, be bound to the Sacred Heart of Jesus; flow in the Holy Spirit through the heart of Mary. Little children, let us love one another in God-Is-Love.  God bless His Real Presence in us!

Mary-Likeness Poem-Prayer

This is a copy similar to what I was given soon after I was confirmed in the Catholic Church.  Being open to and accepting Mary as a person and in her role as the Mother of God, as well as guiding me as a mother her child, was perhaps the most fearful aspect of my conversion due to negative bias passed on in my upbringing.

While this poem is ideal and pious, I also have read and will continue to read other persons' experiences and thoughts on Mary.  Perhaps most importantly, I desire to have a more personal and real relationship with Mary.  I have never quite understood some women's  (religious sisters, too) desire for greater position, prestige and power in the Church.  What woman had and still has all these and more, than Mary?  Yet she never desired nor demanded such.  

Some may say it was the culture in which she lived when on earth, and now is different.  When getting to know Mary after years of only considering her on Christmas Day, I opened up to Mary.  I asked her to be my mother in a different and additional way than my loving, earthly mother.  

At the time of conversion, I lived across the road from where Ven. Fr. Solanus Casey spent ten years of his life.  He loved reading Ven. Agreda's writings, "The Mystical City of God."  I did so, also, and would walk in the woods Fr. Solanus had walked, and I opened myself to Jesus' mother.  It is time to do so yet more.  This poem-prayer is sweet and simple.

MARY-LIKENESS

                

Mary-like in soul and body! Mary-like in mind and heart! Mary-like in every action – Child of God, how fair thou art! Fair to Christ and all His angels, Fair to earth since thou art seen To be like her – like MARY Earth’s and Heaven’s fairest Queen. Mary-like in soul! What beauty When thy soul is full of grace! What a Mary-smile will greet thee When thou’lt meet her face to face! Mary-like in body! Keeping All the senses in control; Looks and bearing both revealing A Mary-temple for thy soul. Mary-like in mind and memory! Sinful thoughts and fancies flee; Idle dreams and selfish musings Find no place, fair child, in thee. For the Mary-mind is lifted From all sordid thoughts to live On the high and noble promptings That a Mary-soul would give. Mary-like in thy affections, Loving all, excluding none – Loving, as you think our Lady Ever faithful, would have done; Mary-like in every action In enjoyment, work or prayer, Watching Mary, copying Mary, Loving Mary, everywhere.

Mayst thou catch her gentle manner, And her calm and queenly ways, Mayst thou learn her art of bearing Words of censure or of praise; Mayst thou learn the hidden secret Of her smile, so kind, so true, Which reflects the radiant beauty Of her pure soul gleaming through. In a word, may all the greatness, All the sweetness of her ways, All the inner grace and beauty, Heaven and earth delight to praise, Find their likeness in thine own soul Child of Mary, as thou art, Making these more like thy mother, Ever dearer to her heart. Night and day, in joy and sorrow, Night and day, ’neath crushing care, Ask of Christ true Mary-likeness, Through the year be this thy prayer, Christ will hear, and Christ will answer If thy pleading but ring true, “JESUS, make me just like MARY, MARY, make me just like YOU.” Nihil Obstat Joseph R. Casey Censor Deputatus April 11, 1941

Source: Louis W. Bernicken, Box 413 -- Mt. Vernon, Ohio.

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