Marian Office of Readings

The Word, being God, became flesh, taking that flesh from Mary; and the man, in being born, has God as his Father. He was not formed first as a man and then God came to dwell in him, but in the womb of the Virgin he was both made flesh and called Son of God. So that we might be made sons of God, the Son of God became Son of Man.

Εἴ τις οὐ Θεοτόκον τὴν ἁγίαν Μαρίαν ὑπολαμβάνει, χωρίς ἐστι τῆς θεότητος. If anyone does not believe that Holy Mary is the Mother of God, he is severed from the Godhead. Gregory of Nazianzus · Ep. 101 to Cledonius · PG 37, 177c · see Anthology §9 · the dogmatic conclusion the Solemnity celebrates

From this it is clear that the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God. For he who is born of her, being one and the same with him who is born of the Father, is God and man, true God and true man.

Let all of us hasten to meet Christ. Let us not be slack in our duty; rather let us go before our Master, eager and devout. Let us hasten with Symeon, that righteous old man, and Anna the prophetess; let us run with them with intense love, lamps lit and oil in our vessels, that we may go forth to meet him.

No one is filled with the knowledge of God except through thee, O most holy one; no one is saved except through thee, O Mother of God; no one is ransomed from danger except through thee, O Virgin Mother. Sophronius of Jerusalem · Sermo in Annunt. · PG 87 · see Anthology §17 · the 7th-century patriarch’s parallel Marian sentence

The Virgin Mother carries the Light in her hands; she who is herself the lamp, presents to us the eternal Light. The sword foretold by Symeon passed through her soul that the secrets of many hearts might be revealed. What she suffered in spirit then, she suffered in body at the Cross.

The Son of God, true God, true Man, of the same nature as the Father in his Godhead, of the same nature as us in his manhood, was begotten without time before all ages of God the Father, born in time of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. For he united human nature and divine nature in one Person, while preserving the property of each nature.

Mary’s consent at the Annunciation is the door through which the Word entered the human race.

...expectabatur consensus Virginis loco totius humanae naturae. The consent of the Virgin in the place of the whole human nature was awaited. Thomas Aquinas · Summa Theologiae III, q.30, a.1, c. · Leonine ed. · see Anthology §26 · her fiat is the human race’s covenantal yes, given in the place of the whole

Mary, fully aware that she had conceived the Word of the Father, hastened over the mountains of Judea to the house of Zachariah, that she might share the joy of her conception with Elizabeth her cousin. Hidden in the womb of Mary, the Word visits the womb of Elizabeth; the prophet John, in his mother’s womb, leaps before the Word.

Beata Maria... non solum credendo intra Patris arcanum sacramenta cognovit, sed in carne suscepit Verbum, et cum carne plenitudinem deitatis. Blessed Mary, by believing, not only entered into the hidden mystery of the Father, but received the Word in her flesh and, with that flesh, the fullness of the Godhead. Bede · Hom. Evang. I.4 · PL 94, 12 · CCSL 122 · see Anthology §51

Mary’s canticle, magnificat anima mea Dominum, takes up Hannah’s song and brings it to fulfilment. The Mother of the Lord is the first to preach the new covenant.

...quia cooperata est caritate, ut fideles in Ecclesia nascerentur, quae illius capitis membra sunt. ...because she cooperated by love that the faithful might be born in the Church, who are members of that Head. Augustine · De Sancta Virginitate §6 · PL 40, 399 · see Anthology §15

This is the verb, cooperata est caritate, that becomes the Latin root of the medieval Cooperatrix and ultimately Coredemptrix. The Augustinian source of the Co-Redemptrix doctrine is in active liturgical use on the feast of Mary, Mother of the Church. Therefore Mary is corporally the Mother of the Head, but spiritually the Mother of the members, which we are.

The Spirit of God, like a great river, flowed into the Heart of Mary, and from the Heart of Mary flows back into us. She is the channel by which graces are dispensed, the maternal aqueduct of the divine mercy.

Mater mea et ego salvavimus hominem quasi uno corde tantum, ego patiendo in corde et carne, illa dolore et amore cordis sui. My Mother and I have saved man as it were with one Heart only: I by suffering in My Heart and flesh, she by the sorrow and love of her heart. Bridget of Sweden · Revelationes Coelestes I.35 · see Anthology §27 · the seed of John Eudes’s Two Hearts theology

Whose heart in the city of God is so spacious as Mary’s, that it can contain at once her sorrow and the joy of the Resurrection, her own loss and the world’s salvation? The Two Hearts beat as one Heart in the Passion and in the glory.

How simply manifested are the works of the Mother of God! No wonders, no extraordinary signs: only the quiet presence of grace. Through her, all is sweetened. Through her, the bitter is changed to honey, and the impossible becomes possible.

Tibi nihil impossibile, cui possibile est etiam desperatos in spem salutis revocare. Nothing is impossible for thee, who canst even raise those who are in despair to the hope of salvation. Peter Damian · Sermo 44 · PL 144, 740 · see Anthology §21 · the medieval anchor for the Carmelite confidence in Mary’s power

Loving her is the surest path; following her in the Scapular is the surest fidelity.

Today the holy and singular Virgin is presented in the heavenly temple. Today the sacred and living ark of the Living God, which contained her Creator in her womb, comes to rest in the temple of the Lord, not made by hands. It was not fitting that the body which had given life to God should see corruption.

Σὺ θαῦμα τῶν θαυμάτων, ἡ σώζουσα τὸν κόσμον μεσῖτις. Thou art the wonder of all wonders, the saving Mediatress of the world. John of Damascus · Hom. in Dorm. II · PG 96, 740 · see Anthology §20

Today the gate of heaven is opened, that we who follow her in her assumption may follow her in our resurrection.

The Virgin Mary, exalted above all the choirs of angels, is seated at the right hand of her Son, in unspeakable glory. From the throne where she sits as Queen Mother, she pours upon the world the streams of mercy that flow from the heart of her Son.

Aurora consurgens, electa ut sol, pulchra ut luna, terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata. Rising dawn, chosen as the sun, beautiful as the moon, terrible as an army set in battle array. Amadeus of Lausanne · Octo Hom. de Laud. B. Mariae IV · SC 72 · see Anthology §52

She is Queen not by violence but by maternal right; not by ambition but by the unique grace of the divine motherhood. Whom the Son has crowned, no creature may uncrown.

Today, this earth bears a heavenly seed. Today, the dawn breaks before the rising of the Sun. Today, the door opens through which God will enter the world. Today, the maternal Eve is born, who will undo what the first Eve cost us. Today, the Lord prepares a worthy dwelling for himself.

Hail, full of grace; hail, by whom mourning Eve is restored; hail, Mediatress (Μεσίτρια) of the world. Andrew of Crete · Hom. on the Dormition II · PG 97 · see Anthology §19 · the Greek title Mesitria is the direct equivalent of Latin Mediatrix

Truly, O blessed Mother, a sword has pierced your heart. For it could not pass through the body of your Son without piercing your soul. Indeed, after your Jesus, who belongs to all and yet wholly to you, gave up the ghost, the cruel spear, which could not touch his soul, opened his side. Plainly it did not spare yours.

Totum nos habere voluit per Mariam. He willed that we should have everything through Mary. Bernard of Clairvaux · De Aquaeductu §7 · PL 183, 441 · see Anthology §23 · the great Marian Doctor on the maternal aqueduct of grace

Do not, O blessed Mother, weary of marvelling, neither be amazed at this prodigy of suffering. Christ could die in the body; you could die with him in your soul. Mary’s martyrdom of compassion is not less real than the martyrdom of any saint.

The Rosary, though clearly Marian in character, is at heart a Christocentric prayer. In the sobriety of its elements it has all the depth of the Gospel message in its entirety, of which it can be said to be a compendium.

Omnis gratia quae communicatur huic mundo triplicem habet processum: ordinatissime a Deo in Christum, a Christo in Virginem, a Virgine in nos dispensatur. Every grace communicated to this world has a threefold motion: by a most ordered dispensation, from God to Christ, from Christ to the Virgin, from the Virgin to us. Bernardine of Siena · Sermo 51 · Quaracchi Opera Omnia II · see Anthology §29 · cited verbatim by Pius X in Ad Diem Illum (1904), the doctrinal ground of the Rosary as Marian mediation in act

To recite the Rosary is to learn to know Mary; to recite the Rosary with Mary is to contemplate the face of Christ. The mysteries of the Rosary are the school of Mary.

O Virgin from whom is born the Salvation of the world, O Mother of the One who saves, what praise can a creature offer to one whose hand prepared the way for the Creator?

Nihil Mariae aequale, nihil nisi Deus maius Maria. Nothing equals Mary; nothing but God is greater than Mary. Anselm of Canterbury · Oratio 52 · PL 158, 956 · see Anthology §22

The Father willed that you be conceived without sin, that the One who could not enter a stained dwelling might find in you the spotless temple of his nativity. You are, by the singular privilege of grace, all fair and there is no spot in you.

The appearance of Mary to the native Juan Diego on the hill of Tepeyac in 1531 had a decisive effect on evangelization. America has recognized in the mestizo face of the Virgin of Tepeyac, in Blessed Mary of Guadalupe, an impressive example of perfectly inculturated evangelization.

Maria... ha partecipato in maniera mirabile alle sofferenze del suo Figlio divino, per essere Corredentrice dell’umanità. Mary participated in a marvelous way in the sufferings of her divine Son, in order to be Coredemptrix of humanity. John Paul II · General Audience, 8 September 1982 · Insegnamenti V/3, 404 · see Anthology §49 · the title Corredentrice used formally six times in Wojtylan addresses

The Virgin of Guadalupe is venerated as Queen of all America. I personally entrust the cause of evangelization to her, that those who hear her voice may receive her Son.