Comments on: Open Thread: What’s Our Message?

By: Bryan Cross

Bryan Cross — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:10:36 +0000

Michael,

I showed this thread to my wife, and without hesitation she answered, “I have a quiet time.”

In the peace of Christ,

- Bryan

By: Fr. Ernesto

Fr. Ernesto — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:53:39 +0000

Our current liturgical guide lists 12 prayers that may be prayed by the priest after Holy Communion. Of them. One of them is a prayer to Mary asking for her intercession. A second one is a “magnification” of Blessed Mary and is not a prayer.

The Orthodox do not have May as a “Mary” month. To the liturgically inclined, let me point out that the liturgical year compresses tons of history into just one year, so it can sometimes make you wonder why a particular feast is celebrated in a particular place. But in brief:

Lent-Holy Week-Pascha (Easter)-Pentecost — is its own cycle based on the first moon after the equinox (see the Old Testament)

Christmas – 25 December
The Annunciation – 25 March (9 months before His birth, makes sense, right?)
The Birth of John the Baptist – 24 June (6 months before His birth, check what Archangel Gabriel said to the Virgin Mary)
Nativity of the Theotokos – 8 September
Dormition of the Theotokos – 15 August (her birth is celebrated in September and her death is celebrated 12 months later)

By: Martha

Martha — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:21:52 +0000

MuleChewingBriars, that is a very good question, and one which inspired a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins, “May Magnificat”:

MAY is Maryâ€™s month, and I
Muse at that and wonder why:
Her feasts follow reason,
Dated due to season â€”

Candlemas, Lady Day;
But the Lady Month, May,
Why fasten that upon her,
With a feasting in her honour?

Is it only its being brighter
Than the most are must delight her?
Is it opportunest
And flowers finds soonest?

The rest of it is here:

http://www.bartleby.com/122/18.html

By: Curtis

Curtis — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:04:40 +0000

MuleChewingBriars:
We Latins also celebrate the Assumption of Our Lady on August 15th, and I’ve heard of some traditional Marian devotions falling in the 30 days after that feast, although I’ve never known it myself.

But I think May is more popular because of its connection with the season of Spring and Mary’s connection with new life, the Incarnation. So the reason seems to be natural, not liturgical. Among the Greeks, May was connected with Artemis, the goddess of fecundity, and for the Romans, May was dedicated to Flora, the goddess of blooms. It is fitting that these mere shadows should be replaced by the true flower of new life, the lilium inter spinas, the virgin Mother of God. As a hymn says, O felix fecundata!

By: Eclectic Christian - Michael Bell

Eclectic Christian - Michael Bell — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:18:57 +0000

I am of iMonk

By: Eclectic Christian - Michael Bell

Eclectic Christian - Michael Bell — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:17:56 +0000

I read InternetMonk.com

And in small letters below

To better understand the post-Evangelical wilderness

By: MuleChewingBriars

MuleChewingBriars — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:52:34 +0000

There are beautiful Eastern Marian prayers.

I’m a little perplexed by the Catholic denomination of May as the month of Mary. We Orthodox celebrate the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos (Mother of God) the first two weeks of August, during which we fast and hold the services of the Paraklesis to the Most Holy Mother of God:

http://www.orthodoxchristian.info/pages/mikropar.htm

I have come to look forward to those weeks of August as “Lady Days”. The priest is vested in blue and white (the colors of the Most Holy Mother of God, and, before her, of the Shekinah).

It is good to see Mary-friendly Protestants.

By: Rick

Rick — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:54:19 +0000

I looked up the Anglican Rosary. It looks like there are prayers that are said on each bead, but there are no mysteries. Is that correct?

By: Rusty

Rusty — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:23:38 +0000

You, God, are the air I breath;
You are Bread I eat…

By: Curtis

Curtis — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:08:36 +0000

Dave138,
In regards to your comments about the final prayer of the rosary, the “Hail, Holy Queen” aka “Salve Regina”: this is in the pattern of the many Catholic prayers. After praying to God, we often end with a final plea for Mary’s help and prayers, before going to bed or about our day. The rosary, for all its Ave Maria’s, is not considered to be a Marian prayer: it is Christ-centered with a Marian character, as John Paul II put it in his letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae.

The final antiphon is a bit like asking Mary to “watch our back” with prayer while we aren’t praying ourselves. That’s why we ask for prayers “in the hour of our death” and “to bring us to Jesus after this exile”.

The Office of Compline, the last one of the day, ends with one of four Marian antiphons, the Alma Redemptoris Mater, the Ave Regina, the Regina Caeli Laetare and the Salve Regina, depending on the season. In this post-Easter season, we sing the Salve Regina.

It is also customary for Dominicans (and Franciscans too, I think) to chant the Salve Regina while a brother is dying, around his deathbed. Again, there is a sense that Mary can pray for us when we cannot ourselves.

I also think there are very similar Marian final prayers in the Eastern Church, the post-eucharistic “Panagia”, I believe it is called. Perhaps Fr.Ernesto can fill us in?