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Founders Feast in Chennai 2019Chennai, IndiaBackForwardPauseCaption
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CHRISTMAS – A Message of Light in the DarknessDear Confreres,
Celebrating the Blessed Virgin Mary as Mother of God and our mother marks the best way of beginning the first day of a new year. Let us show some light on this important solemnity with which we have begun 2023. In fact, every time we pray the Hail Mary, we proclaim Mary as the Mother of God: "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen." Every time we use this wondrous title as we pray the Hail Mary, we sing in chorus with the third ecumenical Council of Ephesus which convened in 431 once and for all to settle and declare that Mary is truly “Mother of God.” It was the first Marian dogma.
Mary's divine motherhood broadens the Christmas spotlight. Mary has an important role to play in the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. She consents to God's invitation conveyed by the angel (Lk 1,26-38). Elizabeth proclaims: “Most blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Lk 1,42-43). Adding with Elizabeth's words at the Annunciation, the Catechism reminds us (495), “Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly 'Mother of God' (Theotokos).” Without naming Mary, Paul asserts that,
Venerable Fulton J. Sheen loved to write and speak often about the Blessed Mother. He wrote this beautiful reflection in his magnificent book appropriately titled The World's First Love: Mary, Mother of God: “When Whistler painted the picture of his mother, did he not have the image of her in his mind before he ever gathered his colors on his palette? If you could have preexisted your mother (not artistically, but really), would you not have made her the most perfect woman that ever lived — one so beautiful she would have been the sweet envy of all women, and one so gentle and so merciful that all other mothers would have sought to imitate her virtues? Why, then, should we think that God would do otherwise? When Whistler was complimented on the portrait of his mother, he said, 'You know how it is; one tries to make one's Mummy just as nice as he can.' When God became Man, He too, I believe, would make His Mother as nice as He could — and that would make her a perfect Mother. She existed in the Divine Mind as an Eternal Thought before there were any mothers. She is the Mother of mothers - she is the world's first love.”God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law.” (Gal 4,4)
In the same book, Sheen asserts: “Any objection to calling her the 'Mother of God' is fundamentally an objection to the Deity of Christ. The consecrated phrase 'Theotokos,' 'Mother of God,' has ever since 432 been the touchstone of the Christian faith…As [Doctor of the Church] John of Damascus said: 'This name contains the whole mystery of the Incarnation'…It implies a twofold generation of the Divine Word: one eternal in the bosom of the Father; the other temporal in the womb of Mary. Mary therefore did not bear a 'mere man,' but the 'true God.'”
We must not forget Mary is both Mother of God and our mother too. Jesus gave her to us, and us to her, from the Cross. Bishop Fulton Sheen had a wonderful way of explaining this in The World's First Love: Mary, Mother of God: “If Mary were only the Mother of another man, then she could not also be our mother, because the ties of the flesh are too exclusive. Flesh allows only one mother…But Spirit allows us another mother. Since Mary is the Mother of God, then she can be the Mother of everyone whom Christ redeemed.”
So remember what we pray in both the Angelus and the Hail Holy Queen - “Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God. That we may be worthy of the promises of Christ.” As we have begun this New Year, May Mary, Mother of God help us and guide us in all our undertakings.Last year's words belong to last year's language, and next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.” (T.S. Eliot)Communication from the Provincial Superior's Office: Please make a good preparation to partake in the Annual Retreat (1st batch - January 23rd - 28th and 2nd batch - January 30th - February 4th).
Arrange your travel in accordance with the dates mentioned for the retreat.Fr. Ronald J, SdC
Provincial Superior
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Today's Readings
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