Feast of the Visitation - Encounter, Praise, and Power

Today is the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as recorded in the Gospel according Luke (1:39-57). It marks a moment of particular beauty and quiet profundity in the story of our restoration and redemption. In it, not only do St. Mary and St. Elizabeth greet each other, but the still-unborn St. John the Baptist acknowledges the presence of the soon-t0-be revealed Savior. It is a story of exquisite tenderness and yet also strength.

Part of the Gospel reading for this day is the Song of Mary, often referred to by its Latin title Magnificat. In these verses, the Blessed Virgin offers a prayer of praise and power that already contains the kernel of the Gospel to be preached by her son and Lord. The Church sings/says this prayer almost every evening of the year in the Daily Office.

Below are words of St. Bede the Venerable (673-735) from a sermon he preached on this passage. Note how St. Bede (whose name means “prayer”) connects the blessed God-bearer, our own daily prayer, and our discipleship with the redemptive work of God in Christ: for indeed, they are all one.

May you ponder in peace the mystery of God’s love and presence through Mary’s son and our Savior—and may you be given grace to live our shared faith in simplicity and holiness of life.

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My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior.

With these words Mary first acknowledges the special gifts she has been given. Then she recalls God’s universal favors, bestowed unceasingly on the human race.

Rejoice in God’s greatness

When a person devotes all one’s thoughts to the praise and service of the Lord, that person proclaims God’s greatness. Such observance of God’s commands, moreover, shows this person has God’s power and greatness always at heart. Such a one’s spirit rejoices in God as savior and delights in the mere recollection of the creator who gives hope for eternal salvation.

These words are often for all God’s creations, but especially for the Mother of God. She alone was chosen, and she burned with spiritual love for the son she so joyously conceived. Above all other saints, she alone could truly rejoice in Jesus, her savior, for she knew that he who was the source of eternal salvation would be born in time in her body, in one person both her own son and her Lord.

For the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

Mary attributes nothing to her own merits. She refers all her greatness to the gift of the one whose essence is power and whose nature is greatness, for he fills with greatness and strength the small and the weak who believe in him.

She did well to add: and holy is his name, to warn those who heard, and indeed all who would receive his words, that they must believe and call upon his name. For they too could share in everlasting holiness and true salvation according to the words of the prophet: and it will come to pass, that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. This is the name she spoke of earlier: and my spirit rejoices in God my savior.

Therefore it is an excellent and fruitful custom of holy Church that we should sing Mary’s hymn at the time of evening prayer. By meditating upon the incarnation, our devotion is kindled, and by remembering the example of God’s Mother, we are encouraged to lead a life of virtue. Such virtues are best achieved in the evening. We are weary after the day’s work and worn out by our distractions. The time for rest is near, and our minds are ready for contemplation.

The Collect for the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Father in heaven, by your grace the virgin mother of your incarnate Son was blessed in bearing him, but still more blessed in keeping your word: Grant us who honor the exaltation of her lowliness to follow the example of her devotion to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Advent

Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

+ In the Name of He who was, and is, and is to come: Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

The Collect for today makes several very important points in quick succession.

First, it prays God to visit us daily so that we may be pure. We cannot help but become sullied, confused, and make errors in this world, and our loving God knows this. He has made provision for this in the Church by a regular life of grace and repentance so that we  may return to him and feel his renewing presence, never wandering so far away as to become lost.

The collect asks God’s purifying power on our conscience, a word ultimately deriving from a Latin word for knowledge. Conscience is our inner knowledge of what is good and right; it is that part of our mind that stays focused and firm on what has been shown to us as good and proper as Christians. Like every aspect of our body and spirit, our conscience needs regular nourishment in God’s will and truth to operate properly.

The purpose of this effort is that our God may find us mansions prepared for him when he comes to us. This is the exact opposite of the scene in Genesis when Adam and Eve, fresh from transgressing God’s command about the Fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, hide themselves away in shame when God comes to them in the “cool of the day.” They were not a mansion prepared for him then at all, but a closed door in fear and self-loathing.

Advent, now nearly over already, has been a brief course in God’s return at the End of the Ages and in the daily encounters we tend to overlook as we prepare to celebrate Christ’s Nativity. Even at this late hour, our God is speaking to us through the sacred words of Scripture, calling to us that there is still time to live the Advent Life of joyful expectation of Christ’s return now and then.

The Lesson from 2 Samuel tells of King David’s desire to build for God a temple of stone, now that David has reached a place of comfort and peace. King David seems ill-at-ease with the fact he is living in a palace but the Ark of God “still stays in a tent.” This initially seems entirely reasonable to the prophet Nathan, and he encourages David to carry out his plan.

Nathan, however, daily purifies his conscience: he listens to God. So deeply is he trained in this that even asleep he is listening. In his dream God reveals he does not want or need David’ pity, delaying the Temple building project. Rather than David make God an earthly, temporal house, Nathan reports God has decided to make David’s house eternal.

This promise of an everlasting dynasty was a far deeper thing than David understood. David’s descendants would ultimately lose the kingdom through their unfaithfulness…but God never reneged on his promise. What we will celebrate at Christmas is the manifestation of that promise’s durability and God’s faithfulness to those who make a covenant with him.

We learn from this story something else: the most important temple we as Christians have is the temple of our heart, for it is from our heart that the truest worship is offered to God, and from our heart that we love our neighbor, thereby loving God. It was David’s loving heart for God and God’s people, not a promise to build a building to house the Ark, that brought forth the divine promise from David’s line. It is still not too late today to open your own heart to God in humility, repentance, and service to your neighbor. Advent is not quite over; there is still time to prepare to receive the King where it counts most.

The lesson from the Gospel today is the account of the Annunciation in St. Luke. We hear this story at this hour because it is the beginning of the fulfillment of the prophesies regarding the Messiah, what St. Paul in Romans 16 today calls “the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed.”

The Temple the Messiah would first know in this world, before his dedication in Jerusalem, was the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. That temple was made of flesh, not of stone. At one and the same time it was very small and cosmically vast: it was hidden inside the body of a young woman, and yet it was “more spacious than the heavens” because it contained the Logos of God, the Word made flesh. This impossible contradiction was the start of God’s redeeming and healing humanity from within, rather than by forcing our compliance from without. Yet, there had to be willingness; an openness from our side to participate.

St. Mary is the true focus of this day. She is the most honored of all the saints and receives our highest veneration. She is honored in part because she was ready to be that “mansion prepared for God” spoken of in the collect. Her response to the Archangel’s message was: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” It was not: “come back when I am ready,” or “I need more time.” She didn’t fully understand but she was prepared.

We cannot know when our God will call upon us to serve him. Perhaps it will be to help a person in great distress, or to give guidance to someone caught in anxiety and perplexity. It could be to give time to teach, to encourage, to witness to God’s mercy, or to show the Gospel in a courageous act of generosity or a commitment to prayer. The essential thing is that we are a “mansion prepared for himself,” and like the Holy Theotokos, ready to say “Here am I” when called upon. This is the “obedience of faith” St. Paul speaks of in Romans today—a loving obedience that produces holy lives of readiness and courage.

The highlight of Evening Prayer is always the saying or singing of the Song of Mary from Luke, Chapter 1. St. Mary begins her song of praise with the words: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.” When we live such lives of God’s “daily visitation,” we are indeed living temples, mansions proclaiming the greatness of the Lord: for our delight and for the benefit of the world.

That is why what we do here is so urgently important—and it is not too late to join the Blessed Virgin in her song each night at Evensong and daily in lives consciously consecrated to God’s reign, a reign which has already begun in heaven, in this liturgy, and in the lives of every person who loves and serves God and neighbor for Christ’s sake. Let it be with us according to God’s most holy will and word.

Amen.

St. Mary's Day & the Song of Mary in the writing of St. Bede the Venerable

Mary proclaims the greatness of the Lord working in her…

Here is a short passage from a commentary on the Gospel according to St. Luke written by St. Bede the Venerable (AD 673-735), focusing especially on the Magnificat, Mary’s song of praise following the Visitation (Luke 1:46-55). This canticle is sung or said each night as part of Evening Prayer, and forms one of the central texts not only of our faith, but of our understanding of St. Mary and her mission/role as the Theotokos, or God-bearer.

The Magnificat contains, in miniature, much of the substance of the Gospel. By praying it daily, we keep in close contact with the message of liberation, mercy, and divine compassion that marks authentic Christianity.

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"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior. With these words Mary first acknowledges the special gifts she has been given. Then she recalls God’s universal favors, bestowed unceasingly on the human race. When a man devotes all his thoughts to the praise and service of the Lord, he proclaims God’s greatness. His observance of God’s commands, moreover, shows that he has God’s power and greatness always at heart. 

His spirit rejoices in God his savior and delights in the mere recollection of his creator who gives him hope for eternal salvation. These words are often for all Gods creations, but especially for the Mother of God. She alone was chosen, and she burned with spiritual love for the son she so joyously conceived. Above all other saints, she alone could truly rejoice in Jesus, her savior, for she knew that he who was the source of eternal salvation would be born in time in her body, in one person both her own son and her Lord.

For the Almighty, has done great things for me, and holy is his name. Mary attributes nothing to her own merits. She refers all her greatness to the gift of the one whose essence is power and whose nature is greatness, for he fills with greatness and strength the small and the weak who believe in him.

She did well to add: and holy is his name, to warn those who heard, and indeed all who would receive his words, that they must believe and call upon his name. For they too could share in everlasting holiness and true salvation according to the words of the prophet: and it will come to pass, that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. This is the name she spoke of earlier: and my spirit rejoices in God my savior.

Therefore it is an excellent and fruitful custom of holy Church that we should sing Mary’s hymn at the time of evening prayer. By meditating upon the incarnation, our devotion is kindled, and by remembering the example of God’s Mother, we are encouraged to lead a life of virtue. Such virtues are best achieved in the evening. We are weary after the day’s work and worn out by our distractions. The time for rest is near, and our minds are ready for contemplation."

Hail, Mary...

The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ –Luke 1: 30-33

The Mystery of Humanity’s Reconciliation with God

From a letter by Saint Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome

Lowliness is assured by majesty, weakness by power, mortality by eternity. To pay the debt of our sinful state, a nature that was incapable of suffering was joined to one that could suffer. Thus, in keeping with the healing that we needed, one and the same mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, was able to die in one nature, and unable to die in the other.

He who is true God was therefore born in the complete and perfect nature of a true man, whole in his own nature, whole in ours. By our nature we mean what the Creator had fashioned in us from the beginning, and took to himself in order to restore it.

For in the Savior there was no trace of what the deceiver introduced and man, being misled, allowed to enter. It does not follow that because he submitted to sharing in our human weakness he therefore shared in our sins.

He took the nature of a servant without stain of sin, enlarging our humanity without diminishing his divinity. He emptied himself; though invisible he made himself invisible, though Creator and Lord of all things he chose to be one of us mortal men. Yet this was the condescension of compassion, not the loss of omnipotence. So he who in the nature of God had created man, became in the nature of a servant, man himself.

Thus the Son of God enters this lowly world. He comes down from the throne of heaven, yet does not separate himself from the Father's glory. He is born in a new condition, by a new birth.

He was born in a new condition, for, invisible in his own nature, he became visible in ours. Beyond our grasp, he chose to come within our grasp. Existing before time began, he began to exist at a moment in time. Lord of the universe, he hid his infinite glory and took the nature of a servant. Incapable of suffering as God, he did not refuse to be a man, capable of suffering. Immortal, he chose to be subject to the laws of death.

He who is true God is also true man. There is no falsehood in this unity as long as the lowliness of man and the preeminence of God coexist in mutual relationship.

As God does not change by his condescension, so man is not swallowed up by being exalted. Each nature exercises its own activity, in communion with the other. The Word does what is proper to the Word, the flesh fulfills what is proper to the flesh.

One nature is resplendent with miracles, the other falls victim to injuries. As the Word does not lose equality with the Father's glory, so the flesh does not leave behind the nature of our race.

One and the same person - this must be said over and over again - is truly the Son of God and truly the son of man. He is God in virtue of the fact that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He is man in virtue of the fact that the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.

More on this Feast…

The Feast of the Annunciation marks the beginning of the Incarnation cycle in the Liturgical Year. It is a Feast of Our Lord in the Episcopal Church, and is so significant that it largely supercedes our observance of Lent when it falls during this season. Indeed, one traditional food for this day is waffles!

The Annunciation always makes us keenly aware of the centrality of Incarnation in Christianity, and how worthy is the Theotokos of veneration. Not only is it through her that God was able to take our flesh and thus redeem us "from inside," but her example of offering our will and our very self to God makes clear the centrality of created matter to God's ongoing work. 

Too often in American Christianity we get the message that faith is a purely “spiritual” thing, without any material basis or impact. This helps feed the ludicrous “faith v. science” feud. It also reduces our faith to something approaching an intellectual proposition, rather than a robust experience of God’s active and reconciling presence in the world. Orthodox Christianity cannot co-exist with this rejection of Creation's true meaning and purpose.

The Annunciation proclaims joyfully that God chooses created matter to redeem the Creation, and that the Creation’s true purpose is to be alight with the glory and presence of the Lord. The utter holiness of redeemed Creation is a central message of even that much-misused book of Revelation. The process is “set in motion” by the Annunciation. 

Let us glorify our God and venerate the God-Bearer Mary. Let us also emulate her example by offering ourselves to God, that redeeming grace may be manifested to those around us and the hearts of those who do not know God may be illuminated by his loving work in and through us.

Collect of the Annunciation:

Pour your grace into our hearts, O Lord, that we who have known the incarnation of your Son Jesus Christ, announced by an angel to the Virgin Mary, may by his cross and passion be brought to the glory of his resurrection; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever  Amen.

Blessed in Keeping God’s Word

Father in heaven, by your grace the virgin mother of your incarnate Son was blessed in bearing him, but still more blessed in keeping your word: Grant us who honor the exaltation of her lowliness to follow the example of her devotion to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

When we come to the month of August we prepare for one of the great Holy Days of the Church Year—the Feast of St. Mary the Virgin, on August fifteenth.

This day commemorates St. Mary’s passing from this life to the next and is called various things by various parts of the Church. The Roman Catholic Church calls it the Feast of the Assumption, as they teach that on this day the Blessed Virgin was carried up—assumed—into heaven body and soul. The Eastern Orthodox Communion call this day the Dormition of the Theotokos, commemorating when the God-bearer (Theotokos in Greek) “fell asleep” in the Lord. The holy icons for this feast show Christ holding the Blessed Virgin’s swaddled soul new-born into heaven, recalling her holding his tiny swaddled body new-born on earth at the Nativity.

Anglicans put a somewhat different focus on this day. We call it the Feast of St. Mary the Virgin, Mother of Our Lord because for us St. Mary's primary identity is found in her unique relationship with her son. At every turn in her witness, she points to Christ; in this, she teaches us how we ourselves are to be living "God-bearers" in the world through our witness.

The Collect for this feast recalls that God took St. Mary “unto himself.” This points both to her calling to be the Mother of the Incarnate One at the Annunciation and in her joining the company of heaven at her passing—emphasizing the special character of Mary as the highest of all the saints with a unique relationship to Christ. Indeed, she receives the highest form of praise for a mortal in our liturgies, always being named first among the saints and having a number of Holy Days throughout the year (Annunciation, Visitation, Purification, &c.).

Yet Anglicanism is also very concerned to show that Our Lady is the model for the life of the Church and a pattern for our own discipleship. The Collect of the Feast of the Visitation (reprinted above) well expresses our approach to The Blessed Virgin: she is praised as the one who bore the Word Incarnate into the world (providing him his human nature), yet she is exalted even more because she kept God’s Word all her life.

When we gather on the Feast of St. Mary, we are praising God for her witness and recounting the wonder of her ministry (the longest and most intimate of all those near Jesus) which Scripture records as stretching from the Annunciation all the way through Pentecost.

We are also gazing upon her as a model, a pattern, a guide for what it means to follow Christ through thick and thin, through joy and sorrow, when we understand and when we do not. After Our Lord, she is the person who most powerfully embodies faithfulness in the New Testament, and we know that we may derive great benefit from joining her in always pointing to Christ by our actions and prayers, thereby “keeping God’s word” along with her. May we be found so at the end of the ages!

The Prayer for the Feast of St. Mary-the-Virgin

O God, you have taken to yourself the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of your incarnate Son: Grant that we, who have been redeemed by his blood, may share with her the glory of your eternal kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

St. Leo the Great on the Annunciation & the Mystery of our Salvation

The Feast of the Annunciation falls on March 25, but because of Good Friday and Easter Week taking precedence this year, this Major Feast was transferred to today, April 4. During this week we have a beautiful time of contemplation of this great Mystery of Faith.

In this letter written by St. Leo the Great (c. 400-461 AD, feast day Nov. 10), we see the beauty of God’s work to save us and raise us to our true nature…a nature not defined by sin, sickness, or death but life, love, and dignity.

Attempts to “demythologize” the Annunciation or other Mysteries of Salvation by various groups (in and outside of the Church) sadly miss the point: what we are given in Christianity is not a way to “cope” with the world, but a form of life that looks through and beyond the false and distorted vision assumed by de-spiritualized humanity and already (through the Holy Spirit) lives in the “now” of God’s eternal life.

With the Annunciation, the Incarnation Cycle of the Church Year has begun. It is, once more, an opportunity to reaffirm our belief in God’s redeeming the world from the inside, with the very “stuff” of Creation, in an action of love without bounds.

Lowliness is assured by majesty, weakness by power, mortality by eternity. To pay the debt of our sinful state, a nature that was incapable of suffering was joined to one that could suffer. Thus, in keeping with the healing that we needed, one and the same mediator between God and humanity, Jesus Christ, was able to die in one nature, and unable to die in the other.

He who is true God was therefore born in the complete and perfect nature of a true human being, whole in his own nature, whole in ours. By our nature we mean what the Creator had fashioned in us from the beginning, and took to himself in order to restore it.

For in the Savior there was no trace of what the deceiver introduced and we, being misled, allowed to enter. It does not follow that because he submitted to sharing in our human weakness he therefore shared in our sins.

He took the nature of a servant without stain of sin, enlarging our humanity without diminishing his divinity. He emptied himself; though invisible he made himself visible, though Creator and Lord of all things he chose to be one of us mortals. Yet this was the condescension of compassion, not the loss of omnipotence. So he who in the nature of God had created humankind, became in the nature of a servant, human himself.

Thus the Son of God enters this lowly world. He comes down from the throne of heaven, yet does not separate himself from the Father's glory. He is born in a new condition, by a new birth.

He was born in a new condition, for, invisible in his own nature, he became visible in ours. Beyond our grasp, he chose to come within our grasp. Existing before time began, he began to exist at a moment in time. Lord of the universe, he hid his infinite glory and took the nature of a servant. Incapable of suffering as God, he did not refuse to be a human, capable of suffering. Immortal, he chose to be subject to the laws of death.

He who is true God is also truly human. There is no falsehood in this unity as long as the lowliness of humanity and the pre-eminence of God coexist in mutual relationship.

As God does not change by his condescension, so humanity is not swallowed up by being exalted. Each nature exercises its own activity, in communion with the other. The Word does what is proper to the Word, the flesh fulfills what is proper to the flesh.

One nature is resplendent with miracles, the other falls victim to injuries. As the Word does not lose equality with the Father's glory, so the flesh does not leave behind the nature of our race.

One and the same person - this must be said over and over again - is truly the Son of God and truly the Son of Man. He is God in virtue of the fact that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He is human in virtue of the fact that the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.

Collect of the Feast of the Annunciation:

Pour your grace into our hearts, O Lord, that we who have known the incarnation of your Son Jesus Christ, announced by an angel to the Virgin Mary, may by his cross and passion be brought to the glory of his resurrection; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.