9781644135945

The Light of the World
a most perfect copy of God, His companion and helper in the work of creation. Mary is most
intimately associated with this divine Wisdom. She is like a cloud that conceals and contains
the sun, the hidden Wisdom of God: “A woman clothed with the sun” (Apoc 12:1). She is the
Seat of Wisdom, the Vessel of Honor, the House of God, the spouse and helpmate of divine
Wisdom in the person of Christ. She is to share in renewing all things in Christ, in freeing the
world from sin, and in filling it with the grace, light, and life of God. Today she is born to us, the
daughter of God, the Seat of Wisdom, the earthly reflection of the Wisdom of God, the queen of
the universe, an instrument of our salvation. Reverently we approach this child who is destined
to bear Him “whom the whole world cannot contain,” “the Sun of Justice, Christ our God.” We
believe; we give thanks to God for having given us Mary and, through Mary, Christ our King.
“Now, therefore, ye children, hear me: Blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction
and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth me and that watcheth daily at my
gates and waiteth at the posts of my doors. He that shall find me shall find life, and shall have
salvation from the Lord” (Epistle). Mary is herself wholly absorbed in the wisdom of God. Her
thoughts, her judgments, her will, her actions, her whole life are permeated by that wisdom.
“Hear me,” she exhorts us, follow my example of charity, poverty, humility, obedience, devotion
to God, love of neighbor, prayer, and holy solitude. Thus should the wisdom of God govern the
man who “shall have salvation from the Lord.”
“Happy art thou, O holy Virgin Mary, and most worthy of praise, for out of thee the Sun of
Justice hath risen, Christ, our God” (Alleluia). You gave Him to us that holy night at Bethlehem.
You give Him again to us today at the Consecration and in Holy Communion.
“Blessed is the womb of the Virgin Mary, which bore the Son of the eternal Father”
(Communion). Blessed are all they who at Holy Communion, like Mary, receive Him “whom
the world cannot contain.” “Hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it not.”
Prayer
Impart to Thy servants, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the gift of Thy heavenly grace, so that we for
whom the childbearing of the Blessed Virgin was the beginning of salvation, may receive an
increase of peace on this joyful festival of her nativity. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
September 14, The Exaltation of the Holy Cross
The season of autumn has arrived; the days are growing shorter, and the light of evening fails
rapidly. Holy Mother the Church lifts up the sign of victory, the sign of the cross, as a barrier
against the powers of darkness. The sign of the cross will be “the sign of the Son of Man” (Mt
24:30) when He comes to pass judgment on the living and the dead. The thought of the coming
judgment has occurred frequently during the time after Pentecost. The world celebrates the
advance of culture and science, the triumphs of technology, and its military victories; but Holy
Mother the Church exalts the sign of her victory, the holy cross, the sign of salvation.
Christ “humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death; even the death of the cross” (Epistle).
The Son of God became man that He might humble Himself. He laid aside the glory of the
Godhead and took on the form of man that He might be like unto us in all things except sin.
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