The Queenship of Mary

Posted on August 22, 2013 by Friar Musings

“Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy….” So begins one of the prayers from our Catholic treasury. Have you ever wondered why we use the title “Queen” for Mary?

The beginning of the concept that Mary is a Queen is found in the annunciation narrative. For the angel tells her that her Son will be King over the house of Jacob forever. So she, His Mother, would be a Queen. While in our age we are quick to think that “queen” means wife of the king, the meaning in ancient Israel also included the mother of the king, the “Queen Mother.” The first formal definition and basis for the later title “Mary Queen of Heaven” developed at the Council of Ephesus, where Mary was proclaimed as “theotokos” (lit. “God bearer”) or in English, the Mother of God. The Council fathers specifically approved this version against the opinion that Mary is “only” the mother of Jesus. Nobody had participated in the life of her son more than Mary, who gave birth to the Son of God. Continue reading →

First and Last

Posted on August 21, 2013 by Friar Musings

21st Sunday in Year C
Luke 13:22-30

²²He passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. ²³Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” He answered them, ²⁴“Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough. ²⁵After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ He will say to you in reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ ²⁶And you will say, ‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’ ²⁷Then he will say to you, ‘I do not know where (you) are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!’ ²⁸And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out. ²⁹And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God. ³⁰For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” Continue reading →

Mindfulness

Posted on August 11, 2013 by Friar Musings

“Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.” (Luke 12:37).

The underlying Greek word “vigilant” is also used in the parable of the “Wise and Foolish Virgins” who fall asleep when the bridegroom is coming. It is the same root word used when Jesus admonishes the apostles sleeping the in Garden of Gethsemane. These and other passages always bring out the worry wart in me. People, good people, at the gate to the wedding banquet, present with the Lord while he prays – and they are asleep, not paying attention, or distracted. What about me? Am I wasting time, working on the wrong things? Am I asleep at the switch, or unprepared and without a clue? Am I vigilant about my faith? Hmm…, am I vigilant about my faith? Continue reading →

Buidling New Barns

Posted on August 7, 2013 by Friar Musings

Thoughts on Luke 12:31-21, the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Inheritance and riches being stored up – certainly two strong images from this Sunday’s gospel. Themes not uncommon in the gospels. St. Luke also tells the story of the man who comes to Jesus and asks, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” After learning from the man that he had followed all the commandments Jesus tells him, “There is still one thing left for you: sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor, and you will have a treasure in heaven. (Luke 18) It is a recurring message from Jesus that wealth, riches – in themselves not bad – just have a way of getting in the way of the true inheritance. The man goes away sad – he just can’t let go of his wealth, can’t let go of the one thing that keeps him from following Jesus. He is likely a good person – both in his own mind and in the thoughts of others – yet there is a hidden, unseen greed operative in his life. A covert greed that has become, as St. Paul says, an idolatry keeping him away from true and right worship. Continue reading →

Vigilant and Ready to Serve

Posted on August 6, 2013 by Friar Musings

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Luke 12:35-48

Our gospel follows after the Parable of the Rich Fool (18^th Sunday in Ordinary Time; Luke 12:13-21). Unfortunately, the passage in between (vv.22-34) is not used for a Sunday gospel – yet it carries an important context for our passage and serves as a bridge between the lesson of the rich fool and our text which seems to speak of the second coming of the Son of Man and the judgment that awaits. Continue reading →

One’s life does not consist of possessions

Posted on July 30, 2013 by Friar Musings

18th Sunday of Ordinary Time: Luke 12:13-21

¹³Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” ¹⁴He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” ¹⁵Then he said to the crowd, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” ¹⁶Then he told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. ¹⁷He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’ ¹⁸And he said, ‘This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods ¹⁹and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!” ²⁰But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ ²¹Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.” Continue reading →

Mary Magdalene

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Friar Musings

Magdalene Penitent
Donatello
Museo dell’Opera del Duomo – Florence

Did you know that Mary Magdalene is mentioned 12 times in the gospels, more than most of the Apostles. She was present at the crucifixion and was the first witness to the Resurrection (John 20 and Mark 16:9). She was the “Apostle to the Apostles”, an honorific that St. Augustine bestowed upon her in the fourth-century, and possibly he was but repeating a moniker already in use.

Mary Magdalene has long been confused with other women in Scripture also named Mary as well as an anonymous women, the unnamed sinner (commonly thought to have been a prostitute) in Luke 7:36-50. In time, the identities of all these women were conflated into one in the person of “Mary Magdalene, the repentant prostitute.” The first written evidence we have of this conflation of Mary Magdalene being a repentant prostitute comes from Ephraim the Syrian in the fourth century. Continue reading →

St. Bonaventure

Posted on July 14, 2013 by Friar Musings

Saint Bonaventure (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This Monday marks the Feast Day of one of the great figures in Franciscan history – St. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio – as well as the eighth anniversary of our Franciscan presence in this historic downtown parish. St. Bonaventure is a good model of what it means to be a Franciscan, while at the same time being a priest in leadership positions in a parish. Bonaventure reminded the friars of his day that our first vocation is as “brother.” At the core of our charism, we are a fraternity in mission to the People of God striving to continue our Order’s 800-year-old mission: bringing the Gospel into the everyday experience of men and women through our life in fraternity and compassionate service to all. Continue reading →

The choices we make

Posted on July 14, 2013 by Friar Musings

There was a time in the history of the Franciscans where we were a raucous, contentious, squabbling bunch – each group claimed to know St. Francis’ real intention about the way to follow Christ. The minister general of the day, St. Bonaventure, gathered the friars together- and like Moses, gave a sermon that was not too mysterious or too arcane. In a way, he simply told them that to truly follow the intention of St. Francis they had to choose. Choose what each friar would become as a result of their choices and, just as important, consider what the world becomes because of their choices. They were becoming a religious order noted for internal to fighting. And because of it, the world was become darker because of their example of following Christ. Continue reading →

Why the Samaritan?

Posted on July 9, 2013 by Friar Musings

Vincent van Gogh, 1890. Kröller-Müller Museum....

The Good Samaritan
Vincent van Gogh, 1890
Photo credit: wikiphoto

Luke 10:25-37 – The Parable of the Good Samaritan

²⁵There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test him and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ²⁶Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” ²⁷He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” ²⁸He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” ²⁹But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” ³⁰Jesus replied, “A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead. ³¹A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. ³²Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. ³³But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. ³⁴He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn and cared for him. ³⁵The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, ‘Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.’ ³⁶Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” ³⁷He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” Continue reading →

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