[MaryVitamin] The Assumption and the Ark of the Covenant

 

Mary Vitamin for August 26th

 

Topic: The Assumption and the Ark of the Covenant

 

Quote:

Pope Pius IX

[The Fathers of the Church] celebrated the august Virgin as the spotless dove, as the holy Jerusalem, as the exalted throne of God, as the ark and house of holiness which Eternal Wisdom built, and as that Queen who, abounding in delights and leaning on her Beloved, came forth from the mouth of the Most High, entirely perfect, beautiful, most dear to God and never stained with the least blemish.

Ineffabilis Deus (On the Immaculate Conception)

Apostolic Constitution issued on December 8, 1854.

 

Meditation:

Fr. Stefano Manelli, FI

Of all the Marian symbols in the Old Testament, certainly the Ark of the Covenant enjoys preeminence. One of the readings used in the revised liturgy of Vatican II for the solemnity of Mary's Assumption body and soul into heaven treats of the Ark of the Covenant. Throughout the centuries, Christian peoples have venerated Mary under the title of Foederis Arca (Ark of the Covenant) in the Litany of Loreto. … In fact, the Ark was the place par excellence of God's presence. The Jews even came to consider the Ark as God Himself (Num 10:35), and God's presence was seen between the cherubim placed above the Ark. But the Ark was only a symbol. Mary, instead, is the reality. In her, God was really present,  so much so as to become her Son. Finally, in the mystery of Mary's Assumption into heaven, in the splendor of glory, is realized most fully the incorruptibility of the Ark, perennial dwelling place of God.

Father Stefano Manelli, FI, All Generations Shall Call Me Blessed, (Academy of the Immaculate: 1989), 59-60.

 

St. Alphonsus di Liguori makes the connection between the Feast of the Assumption and the Mass readings :

After Jesus Christ our Saviour had completed, by His death, the work of redemption, the angels ardently desired to possess Him in their heavenly country; hence they were continually supplicating Him in the words of David: "Arise...Come, O Lord, come quickly, now that Thou hast redeemed men; come to Thy kingdom and dwell with us, and bring with Thee the living ark of Thy sanctification, Thy Mother, who was the ark which Thou didst sanctify by dwelling in her womb."

Glories Of Mary,(Tan Books: 1977) 389.

 

Resolution:

I will try to make one spiritual Communion today thinking about Our Lady as the Ark of the Covenant. I will see her as the fulfillment of the Old Testament image. I will see her traveling to her cousin Elizabeth as the new Ark of the Covenant, carrying within her the Real Presence of Christ. By trying to imitate Our Lady and making a spiritual Communion, she will bring to my soul the image of the Ark of the Covenant, making my soul the fitting receptacle for the presence of God.

 

Marian Vow:

Father Stefano Manelli, FI

The Immaculate, "brightness of eternal light" (Wisdom 7:26), in the measure in which the person consecrated gives himself to Her without limit and immerses himself in Her, will give to him the grace of the brightness most angelic and lily-like, which makes men holy "in body and in spirit" (I Cor 7:34), making it easier for them to lead a life all immaculate, rooted in the most profound and total, most pure and exclusive love of God...

The Marian Vow of Unlimited Consecration to the Immaculate (Immaculate Mediatrix: 1996), 29.

 

I give this resolution to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

 

Thanks be to God for graces received.

 

Related site: Castle of the Immaculate & AirMaria

._,_.___

Posted via email from deaconjohn's posterous