Solemnity Meditation: The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God

January 1^st is celebrated as a religious holiday either to commemorate Christ’s circumcision or to commemorate His Blessed Mother as the Mother of God, the Theotokos.  From Wikipedia:

The Second Vatican Council stated: "Clearly from earliest times the Blessed Virgin is honoured under the title of Mother of God." and at an early stage the Church in Rome celebrated on 1 January a feast that it called the anniversary (Natale) of the Mother of God. When this was overshadowed by the feasts of the Annunciation and the Assumption, adopted from Constantinople at the start of the 7th century, 1 January began to be celebrated simply as the octave day of Christmas, the "eighth day" on which, according to Luke 2:21, the child was circumcised and given the name Jesus.

 

In the 13th or 14th century, 1 January began to be celebrated in Rome, as already in Spain and Gaul, as the feast of the Circumcision of the Lord and the Octave of the Nativity, while still oriented towards Mary and Christmas, with many prayers, antiphons and responsories glorifying the maternity of Mary. Pope John XXIII's General Roman Calendar of 1960 removed the mention of the circumcision of Jesus and called 1 January simply the Octave of the Nativity.

There is even more to the history, which you can read for yourself.  Today’s Gospel reading:

 

The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, 

and the infant lying in the manger.

When they saw this, 

they made known the message 

that had been told them about this child.

All who heard it were amazed 

by what had been told them by the shepherds.

And Mary kept all these things, 

reflecting on them in her heart.

Then the shepherds returned, 

glorifying and praising God 

for all they had heard and seen, 

just as it had been told to them. 

 

When eight days were completed for his circumcision, 

he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel 

before he was conceived in the womb.

~Lk 2:16-21

It is interesting that the shepherds “went in haste” where Luke uses the same word as in just the previous chapter where Mary “went in haste” to visit her cousin Elizabeth.

Here is a wonderful homily from Fr. James McCurry OFM Con of the Companions of St. Anthony, a Franciscan Friar Conventional association.  (Someday I will figure out the various divisions of the Franciscans, but it always escapes me.) 

The homily was delivered in 2021, so don’t be thrown by his best wishes for the new year of 2021.  It is now 2025!

Now for a second homily by another Franciscan, Fr. Terrance of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate.  This is a little longer but there is a wealth of knowledge here.

My, my two Franciscans highlighted by a Lay Dominican.  What is the world coming to.  Peace might just ring out…lol. 😋

I love Fr. Terrance.  I have been trying to get one of his homilies into one of these Sunday Meditations ever since I learned of him a little over a year ago.  He is extremely smart.  Notice he even quotes a Dominican, St. Thomas Aquinas at the 9:33 mark where Fr. Terrance provides Aquinas’s definition of love: “love is to will the good of the other.”  (You can read about Aquinas' definition of love in this Word on Fire article by Dr. Tom Neal.)  Fr. Terrance also mentions the Sub tuum praesidium the third century papyrus fragment with the earliest Marian prayer. 

 

Solemnity Meditation: “And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.”

 

For today’s hymn, what better than the Sub tuum praesidium in an ancient Gregorian chant, performed here by the sacred music group, Floriani. 

 

Here are the lyrics in Latin:

 

Sub tuum praesidium

confugimus,

Sancta Dei Genetrix.

Nostras deprecationes ne despicias

in necessitatibus,

sed a periculis cunctis

libera nos semper,

Virgo gloriosa et benedicta

Here is the English translation.

We fly to thy protection,

O Holy Mother of God;

Do not despise our petitions

in our necessities,

but deliver us always

from all dangers,

O Glorious and Blessed Virgin.

You may recognize fragments of the prayer in the more contemporary (only 500 years old!) Memorare prayer.  

Happy New Year!