Nice Catholic Encyclopedia article here about it -- Our Lady gave to St. Simon Stock the scapular. My own 1st Communion scapular was one of these. [I quickly figured out the plastic protectors on that scapular stuck to the skin!]
I went to Mass (EF form) this morning. And it is always nice when we have a feast day for Our Lady. I especially liked the Introit, Collect, Offertory, Secret, Communion and Post Communion for this feast, and the Epistle was wonderful. But I'd really love to slap whomever decided this gospel was a good one for the day. Luke (11: 27-28) -- the one where the woman says "blessed are the paps that gave suck to you and the womb that bore you." I know what the point of Jesus' answer is "yeah, well, blessed are they who hear the word of God...etc." Sounded a little gruff about mom there. Couldn't he have said "YES, she IS blessed, she ROCKS...and also those people who do...." But NOOOOOO.
Jesus, too big for His britches, wouldn't have got His favorite dinner THAT night from me....
Couldn't they have picked a different Marian passage?
It sticks out like a sore thumb. Someone have too much vino the night they put those propers together? Sometimes I wonder about those guys.
5 comments:
I always wondered about this scripture too. I've seen it even used to disparage and deny Catholic teaching of Our Lady.
I'm sure there's a reason the Church teaches it doesn't deny Catholic teaching -- but yet, agreed, it wouldn't seem to show it in good light anyway.
Unless! by the inclusion of the scripture, the message is to pull back from any tendencies toward adoration of Our Lady, making sure our veneration of her remains Christocentric. Reaching though.
Interested to read the follow-up comments here.
Regards,
DG
Oh, no. No worries about Mary. The passage is simply meant to show that Jesus, unlike most people, intends to show that ALL who follow God's will are His relatives.
The word used for "rather" is perhaps a bit odd. In modern context it mean along the lines of "instead of that - this...."
This particular pericope is unique to Luke -- HOWEVER it also echos Luke's earlier passage re: Mary and his brethren wishing to see him. The Matthean parallel is quite a bit harder than the Lucan version.
But don't forget that Luke has already established early in his gospel that Mary, having already said "yes" to God's will was the perfect example of one who does the will of the Father.
The latin word used, is I think, perhaps a bit odd. "Quinimmo" irritatingly, the latin dictionary I have didn't carry it. But the only dictionary at babylon had it:
" Definition of Quinimmo
JM Latin-English Dictionary
ADV
indeed| in fact; but truely; but/and more/furthermore
"
If you had it in the sense of "indeed and furthermore...."
Then it makes perfect sense.
BTW, adoration in the right measure of Our Lady is perfectly proper. Our Lady always points to Christ.
As Luke says "ALL generations shall call you Blessed." Most of the protestants aren't holding up their end of this!!
There's laetria, which is the kind of worship that belongs to God alone. Then there's "dulia" which is veneration of the type we give to saints, then there's the particular term "hyper-dulia" which is applied to Mary. She needed a savior, same as anyone. However, God saved her in a special way. Most protestants get the word "worship" wrong. It is snot a word which means that vereration reserved for God alone. They don't know their OE root words and their meanings.
I doubt if the author(s) of the gospels were particularly concerned about pulling back adoration of Our lady one iota!
It's that modern meaning of "rather" that's what throws us. BTW, I looked at the Greek too. Same thing. Jerome was echoing the word the Greeks had -- and I suspect in the ancient world the Greek work carried the same nuance.
I was just being a smart ass. :-D
sorry instead of "only" dictionary, I meant ON LINE dictionary. here is the reference.
I suspect that the woman in the Gospel was making a "gendered" point along the lines of "Your goodness is simply a reflection of your mother's goodness" -an interesting observation given that Jewishness is inherited from the mother. In His reply Jesus deflects attention from both His mother AND Himself. YOUR business, He seems to say, is to hear the Word of God and to keep it. We honour Our Lady best when, like her, we hear that Word and keep it.
Excellent point, Patricius
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