In the Labyrinth

Love and Do What You Will...

 

 

St. Augustine of Hippo, a figure often remembered by young Catholics for his plea to God during his wild youth, "Give me chastity and continence, but not quite yet," Has left us with a wealth of wisdom. One such quote, which a friend recently shared with me, resonates particularly powerfully in our modern times:

"See what we are insisting upon: that the deeds of men are only discerned by the root of love. For many things may be done that have a good appearance, and yet proceed not from the root of love…Once and for all, then, a short precept is given you: Love, and do what you will: whether you hold your peace, through love hold your peace; whether you cry out, through love cry out; whether you correct, through love correct; whether you spare, through love do you spare: let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good." (7th Homily on John 1)

What makes this quote so compelling is its universal applicability. I'm certain that each one of us can adapt this precept to our struggles, goals, and desires. For me, it would be: "Love and do what you will, whether you create, through love create; whether you write, through love write." 

Adrienne von Speyr on the Feast of the Assumption

A New Year, My Birthday, and the Solemnity of Mary

"Hail, heavenly ladder by which God came down; hail, bridge leading from earth to heaven." Agathistos Hymn, Greek --6th century.

It is a challenge to be born on a day so charged with potential and even more so to me, who was the first baby of that year in my city when I was born. There is a forward surge, everyone leaning into New Year's promises, open to the possibilities of new successes and new joys. And it is in the Catholic church, a holy day of obligation, celebrating the Solemnity of Mary, her life one long and never-ending New Year's promise to reconnect humanity with the divine.

This day offers me a moment to contemplate the example of Mary's life, rich in grace, compassion, and fertility. It's also an opportunity to think about how, in the coming year, I shall shape my actions, be productive in my work, and be open to those graces that enrich my life through family and friends. Not resolutions exactly, but a commitment to be fully present and thankful every day.

Art: Late 15th century (1485-1488) Italy Madonna and Child with Joseph, Elizabeth, and John the Baptist by Andrea Mantegna.

Madeleine L'Engle: After Annunciation

"This is the irrational season
When love blooms bright and wild.
Had Mary been filled with reason
There’d have been no room for the child."

                                                —Madeline L'Engle

 

Art: Mariotto Albertinelli, 1503: "Visitation of Mary and Elizabeth" 

Reading Adrienne Von Speyr on Easter Morning

It is easy to forget that Easter so focused on the Son, is also about the Mother and in 20th century mystic and author Adrienne Von Speyr's brilliant work Handmaid of the Lord, Von Speyr examines the significance and importance of Mary's life: "Her first Yes to the angel, her first joy at conception, her first jubilation in Magnificat, are like a tiny human beginning compared with this storm of the Easter assent and this fire of the new Magnificat."

It is today on Easter, that Von Speyr reflects on the mission of Mary, after the death and ressurection of her Son, and her continuing importance in this central mystery of the Catholic faith. 

"It is as if she were given a second Christmas. On Christmas she had received the Son: the long promise of Advent had found it's earthly fulfillment. But the little Child of Christmas was himself a promise, a bud of the coming redemption. Now, on Easter, this bud has blossomed and become full actuality. Today Mary is the Mother of the Redeemer. The end-point that has been reached is now the starting-point for all Christianity. Today she has become Mother in reality, and everything previous was only a preparation for this day. She sees before her the completed work of the Son, and she herself stands at its source. In the Spirit and through the Spirit she is the Mother. And at the Cross the Son made her share expressly in the birth of this work. Everything that at Christmas had been earthly, corporeal spirituality has today become a spiritual reality and is therefore open and limitless and omnipresent: it is a "Eucharist."

 "But the Mother is included in the Son's eucharistic form of existence. Her unity with the Son became so great that from now on the two can no longer be separated. Where the Son is essentially and truly present, the Mother cannot be missing. If it is really the flesh of the Lord that the Christian receives at the altar, then it is also the flesh which took form within the Mother and at whose disposal she placed everything that was hers.  Because she said Yes to his Incarnation, she also says Yes to each new advent of the Lord into the world that occurs at the Consecration of every Holy Mass. "

Wishing those of the faith a Happy and Blessed Easter. 

 

Art: PONTORMO 1525-28 Annunciazione della Vergine - (Detail) Church of Santa Felicita, Cappella Capponi Florence

All Saints Day

The tricks and treating are over (well, except for that candy migraine hangover and the bag of little wrapped chocolates hidden in the kitchen pantry for later must-have-sweeties-emergencies) and now we honor the saints. As a Catholic, it's true, I talk to the saints all the time. I ask for help, courage, prayers for friends and family, and often (though not often enough) just thanks for all the trouble I give them. Today I will light candles, recite the litany of the saints, and remember with awe and gratitude all those lives lived in faith.

Marianne Stokes, St Elizabeth of Hungary Spinning for the Poor, 1895

The Light of Assent: The Annunciation

Adrienne von Speyr is a 20th century Swiss pediatrician and a remarkable mystic (she received the stigmata.) She had visions, particularly of the Triduum, and her spiritual writings are dense, complicated, and utterly breath-taking. Today is a celebration of the Annunciation in the Catholic liturgical year. And I return to read again from von Speyr's Handmaid of the Lord -- a powerful explication on the life of Mary. This is from the first chapter, "The Light of Assent" where von Speyr reflects on that first act, the meeting of Mary and the Angel at the Annunciation.

"As a sheaf of grain is tied together in the middle and spreads out at either end, so Mary's life is bound together by her assent. From this assent her life receives its meaning and form and unfolds toward past and future. This single, all-encompassing act accompanies her at every moment of her existence, illuminates every turning point of her life, bestows upon every situation its own particular meaning and in all situations gives Mary herself the grace of renewed understanding. Her assent gives full meaning to every breath, every movement, every prayer of the Mother of God. This is the nature of assent: it binds the one who gives it, yet it allows her complete freedom in shaping that expression. She fills her assent with her personality, giving it its weight and unique coloring. But she herself is also molded, liberated and fulfilled by her assent...."

"...Mary's assent is threefold. She says Yes to the angel, to God, and to herself. She says it to the angel as a simple response to his appearance, like the promise a person can make the moment something is asked of her. The Yes, like every real human promise, goes beyond what the person's vision or knowledge can encompass. The situation of assent is like a bud whose development she cannot foresee. But every serious, binding promise nevertheless allows an insight into a whole spiritual attitude and perhaps actually becomes its living epitome. The attitude of the Mother now becomes evident in her promise through the fact that she stands before the angel and has to give him her answer. The angel and the answer are complementary and together embody a single reality in God. At the moment of their meeting, they form a unity of fulfillment...Their meeting becomes an expression and, as it were, a meeting place for the fullness of grace: the grace of God in Mary and the grace sent to her by God through the angel find themselves in an encounter of perfect correspondence..."

Art: Sandro Botticelli "The Annuciation" and  John Collier, "The Annunciation."