| I. Choir | 1 January |
|---|---|
| Let there be light | Octave of Christmas |
We begin the new, civil year with a hymn to the holy angels:
“Rejoice, ye stars, ye flames, ye pillars…,
Rejoice, ye candlesticks, ye lightnings, ye servants,
Rejoice, ye fountains, ye swords, ye arrows….”
Each of these nine images that we can grasp is a reference and an interpretation for each of the nine choirs of holy angels, whose greatness, beauty and power we cannot put into words, because with them, the first created of God, the word applies first and foremost: “… and no human heart can comprehend what God has prepared for those who love Him.”
The seraphim are the highest of these nine choirs of angels and the highest of all the mysteries of love created by God in independent and self-acting created personality—Mary always excepted. They stand together as three and yet resemble only one; they turn to the Father, the Son and the Spirit, and yet turn as one seraph to the One Triune God. Thus they are the supreme created, purely spiritual reflection of the inconceivable love of God, as it flows forth unceasingly from the Heart of God.
This one Seraph,
Saint Alphai,
before whose light we dare not look up, bears the love of the Holy Ghost. This love should accompany us throughout the year; it should heal our wounds and sanctify our readiness, our will and our love. You cannot describe this seraph with human words; he is spirit, and nothing but spirit – and if you were to compare him to a flame or a star, a dove or a cloud, it would all be the same. He only allows us to guess at the essence of the Holy Ghost, because we cannot grasp the angel in his essence, let alone God.
Just as the Holy Ghost is always inseparably connected with the Father and the Son, being of one being with them and proceeding from both at the same time, Saint Alphai is also inseparably connected with Saint Esch, the Seraph of the Father, whose name is Fire and just as inseparably with the Seraph of the Son, Saint Jehove, whose name is Almighty God. Saint Alphai, himself, can be called “Let there be light,” for the love of God is light.
In this light of God’s love we adoringly recognise the Father’s love which – like a life-sustaining sun – pours out over all creation. And in this light of God’s love we adoringly recognise the love of the Son who came into the world as light into the darkness. And likewise, in this light of God’s love, we recognise adoringly the love of the Spirit, hovering over all life turned towards God, hovering over the Church – and this reflects Saint Alphai. In our time, we see him especially standing above Mary, the Bride of God, the Queen of Heaven, the first, the greatest and the highest recipient of God’s love, who was already slumbering in the thoughts of the loving God before the earth was created.
The supreme mystery of the Spirit’s love for Mary, as foreshadowed by Saint Alphai, is seen in the hours of the Mother standing erect beneath the Cross of Her Divine Son, affirming all suffering, all holy renunciation, all the Father’s will through that sword-pierced, thorn-wrapped Heart. The love of the Spirit has opened the hearts of all God’s children and enlightened, comforted and enlivened them ever since. All knowledge of God has gone this way of God’s Spirit: surging up and down over that silent Heart.
Prayer: Lord and God, let me fall down in gratitude before Thy Face because Thou hast given Mary to us as our Mother and Protectress. Of Her the seraphim say: “Behold what is all our glory compared with the Heart of our Queen?”