| Choir I | 12 September |
|---|---|
| Bearer of the Power of God over Mary | Holy Name of Mary |
The Seraph Saint Elohim, who stands before God’s Throne to honour Mary and, in Her, all the angels of Mary, can be grasped only from the world of the angels; man falls down and covers his face with both hands, so as not to be burnt. Who is worthy to see the Triune God in His condescension to His creature? Who is worthy to grasp the greatness and omnipotence of God in its aeon-wide and yet most intimate nearness to the greatest and most precious of all creatures—how it encamps all around this creature and enfolds it with all its majesty, while God yet remains God and the creature remains creature? Who can trace and discern the boundaries between time and eternity in this creature most beloved of God, of whom it is said: “The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways, before He made any thing from the beginning. I was set up from eternity, and of old” (cf. Prov. 8:22–23)? Theology may well have delved deep into this mystery—but God never lets the last veil be taken from Him, not even concerning Mary. Thus
Saint Elohim,
who stands second in the rank of the Seraphim, bears the fullest measure of the force and greatness of the Love of the Triune God for His creature Mary—Daughter, Mother and Bride at once: Virgin, Mother, Queen! She, playing before His Face from all eternity in this Love of the Triune God, became a handmaid on earth, conceiving the Word in a manner befitting God, and bringing Him into the world in a wretched stable, in the utmost and bitterest human poverty, amid the jubilation of all the choirs of angels! She, who embraced the world in love like her Lord and God, was rejected by this world, laughed at, mocked and crucified like Him: She—the creature—bloodlessly; He—the Son of God—with His Blood!
Still more moving, however, is how this Seraph bears Mary’s love for the Triune God, for Her God. Far beyond all that is creaturely, this love of the hidden, unassuming handmaid, the Mother of Jesus, has a power—such a power—that it not only endures the indescribable force of the Divine Love, not only bears it, but is able, beyond that, to pour it out upon Her children. Together with the answer of these Her children, She lifts Her own answer up again into the very Ring of the Most Holy Trinity. In this power, this fortitude of love, this greatness of Mary’s love, one recognises Her origin, Her beginning, Her provenance. It is as though Her power of love were equal to Her power of intercession, the one neither complete nor conceivable without the other—so deeply is Mary, the crown of all creation, built into and lifted up into the Light, the Power, the Love, the Greatness, the Holiness, the Glory and the Infinity of the Triune God.
Prayer: Holy, holy, holy art Thou, O Lord! We would laud and praise Thee with the highest thing we have as creatures: with Thine own Love, which we may sense in Mary and in Thy holy angels, and which we may shelter in the Heart of Thy Mother as the only place safe from our betrayal. She, who ever kneels before Thee in the midst of Her angels, will offer Her answer in place of ours, in Her love, and present it to Thee. O let Thyself be lauded and praised today through Mary and this Seraph, Saint Elohim, Thou Holy, Mighty, Immortal God. Amen.