Friday, May 31, 2024

The first tabernacle...

Feast of the VISITATION
May 31
Blessed is she who believed that what the Lord
has said would be fulfilled. - Luke 1:45
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"O noble Virgin, truly you are greater than any other greatness. 
For who is your equal in greatness, O dwelling place of God the Word? 
To whom among all creatures shall I compare you, O Virgin? 
You are greater than them all, O Ark of the Covenant, clothed 
with purity instead of gold! You are the Ark in which is found 
the golden vessel containing the true manna, that is, 
the flesh in which Divinity resides." - St Athanasius



 “Mary also anticipated, in the mystery of the Incarnation, 
the Church’s Eucharistic faith.  When, at the Visitation, 
she bore in her womb the Word made flesh, 
she became in some way a ‘tabernacle’ 
 the first ‘tabernacle’ in history – 
in which the Son of God, 
still invisible to our human gaze, 
allowed Himself to be adored by Elizabeth 
radiating His light as it were 
through the eyes and the voice of Mary.

And is not the enraptured gaze of Mary …
that unparalleled model of love which should inspire us 
every time we receive Eucharistic communion?" 

Pope St John Paul II 
Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 55

Painting: The Visitation - Karl von Blaas

Tabernacle at St Peter Catholic Church - St Charles, Missouri - USA

“Is it not this also the joy of the Churchwhich 
receives Christ incessantly in the holy Eucharist 
and takes Him to the world with the testimony 
of active charity, full of faith and hope?

Yes, to receive Jesus and to take Him to others 
is the true joy of the Christian! Let us follow 
and imitate Mary’s profoundly Eucharistic soul
and our whole life will become a Magnificat.”

Pope Benedict XVI
31 May 2005
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"Let Mary's soul be in each of you 
to proclaim the greatness of the Lord. 
Let her spirit be in each to rejoice in the Lord. 
Christ has only one mother in the flesh,
 but we all bring forth Christ in faith." - St Ambrose


Blessed Mother Mary and St Elizabeth, 
pray for us!
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Novena to the Sacred Heart - Day 3
Solemnity: June 7