It has been a whirlwind of a few days for me. Between company going and coming and going again, and all the multiple airport runs that entails, I have been caught up in a beautiful festivity.
This day just passed was the feast of the Maternity of the Blessed Mother. This happens to be a feast on the “old” calendar that was stripped from the new. I cannot for the life of me figure out why a hierarchy that seems to detest motherhood (let alone authentic women) would want to suppress such a feast. Remember when he said our mothers needn’t “breed like rabbits”? What a vile and vulgar man…
I remember in seminary when our weekly rector’s conference was replaced one week by an aging couple who appeared at the pulpit in our chapel to teach us seminarians all about the joys of natural family planning. Oh they checked all the boxes of NuChurch fabulosity. They kind of reminded me of Bob and Penny Lord but without the charm. Plastered smiles and helmeted hair… Keep in mind that Aquinas was nowhere on our reading list; but NFP? They made sure we knew every in and out and, well, mostly out. It seemed to me that the number one priority of a priest was to teach couples how not to create souls for God.
My brother texted me this evening. “Did you celebrate John XXIII?” My reply, “Gross,” apparently was not what he was expecting. No, instead I started the day at the start of the day – midnight – in Adoration and singing 35 minutes of Marian hymns with other parishioners as a gift to Our Mother. I rounded out the day with my 15 decades and a sung Mass.
While I was kneeling during the canon, incense still billowing through the sanctuary, a thought came to me. Our Lord gave us this Mass because he loves us. He loves us enough to have died for us. And he loves us enough to give me – a degenerate and faithless sinner – a way to tell Him I love Him too. This Mass, this liturgy is His. It is His gift to us for it is His sacrifice but also because it is not an invention of man. Read the Fathers. Read Fortescue. Read the seers and visionaries and all the Catholic prophecies. Christ Himself showed us how to worship Him. This is in stark contrast to the New Order Mass written by Freemasons on a napkin in a cafe.
And then it really hit me. This is all possible because Mary is a mother. She was the living tabernacle of the Son of God. She suffered with Him in His sacrifice that I now kneel before. And He brought her body and soul to His glory. My Mother, your Mother is queen of Heaven and Earth because she is a mother.
Moms out there, let that sink in next time you doubt your vocation.
Mother Most Holy, pray for us!
Harvey Millican's Blog: Musings of a Trad Dad 