Advent with St John Paul II
Rev Chris finishes his series with St John Paul II, Eileen Grant writes on the chief mystery of Christmas - God in the flesh. Our lesser spotted Saint is St Manire. Welcome!
We are now in the last week of Advent with Rev Chris Doig finishing his series with St John Paul II. If you have missed any, scroll down to the bottom of the email and click on St Moluag’s Coracle which will take you to an archive of past newsletters.
Week 1: St John the Evangelist
Week 2: St John the Baptist
Week 3: St John Damascene
Week 4: St John Paul II
Each week will be based on the thought and spirituality of the saint while considering the meaning of Advent and the tradition and practices of the season.
The Church’s liturgy now begins to shift as we approach the Great Mystery of our salvation. John the Baptist has lifted up his voice in the wilderness and points us towards the One who is to come; but before that, there is someone else to whom we must draw our attention.
It seems like the pace is picking up; we no longer hear Isaiah alone but the voices of other prophets – Zephaniah, Jeremiah and Malachi; we hear the O antiphons too, if not in Church then all over the internet. There is a liturgical crescendo happening here and we are invited to pick up our tent and move quickly; let us run for the Judean hills where we will meet the Mother of God, the most blessed among women (Lk 1:42) whose womb is the tent of Our Lord.[1] She is the virgin who will conceive and bear a son to be called Immanuel (Is 7:14) who “will save his people from their sins (Mt 1:21).”
Now, we need a guide to take us there. There is a man who has also spent many years in the desert – a cultural and political one; it was a world which was losing contact with its Lord and Creator and cut itself off from the supply of living water. St. John Paul II’s guide through this barren desert was Mary the Mother of God, to whom he dedicated his whole papacy – Totus tuus, ‘totally yours’ his motto read.
St. John Paul II tells us that Christ would not have been born if it were not for Mary’s Yes to God. God humbles Himself so much that he depends on human agency. Last week John Damascene told us that God comes to us in accordance with our nature. He doesn’t come to uproot our nature but to restore it, but it requires a firm Yes on our part. Mary freely gives her all to God; this is expressed beautifully in the Greek optative verb genoito.[2] She doesn’t just passively let God’s plan happen but actively embraces it. For this reason the Pope calls her ‘the Mediatrix of that Great Mystery,’ or ‘the Mediatrix for the Incarnation.’ Following St. Irenaeus, he also sees Mary as “the cause of our salvation.”[3] Mary’s Yes was made in view of all mankind[4] so that a spiritual marriage could take place between the Son of God and human nature,[5] which can be seen clearly in the Wedding Feast at Cana. The Holy Father loves this passage and comments on it extensively in his encyclical Redemptoris Mater (Mother of the Redeemer). He notes the importance of Mary’s role as mediatrix: she prompts her Son to perform the miracle, to begin “His hour” and it is through her that “the disciples came to believe in Him (Jn 2:12).”[6] Mary is a dramatic persona in God’s plan of salvation because she was to chosen “to fix the fall of Eve, to restore the dignity of man and contribute to his new destiny.”[7]
God prepared her for her mission to be the Mother of Jesus in her Immaculate Conception. She had an even greater freedom precisely because she was “full of grace” or “highly favoured.” This fullness of grace which Mary has “overflows to us and in this plenitude of grace Mary excels all the saints.”[8] The tent of her womb was so holy, precious and adorned with beauty that the Word found a perfect home to dwell in. If we model ourselves on her, just as Pope John Paul II did, we will be able to open wide the doors of our tents and “let the king of glory enter in (Ps 23:7)” and allow the Lord be born in us in a more powerful way. Mary’s Yes marks the beginning of her Son’s earthly hour. Will our Yes be a new beginning of His spiritual hour in us?
Let us contemplate this Great Mystery in our hearts as we remain close to the Word in Mary’s womb in these days leading up to Christmas, and then let us march on to Bethlehem to see the one “who is to come (Lk 7:19)”: the light that overcomes the darkness (Jn 1:5), “the water that gushes in the desert (Is 35:6)”, “who fills the starving with good things and casts the mighty from their thrones (Lk 1:52-53)”; who gives the blind their sight, makes the lame walk and the deaf hear (Lk 7:22). Venite, adoremus!
[1] Blessed Isaac of Stella, Sermo 51: PL 194, 1862-1865[2] John Paul II, General Audience, 4 September 1996, Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II XIX/2 (1996) p. 273. [3] Irenaeus of Lyons, Adversus Haeresus, V, 19, 1. [4] John Paul II, General Audience, 1 May 1996, Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II XIX/1 (1996) p. 1122. [5] St. Thomas Aquinas, S.T, III, a.30, 1. [6] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter, Redemptoris Mater, 25 March 1987, 21. [7] John Paul II, General Audience, 24 January 1996, Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II XIX/1 (1996) pp. 115-117. [8] St Thomas Aquinas, S.T. III, vol.51, Our Lady, trans. and ed. Thomas R. Heath, O.P, appendix, 1, pp.93-95.
Season of Wonder
By Eileen Claire Grant
“The Word became flesh and lived among us” (John 1:14). Each Christmas we listen to these words; each Christmas we sing these words: “Veiled in flesh the Godhead see/Hail the Incarnate Deity!” “Word of the Father/Now in flesh appearing.” Even those who have little or no knowledge of Jesus Christ know and may even sing these words at Christmas. Yet how many of us ever pause for a moment to reflect on the meaning of these unusual words?
Saint Manire/Manir, Bishop and Confessor, 824AD
Feast Day, 18th or 19th December
St Manire was one of Scotlands Pictish Saints who operated in Deeside at Ballater and Braemar. His mission was to Picts who had been evangelized but much of their previous belief still persisted. The Aberdeen Breviary mentions that the early (Gaelic) missionaries were less adept in the language of the people here (Picts) and so this obviously effected the efficacy of their preaching and teaching. St Manir on the other hand, could speak both languages, Gaelic and Pictish, and even the dialects of the areas he worked in.
There is evidence that his muinntir was at a place called Rhynabaich just North of the Aberdeen-Braemar Road where you will find a standing stone - all that is left of the building. Local place names like ‘Pollmanire’ (Pool of Manire) and ‘Creag Eaglais’ (the hill of the Church) point to the Saints activities in this area. It is believed that he was buried at Crathie, Ballater - in his church. However the current Crathie Kirk that stands just south of this shows no remains of a building older than the medieval period.
Whats On
The studies have been created by The St. Paul Center (https://stpaulcenter.com), an institute founded by Scott Hahn, a convert to Catholicism. They are part of their "Journey through Scripture" series (see https://stpaulcenter.com/studi.../journey-through-scripture/ for more details).
The course lasts for 90 minutes, one day a week for 7 weeks. This is a great course to help deepen your understanding of our faith, a greater appreciation of God's immense love for us and, hopefully, a greater zeal for spreading the Gospel!
To join; just email biblestudy@rcda.scot saying which session (Tuesday evening or Thursday afternoon) you would like to join.
If you have missed any past Coracles you can click here. Most of our past articles are on the roughbounds website along with this years Highland Mens Conference. Please click on the button below. We are currently putting on the website most of Bishop Hugh Gilberts Catechetical talks. They are already on the RCDA website but he has given us permission to put them up on the roughbounds site as well.
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