Friday, April 3, 2015

Mary at the foot of the Cross



Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow . . . What can I say for you, to what compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem? What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? (Isaiah 53:7)

When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. (John 19:26-27)

The late John de Satage, an Anglican scholar from the evangelical tradition, was fond of referring to Mary as "The Mother of all her Son's people." He would explain that Mary "is the climax of the Old Testament people, the one to whom the cloud of witnesses from the ancient era look as their crowning glory, for it was through her response to grace that their Vindicator came to stand upon the earth. In the order of redemption she is the first fruits of her Son's saving work, the one among her Son's people who has gone all the way. And in the order of her Son's people, she is the mother." ( John de Satge, Mary and the Christian Gospel, SPCK, 1976, page 111.)

Father of mercies, 
whose only Son, 
hanging on the cross, 
gave his Virgin Mother Mary 
to be our Mother also. 
Grant that under her loving care, 
her children may grow daily in holiness, 
to the end that all mankind may see in your Church
the mother of all nations. 
Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, 
who lives and reigns with you, 
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, 
one God, ever and ever. Amen.




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