Luke 1:46-47: My soul doth magnify the Lord,

47 And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

Catechumens, I entreat you. Do not shrink back. None of you should be afraid or terrified. Follow Jesus, who goes before you.

He draws you to salvation. He gathers you into the Church, which in this age is on earth. But, if you bear worthy fruit,he will draw you into "the Church of the first born, whose names are written in heaven."

"Blessed is she who believed," and blessed is he who believed, ''because what the Lord said to them will be fulfilled." Hence Mary glorifies the Lord Jesus. Her "soul glorifies the Lord," her "spirit glorifies God."- Origen, Homily VII on Luke

#Biblical_commentary
#Luke
#Origen
#Mariology

How even non pictorial gestures and items used in Liturgy serve as a kind of Icon

Oh my God😭😍 So deep! So beautiful😭

If you are feeling down, remember that as a Christian, your presence in creation is God's grace at work in the world, sustaining it and fixing it little by little. No matter how imperfect one is.

Source: Humankind and the Cosmos- Early Christian Representations, Doru Costache (pg.47)

#Early_Christian_Studies
#Creation
#Soteriology

Even the Virgin who gave Thee life, Grace undefiled, who bore Thee her Child without stain in her virgin womb, was thought to have betrayed her bed.

And she, with child, O Blessed One, did say: Chastely I live for Thee, And holding my lighted lamps, My Spouse, I go forth to meet Thee.

St Methodius of Olympus, Symposium

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#Mariology

Edgar Allan Poe on Mary:

At morn - at noon - at twilight dim -
Maria! thou has heard my hymn!
In joy & woe - in good & ill -
Mother of God, be with me still!
When the hours flew brightly by,
& now a cloud obscured the sky,
My soul, lest it should truant be,
Thy grace did guide to thine & thee

#Poetry
#Mariology

Luke 22:42-44
"Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done."

And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.

And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

#Bible_verse
#Luke

Holy and wise in all things was the all-blessed Virgin; in all ways peerless among all nations, and unrivalled among women. Not as the first virgin Eva, who being alone in the garden, was in her weak mind led astray by the serpent; and so took his advice and brought death into the world; and because of that hath been all the suffering of saints. But in her alone, in this Holy Virgin Mary, the Stem of Life hath shot up for us. For she alone was spotless in soul and body.- St Gregory Thaumaturgus, Homily concerning the Holy Mother of God.

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#St_Gregory_Thaumaturgus
#Mariology