Mary, Mother of the Church

[Nick Baty]

Is anyone else marking the new feast of Mary, Mother of the Church on 21 May? We've been asked to host a Mass for our pastoral area. But I just can't get my head round the suggested psalm: 86 with the refrain "Of you are told glorious things, O city of God" – and I'm not sure how it follows on from either of the suggested first readings – Genesis 3 (Eve blamed for just about everything) or Acts 1 (They joined in continuous prayer with Mary, the mother of Jesus). Any thoughts?

[markyboy2000]

This has passed me by - is it a recent addition? Our Middlesbrough Ordo doesn't mention it.

[VML]

It is new this year, and I only found it while trying to ascertain the restoring of the proper Ascension Holy Day. BTW, the CBEW website is appalling to search for anything on.

[Southern Comfort]

BTW, the CBEW website is appalling to search for anything on.

http://www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/ is your friend, or Google Liturgy Office to find the same page.

[Nick Baty]

The Liturgy Office website makes it look like a work in progress!

[markyboy2000]

Thanks for the link to the Liturgy Office. This now throws up ANOTHER 'new feast - OLJC,the eternal high priest.
Why are we expected to bring in new feasts almost without warning?
On a positive note; this morning's Ascension Mass was very well attended, as if it had never been transfered. Let's hope our bishops see sense and move Corpus Christi back where it belongs as well!

[JW]

These feasts were instituted too late to get into the 2018 Ordos so they won't be celebrated in most parishes. Feasts do tend to come and go as the years pass and perceptions change: the Circumcision of Our Lord and Our Lady of Ransom went in the 1960s.

On a really nerdy note, these new feasts haven't got into the Extraordinary Form calendar on the Liturgy Office site yet. One wonders if EF adherents will ignore them anyway. However the EF calendar for 31 May, states B. Mariae Virg. Reginae. What feast is that? We celebrate the Visitation on that day but the EF celebrates the Visitation on its pre 1969 date of 2 July.

I really should get a life!!!

[Southern Comfort]

These feasts were instituted too late to get into the 2018 Ordos so they won't be celebrated in most parishes. Feasts do tend to come and go as the years pass and perceptions change: the Circumcision of Our Lord and Our Lady of Ransom went in the 1960s.

Jan1 probably holds the record for the number of feasts attached to it. Apart from Mary, Mother of God and the Circumcision, it was also the Holy Name of Jesus.

On a really nerdy note, these new feasts haven't got into the Extraordinary Form calendar on the Liturgy Office site yet. One wonders if EF adherents will ignore them anyway. However the EF calendar for 31 May, states B. Mariae Virg. Reginae. What feast is that? We celebrate the Visitation on that day but the EF celebrates the Visitation on its pre 1969 date of 2 July.

It's the Queenship of Our Lady, every year on 31 May, no matter what weekday it is (it gives way to a Sunday, of course).

[Southern Comfort]

Is anyone else marking the new feast of Mary, Mother of the Church on 21 May? We've been asked to host a Mass for our pastoral area. But I just can't get my head round the suggested psalm: 86 with the refrain "Of you are told glorious things, O city of God" – and I'm not sure how it follows on from either of the suggested first readings – Genesis 3 (Eve blamed for just about everything) or Acts 1 (They joined in continuous prayer with Mary, the mother of Jesus). Any thoughts?

The refrain on the Liturgy Office website seems to be a mistake by Rome. It should be "You are the highest honour of our race" with Judith 13:18-19, refrain = 15.19), as in the Votive Masses of Our Lady. Lots of people seem to be using a setting of the Magnificat instead (please, not the Wild Mountain Thyme version!).

The Roman error seems to arise from the fact that the Latin of the refrain "Of you are told glorious things..." is Gloriosa dicta sunt, which, without seeing the rest of it, looks like the start of the Communion antiphon for the Immaculate Conception which begins Gloriosa dicta sunt de te Maria and not Gloriosa dicta sunt de te civitate Dei which is what they have mistakenly specified. The Immaculate Conception antiphon is paired with the Magnificat for verses in the Graduale Romanum, so anyone using the Magnificat instead of the psalm (see above) is on the right lines.

My apologies for taking so long to realize the source of the error!

[FrGareth]

Is anyone else marking the new feast of Mary, Mother of the Church on 21 May? We've been asked to host a Mass for our pastoral area. But I just can't get my head round the suggested psalm: 86 with the refrain "Of you are told glorious things, O city of God" – and I'm not sure how it follows on from either of the suggested first readings – Genesis 3 (Eve blamed for just about everything) or Acts 1 (They joined in continuous prayer with Mary, the mother of Jesus). Any thoughts?

Nothing unusual about Psalm 87 Vulgate (86 in most Bibles) in this context. A 'typological' reading of Scripture sees the CIty of Zion as symbol both of the church and of the Virgin Mary.

Verse 2 - the 'gates of Zion' could be a symbol of membership of the church by baptism, or the passing from the womb of Mary by the Christ child.

Verse 3 - glorious things - think of the Magnificat or the Scriptural roots of the Hail Mary!

Verse 5 - the 'one born in Sion' is Jesus born of Mary and every Christian born of the ministry of the church through baptism.

Verse 7 - all God's fountains are in Sion: could be an allusion to the undefined doctrine that Mary is the mediatrix of all graces; the Church through her sacraments and indulgences is the fullest locus of God's means of grace.

Meanwhile Genesis 3:15 is the prophecy of the offspring of the woman defeating Satan - a sign of Jesus son of Mary triumphing, also of every Christian 'offspring of the church' defeating evil by choosing to accept grace.

Seems quite a consistent choice for this feast to me!