{"id":6542,"date":"2014-03-24T20:30:36","date_gmt":"2014-03-24T19:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/?p=6542"},"modified":"2014-03-25T08:29:55","modified_gmt":"2014-03-25T07:29:55","slug":"coming-to-fulfil-what-is-written-of-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2014\/03\/coming-to-fulfil-what-is-written-of-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Coming to fulfil what is written of me"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Annunciation in the Mectildian Jubilee Year<\/strong><\/p>\n

By a wonderful and mysterious disposition of Divine Providence, Mother Mectilde de Bar received permission for the first solemn exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Institute of Perpetual Adoration on the feast of the Annunciation, 25 March 1653. This was no mere coincidence; the Finger of God was in it.<\/p>\n

Reading the Meaning of Events<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is more than a mere historical event; it belongs, rather, to those mysterious events that contain within themselves the seed and the grace of every future development. The first solemn exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament could have happened on another day. There is no shortage of feasts in the liturgical year that would have been suitable but, of all of them, God chose this one: the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Incarnation of the Word.<\/p>\n

The Virgin of the Annunciation<\/strong><\/p>\n

In sacred art, the Virgin of the Annunciation is depicted either seated, with the book of the prophets or of the psalms lying open in her lap, or holding a spindle and engaged in weaving a cloth of great beauty. Both representations are symbolic.<\/p>\n

The Virgin Listening<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the first we see Our Lady reading the Word of God.\u00a0 She listens to the Word of God; she repeats it and, by repetition, takes it into herself; she allows the Word addressed to her to become in the sanctuary of her heart the Word she addresses to God; and, then, by the action of the Holy Ghost, she so gives herself to the Word, that the heart of the Word begins its eternal rhythm beneath her heart, pulsating within her virginal womb as the heart of the Host pulsates on the pure white linen of the corporal in the Holy Sacrifice.<\/p>\n

The Virgin Weaving<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the second image we see Our Lady weaving; in her immaculate hands, all the threads of Israel\u2019s history, and of her own, enter into the fulfillment of God\u2019s perfect design. Mary of Nazareth is not weaving a veil of wool and silk and linen for use in the temple in Jerusalem; she is weaving the most sacred liturgical vesture of all \u2014 a human body \u2014 for the Eternal High Priest who is about to offer Himself as the pure victim, the holy victim, the spotless victim in the sanctuary of her womb.<\/p>\n

The Angel<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is precisely at this moment \u2014 however we may choose to understand it \u2014 that the Archangel makes his entrance. He enters, he speaks, he receives the long\u2013awaited answer from the lips of the Virgin only to make possible another entrance: the solemn entrance of Christ into space and time; the arrival of the High Priest, the Lamb of Sacrifice, the Victim prepared from the beginning of the world (Apocalypse 13:8).<\/p>\n

Temple and Altar<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mary of Nazareth was, in spite of her youth, in perfect readiness for this moment. She felt a trembling in her womb, the blazing up of a fire, the movement, as it were, of priestly steps hastening to ascend the altar. Overshadowed by the Holy Ghost, she understood in an instant of incandescent light that her body had become a temple more spacious than the temple in Jerusalem, that her womb had become an altar, and her heart the Holy of Holies.<\/p>\n

She remembered David\u2019s mystic utterance in Psalm 39 and, was astonished to hear it repeated within herself by a voice that, without being hers, was perfectly attuned to her own.<\/p>\n

No sacrifice, no offering was thy demand; enough that thou hast given me an ear ready to listen. Thou hast not found any pleasure in burnt-sacrifices, in sacrifices for sin.\u00a0See then, I said, I am coming to fulfil what is written of me, where the book lies unrolled; to do thy will, O my God, is all my desire, to carry out that law of thine which is written in my heart. (Psalm 39:7\u20139)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My body, she whispered, has become a temple; my womb has become an altar. My fiat<\/i> has opened heaven. The Holy Ghost has seized flesh of my flesh and blood of my blood so that, at last God may find on earth the one priest and one victim worthy of Himself.<\/p>\n

Saint Luke’s Account<\/strong><\/p>\n

Saint Luke, of course, relates none of this explicitly in his account of the Annunciation. He writes of the Angel Gabriel sent from God, of the Virgin named Mary, who was betrothed to Joseph, and of the dialogue on which hung the salvation of the world. He writes of the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, of the sign of old Elizabeth found with child and already in her sixth month, and of a sign greater and more wonderful still, for to God nothing is impossible.<\/p>\n

As Christ Comes Into the World<\/strong><\/p>\n

Saint Luke gives us the Virgin\u2019s response,\u201d Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be unto me according to thy word\u201d (Luke 1:38), and then, telling us of the Angel\u2019s quick return to heaven, he covers all the rest in a veil of silence. To understand the mystery in its fulness, we are obliged to go to the Letter to the Hebrews.<\/p>\n

As Christ comes into the world, he says, No sacrifice, no offering was thy demand; thou hast endowed me, instead, with a body. Thou hast not found any pleasure in burnt-sacrifices, in sacrifices for sin. See then, I said, I am coming to fulfil what is written of me, where the book lies unrolled; to do thy will, O my God. (Hebrews 10:5\u20137)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Towards the Altar of the Cross<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Annunciation is the great and solemn festival of the Victimhood of the Son of God. It is the beginning of the solemn entrance procession of the Eternal High Priest.\u00a0 It sets in motion the immense movement of return to the Father by which the Word, having espoused our humanity, prepares to ascend to the altar where He will be immolated and glorified.<\/p>\n

Today Mary receives into the sanctuary of her womb, and upon the altar of her heart, the one Victim necessary, the only Victim worthy of God, the Victim whose coming the world desired, the prophets announced, the psalmists sang, and the children of Israel awaited in hope.<\/p>\n

First he says, Thou didst not demand victim or offering, the burnt-sacrifice, the sacrifice for sin, nor hast thou found any pleasure in them; in anything, that is, which the law has to offer, and then:\u2014I said, See, my God, I am coming to do thy will. He must clear the ground first, so as to build up afterwards. In accordance with this divine will we have been sanctified by an offering made once for all, the body of Jesus Christ. (Hebrews 10:8\u201310)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Radiant in the Light of the Sacred Host<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the mystery of the Annunciation in all its mystic fulfilment. The Annunciation cannot be celebrated, nor can it be meditated, nor can it be understood, apart from this, the Great Entrance of Christ the Victim, the beginning of the one Holy Sacrifice shown forth in the Cenacle, consummated on Calvary, ceaselessly offered in the sanctuary of heaven, and perpetuated until the end of time of earth in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. This, it seems to me, is why the Providence of God ordained that the Benedictines of Perpetual Adoration should first emerge from the shadows and become radiant in the light of the Sacred Host on the feast of the Annunciation.<\/p>\n

Receive Him<\/strong><\/p>\n

Receive today the Divine Victim into yourselves, even as the Virgin of Nazareth received Him into herself. Let Him find within you a sanctuary for the offering of His Sacrifice, an altar for His immolation, and an adoring silence worthy of His divine liturgy. Even more, let Him find you ready for His immolation, not as spectators looking on in awe, but as souls wholly abandoned to the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost.<\/p>\n

Lord Jesus Christ,
\nDivine Victim hid in the sanctuary of Mary\u2019s womb
\nand immolated upon the altar of her heart,
\nunite us to Thyself:
\nour bodies to Thy Body,
\nour blood to Thy Blood,
\nour souls to Thy Soul,
\nour hearts to Thy Heart,
\nso as to make us with Thyself
\none Priest and one Victim
\noffered to the glory of the Father,
\nout of love for Thy Spouse, the Church,
\nand in reparation for the sins by which Thy Sacrifice is scorned,
\nThy presence dishonoured,
\nand the brightness of Thy glory dimmed in the sight of men
\nwho, even without knowing it,
\nyearn to gaze upon the beauty of Thy Face.
\nAmen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Annunciation in the Mectildian Jubilee Year By a wonderful and mysterious disposition of Divine Providence, Mother Mectilde de Bar received permission for the first solemn exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Institute of Perpetual Adoration on the feast of the Annunciation, 25 March 1653. This was no mere coincidence; the Finger of <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[146,14,83,145],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adoration-of-the-most-holy-sacrament-of-the-altar","category-blessed-virgin-mary","category-mectilde-de-bar","category-mectildian-jubilee-year-1614-2014"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-1Hw","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6542"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6542"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6548,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6542\/revisions\/6548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}