For each and every faithful, the presence of St. Mary,
mother of God, amongst us is a great blessing and an
excellent source of intercession. St. Mary is the virgin
lady who humbled herself for the cent percent disposal of
God Almighty in her very young age itself and hence she
could become a part and parcel of the great salvation
scheme of God. That is why we do venerate St. Mary as
first among all the saints. The fact that she gave birth
to Lord Jesus is less important than her co-operation with
God’s master plan of salvation of the entire mankind as
well as the entire universe. The Holy Scripture give us a
clear account of so many noble ladies from the time of Eve
till the incarnation of our Lord, who had expected that
God would incarnate from the womb of any one of those
ladies of Israel. St. Mary was selected by God Almighty to
execute His master plan. So St. Mary has a very highly
exalted position in the presence of God Almighty. When we
would look into the biography of St. Mary, we could say
that there wouldn’t be anybody else in this world who has
suffered tortures so much physically and mentally
like St. Mary. When she was a young girl itself she bore
our Lord in her womb and gave birth. When it was revealed
that she was carrying, how much persecutions and tortures
of different modes had pained the blessed mother. She did
not get a house to give birth to her son and finally she
had to take
refuge in a manger. How many times she had to meet people
who faced her with bad names and accusations. Just try to
imagine the innocent mind of a teenaged girl. But she
suffered everything patiently with great will power
granted by God Almighty. So the Church Fathers honor her
with the
salutation “Oh mother of God who had been attacked by the
swords of tortures and sufferings”. Only at the occasion
of the marriage at Kana, we find recognition for the
mother of our Lord Jesus. She was also invited with Lord
Jesus and his Apostles. This is the first occasion where
St. Mary’s intercession to her son is noticed. We know
what had happened there later. St. Mary told the servants
of the house to do what her son would ask them to do. From
this incident we have to learn a big lesson that we have
to invite St. Mary, other saints, and the entire heavenly
group with God Almighty, to our midst always. St. Mary
noticed the shortage in the house of the marriage at Kana
and brought the matter before her son, who could solve the
problems of any kind. Likewise she does the intercession
for our shortcomings always if we provide proper place for
her in our lives.
The official teaching of the Holy Church about St. Mary is
as follows.
1) The word of God by the annunciation of Angel Gabriel
took the body in the womb of St. Mary. (St. Luke 1:35)
2) The two natures, Godly and human were united together
firm, as one and it could not be separated. (Colossians
2:9, Hebrews 2:9, Titus 2:13, Titus
3:16)
3) As she gave birth to Emmanuel, who is full man and full
God, she is to be called ‘mother of God’ (Isaiah 7:14)
4) The blessed virgin offered her womb as the throne of
Son of God, and she remained forever as virgin. ( St. John
19:26-27., Ezekiel 44: 1-3)
5) As per the word of the Angel, we must venerate the holy
mother and must
seek her intercession. (St. Luke 1:28, 1: 48)
(The above mentioned points are taken from the book
“Doctrines of the
Church” by the saintly Vattasseril Thirumeni [see our
church history].) In
our morning prayers we pray “Holy virgin, mother of God,
please beseech for us to have peace among us and mercy
upon us. Let the wars come to an end, and let our Rulers
stay in peace, and let our Church be glorified. And allow
the members of our Holy Church to celebrate feasts by
having unseen
great powers, by your earnest appeals to God Almighty.” We
find Lord Jesus entrusting His own mother to the H. Church
when he was on the cross facing the death. He entrusted
St. Mary with St. John, the youngest Apostle whom he loved
more, and said “behold thy mother” (St. John 19:27) St.
John accepted the mother of God as per his master’s
instruction and the tradition says that St. Mary spent
rest of her time on earth under the care and protection of
St. John. The Church Fathers are of the opinion that St.
John had acted for and on behalf of the Holy Church. When
St. Mary was about to join her heavenly abode, Lord Jesus
appeared there with the angels, Archangels, saints as well
as the heavenly group and they all together took St. Mary
to heaven. At the time of Ascension of St. Mary all the
Apostles who were scattered all over the world were
brought together to her. St. Thomas who
was much far away had traveled in the air and in the mid
air he met the divine procession of the Ascension of St.
Mary. It is believed that St. Thomas was presented with a
small portion of the towel of the mother, as a visible
symbol of his meeting with the divine royal procession. (A
small portion of this holy relic is placed in Devalokam
Catholicate Chapel.)
In our H. Church due reverence and honor is granted to St.
Mary in our worships and prayers. In the Sacrament of Holy
Qurbana, the crown of all sacraments, we remember and
honor the presence of St Mary all along the divine
service. In addition to the prayers and intercessions, we
use certain
utensils as the symbolic presence of St. Mary. One among
them is the Table of Gospel .(Evengalion Table) As St.
Mary bore the word of God in her womb and gave birth to
Lord Jesus, the table of Gospel carries the word of God.
So the table of Gospel stands for St. Mary and the place
for the table is very close to the altar. (In some
churches at least, it is kept else where without proper
care and attention. This is a wrong procedure. It is to be
rectified. And nothing other than the book of Gospel and
the candle stands should be kept on it) The second one is
the Sosafa, which covers the holy mysteries, which in due
course is transformed as the flesh and blood of our Lord.
Until the elevation and celebration of the Sosafa, it
covers the paten and chalice from the final act of the
Thooyobo. When the Sosafa is
celebrated, it is kept near the chalice and platen. Before
the hymn “Anpudayone nin vaathil” or the Hearken the
Deacon who takes the censor takes the permission from all
the present in the sanctuary in the order of their
ranks/seniority and then takes the permission from the
congregation by holding his open hands towards them, in
the meaning of requesting their prayer. At this time he is
representing St. John the Apostle who accepted Lord’s
mother as per Lord’s command from the cross. “Behold thy
mother”. Lord entrusted his mother to the Church as
Church’s mother. Then the Deacon washes his hands and goes
back to the altar and folds the sosaffa. Then he keeps it
close to the platen and chalice, to show our mother’s
eternal presence with God and among the heavenly group.
The Holy Church teaches that St. Mary was also born as an
ordinary human being and when the H. Spirit anointed her,
she became holy. So the date of birth of St. Mary is not
at all significant and important than the date of
Ascension. 8 days lent was introduced in the H. Church in
the late 15th
century due to the arrival of Catholicism into India.
Whereas 15 days lent is a step to attain purity and
holiness to worship God in the real sense and to seek the
unending intercession of St. Mary by attending her
Ascension. St. Paul strictly taught to look for the end of
the saints. (Refer I
Corinthians) That is why the H. Church does not canonize 8
days lent. 15 days lent is a canonized lent along with the
other 4 Lents, 3 days, 13 days, 25 days and 50 days. There
is nothing wrong in honoring St. Mary at any time by
observing Lents/fasting, but it should not be under any
cause ignoring
and disregarding the canonized lent of l5 days to venerate
St. Mary. By mistake a wrong interpretation has come up
among us. We think the presence of certain saints must be
in certain churches only. For Example, we blindly believe
that special intercession of St. Mary will be in Manarcadu
Church, St. George’s in Puthuppally, St. Gregorios’ in
Parumala etc. But it is a very wrong thought and belief.
We should not forget that in the early centuries almost
all Churches were dedicated to St. Mary. Now also it
is mandatory to dedicate either one of the altars in the
name of St. Mary. We should not try to limit them to
certain boundaries. We must try to experience of all
saints, including mother of God anywhere and everywhere,
where there is God. We should not forget that all saints
remain in God and with God. Let us try to see St. Mary and
other saints with God wherever we are. May the
intercession of St. Mary be fort of protection for one and
all.
Please mail
[email protected] for all
clarifications.
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