Daily Excerpt: Saints I Know (Sula) - St. Mary
The following excerpt comes from Saints I Know by Sula, Parish Cat at Old Mission. Appropriate for Caturday -- the book is "written" by a cat -- and for the Easter season.
Saint Mary
The one who was from birth meant to be a saint and lived a
holy and perfect life, Mary has done so much for the world and for us who live
in it that a short article simply will not suffice. I will try my best to point
out the things that seem important to a cat, but so many more things will
remain unexpressed that your chore will become to find out as many more as you
can—and probably you already know many. Mary appears in both the Bible and the Q’uran, and she has many names: Mary (Miriam in Aramaic, the language
of Jesus and the people where he grew up), the Virgin Mary, the Blessed Virgin
Mary, the Immaculate Conception, Mother of God, Mother of Jesus, and, though
her apparitions, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Mercy,
and others
The name, the Immaculate Conception, refers to Mary being
born without sin so that she would be a pure source for bearing Jesus.
Sometimes people get confused and think that immaculate conception refers to
Jesus; that is a misunderstanding, perhaps from Jesus being conceived through
the Holy Spirit.
Mary’s parents, Saint Joachim and Saint Anne (very old and barren
until she conceived Mary), gave May to the temple in service at the age of
three. Like me at the Mission, Mary grew up in the temple. Then, when she
became a teenager, she was betrothed to Joseph, an old man but a very kindly
one who could—and did—take very good care of her and her Son.
Of the important moments in Mary’s life, the appearance of
the angel Gabriel to her, announcing that God wanted her to give birth to and
raise the Messiah, had to be the most significant. In fact, it had to be
stunning. Her willingness to let that happen, to accept God’s request, to put
His will before her own, serves as an example to everyone.
Losing Jesus in the temple when he was 12 or 13, the next
momentous event that we know about, had to have created a good deal of panic.
Thankfully, she had Joseph by her side. They had not actually lost Jesus; He
was in the temple teaching. Obviously, they had not anticipated that!
The next time we hear of Mary, she nudges Jesus into His
adult ministry by asking Him to turn water into wine for a wedding couple.
Though He protested that He was not yet ready, He did as His mother asked—and
His ministry began.
Then, we see Mary at the foot of the cross during Jesus’s
crucifixion. How unbearably sad for her—for any mother! We assume that she
lived with John after that because Jesus asked Mary to look after John and John
to look after Mary.
The final picture of Mary shows her being assumed (rising
corporeally) into Heaven, rather than dying. Only Jesus and Mary have been
assumed into Heaven—the only two sinless people.
Mary has appeared to children, humble people, and future
saints for centuries. At our Mission, the most important apparition earned Mary
the name Our Lady of Guadalupe as shown in the picture above. Simplifying the
story for this short book (you can find the details online and in lots of other
places), on December 9, 1531, Mary appeared to a native American peasant, Juan
Diego, on the Hill of Tepeyac, which later became part of the Villa de Guadalupe,
near Mexico City. Mary asked that a church be built there in her honor. Juan
Diego told the archbishop, who did not believe him. A second time Juan Diego
saw Mary; she made the same request, and a second time he told the archbishop,
who told him to ask Mary for a sign. He relayed that information to Mary the
same day when he again encountered her. She promised to give him a sign the
next day. However, the next day his uncle was ill, and he had to take care of
him. Then, he had to go get a doctor to help his uncle. On the way, Mary
intercepted him, chided him for not coming back to her, and then, for the sign
the archbishop had requested, told Juan Diego to gather flowers on the hill. He
gathered Castilian roses, not native to Mexico and certainly not typically
growing on that hill in December. Mary arranged the flowers inside Juan Diego’s
cloak, and when he took them to the archbishop and opened his cloak, the
flowers fell to the floor. On Juan Diego’s cloak, the archbishop saw the image
of Mary. He kept the cloak and later put it on public display. The next day, Mary
appeared to Juan Diego’s uncle, cured him, and told him she wanted to be called
by the title of Guadalupe.
The Virgin Mary Is patron saint of the United States and all
the countries on the American continent as well as the continent of Asia. Mary
is also considered the Mother of the Church.
For more excerpts from Saints I Know, click HERE.
For more posts about Sula and her books, click HERE.
To purchase copies of this book at 25% discount,
use code FF25 at MSI Press webstore.
Want to buy this book and not have to pay for it?
Ask your local library to purchase and shelve it.
VISIT OUR WEBSITE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ALL OUR AUTHORS AND TITLES.
(recent releases, sales/discounts, awards, reviews, Amazon top 100 list, author advice, and more -- stay up to date)Check out recent issues.
Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC?
Check out information on how to submit a proposal.
We help writers become award-winning published authors. One writer at a time. We are a family, not a factory. Do you have a future with us?Turned away by other publishers because you are a first-time author and/or do not have a strong platform yet? If you have a strong manuscript, San Juan Books, our hybrid publishing division, may be able to help.
Planning on self-publishing and don't know where to start? Our author au pair services will mentor you through the process.
Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book in exchange for reviewing a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book? Contact editor@msipress.com.
Want an author-signed copy of this book? Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25) and concurrently send a written request to orders@msipress.com.Julia Aziz, signing her book, Lessons of Labor, at an event at Book People in Austin, Texas.
Want to communicate with one of our authors? You can! Find their contact information on our Authors' Pages.Steven Greenebaum, author of award-winning books, An Afternoon's Discussion and One Family: Indivisible, talking to a reader at Barnes & Noble in Gilroy, California.MSI Press is ranked among the top publishers in California.
Check out our rankings -- and more -- HERE.
Comments
Post a Comment