Every Sabbath (Saturday) is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary
When the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to the three shepherd children Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta at Fatima, Portugal, and asked for spreading the Five First Saturdays devotion, she thus confirmed, again, the traditional dedication of Saturdays to her and to her Immaculate Heart. The miracle of the sun on 13th October 1917, giving external proof of the supernatural authenticity of the apparition, happened on a Saturday.
And when Our Lady appeared to Saint Juan Diego in December 1531 (Our Lady of Guadalupe), it was on a Saturday as well.
This association of the Blessed Virgin with the day of the Jewish Sabbath is very ancient. And some great saints have elaborated a bit on it:
“In Mary alone did the faith of the Church remain steadfast during the three days that Jesus lay in the tomb. And although everyone else wavered, she who conceived Christ in faith, kept the faith that she had once for all received from God and never lost. Thus could she wait with assured hope for the glory of the Risen Lord.”
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
“Since the Resurrection took place on a Sunday, we keep holy this day instead of the Sabbath as did the Jews of old. However, we also sanctify Saturday in honor of the glorious Virgin Mary who remained unshaken in faith all day Saturday after the death of her Divine Son.”
Saint Thomas Aquinas
The Sabbath day of rest was the day when the Son of God rested – in the tomb – from His great work of salvation. On this day, His Mother kept believing and praying with Her Immaculate Heart.
About Saint John of the Cross, who was the son of a family of conversos, of Jewish converts to Catholicism, it is said that he spoke the following words just a few hours before his death – which happened on a Saturday:
“The Mother of God and of Carmel hastens to purgatory with grace, on Saturday, and delivers those souls who have worn her scapular. Blessed be this merciful Lady who wills that on this day of Saturday I shall depart from this life.“
Saint John of the Cross
And therefore, Saint Alphonsus Ligouri gives the following advice:
“On Saturdays we should always practice some devotion in honor of Our Blessed Lady, receive Holy Communion, or hear Mass, visit an image of Mary, or something of that sort.”
Saint Alphonsus Ligouri
Jewish Sabbath imagery: the Sabbath Queen
Sabbath begins with sundown every Friday evening and lasts until sundown on Saturday. And on the day of Christ‘s death on the cross, Sabbath began after Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had placed the body of Jesus in a tomb in a garden nearby the place of His execution:
“After these things, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate if he could take Yeshua‘s body away. Joseph was a disciple of Yeshua, but secretly for fear of the Judean leaders. Pilate gave permission, so Joseph came and took the body away. Nicodemus, who had first visited Yeshua at night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. Then they took the body of Yeshua and wrapped it in linen with the spices, as is the Jewish burial custom.
John 19: 38-42
Now in the place where He was executed, there was a garden. In the garden was a new tomb where no one had yet been buried. Because it was the Jewish Day of Preparation and the tomb was nearby, they laid Yeshua there.“
The instruction to keep the Sabbath day holy, to sanctify this day, is part of the Ten Commandments. Just as God rested on this day as the climax of the creation of the world, we shall rest.
In the Christian tradition, it is not the seventh but the “eighth“ day that is supremely sanctified and associated with the Sabbath rest, as it is the day of Christ‘s Resurrection, the first day of the New Creation. Yet it is interesting to see Saint Thomas Aquinas telling us that “we also sanctify Saturday in honor of the glorious Virgin Mary“, whereby he is in fact saying that we should sanctify both the Sabbath, the seventh day, and the eighth day. The first of these is the day dedicated to the creature with the highest honor and the second is the one dedicated to the divine Savior from her blessed womb, risen from the dead, still bearing the marks of His salvific suffering.
And we have just read the words of Saint Alphonsus Ligouri recommending to sanctify the Sabbath day with some special devotion to the Blessed Virgin that goes beyond our usual affection for and honoring of her. One can only conclude, then, that both days, the Sabbath and Sunday, should be distinguished from the rest of the week.
We should, then, not think that the Sabbath day was somehow “switched“ or transferred by the Christians from Saturday to Sunday – and thereby “abolished“. No one can change the days and times appointed by God. The seventh day is always the seventh day – and we will forever, unchangingly, read in the books of Genesis and Exodus that the seventh day is a holy day. And not one single word from the books of the Old Testament is ever obsolete for us.
The Church Fathers, therefore, never taught the “abolishment“ of the Sabbath, and they called Sunday either the “eighth day“, the Lord‘s Day, or the first day of the week. They only taught that the Jewish Sabbath observances were not binding any more. And they proclaimed that through Christ there was now a perpetual foretaste of the heavenly Sabbath available in the daily Sacrifice of the Most Holy Eucharist, that from now on not only one day of the week but all the days of the week are to be sanctified. Something greater than the Sabbath, a signpost pointing to the messianic age, is here: the Messiah.
“The new law requires you to keep perpetual sabbath.“
Saint Justin Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, 2nd century
“But assemble yourselves together every day, morning and evening, singing psalms and praying in the Lord’s house: in the morning saying the sixty-second Psalm, and in the evening the hundred and fortieth, but principally on the Sabbath-day. And on the day of our Lord’s resurrection, which is the Lord’s day, meet more diligently, sending praise to God that made the universe by Jesus, and sent Him to us, and condescended to let Him suffer, and raised Him from the dead.“
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, 4th century
“The day of the preparation, then, comprises the passion; the Sabbath embraces the burial; the Lord’s Day contains the resurrection.“
Saint Ignatius of Antioch in his Epistle to the Trallians (Longer Version), 2nd century
The Sabbath “embraces the burial“ of Christ just like Mary embraced Him when his dead body was placed into her arms after having been taken down from the cross.
So do we honor the Sabbath in some way, do we sanctify it (alongside the eighth day) – by giving special honor to the Blessed Virgin Mary?
I find it quite mind-blowing to behold how the connection between the Sabbath day and Our Lady, the Queen of heaven, is inscribed into some of the Jewish Sabbath rituals. First of all, it is always the woman of the household who lights the two Shabbat candles on the table and recites the blessing over them. Bread (challah) and wine are also present on the table. The blessing of these is reserved for the man.
“Blessed are You, Lord, our God, King of the Universe, who sanctifies us with his commandments, and commands us to light the candles of Shabbat. Amen.“
Shabbat Blessing over the candles
Before the meal takes place, the Sabbath is welcomed with “Kabbalat Shabbat“ prayers. Kabbalat Shabbat means “welcoming the Sabbath“. The prayers recited are psalms (Ps 92-99), and a special hymn is sung: Lecha Dodi. This song is a composition from the 16th century by a Sephardic Jew and envisions the Sabbath as a “Bride“, as a “Queen“:
“Come my Beloved / to greet the bride
Lecha Dodi hymn
The Sabbath presence / let us welcome!
‘Observe’ and ‘Remember’
both uttered as one
The One and Only God / made us hear
The LORD is one / and His Name is one
for renown, for splendor / and for praise
Come my Beloved …
To welcome the Sabbath / come let us go
for it is the / source of blessing
from the beginning / from antiquity
She was honored
last in deed but / first in thought
Come my Beloved …
O Sanctuary of the King / royal city
Arise and depart
from amid the upheaval
too long have you dwelled / in the valley of weeping
He will shower / compassion upon you
Come my Beloved …
Shake off the dust, arise!
Don your splendid clothes
My people
through the son of Jesse / the Bethlehemite!
Draw near to my soul
Redeem it!
Wake up! Wake up!
For your light has come
Rise up and shine
Awaken, awaken, / utter a song
The glory of the LORD / is revealed on you
Come my Beloved …
Feel not ashamed / be not humiliated
Why are you downcast?
Why are you disconsolate?
In you will My people’s / afflicted find shelter
As the City is built / upon its hilltop
Come my Beloved …
May your oppressors / be downtrodden
And may those who / devoured you
be cast far off
Your God will rejoice / over you
Like a groom’s rejoicing / over his bride
Come my Beloved …
Rightward and leftward / you shall spread
out mightily / and you shall extol
the might of the LORD
through the man / descended from Peretz
Then we shall be / glad and mirthful
Come my Beloved …
Enter in peace
O crown of her husband
Even in joyous song / and good cheer
Among the faithful / of the treasured nation
Enter, O bride!
Enter, O bride!
Come my Beloved …“
But the imagery of the Sabbath Queen is much more ancient than this hymn. It‘s already present in the Talmud which was composed in the first few centuries of our era, the era of our Church Fathers. And the Talmud itself is a written recording of older oral traditions.
Here is what Abraham Joshua Heschel, a Jewish scholar who lived from 1907 to 1972, has to say about the idea of the Sabbath as a Bride or Queen in his quite famous book The Sabbath. Its Meaning for Modern Man:
“Only two generations had gone by since the time of Rabbi Shimeon and there was a new tone in the celebration of the day. About the middle of the third century, distinguished scholars speak of the seventh day not as if referring to abstract time, elusive and constantly passing us by. The day was a living presence, and when it arrived they felt as if a guest had come to see them. And, surely, a guest who comes to pay a call in friendship or respect must be given a welcome. It is, indeed, told of Rabbi Yannai that his custom was to don his robes on the eve of the Sabbath, and then address himself to the ethereal guest: ‘Come O Bride, Come O Bride.‘ Of another contemporary, Rabbi Hanina the Great, we know that at the sunset of Sabbath eve, he would clothe himself in beautiful robes, burst forth in a dance and exclaim, presumably in the presence of his friends: ‘Come, let us go out to welcome the Queen Sabbath.‘ (…)
Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Sabbath. Its Meaning for Modern Man, Farrar, Straus und Giroux 2005, p. 53-55; 60-61
The Sabbath is a bride, and its celebration is like a wedding. (…) ‘There is a hint of this in the Sabbath prayers. In the Friday evening service we say Thou hast sanctified the seventh day, referring to the marriage of the bride to the groom (sanctification is the Hebrew word for marriage). In the morning prayer we say: Moses rejoiced in the gift (of the Sabbath) bestowed upon him which corresponds to the groom‘s rejoicing with the bride. In the additional prayer we make mention of the two lambs, the fine flour for a meal offering, mingled with oil and the drink thereof referring to the meat, the bread, the wine, and the oil used in the wedding banquet. (In the last hour of the day we say) Thou art One to parallel the consummation of the marriage by which the bride and groom are united.“
“The seventh day was full of both loveliness and majesty – an object of awe, attention and love. Friday eve, when the Sabbath is about to engross the world, the mind, the entire soul, and the tongue is tied with trembling and joy – what is there that one could say? To those who are not vulgarized, who guard their words from being tainted, queen, bride, signify majesty tempered with mercy and delicate innocence that is waiting for affection.
The idea of the Sabbath as a bride was retained by Israel; it is the theme of the hymn Lechah Dodi chanted in the synagogue. Even the sanctification over wine was explained with the idea that, just as the wedding ceremony is performed over a cup of wine, so Sabbath is ‘the bride that enters the hupah.‘ To this day the meal on Saturday night is called ‘the escort of the queen.‘
‘The reason why the people extend the observance of the Sabbath to a part of Saturday night is to thank and to show that they do not like to see the departure of the holy guest, that her parting evokes a deep feeling of regret. This is why they detain her, and in their affection accompany her with song and praise … as it is said in a Midrash: This may be compared to a bride and queen who is escorted with song and praise.‘“
This practice of the Saturday night meal in honor of the Sabbath Queen – which technically is not part of the Sabbath day any more – is called Melaveh Malkah („escorting the Queen“). The family gathers together for one more meal and a joyful recreational time as a proper goodbye to the Sabbath Queen. There is a midrash – an exegetical teaching – in the Jewish tradition according to which this Melaveh Malkah meal goes back to King David who inquired of God when he would die. God revealed to him that he would die on a Sabbath, and from then on King David held a feast at the end of every Sabbath to give thanks for entering into another week of life.
Athol Bloomer, a lay missionary of the Missionary Society of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, gave a series of talks in the 1990s on the Eucharist and Jewish Mystical Tradition, which were then also published in The Hebrew Catholic, a magazine by the Association of Hebrew Catholics. In the first part of the series, he mentions this connection between the Sabbath Queen and the Blessed Virgin Mary:
“The Sabbath Bride or Queen is an image or type of Our Lady and the Church. Our Lady is the Sabbath Queen for whom Catholics honour each Saturday as a feast day of Our Lady, and the Jews unknowingly invoke her in song as the Sabbath Queen. The Orthodox Jews sing the song Lechah Dodi (Come my Beloved) each Sabbath to welcome the Sabbath Queen. The title alone links in to the Song of Songs.“
Athol Bloomer: Eucharist and Jewish Mystical Tradition. Part I, published on: https://www.hebrewcatholic.net/eucharist-jewish-mystical-tradition-part-1/
In Abraham Joshua Heschel‘s book on the Sabbath, an old Jewish allegory is quoted that goes like this:
“‘When Adam saw the majesty of the Sabbath, its greatness and glory, and the joy it conferred upon all beings, he intoned a song of praise for the Sabbath day as if to give thanks to the Sabbath day. Then God said to him: Thou singest a song of praise to the Sabbath day, and singest none to Me, the God of the Sabbath? Thereupon the Sabbath rose from its seat, and prostrated herself before God, saying: It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord. And the whole of creation added: And to sing praise unto Thy Name, O Most High.‘“
Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Sabbath. Its Meaning for Modern Man, Farrar, Straus und Giroux 2005, p. 53-55; 60-61
Now, how can the Blessed Virgin Mary, and through her the Lord our God, be honored on the Sabbath day, and the day thereby be sanctified in a way that sets it apart from the other days of the week?
Five First Saturdays devotion
Even before Sister Lucia of Fatima shared the message of Our Lady concerning the Five First Saturdays devotion, it was, as mentioned above, an established tradition since antiquity to honor Our Lady on the Sabbath. But in the Fatima message, this devotion is linked, for our current day and age, with the consecration of Russia done by the Holy Father and the bishops as a means for obtaining and maintaining peace in the world through the intercession of the Queen of Peace.
“I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church.“
Andrew Apostoli C.F.R.: Fatima for Today. The Urgent Marian Message of Hope, Ignatius Press 2010, p. 160
“Many people have unfortunately put such a stress on the consecration of Russia by the Holy Father as the condition for the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and peace in the world that they have forgotten or neglected the fact that our Lady also asked for the Five First Saturdays devotion. (…) Pope John Paul II has done his part in making the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, but are we, as Mary‘s children, doing our part by devotion to first Saturdays?“
Andrew Apostoli C.F.R.: Fatima for Today. The Urgent Marian Message of Hope, Ignatius Press 2010, p. 151
In 1925, Jesus and Mary appeared to Lucia while she was a postulant in a convent in Spain. Mary‘s Immaculate Heart was shown to her surrounded by thorns, the thorns of the “blasphemies and ingratitude“ of “ungrateful men“. The children of Fatima had seen this pierced Immaculate Heart of Mary already in 1917. Lucia put to paper these words from the Blessed Virgin concerning the Five First Saturdays devotion:
“You at least try to console me and say that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess (their sins), receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary with the intention of making reparation to me.“
Andrew Apostoli C.F.R.: Fatima for Today. The Urgent Marian Message of Hope, Ignatius Press 2010, p. 148-149
Lucia‘s confessor was skeptical when she told him about this because he “questioned whether more ardent devotion to first Saturdays was needed, since many people were already receiving Holy Communion and praying the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary on the first Saturdays of the month“ (ibid. p. 154).
Lucia asked Jesus about this objection and received the following answer:
“It is true, my daughter, that many souls begin the First Saturdays, but few finish them, and those who do complete them do so in order to receive the graces that are promised thereby. It would please me more if they did Five with fervor and with the intention of making reparation to the Heart of your heavenly Mother, than if they did Fifteen in a tepid and indifferent manner.“
Andrew Apostoli C.F.R.: Fatima for Today. The Urgent Marian Message of Hope, Ignatius Press 2010, p. 154
Self-love rather than love for Jesus and Mary motivated people to observe a First Saturday devotion, and it was often done with “indifference“ rather than with “fervor“.
In 1930, Lucia described a mystical experience during an hour of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in a letter to her confessor which explains why five first Saturdays in a row are to be spent with this devotion:
“Remaining in the chapel with Our Lord, part of the night of the 29th – 30th of that month of May, 1930, talking to our Lord about (some of those) questions, I suddenly felt possessed more intimately by the Divine Presence, and if I am not mistaken, the following was revealed to me: ‘Daughter, the motive is simple. There are five kinds of offenses and blasphemies spoken against the Immaculate Heart of Mary: blasphemies (1) against her Immaculate Conception; (2) against her perpetual virginity; (3) against her divine maternity, refusing at the same time to accept her as the Mother of mankind; (4) by those who try publicly to implant in the hearts of children an indifference, contempt, and even hate for this Immaculate Mother; and (5) for those who insult her directly in her sacred images.‘“
Andrew Apostoli C.F.R.: Fatima for Today. The Urgent Marian Message of Hope, Ignatius Press 2010, p. 157
For Lucia, it was clear that “Our Lady promised to postpone the scourge of war, if this devotion is spread and practiced“ (ibid. p. 158), war being a chastisement for or a punitive result of our sins that disrupt the order God created, causing disorder, chaos and confusion of minds and hearts. A world that turns toward the Blessed Virgin who encompasses all virtues perfectly, and through her toward God, turns toward peace, and a world that turns toward ingratitude and blasphemy sows seeds that become the fruits of war and death when ripe.
The last of the Queen invocations in the Litany of Loreto calls upon Mary as the Queen of Peace. The Hebrew word for peace – shalom – has an intimate connection with the Sabbath day and the Sabbath rest:
“For the Sabbath is a day of harmony and peace, peace between man and man, peace within man, and peace with all things. (…) The Sabbath, thus, is more than an armistice, more than an interlude; it is a profound conscious harmony of man and the world, a sympathy for all things and a participation in the spirit that unites what is below and what is above.“
Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Sabbath. Its Meaning for Modern Man, Farrar, Straus und Giroux 2005, p. 31-32
“Six evenings a week we pray: ‘Guard our going out and our coming in‘; on the Sabbath evening we pray instead: ‘Embrace us with a tent of Thy peace.‘ Upon returning home from synagogue we intone the song: ‘Peace be to you, Angels of Peace.‘“
Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Sabbath. Its Meaning for Modern Man, Farrar, Straus und Giroux 2005, p. 23
“The virgin‘s name was Miriam. And coming to her, the angel said, ‘Shalom, favored one! ADONAI is with you!‘ But at the message, she was perplexed and kept wondering what kind of greeting this might be. The angel spoke to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Miriam, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you shall call His name Yeshua. He will be great and will be called Ben-Elyon. ADONAI Elohim will give Him the throne of David, His father. He shall reign over the house of Jacob for all eternity, and His kingdom will be without end.‘
Luke 1: 27-38
Miriam said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am not intimate with a man?‘
And responding, the angel said to her, ‘The Ruach ha-Kodesh will come upon you, and the power of Elyon will overshadow you. Therefore, the Holy One being born will be called Ben-Elohim. Behold, even your relative Elizabeth has conceived a son in her old age; and the one who was called barren is six months pregnant. For nothing will be impossible with God.‘
So Miriam said, ‘Behold, the servant of ADONAI. Let it be done to me, according to your word.‘ And the angel left her.“
“Now there were shepherds in the same region, living out in the fields and guarding their flocks at night. Suddenly an angel of ADONAI stood before them, and the glory of ADONAI shone all around them; and they were absolutely terrified.
Luke 2: 8-14
But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid! For behold, I proclaim Good News to you, which will be great joy to all the people. A Savior is born to you today in the city of David, who is Messiah the Lord. And the sign to you is this: You will find an infant wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger.‘
And suddenly a multitude of heavenly armies appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth shalom to men of good will.‘“
The Magnificat
It could be a fitting additional devotion to pray the Magnificat on Saturdays, the prayer the Blessed Virgin prayed when she was with Jesus in her womb at the house of her cousin Elizabeth.
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
Magnificat prayer
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children forever.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.“
It was on this very day that Saint John the Baptist “leaped with joy“ (Lk 1: 44) in Elizabeth‘s womb at the coming of the Messiah, and that Elizabeth “completely filled with the Ruach ha-Kodesh“ cried out happily “You are blessed among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb“ (Lk 1: 41-42) – thus completing the greeting of the angels, the Ave Maria.
John the Baptist‘s leaping with joy as the New Ark of the Covenant visits his mother and him, as the Queen comes to town, brings to mind a scriptural passage concerning King David and the Ark of the Old Covenant:
“So David went and brought the ark of God up from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with joy. Now when the bearers of the ark of ADONAI had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling. Meanwhile, David was dancing before ADONAI with all his might while he was wearing a linen ephod. So David and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of ADONAI with shouting and with the sound of the shofar. (…) David leaping and dancing before ADONAI (…).“
2 Samuel 6: 12-16
Fasting or feasting on Saturdays?
In the Jewish tradition, feasting and enjoying rest and repose was and is proper to the Sabbath day, while in the Christian tradition it became proper to the Lord‘s Day, to Sunday, the perpetual Solemnity of His Resurrection. For Christians, Saturday became in contrast to the Jewish Sabbath even a day a fasting instead – due to Holy Saturday, the day of Christ‘s resting in the tomb and of Mary‘s silent suffering.
But the Church prescribes fasting or other acts of penance only for the weekday of Friday as binding for every believer, so it seems that one is free to practice either fasting or feasting on Saturdays.
I wonder whether one could see it like this: When we fast on Saturdays, we strengthen our devotion to Mary as the Sorrowful Mother, to Our Lady of Sorrows, who cooperated with her Son in the salvation of the world through His holy Passion; and when we do not fast, or maybe even joyfully feast in some shape or form on the Sabbath like the Jewish people do, we strengthen our devotion to Mary as the Immaculate Mother who sang the magnificent song of praise unto the Lord, the Magnificat – we honor her, the daughter of Israel from the line of David, as the creature with the highest rank and honor in God‘s holy assembly for all eternity, as the spotless New Ark of the Covenant.
“A Belgian mystic named Bertha Pettit, who lived at the time of the Fatima events, received private revelations from the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. During one of these revelations, our Lord told Bertha that his mother‘s heart had two qualities: immaculate and sorrowful. He told her that ‘immaculate‘ referred to everything he did for her, namely, preserving her from original sin and filling her with a fullness of grace beyond that of all the angels and saints. Then he told her that ‘sorrowful‘ referred to everything that our Lady did for him, namely, share in his sufferings, especially at the time of his crucifixion and death. Therefore, Jesus told Bertha that he wanted his mother invoked as the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.“
Andrew Apostoli C.F.R.: Fatima for Today. The Urgent Marian Message of Hope, Ignatius Press 2010, p. 149-150
Just like Jesus is the King of both suffering and glory, Mary is the Queen of both suffering and glory.
The veiled Queen
The Mother that has suffered so much is also the Mother that is compassionate with us in our sufferings, coming to our aid in times of need. In the philosophical exposition of the Jewish scholar Abraham Joshua Heschel already quoted here several times, the motherly and tender majesty of the Sabbath shines through the poetic tone of his words time and time again, repeatedly conjuring up the image of a Queen, and a Mother. Veiled is she, the daughter of Israel, in the weekly Sabbath celebrations of the Jewish people and in their love for the Sabbath, their holy guest…
“When all the work is brought to a standstill, the candles are lit. (…) People assemble to welcome the wonder of the seventh day, while the Sabbath sends out its presence over the fields, into our homes, into our hearts. (…)
Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Sabbath. Its Meaning for Modern Man, Farrar, Straus und Giroux 2005, p. 68
Refreshed and renewed, attired in festive garments, with candles nodding dreamily to unutterable expectations, to intuitions of eternity, some of us are overcome with a feeling, as if almost all they would say would be like a veil. There is not enough grandeur in our souls to be able to unravel in words the knots of time and eternity. One should like to sing for all men, for all generations. Some people chant the greatest of all songs: The Song of Songs. What ancient attachment, what an accumulation of soul is flowing in their chant! (…)
A thought has blown the market place away. There is a song in the wind and joy in the trees. The Sabbath arrives in the world, scattering a song in the silence of the night: eternity utters a day. Where are the words that could compete with such might?
The voice of the Lord is upon the waters…
The voice of the Lord is powerful…
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty…
And he strippeth the forests bare:
And in His temple all say: Glory.
We all go out to welcome the queen, to serenade the bride. (…)
Zion is in ruins, Jerusalem lies in the dust. All week there is only hope for redemption. But when the Sabbath is entering the world, man is touched by a moment of actual redemption; as if for a moment the spirit of the Messiah moved over the face of the earth. (…)
Come in peace, crown of God,
Come with joy and cheerfulness,
Amidst the faithful, precious people…
Come, Beloved, meet the Bride.
The Sabbath comes like a caress, wiping away fear, sorrow and somber memories. It is already night when joy begins, when a beautifying surplus of soul visits our mortal bodies and lingers on.“
“Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiæ,
Salve Regina hymn
vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve.
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Hevæ,
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
in hac lacrimarum valle.
Eia, ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos
misericordes oculos ad nos converte;
Et Jesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui,
nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.
O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria.“
“Hail holy Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope.
To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve.
To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
Turn then, most gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us.
And after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O Clement, O Loving, O Sweet Virgin Mary.“
Post scriptum no. 1: Sephardic poets
“On the Sixth-day does my cup overflow,
from the poem Sabbath, my Love by Yehudah Halevi (1075-1141), Sephardic physician and poet
What blissful rest the night shall know,
When, in your arms, my toil and woe
Are all forgotten, Sabbath, my love!
Now it’s dusk. With sudden light distilled
From one sweet face, the world is filled;
The tumult of my heart is stilled –
For you have arrived, Sabbath, my love!“
“Under the apple tree
The Bridegroom to the Bride in the poem Spiritual Canticle by San Juan de la Cruz (Saint John of the Cross, 1542-1591)
Was our betrothal, and the tree could tell
I took you lovingly,
Hurt Virgin, made you well
Where all the scandal on your mother fell.“
Post scriptum no. 2: Fatima, Portugal
In the fall of 2019 I made a pilgrimage to Fatima, and as I wandered through the town and the fields where, in 1916-1917, three times an angel and six times the Blessed Virgin appeared to three little children with their flock of sheep to teach them the path of prayer and penance, I thought: olive orchards under a strong sun and shepherds with their sheep – though Bethlehem and Nazareth are far away, they could be here…
There is even a seaside town in the land of Portugal, located on the wild Atlantic coast, that is named after Nazareth: Nazaré. And on Sabado – on the Sabbath day – it is solemnly quiet and restful in the land of Portugal, as if it was in Israel. Almost no buses are available that would carry you to the next town.
“Crediting Mary with protecting them from many disasters, the Portuguese have a strong Marian devotion. From its foundation, Portugal has been referred to as the Land of Holy Mary. In 1646 King John IV and all his people promised their fidelity to the most holy Virgin under her title of the Immaculate Conception. Since that time, the Mother of God has been proclaimed the Queen and Patroness of Portugal. For this reason, the Portuguese kings did not wear a crown, since it was reserved exclusively for the Immaculate Virgin.“
Andrew Apostoli C.F.R.: Fatima for Today. The Urgent Marian Message of Hope, Ignatius Press 2010, p. 11
“In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. (…) In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved.“
Our Lady of Fatima, quote taken from: Andrew Apostoli C.F.R.: Fatima for Today. The Urgent Marian Message of Hope, Ignatius Press 2010, p. 79
