This is a profound lecture given by Peter A. Kwasniewski for the Vancouver Traditional Mass Society. It was delivered on last November 12. It is quite lengthy but well worth your attentive reading (or listening to, if you purchase the CD). The speaker proposes Mary as an exemplar of the contemplative role we are called to participate in in the ritual of the most sacred of all acts, the Holy Mass. Mr. Kwasniewski employs three episodes of Our Lady’s vocation to be 1) the Mother of the Savior as our Emmanuel Child 2) the Mother of the Savior as Messias and Teacher, and 3) the Mother of the Savior as our Co-Redemptrix. Hence he studies Mary in her words at the Annunciation, in her maternal authority at the wedding of Cana, and in her most sacrificial liturgical role standing strong beneath the Cross as “the Woman,” the New Eve. While contemplating the words and actions of the Mother of God, our speaker explains how the liturgy is absolutely Marian as the Church’s received Divine Worship. Mary receives the Word and accepts her mission; the Church receives its liturgy as it does its mission. One does not remake a gift, one receives a gift. And so in humbly receiving one bears fruit.
Rorate Caeli, Peter A. Kwasniewski: Reverend Fathers and friends in Christ: I thank all of you for coming this evening to hear my lecture, which I dedicate to Our Lady of Victories and to our saint of today, Pope St. Martin I. Rather than compromise one bit with error (as Pope Honorius had shamefully done about 15 years earlier), St. Martin energetically opposed the Monothelite heresy, on account of which he was abducted by command of the Byzantine emperor, exiled, imprisoned, and banished. Having died of exhaustion, he is revered as a martyr by both Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox. He exemplifies how a pope is supposed to behave towards heresies, regardless of threats or punishments from the mighty of this world. Full lecture is here.
