Posted on 11/02/2025 4:00:50 PM PST by CharlesOConnell
(Music in the link-click.)
Mary declared in her Magnificat: "My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For He hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden." - Luke 1:46-55
This is why satan hates her, because she is more humble than all other creatures created in the image of God, angels and men, taken together—most images of her portray her with downcast eyes, in humility.
satan declared "I will not serve" (Jeremiah 2:20). "It is better to reign in hell than serve in heaven". (John Milton, "Paradise Lost", Book I, line 263)
(An exorcist, Fr. Chad Ripperger asserts that satan's hangup is that its task was to serve as her footstool; instead, it wanted her place for itself. And Catholic tradition holds that, though God had formed her idea before all else, as soon as God showed the angels the image of the Woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars (Revelation 12:1), that sign precipitated the war of the angels, with satan leading one third of the stars of heaven falling down to hell—in Luke 10:18 Jesus said, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.")
It is under this influence that there is an anti-God work "The Handmaiden's Tale", reviling Mary's humility. satan can only offer its followers, an imitation of its own ordinate self-love, its pride, the original vice—as long as they all submit to its tyranny in hell.
Pride Ruled My Will
The latest Doctor of the Church, the 38th, St. John-Henry Cardinal Newman, put the issue plainly in the line "pride ruled my will", among his 1833 poetic jottings as he lay recuperating from a fever, "At Sea", published as "The Pillar of the Cloud," widely known as "Lux Benigna", "Lead, kindly Light."
"Lead Kindly Light" is in all the mainline Protestant hymnals; it is only the Catholics who know nothing about it.
| 1. Lead, kindly Light, amid th’encircling gloom; Lead thou me on! The night is dark, and I am far from home; Lead thou me on! Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see The distant scene—one step enough for me. |
| 2. I was not ever thus, nor pray’d that thou Shouldst lead me on. I loved to choose and see my path; but now, Lead thou me on! I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears, Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years. |
| 3. So long thy pow’r hath blest me, sure it still Will lead me on O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till The night is gone. And with the morn those angel faces smile, Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile! |
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing it triumphantly (YouTube), apparently never having listened to the meaning of the lyrics, "Pride ruled my will, remember not past years".
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Sirach (Ecclesiasticus)
Chapter 1
9 He created her in the Holy Ghost, and saw her, and numbered her, and measured her. 10 And he poured her out upon all his works, and upon all flesh according to his gift, and hath given her to them that love him.
1 All wisdom is from the Lord God, and hath been always with him, and is before all time.
2 Who hath numbered the sand of the sea, and the drops of rain, and the days of the world? Who hath measured the height of heaven, and the breadth of the earth, and the depth of the abyss?
3 Who hath searched out the wisdom of God that goeth before all things?
4 Wisdom hath been created before all things, and the understanding of prudence from everlasting.
5 The word of God on high is the fountain of wisdom, and her ways are everlasting commandments.
6 To whom hath the root of wisdom been revealed, and who hath known her wise counsels?
7 To whom hath the discipline of wisdom been revealed and made manifest? and who hath understood the multiplicity of her steps?
8 There is one most high Creator Almighty, and a powerful king, and greatly to be feared, who sitteth upon his throne, and is the God of dominion.
9 He created her in the Holy Ghost, and saw her, and numbered her, and measured her.
10 And he poured her out upon all his works, and upon all flesh according to his gift, and hath given her to them that love him.
11 The fear of the Lord is honour, and glory, and gladness, and a crown of joy.
12 The fear of the Lord shall delight the heart, and shall give joy, and gladness, and length of days.
13 With him that feareth the Lord, it shall go well in the latter end, and in the day of his death he shall be blessed.
14 The love of God is honourable wisdom.
15 And they to whom she shall shew herself love her by the sight, and by the knowledge of her great works.
Sirach 24
8 "I am the mother of Fair Love".
1 Wisdom shall praise her own self, and shall be honoured in God, and shall glory in the midst of her people,
2 And shall open her mouth in the churches of the most High, and shall glorify herself in the sight of his power,
3 And in the midst of her own people she shall be exalted, and shall be admired in the holy assembly.
4 And in the multitude of the elect she shall have praise, and among the blessed she shall be blessed, saying:
5 I came out of the mouth of the most High, the firstborn before all creatures:
6 I made that in the heavens there should rise light that never faileth, and as a cloud I covered all the earth:
7 I dwelt in the highest places, and my throne is in a pillar of a cloud.
8 I alone have compassed the circuit of heaven, and have penetrated into the bottom of the deep, and have walked in the waves of the sea,
9 And have stood in all the earth: and in every people,
10 And in every nation I have had the chief rule:
11 And by my power I have trodden under my feet the hearts of all the high and low: and in all these I sought rest, and I shall abide in the inheritance of the Lord.
12 Then the creator of all things commanded, and said to me: and he that made me, rested in my tabernacle,
13 And he said to me: Let thy dwelling be in Jacob, and thy inheritance in Israel, and take root in my elect.
14 From the beginning, and before the world, was I created, and unto the world to come I shall not cease to be, and in the holy dwelling place I have ministered before him.
15 And so was I established in Sion, and in the holy city likewise I rested, and my power was in Jerusalem.
16 And I took root in an honourable people, and in the portion of my God his inheritance, and my abode is in the full assembly of saints.
17 I was exalted like a cedar in Libanus, and as a cypress tree on mount Sion.
18 I was exalted like a palm tree in Cades, and as a rose plant in Jericho:
19 As a fair olive tree in the plains, and as a plane tree by the water in the streets, was I exalted.
20 I gave a sweet smell like cinnamon, and aromatical balm: I yielded a sweet odour like the best myrrh:
21 And I perfumed my dwelling as storax, and galbanum, and onyx, and aloes, and as the frankincense not cut, and my odour is as the purest balm.
22 I have stretched out my branches as the turpentine tree, and my branches are of honour and grace.
23 As the vine I have brought forth a pleasant odour: and my flowers are the fruit of honour and riches.
24 I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope.
25 In me is all grace of the way and of the truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue.
26 Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with my fruits. 27 For my spirit is sweet above honey, and my inheritance above honey and the honeycomb.
28 My memory is unto everlasting generations.
29 They that eat me, shall yet hunger: and they that drink me, shall yet thirst.
30 He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me, shall not sin.
31 They that explain me shall have life everlasting.
32 All these things are the book of life, and the covenant of the most High, and the knowledge of truth.
33 Moses commanded a law in the precepts of justices, and an inheritance to the house of Jacob, and the promises to Israel.
34 He appointed to David his servant to raise up of him a most mighty king, and sitting on the throne of glory for ever.
35 Who filleth up wisdom as the Phison, and as the Tigris in the days of the new fruits.
36 Who maketh understanding to abound as the Euphrates, who multiplieth it as the Jordan in the time of harvest.
37 Who sendeth knowledge as the light, and riseth up as Gehon in the time of the vintage.
38 Who first hath perfect knowledge of her, and a weaker shall not search her out.
39 For her thoughts are more vast than the sea, and her counsels more deep than the great ocean.
40 I, wisdom, have poured out rivers.
41 I, like a brook out of a river of a mighty water; I, like a channel of a river, and like an aqueduct, came out of paradise.
42 I said: I will water my garden of plants, and I will water abundantly the fruits of my meadow.
43 And behold my brook became a great river, and my river came near to a sea:
44 For I make doctrine to shine forth to all as the morning light, and I will declare it afar off.
45 I will penetrate to all the lower parts of the earth, and will behold all that sleep, and will enlighten all that hope in the Lord.
46 I will yet pour out doctrine as prophecy, and will leave it to them that seek wisdom, and will not cease to instruct their offspring even to the holy age.
47 See ye that I have not laboured myself only, but for all that seek out the truth.
“Lead Kindly Light” is in all the mainline Protestant hymnals; it is only the Catholics who know nothing about it.”
__________
The part about Catholics know nothing about it, is not in the least bit true.
Just to correct the record.
AI
“Lead, Kindly Light” has become a cherished dismissal hymn in Catholic liturgical celebrations and is widely used in Christian worship.
Its enduring legacy is marked by its use in moments of profound crisis, including by survivors of the 1909 Durham coal mining disaster, the crew and passengers of the Titanic, prisoners in Nazi concentration camps, and soldiers on the Western Front during World War I.
The hymn’s message of hope and trust in God’s guidance continues to resonate across generations.
I came here for that. And for the original post, of course.
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