For some reason, that post seems more meaty and substantive than the earlier one . . . though less specific somehow. My memory is certainly fuzzy on the earlier one.
I think my main quibble with the above post is that saying that Mary is any kind of
A TREE OF LIFE
is at least setting foot on the road to blasphemy for this Proddy. Maybe other Proddys would disagree or feel differently.
To me—a TREE OF LIFE, THE TREE OF LIFE
is one of the SACRED NAMES OF GOD—IN THIS CASE, CHRIST HIMSELF.
It is as though every cell and fiber of my being retches at the idea or thought of anyone else daring to take or ascribe such a phrase to ANYONE else but God.
I understand your logic.
The priority of the sacredness of God’s Names takes priority over any such logic, imho.
Thanks for your patient essay.
I told you about the "ambo" (lectern? reading stand?) at the Dominican House of Studies in DC -- the one somebody was insisting was a monastery?
I think I will try to get a photo the next time I'm there. It's a sort of normal ecclesiastical brass stand but "over top of it" is a small statue of a VERY pregnant Mary -- the stage of pregnancy which comes after "puh-reg-NANT" and is usually referred to technically as "Oh. My. Gawd!"
The bearer of the Word presiding, so to speak, where the word is brought forth. I think it's perfect!
I love to be the guy who reads the Bible at Mass. I don't do it on Sundays but at weekday Masses. I have been doing it since I was 10 or 11, and the usual problem of making oneself heard and understood is not a hindrance.
I am NOT one of those readers that tries to get eye-contact with the people. It's not ME I am proclaiming, but the Word. It would be better if I were invisible or in another room with a microphone.
The Bible is so great that it survives even the execrable translation our bishops have forced upon us. And it is just such a joy to try to make it come alive --- well, no, to let the amazing life that's in it come through my mouth.
As I approach the ambo, (not this one I described, just the boring one at my church) I always commit my reading to the Word, but I also sort of, as Obama would say, give a shout out to Mary, who also brought forth the Word.
But I understand, I think, some of the -- I don't want to trivialize -- diiscomfort with Marian piety. First, I think that If I read the reading FAIRLY well, people will say, "My! You read that very well." But if I read it REALLY well, they will say, "Wow! That was a GREAT passage of scripture!"
It's nice to be praised and all, but it's nicer to hear people praise the Lord.
But when somebody of whose piety I have no doubt says a nice thing about the way I read, that's okay. I know he 'heard' the Word, so I don't have to worry that I distracted him.
It may well be that some Catholics let Marian devotion distract them. But among the folks I hang with there is admirable commitment to and love of God AND a kind of affection or devotion to Mary which is of a noticeably different kind.
It's late and I'm beginning to babble.