My dear parishioners,
Peace! On the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, 7 October, 2019, Pope Francis established the feast of Our Lady of Loreto, to be observed each year on the 10th of December. At the same time Pope Francis proclaimed a Lauretan Jubilee Holy Year to run from 8 December, 2019 through 10 December, 2020. There are fifty-one invocations in the Litany of Loreto. The following is a reflection on the twenty-ninth invocation: Singular Mystical Rose, pray for us.
What does it mean to say that Saint Mary, the Blessed Virgin Mother of God is a “Mystical Rose”? There is mentioned in Sacred Scripture, Song of Songs 2:1, “the Rose of Sharon.” We should consider at least two things here, mysticism and roses.
Among the four insights given by Merriam-Webster the best relates that mystics report union or direct communion with “ultimate reality.” Christians know the “ultimate reality” to be God. Surely Our Lady, Mother of God was both in union and direct communion with God and not only for the Lord’s first nine months of human life. A Catholic understanding of mysticism has little to do with subjectivity or vagueness. Among her Saints are the Mystical Doctors Theresa of Jesus of Avila (+1582) and John of the Cross (+1591). The American philosopher William James (+1910) may address “mysticism” at least acknowledging its existence in his Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), he seems to belong more to the modernist heresies condemned by Saint Pius X (+1914) in his decree Lamentabili sane (3 July, 1907) and the Encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis (8 September, 1907). As for roses, there are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of rose cultivars. Roses are known for their beauty and fragrance.
An old hymn (1599) from Speyer, Germany, Lo, how a rose e’er blooming, sung during Advent and Christmas treats both the Lord and Our Lady Saint Mary variously.
Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman (+1890) wrote eloquently about Mary as “the Rosa Mystica, mystical Rose” in his Meditations as follows: “MARY is the most beautiful flower that ever was seen in the spiritual world. It is by the power of God’s grace that from this barren and desolate earth there have ever sprung up at all flowers of holiness and glory. And Mary is the Queen of them. She is the Queen of spiritual flowers; and therefore she is called the Rose, for the rose is fitly called of all flowers the most beautiful. But moreover, she is the Mystical, or hidden Rose; for mystical means hidden. How is she now “hidden” from us more than are other saints? What means this singular appellation, which we apply to her specially? The answer to this question introduces us to a third reason for believing in the reunion of her sacred body to her soul, and its assumption into heaven soon after her death, instead of its lingering in the grave until the General Resurrection at the last day.”
Father John Arthur Orr