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-sixth invocation: Spiritual vessel, pray for us.
What does it mean to say that Saint Mary, the Blessed Virgin Mother of God is a “spiritual vessel”? There are two main sorts of vessels: containers and boats (boats contain people and things during a water voyage, there are many different sorts of boats…). Saint Mary, the Blessed Virgin Mother of God both “contained” and carried the Son of God for His first nine months of human life in her Immaculate womb. This is all the more marvelous because Our Lady lived and moved and had her being in God (cf Acts 17:28) and yet the God who cannot be contained allowed Himself to be so carried. The Aramaic word man, the Hebrew word aggos and the Greek words skeuos and ploin are all translated as “vessel.”
Saint Paul addresses “vessels” in his inspired writings. In Romans 9:21 we read: “Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use…” Surely God the Father Almighty is the Potter in this case and Our Lady can be seen as the honorable spiritual vessel who would bear His Son. In 2 Corinthians 4:7 we read: “Now we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassingness of the power may be from God and not from us.” The Jesuit Father John Foley (b. 1939) published a religious song in 1975 entitled “Earthen Vessels.” When thinking of the “earthen vessels” do we think of ourselves made from the dust of the Earth (cf. Genesis 2:7; Ecclesiastes 3:20; 1 Corinthians 15:47)? Our Lady too is made of the same flesh and blood as we are, an earthen vessel. In her case she bore the Word made flesh (John 1:14), God who is a Spirit (cf. John 4:24) Himself became like us in all things but sin (cf. Hebrews 4:15) in her Immaculate womb. In 2 Timothy 2:21 we read: “if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.” When the Holy Spirit overshadowed Our Lady at the Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38), both the Son and the Spirit dwelt within her (cf. Ephesians 2:22). Saint Mary in her Immaculate Conception has been preserved from any and all stain of sin.
Mother Church has been likened to the ‘barque of Peter’ (cf. Luke 5:3; Matthew 13:2) and Our Lady is an image of Mother Church our spiritual vessel.
Father John Arthur Orr