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-fourth invocation: Seat of Wisdom, pray for us.
What does is mean to say that Saint Mary, the Blessed Virgin Mother of God is “Seat of Wisdom”? Saint Mary, Mother of God, would hold the Lord on her lap, giving Him a place to sit. In this way she is Sedes Sapientiae or Seat of Wisdom Incarnate.
Sacred Scripture speaks of Wisdom, including an entire section of books (Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Sirach, Wisdom). In James 3:17 we are reminded that “the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.” This describes both the Lord and Our Lady very well. In Proverbs 4:5-6 we are exhorted to “Get wisdom, get prudence, forget not, neither decline from the words of My mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall keep thee: love her, and she shall preserve thee.” Saint Mary presents Wisdom Incarnate, her Son, to us. If we are to receive Him, we go to her. In Proverbs 8:36 we are told that “Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn her out seven pillars.” Saint Mary, Seat of Wisdom, is the happy homemaker of Nazareth, of the Holy Family.
Saint Mary, Seat of Wisdom, has been venerated at the Catholic University of Leuven since 1442. The Society of St Sulpice (Sulpicians), founded by Jean Jacques Olier (+1657) to train priests in 1641, fosters devotion to Our Lady as Sedes Sapientiae. Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman (+1890) used this title in honor of Our Lady in his Meditations and Devotions. He says of her that she is “as it were, the human throne of Him who reigns in Heaven, she is called the Seat of Wisdom.” More recently, in 1990, an International Ecclesiastical College was established in Rome for the formation of priests under the title and patronage of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom. Saint John Paul II (+2005) invoked Our Lady as Seat of Wisdom in Fides et ratio (14 September, 1998), 108, as an intercessor for those who “devote their lives to the search for wisdom.” In Redemptoris Mater (25 March, 1987), 33, when considering iconography of Our Lady in the East and West he also recalled representations of Saint Mary “as the throne of God carrying the Lord and giving Him to humanity.” Saint Mary is the Seat of Wisdom and we are wise to turn to her who leads us to her Son, telling us to do as He says (cf. John 14:6).
Father John Arthur Orr