Stuff from around the Internet

Found at this site. No real comment.

No offense intended to Father, but really, since when have the “average Catholic laity” been obsessed with the meaning of life questions? And while I don’t really agree with the Spaniard, sometimes I can sympathize with the agnostic soundman’s condescension: “you poor naive Americans”. [Remember, I am just as American as all of you. The only difference is that my ties to the "old country" are much stronger.]

Finally, the article Sharing the Real Mary by David Mills. He seems to be a convert asking some deeper questions regarding the relationship between faith and culture. The comments of others are quite interesting, though they range from pious churchwoman-speak, to more sophisticated comments, to one cradle Catholic who says he has no devotion to the Virgin and finds nothing wrong with this. I found the last type of comment very annoying, and just demonstrative of how “naive” and ahistorical American Catholics outside of certain regions can sometimes be. Maybe they need to spend more time in botanicas…

La Asunción de Maria

En turquesadas nubes y celajes
están en los alcázares impirios
con blancas hachas y con blancos cirios
del sacro Dios los soberanos pajes.

Humean de mil suertes y linajes
entre amaranto y plateados lirios
inciensos indios y pebetes sirios
sobre alfombras de lazos y follajes.

Por manto el Sol, la Luna por chapines,
llegó la Virgen a la impiria sala,
visita que esperaba el Cielo tanto.

Echáronse a sus pies los serafines,
cantáronle los ángeles la gala
y sentóla a su lado el Verbo santo.

-Pedro de Espinosa

In turquoise clouds and perilous heights,
Imperial castles reigned above the ages,
With purest candles and horns ivory white,
And all sovereigns of God’s earth as her pages-

A thousand lines and fates are exhaled
Between amanth and brightly silvered lilies,
Indian incense and Syrian aromas trail
Past woven carpets and the canopy of trees-

As a cloak the sun, and the moon at her feet,
The Virgin arrived in the imperial room,
An entrance that the heavens fondly greeted.

The seraphim thrown down as if defeated,
The angels unleashed a triumphant tune,
As the Holy Word at His side had her seated.

Another Sun

De una Virgen hermosa
celos tiene el sol,
porque vio en sus brazos
otro sol mayor.

Cuando del Oriente
salió el sol dorado,
y otro sol helado
miró tan ardiente,
quitó de la frente
la corona bella,
y a los pies de la estrella
su lumbre adoró,
porque vio en sus brazos
otro sol mayor.

«Hermosa María,
dice el sol vencido,
de vos ha nacido
el sol que podía
dar al mundo el día
que ha deseado».
Esto dijo humillado
a María el sol,
porque vio en sus brazos
otro sol mayor.

-Lope de Vega

The sun is envious
Of a beautiful Virgin,
Because in her arms
He saw a greater Sun.

When the golden Sun
Rose from the east,
The other cold sun
Viewed it so bright,
He took off from his head
His own beautiful crown,
And at the feet of the star
Her glow he adored,
Because in her arms
He saw a greater Sun.

“Beautiful Mary,”
Says the conquered sun,
“From you is born
The sun who can give
The world the day that it has desired.”
This the humbled sun
Said to Mary,
Because in her arms
He saw a greater Sun.

La Virgen de la Soledad

Virgen de la Soledad:
rendido de gozos vanos,
en las rosas de tus manos
se ha muerto mi voluntad.

Cruzadas con humildad
en tu pecho sin aliento,
la mañana del portento,
tus manos fueron, Señora,
la primer cruz redentora:
la cruz del sometimiento.

Como tú te sometiste,
someterme yo quería:
para ir haciendo la vía
con sol claro o noche triste.
Ejemplo santo nos diste
cuando, en la tarde deicida,
la soledad dolorida
por los senderos mostrabas:
tocas de luto llevabas,
ojos de paloma herida.

La fruta de nuestro Bien
fue de tu llanto regada:
refugio fueron y almohada
tus rodillas, de su sien.
Otra vez, como en Belén,
tu falda cuna le hacía,
y sobre Él tu amor volvía
a las angustias primeras…
Señora: si tú quisieras
contigo le lloraría.

-JOSÉ MARÍA PEMÁN

Tomado de este sitio

Real Kneeling Theology

A Los Angeles Times story about pilgrims to the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe. See the video as well.

I have always been skeptical of all talk of an “interior life” or faith as an abstract idea. This for me is far more familiar and far more real.

¡Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe!

Maria Desatadora

Virgem Maria, Mãe do belo amor, Mãe que jamais deixa de vir em socorro a um filho aflito, Mãe cujas as mãos não param nunca de servir seus amados filhos, pois são movidas pelo amor divino e a imensa misericórdia que existem em teu coração, volta o teu olhar compassivo sobre mim e vê o emaranhado de nós que há em minha vida. Tu bem conheces o meu desespero, a minha dor e o quanto estou amarrado por causa destes nós. Maria, Mãe que Deus encarregou de desatar os nós da vida dos seus filhos, confio hoje a fita da minha vida em tuas mãos. Ninguém, nem mesmo o Maligno poderá tirá-la do teu precioso amparo. Em tuas mãos não há nó que não possa ser desfeito. Mãe poderosa, por tua graça e teu poder intercessor junto a Teu Filho e Meu Libertador, Jesus, recebe hoje em tuas mãos este nó … Peço-te para desatá-lo para a glória de Deus, e por todo o sempre. Vós sois a minha esperança. Ó Senhora minha, sois a minha única consolação dada por Deus, a fortaleza das minhas débeis forças, a riqueza das minhas misérias, a liberdade, com Cristo, das minhas cadeias. Ouve minha súplica. Guarda-me, guia-me, protege-me, ó seguro refúgio!
Maria, Desatadora dos nós, roga por mim.

Mary, Queen of Purgatory

image credit

Translations taken from this site , on Guatemalan folk traditions.

…María, Reina del Purgatorio: te ruego de modo especial por aquellas almas que más padecen. Es verdad que todas sufren con resignación, pero sus penas son atroces y no podemos imaginarlas siquiera. Intercede Madre nuestra por ellas, y Dios escuchará tu oración.

…Mary, Queen of Purgatory: I pray especially for those souls that suffer. It is true that they all suffer with resignation, but their pains are horrible and we cannot even imagine them. Our Mother, intercede for them, and God will hear your prayer…

Quote of the Day

El pueblo mexicano, después de más de dos siglos de experimentos, tiene fe solamente en la Virgen de Guadalupe y la Lotería Nacional.

-Octavio Paz

The Mexican people, after more than two centuries of experiments, only have faith in the Virgin of Guadalupe and the National Lottery.

In nativitate beatae Mariae Virginis

Sequitur: Et quasi luna plena in diebus suis lucet. Beata Maria dicitur plena luna, quia ex omni parte perfecta. Luna ideo imperfecta et semiplena, quia habet maculam et cornua. Sed gloriosa Virgo nec in sua Nativitate habuit maculam, quia in utero matris fuit sanctificata, [idest concepta Immaculata sine peccato originali], ab angelis custodita; nec in diebus suis [habuit] cornua superbiae, et ideo plena et perfecta lucet. Lux dicta, quod diluat tenebras. Rogamus ergo te, Domina nostra, ut tu, quae es stella matutina, nebulam daemoniacae suggestionis, mentis nostrae terram tegentem, tuo splendore expellas; tu, quae es plena luna, vacuitatem nostram adimpleas, peccatorum nostrorum tenebras diluas, quatenus ad vitae aeternae plenitudinem, ad gloriae indeficientis lucem pervenire mereamur. Ipso praestante, qui te in lucem nostram produxit, qui, ut ex te nasceretur, te hodie nasci fecit. Cui est honor et gloria in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

-IN NATIVITATE BEATAE MARIAE VIRGINIS

S. ANTONII PATAVINI, O.Min.

DOCTORIS EVANGELICI

(source)