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Hail Heavenly Mother…

Posted by John on March 30th, 2006 at 10:37 pm · 3 Comments

I’m beginning to really like certain aspects of Catholicism. I’m not sure if I could get over all of the being ruled by (frustrated?) celibate men, but I like the emphasis on ritual over belief. And in spite of the male hierarchy, there is some powerful, powerful womanly divine energy. To pray one rosary, you have to repeat the following 53 times:

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

There are only six Our Fathers. The climax of praying the rosary is the following:

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope. To you do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to you do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, your eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

Consider that the Five Glorious Mysteries also:

  1. The Resurrection (of Jesus)
  2. The Ascension (of Jesus)
  3. The Descent of the Holy Spirit
  4. The Assumption (of Mary’s body and spirit into Heaven)
  5. The Coronation (of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth)

For you Mormons out there who might not know any better (I didn’t before this week), this isn’t fringe Catholic teachings–these are mainstream, and are in many ways at the center of much of Catholic personal worship. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could venerate Mother in Heaven the same way that Catholics exalt the Virgin Mary?

Tags: Christianity · Feminism · Ritual

3 responses so far ↓

  • 1 amelia // Mar 31, 2006 at 9:25 am

    yes. it would be wonderful to venerate our goddess more. but as much as i like the presence of female divinity in catholicism (and i’ve been reading a lot about it in early christianity), she is revered as mother. and i want a goddess. not just a mother. i don’t want my goddess to be *only* a mother, even if that is a huge part of her role. as mormons we do often talk about god as “heavenly father” and that is one of his primary roles. but he is also god, elohim, etc.

    there is certainly the potential in Mary as divinity for women to go beyond the image of perfect femininity and motherhood that she is often presented as and many women have done so. but she remains an image of idealized motherhood. i want a goddess.

  • 2 pilgrimgirl // Apr 1, 2006 at 4:04 pm

    Amy:

    Like you I long for a goddess, which is why the Mo vision of female deity is so lacking. The only thing we know about her is that she is our “Heavenly Mother.” But she has no nurturing role, no interaction with her children, no position of influence or authority. At least Mary (queen of heaven) has a true position of influence and importance in Catholic tradition.

  • 3 Miko // Sep 13, 2006 at 5:21 pm

    John–the final words to that (final) prayer in the rosary are, (oh clement, oh loving, oh sweet virgin mary) “Pray for us, oh Holy Mother of God.” Thank you for making me see this meditation with new eyes :)

    It is interesting to see Catholic duality from a semi-outsider’s point of view. Now that there are four sets of Mysteries to the Rosary (there used to be only three), they focus, pretty much 50/50 on Mary’s life and Jesus’ life.

    amelia: there is quite a stir among feminist Catholics about that very thing. Mary as perfect mother sets us up for failure (is the argument) as she is held as a role-model but, by definition, no one could ever truly imitate the Immaculate Conception. This is part of why Mary of Magdala is being “reclaimed” by Catholics. As a female apostle (the Apostle Apostolorum according to official dotrine), feminist Catholics are given a better role model: that of student to the Master, teacher to the heathen, and woman worthy of her own last name. Whether or not her relationship with Jesus extended beyond that of any of the other apostles doesn’t matter if we use her as our role model, rather than the Heavenly Mother. Just some thoughts…

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