January 1: Mary Mother of the Lord

“Behold the Slave-Girl of the Lord,

Be it done to me , according to your word” Lk 1;38 

When the angel Gabriel announces to Mary God’s desire that she become the Mother of the Messiah,  we are used to the translation of her reply as “Behold the handmaid of the Lord,” but the actual Greek has a far more profound description of her relationship with God, because she answers,  not that she is a handmaid of the Lord but: “Behold, the slave-girl of the Lord..”

        Εἴπεν δὲ Μαριάμ, Ἰδού, ἡ δούλη κυρίου· γένοιτό μοι κατὰ τὸ ῥῆμά σου. Καὶ ἀπῆλθεν ἀπ’ αὐτῆς ὁ ἄγγελος.

The word doule in Greek means a female slave.  It has no other meaning.

We would all agree that there is a vast difference between a “handmaid” who can choose to obey her master,  and a slave who is a possession of the master and obeys without question, never consulted.

Mary was not a slave, of course, but freeborn. What was she saying to the angel?  I think we would agree that she was telling the angel that for her, she sees herself as belonging to God, so that God has only to tell her what he wants and she is ready to obey in love and trust.

Your own reflections and mine, on this revelation of Mary’s heart, opens out of a profound meditation especially today, as we honor Mary. This is the woman God chose above all others to be the mother of Jesus, and to have the greatest degree of influence over his growth in wisdom and grace. Even though Mary would tell Elizabeth, in all her humility, that she was amazed and filled with wonder that God had chosen someone so very unimportant, the annunciation brings out to us how perfect Mary was for being the Mother of Jesus.

So, now, you may ask, how is it that Mary’s description of herself as “the slave girl of the Lord,”  has become “the handmaid”?  

The answer is found in St. Jerome’s translation.

In 367, when the Bishops across the Mediterranean had finally agreed on the books that would belong to our bible, they called on St. Jerome to translate the Greek into Latin for the barbarians of the west, who did not know Greek. (His translation would be called “the Vulgate” because in those days, “vulgare” meant  ‘ordinary’ or  ‘common”. )

Here is Jerome’s Latin translation of Luke 1:38’

1: 38   dixit autem Maria ecce ancilla Domini fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum et discessit ab illa angelus

which is very well translated into English: 

“And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done to me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.”

“Ancilla”  means ‘a female servant’ or ‘maid servant’ as its main meaning, not ‘slave girl’ as the Greek doule should be translated. “ Slave-girl” is a rare translation of ancilla, and almost never used, and is always found at the bottom of the list of possible translations in any dictionary.

Since the Roman Catholic Church (until Vatican II) allowed only the Vulgate to be used for all purposes, liturgy, catechesis, etc, only ‘ancilla’ was available to translators in the west. And so ‘handmaid’ became the traditional translation, and now, custom.

“To have a heart like Mary, is to surrender our hearts to  whatever it appears God is asking of us, no matter what it might be.”

When we next meditate on the Annunciation, let us hear Mary tell the angel who was waiting for her answer “Behold the slave-girl of the Lord, Be it done to me according to your word”.  To have a heart like Mary, is to surrender our hearts to  whatever it appears God is asking of us, no matter what it might be. We ask, “Lord what is it you are asking of me right now?” and we pray, “Mother Mary, pray for us all today, to have a heart such as yours.”

Sister Wendy Cotter, CSJ

The Transfiguration and Two Graces: Listening, and Seeing!

LENT II

“In the prayer at the beginning of the Mass we asked the Lord for two graces: “To listen to Your beloved Son”, so that our faith might be nourished by the Word of God, and another grace — “to purify the eyes of our spirit, so that we might one day enjoy the vision of glory”. To listen, the grace to listen, and the grace to purify our eyes.

This is directly related to the Gospel we heard…”

(excerpt of Pope Francis’ homily on the Transfiguration, March 16, 2014)

For me, the story of Jesus’ Transfiguration, tells the truth about what happens when we go with Jesus, away for quiet prayer, especially when there is an issue of suffering, as Jesus took Peter, James and John with him right after he had told them the hard news of his coming Passion.  What seems, then  gives way to what is, as surely as the person of Jesus became transformed and shining, divinely beautiful, while God told the apostles, This is my beloved Son, Listen to Him.

As Pope Francis says it, the graces of prayer change our hearing and our sight, so that what we bring to prayer, takes on a new light, coming from the Lord himself and his  silent message of love and support, his inspiration, and kind call for outreach.

Sister Wendy Cotter, CSJ, Ph.D

Taking A Stand for Justice

The deep prejudice against African Americans is so painful and shameful to witness on our newscasts, and in our own experience and makes me think of the way Sister St John Fournier in 1845 defended the teaching of African American girls, against a furious white mob in St. Louis, who came at night to forcibly drive out the Sisters.  I want to share with you what she wrote about it. 

But first, I think we would be proud to note also that in the book Spirited Lives, which treats the way a French Sisterhood, namely the Sisters of St. Joseph, adapted to American culture, the authors (Carol K. Coburn and Martha Smith) has a footnote listing those Sisterhoods that used slave labor, and state that the Sisters of St. Joseph never did so. (Spirited Lives, footnote 14, p.241). 

-Sister Wendy Cotter, csj

Now, here is Sister Saint John Fournier: 

Sister St. John Fournier

"In 1845 Bishop Kendrick, [Bishop of St. Louis] established a school for Catholic coloured girls, the daughters of free negroes". Sister Saint John Fournier  (to whom Mother Saint John had given her name while she was preparing to come to the New World, a new novice) was now thirty years old when she faced the threats of a mob determined to drive them from the house.  Here is her account:  

"Obedience sent me there with two Sisters.  We were preparing these girls for the reception of the Sacraments. This so displeased the white people that they threatened to drive us away by force.  The leaders came every day. One morning several persons spoke to me after Mass and warned me that the next night we were to be driven from the house. I had no fear and said nothing to the Sisters because I had so much confidence in the Blessed Virgin.  I placed miraculous medals on the street door and on the fence.  

That night, at eleven o'clock a great noise suddenly awakened the Sisters.  A crowd of men, gathered in the street, were screaming and blaspheming.   We cast ourselves on our knees and began the Miserere and other prayers.  In the meantime, the enraged mob rushed upon the door.   The police drove them away. They returned three times that night.  The Blessed Virgin protected us.  In spite of their fury and their efforts, they succeeded neither in opening nor forcing the door.  

The day after this occurrence, the Mayor of Saint Louis advised the Bishop to close the school for the time being. Peace was restored.  The Sisters' schools received indiscriminately rich and poor, Catholics, Protestants, schismatics, and children of all religions.  A few years later, the asylum alone numbered two hundred fifty orphans."  

- Mother Saint John Fontbonne; A Biography, 1936 English translation of the French original, 1929, researched and written by "A Sister of St. Joseph", pp 358-359.