The mind of man is never at rest

Where do they get the time for these things? It is funny, though.

Domine, non sum dignus (Lord, I am not worthy)

The readings for today may be found at http://www.usccb.org/nab/091707.shtml

This is a familiar but still curious story from the gospel of Luke ( Lk 7:1-10 ). Capernaum was by the Sea of Galilee, it was also the home of Peter. The bystanders urge Jesus to heal the centurion's slave because "he built our synagogue for us." Having made one pilgrimage to the Holy Land, I am now an expert in these things. The ruins of the synagogue of Capernaum that still stand are of the "white synagogue" that was built out of marble hauled in from far away. It did not exist in the time of Jesus. The synagogue that is under the "white synagogue" is called the "black synagogue" because it was built of the local, black basalt. This is the synagogue that existed in the time of Jesus. Was it the one built by the centurion? We cannot say.

The centurion would seem to have been in the ranks of what the Jews called "God fearers." They were edified by the religion of the Jews, and sought to conform to it without actually converting. They were respected in the community, and, as is the case reported here, were often benefactors thereof. Jesus responds to the urging of the crowd and follows the messengers of the centurion. And here is where the incident turns. Before Jesus can even arrive at his house, the centurion has second thoughts, and sends other servants to tell Jesus that he is not worthy to have him "come under his roof." The centurion understands authority and respect. He knows that Jesus can command the illness to depart without even sullying himself (becoming ritually unclean) by entering the home of a gentile.

The faith of this gentile, and his sensitivity to the requirements of the Jewish religion astonish Jesus. If such faith can be found outside of Israel, how much more should it be evident in the members of the household of the Faith?

How often do we Christians play fast and loose with the sanctity that we should exhibit, and the holiness of the God of whom we are not worthy. Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed.

The following is a quotation from the Treatise on the Most Blessed Sacrament by St. Thomas More, Martyr. "A treatise to receive the Blessed Body of our Lord Sacramentally and Virtually both, made in the year of our Lord, 1534, by Sir Thomas More Knight, while he was prisoner in the Tower of London, which he entitled thus as followeth: To Receive the Blessed Body Of Our Lord Sacramentally and Virtually both."

For if we will but consider, if there were a great worldly prince, which for special favour that he bare us, would come visit us in our own house, what a business we would then make, and what a work it would be for us to see that our house were trimmed up in every point to the best of our possible power, and everything so provided and ordered, that he should by his honourable receiving perceive what affection we bear him, and in what high estimation we have him.

We should soon see by the comparing of that worldly prince and this Heavenly Prince together (between which twain is far less comparison than is between a man and a mouse), inform and teach ourself with how lowly, how tender loving heart, how reverent humble manner we should endeavour ourself to receive this glorious, heavenly King, the King of Kings, Almighty God Himself, that so lovingly doth vouchsafe to enter, not only into our house (to which the noble man Centurio knowledged himself unworthy), but His 'Precious Body into our vile wretched carcass, and His Holy Spirit into our poor simple soul.

End of life issues clarified

CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH
RESPONSES TO CERTAIN QUESTIONS
OF THE UNITED STATES CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS
CONCERNING ARTIFICIAL NUTRITION AND HYDRATION

First question: Is the administration of food and water (whether by natural or artificial means) to a patient in a "vegetative state" morally obligatory except when they cannot be assimilated by the patient’s body or cannot be administered to the patient without causing significant physical discomfort?
Response: Yes. The administration of food and water even by artificial means is, in principle, an ordinary and proportionate means of preserving life. It is therefore obligatory to the extent to which, and for as long as, it is shown to accomplish its proper finality, which is the hydration and nourishment of the patient. In this way suffering and death by starvation and dehydration are prevented.
Second question: When nutrition and hydration are being supplied by artificial means to a patient in a "permanent vegetative state", may they be discontinued when competent physicians judge with moral certainty that the patient will never recover consciousness?
Response: No. A patient in a "permanent vegetative state" is a person with fundamental human dignity and must, therefore, receive ordinary and proportionate care which includes, in principle, the administration of water and food even by artificial means.
* * *
The Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI, at the Audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, approved these Responses, adopted in the Ordinary Session of the Congregation, and ordered their publication.

Rome, from the Offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, August 1, 2007.

William Cardinal Levada
Prefect
Angelo Amato, S.D.B.
Titular Archbishop of Sila
Secretary

This document will be very helpful for me as a pastor and for faithful Catholics in dealing with the end-of-life issues that are its subject. I will never forget being awakened at 2:00 a.m. once with a woman who wanted to know that if she were putting her aunt in a rest home, and since her aunt had Altzeimer's disease could she have them not feed or hydrate her? The whole story is almost as interesting as the Protestant woman who called me for counselling because she and her husband had been to a party where there had been drinking which lead to a sex orgy. I will, however, save the telling of both until another time.

The late night caller just didn't want to fool with the old woman, and didn't want to pay the expenses of the rest home. Since I was unable to give her any satisfaction (after a long time of discussion), she wanted to know if there were another priest available. Hearing that I was the only one in the county, she was astonished, being from south Louisiana where priests and parishes are more common. At the end, she angrily thanked me for nothing and went away sad.

It is unbelievable that anyone would be so callous to begin with, but then wanting to starve and dehydrate people to death has been done often in the last century. I guess that the children of the times are more hardened to such things. I hope that the aunt died in peace without being starved or dying of thirst.

14 September, Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world!

The original name of this feast was the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, by which name it is still known by the Orthodox Church and the Eastern Rites of the Catholic Church. Since 1970, it has been called in English the Triumph of the Cross by the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. However, in Latin its name remains 'The Exaltation of the Cross'. In some parts of the Anglican Communion it is called Holy Cross Day, a name also used by Lutherans. In Jewish folklore the feast was established by Saint Peter for converted Jews to observe instead of Rosh Hashana.

The feast commemorates the finding of the True Cross in 325 during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem by St. Helena, the mother of the Roman emperor Constantine I . The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was then built at the site of the discovery, by order of Helena and Constantine. The church was dedicated nine years later, with a portion [1] of the cross placed inside it. In 614, that portion of the cross was carried away from the church by the Persians, and remained missing until it was recaptured by the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius in 628. The cross was returned to the church the following year after initially having been taken to Constantinople by Heraclius.

The date used for the feast marks the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 335. This was a two-day festival: although the actual Consecration of the church was on September 13, the cross itself was brought outside the church on September 14 so that the clergy and faithful could pray before it.

The other September 11 (1683)

On this day in 1683, King Jan III Sobieski of Poland arrived to break the siege of Vienna and defeated the Turks in one of the most heroic moments of the continual battle between the followers of the Prophet and those of Christ. The Ottoman troops broke and fled before the charge of the Polish hussars that ended the Ottoman designs on central Europe for the next three hundred and eighteen years. Islam is on the march again, but where is the Sobieski of our times? Who will protect us?

It is fondly to be hoped that someday reason, justice and charity will prevail, and that all peoples of the earth can live together in peace. We must work for that and pray for that. But we must never let down our guard against a religion that from its very inception has labored under the command of its founder to conquer the earth by the sword.

And don't come at me with any silliness about the Crusades (that were really skirmishes in the continuing War of Muslim Aggression) as examples of Christian aggression. They would not have happened if the Muslims had not destroyed the holy places, enslaved the Christian inhabitants of the Roman Empire, and set their sights on the domination of the West, which would have ended in the stagnation that has been evident in the Muslim world for the past 400 years.

Athiests attack religion!

There have been a rash of books by atheists attacking religion of late (almost exclusively Christianity, naturally). They are so poorly written and so devoid of reasoning that it is time for Christians to help them out. What we need are some Christian scholars to write the books for them. Then they will get the arguments right, and won't be such an embarrassment to the intellectual establishment.

IX-XI

Today we remember those who died in the terrorist attacks against the United States by al Qaida operatives. As the war in Iraq continues unabated, and the immediacy of the events of this date recede in our collective memory, we perhaps need to recall that we live in a world that is still as dangerous a place as it has ever been in history. We Americans have been insulated from much misery that is the common experience of most of the world. The blessings of our geography and our commerce have protected us from the beginning of our nation. They will not continue to do so.

As I reflect on the plight of Christians in Muslim countries, I believe that they act as a moderating influence in the middle east. The Grand Prior (Archbishop Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston) of our Lieutenancy of the EOHSJ recently wrote:

You have heard often that the number of Christians in the Holy Land is dwindling. It seems to me that many think of "dwindling" in the sense it has when we speak of "dwindling oil supplies: or dwindling arctic ice pack." In this sense, there is progressively less and less petroleum, the are covered by the ice pack year by year seems to decrease. Would we, though say that oil supplies were merely "dwindling' in in ten years the amount of reserves fell by 80%? Would we say that the arctic ice pace was "dwindling" if its area decrease at ten or twenty times the rate we have observed?

Yet that is just what is happening to the Christian population in the Holy Land and surrounding countries. The World Council of Churches, according to a report by Newsweek Magazine, has estimated that in the last decade the number of Christians in that part of the world has plunged from 10 million to 2 million. Understandably, exact numbers are difficult to get, but anecdotal evidence is quite clear, and even the most casual observer can see that the decline has been precipitous.

You are tempted to think that the reason so many Christians are fleeing the Holy Land is because they are caught in the cross-fire, so to speak, between Muslims and Jews. But surveys attest clearly that economic reasons are the principal motives for emigration. Perhaps we can do little to compose the peace between Muslims and Jews, but we can do a great deal to help the economic situation of Christians in the Holy Land. Tourism is an important industry here in the United States, but relatively even more so in the Holy Land, and particularly for our Christian brethren there. (From the letter of August 2007)

I believe that if the economic situation of the peoples of the middle east were relieved, then much of the strife that destablizes the whole world would be mightily asuaged.

Friday, 7 September 2007

Today's readings may be found at: http://www.usccb.org/nab/090707.shtml

Jesus’ teaching always employs examples that the people could understand that were drawn from their daily experiences or common knowledge. We don’t store wine in skins anymore, although you can go to some catalogs and get a semi-authentic wine skin to show off with, I suppose. Because new wine is often still active, it has to have a container that will breathe and move with it. Old skins have lost their suppleness, instead of giving, they burst. It is the same with cloth. The natural fibers of wool and linen that were used most commonly in those days shrank after washing. A new piece attached to the shrunken fibers would shrink at the next washing and the hole would return. These examples deal with common good sense; from them Jesus has drawn his lesson: There is an appropriate way to deal with things and people, and they should be dealt with according to their nature. Wine that has settled down is more enjoyable because it has developed flavor and palatability. Old wine is better. But there will be no old wine, unless the new wine is properly stored. There is a way of teaching the young in the Faith that is appropriate for them. There is a way of further developing the Faith in others. As Aquinas said so truly in the 13th century: What is received is received in the mode of the receiver.

Gospel for 6 September

See this URL for today's readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/090607.shtml

Sound travels well over water, and for Jesus to get into the boat and pull away from the shore for a distance allowed his words to be heard much better than if he were just sitting in the midst of the crowd. Unlike at other times, Luke fails to tell us what effect Jesus’ teaching had on those who listened. While his words were all well and good, on the religious level, you can almost hear the disbelief in Peter’s voice when he realizes that the carpenter is trying to tell the fisherman how to fish. Jesus’ teaching is verified for Peter, Andrew, James, and John by the splendid and unlooked for catch of fish. His message sank in, and the person of Jesus was revealed, only when Jesus’ work brought about faith---faith that led to repentance: Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man. How slow we are to believe and to repent. At least our distance in time from Jesus’ day allows his word to be heard more clearly, just as his distance from the shore helped the crowd to hear.

Mother Teresa's Dark Night of the Soul

Mother Teresa of Calcutta was famous in her life and after her death because of her work for the poor and her spiritual teaching. Now that the cause for her canonization is working, her letters and other materials about her life have come to light. It appears that from the 1950's on she experienced a sense of complete abandonment by God. This feeling of God's absence in her life was a great trial, but something that never got her down. She continued steadfastly onward in her service of Christ without spiritual consolation. What a great example to us in modern western countries where the cult of "feelings" and "Oprah-ism" reigns. See the articles in Zenit: http://www.zenit.org

September 5, 2007

Both the epistle reading and today’s gospel contain the words “Good News.” The Good News that has reached you is spreading all over the world and producing the same results as it has among you ever since the day when you heard about God’s grace and understood what this reality is. And I must proclaim the Good News of the kingdom of God to the other towns too, because that is what I was sent to do. There is a universalist message about the Good News. It is not something to be put under the bed or a bushel basket---like a lamp it is to be placed on a stand to give light to the whole household of God. The people of Capernaum wanted Jesus to stay with them, and be their very own civic miracle worker. He would have been outstanding in that role, however, he was always conscious of his mission: to bring the gospel, the “Good News,” to those who were near and to those who were far off. Such should be our mission, too.

Gospel for 4 September

Today's readings may be found here: http://www.usccb.org/nab/090407.shtml

What is nice about today’s gospel is that there is no suspicion or violence in it, no Pharisees looking for a way to catch Jesus saying or doing something that will bring him into a scandal. His teaching made a deep impression on them because he spoke with authority. The scribes and Pharisees always appealed to the teachings of those who went before them, when they commented on the Torah---everything that they said had to be backed up with some ancient rabbi’s opinion. Jesus didn’t appeal to the opinions of the revered rabbis of the past---he spoke with his own authority: You have heard it said, but I say to you. Beyond that, he backed up his authority, as occasion offered by some kind of healing or other work---even on the Sabbath, as in today’s reading. The astonishment of his listeners was as much for his command of the scriptures as it was for his healing. Nothing like this had been seen in anyone’s memory. It truly seemed as if God had visited his people, and he did.

Cardinal Lustiger R.I.P.

Jean-Marie Cardinal Lustiger, Archbishop of Paris, passed away. Here is the NYT sory of his death: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/06/world/europe/06lustiger.html?ex=1344052800&en=d8655853202e1988&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss Here's information about his life: http://www.888webtoday.com/lustiger.html

Following the tremendous success of World Youth Day 1997 in Paris, Cardinal Lustiger was interviewed by Communio (24,4. Winter 97). (Thanks for this goes to the following: http://eagleandelephant.blogspot.com/)

Here are some highlights: The secret of Word Youth Day in Paris is not that we looked for something we thought would attract the youth, but only the truth, the purity, and the beauty of the Good News of Christ.It was evident to the young people that the pope did not welcome them in his own name, but in the name of Christ, by exercising his apostolic ministry as Peter's successor.

What brought together these hundreds of thousands of teenagers, what they lived, was the mystery of Salvation, the freedom brought by Christ the Savior. Through the liturgy, Christ himself touched their hearts. Remember the words of Irenaeus: "Omnem novitatem attulit, afferens semetipsum" [In becoming present himself, he brought all novelty]. Something new occurs every time Christ becomes present in the midst of his people.

People objected that the liturgy would not respond to young people's need to celebrate, and that we would risk meeting with failure--if we did not pervert the liturgy altogether. However, the event itself proved that nothing could have been further from the truth.

The liturgy is the place par excellence where the Church communicates the word of God and his presence in the sacraments; it is the means by which Christ reveals himself to men--today as always. Teaching the faith must go straight to the core: the Paschal mystery of Christ in its ecclesial dimension.

Gregory: Now isn't this what I've always said?

The ten virgins

Today's gospel is from Matthew 25: http://www.usccb.org/nab/083107.shtml#gospel

Today’s reading continues the “stay awake” admonition of Jesus from yesterday. Here, there is a kind of depiction of two kinds of people that goes back to Aesop and the fable of the grasshopper and the ant. Here there are those who have provided for themselves with care. They are preserved against the day of want. The others have been negligent in their preparations---when the day of want comes, that being their failure to let their little lights shine because they have no oil, they are rejected. Since the oil represents their spiritual preparedness, the rather un-Christian refusal to share is not really that, but rather it shows that when it comes to the holiness of our lives, it belongs to us alone, and cannot be shared. Each follower of Christ has to prepare themselves for the day of judgment and if we cannot show the oil of holiness, then the possibility of being rejected by Christ becomes a tragic reality. Stay awake!

Be watchful and ready

Click on this URL for today's readings: Matthew 24: 42-51

http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/matthew/matthew24.htm#v42

It is often hard to stay awake. It is emotionally taxing to be in a constant state of alert. Soldiers on guard during time of war have to be constantly alert, to fall asleep while on guard duty can result in the guard being executed for his failure to stay awake.

In so many places in the gospel, and in today’s reading, Jesus urges us by command and parable to keep our minds constantly focused on him---but the cares of life and the distractions to which we give ourselves over cause us to lose our spiritual alertness. This is not like in the Xmas song Here comes Santa Claus where we better watch out because Santa is coming tonight---that only demands that we keep alert for one night.

Our eyes must be kept fixed upon the Lord, ever watching for him to break into our lives and give us the rewards of honest servants: Happy that servant if his master’s arrival finds him at his employment. Amen I say to you, he will place him over everything he owns.

A thought on the Eucharist

Here's a quote about the Eucharist from John MacQuarrie (Paths in Spirituality): The Eucharist sums up in itself Christian worship, experience and theology in an amazing richness. It seems to include everything. It combines Word and Sacrament; its appeal is to spirit and to sense; it brings together the sacrifice of Calvary and the presence of the risen Christ; it is communion with God and communion with man; it covers the whole gamut of religious moods and emotions. Again, it teaches the doctrine of creation, as the bread, the wine, and ourselves are brought to God; the doctrine of atonement, for these gifts have to be broken in order that they may be perfected; the doctrine of salvation, for the Eucharist has to do with incorporation into Christ and the sanctification of human life; above all, the doctrine of incarnation, for it is no distant God whom Christians worship but one who has made himself accessible in the world.

The drouth is ended

(Yes, drouth is a correct, alternate spelling.) We hadn't had rain since about the middle of July. It was sprinkling and thundering often during the day, but really didn't rain significantly. I was eating dinner at a friend's house yesternight and it was just sprinkling again, until I stepped outside and chanted Rorate coeli desuper, et nubes pluant justum. (Drop down from heaven above and let the clouds rain the just one.) It immediately began to pour.

Beheading of St. John the Baptist

It's kind of strange to celebrate some one's beheading, but that's what we do today. We know the story of John's death, and how Herod embarrassed himself in front of his guests. It pays to not make gestures that you can't carry through.

Here is an interesting item:

Cardinal Ruini: Go to the Holy Land
ROME, AUG. 28, 2007

Benedict XVI's vicar for the Diocese of Rome is encouraging people to make pilgrimages to the Holy Land.Cardinal Camillo Ruini made his appeal Monday from Romes' Fiumicino airport, before leaving for a pilgrimage to Lourdes.In a press conference, the cardinal encouraged pilgrimages to the places mentioned in the Gospels.Pilgrims' trips to the Holy Land, he said, are "a basic condition to favor the peace and serenity of the holy places. We must all work to overcome the fears that stop the faithful who wish to go to the Holy Land.""Maybe they are unfounded fears," Cardinal Ruini added, "but understandable ones. While we go to Lourdes we ask the Lord for peace in the Holy Land."

It is difficult for us to imagine, but the Christians of the Holy Land really depend on the tourist trade to support themselves. When I was returned from there last November, people asked me if I had been afraid anywhere on the pilgrimage. I never was---anywhere. Even when there was one sticky situation, when they saw that we were pilgrims, they made way for us happily. I would urge everyone who can to go to the Holy Land. Just our presence there is a great support for the Christian people there, and the presence of Christians there is a moderating influence between the secular Jews who run the State of Israel, and the Palestinians. Deus lo vult!

Gospel for 23 August

Today's first reading is again from Judges, and narrates the story of Jephthah, who defeated the Ammonites, having made a vow to God that he would sacrifice the first thing that came out of his house. Unfortunately the first person out the door when he returned from battle was his daughter, celebrating her father's victory. The anguished Jephthah realizes the foolish oath that he made and God, as if God would let his people perish anyway! The daughter asked for two months to mourn her virginity (mourning the fact that she would never have children---a sign of shame for any Jewish woman in those days. When the two months were over, she returned to her father, and he treated her as the vow he had uttered bound him. We should learn from this tragedy not to bargain with the Lord, and to be careful what we say.

The gospel parable is about the comparison of the kingdom of heaven with a king's marriage feast for his son, where most of the guests refuse to come (a great insult). After destroying his enemies, he sends out his servants to gather others in to fill the wedding hall, but one guest appears without a wedding garment. Then the king said to the attendants "Bind him hand and foot and throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth." For many are called, but few are chosen.

One of the best commentaries for this parable is a poem by Martin Franzmann that I append below:

O KINGLY LOVE (Martin H. Franzmann, 1907-76)

1) O kingly Love, that faithfully
Didst keep thine ancient promises,
Didst bid the bidden come to thee,
The people thou didst choose to bless,

This day we raise Our song of praise,
Adoring thee,
That in the days
When alien sound
Had all but drowned
Thine ancient, true, and constant melody,
Thy mighty hand did make
A trumpet none could silence or mistake;
Thy living breath did blow for all the world to hear,
Living and clear:

The feast is ready.
Come to the feast,
The good and the bad.
Come and be glad!
Greatest and least,
Come to the feast!

2) O lavish Love, that didst prepare
A table bounteous as thy heart,
That men might leave their puny care
And taste and see how good thou art,

This day we raise Our song of praise,
Adoring thee,
That in the days
When alien sound
Had all but drowned
Thine ancient, true, and constant melody,
Thy mighty hand did make
A trumpet none could silence or mistake;
Thy living breath did blow for all the world to hear,
Living and clear:

The feast is ready.
Come to the feast,
The good and the bad.
Come and be glad!
Greatest and least,
Come to the feast!

3) O seeking Love, thy hurrying feet
Go searching still to urge and call
The bad and good on ev’ry street
To fill thy boundless banquet hall.

This day we raise Our song of praise,
Adoring thee,
That in the days
When alien sound
Had all but drowned
Thine ancient, true, and constant melody,
Thy mighty hand did make
A trumpet none could silence or mistake;
Thy living breath did blow for all the world to hear,
Living and clear:

The feast is ready.
Come to the feast,
The good and the bad.
Come and be glad!
Greatest and least,
Come to the feast!

4) O holy Love, thou canst not brook
Man’s cool and careless enmity;
O ruthless Love, thou wilt not look
On man robed in contempt of thee.

Thine echoes die;
Our deeds deny
Thy summoning:
Our darkling cry,
Our meddling sound
Have all but drowned
That song that once made ev’ry echo ring.
Take up again, oh, take
The trumpet none can silence or mistake,
And blow once more for us and all the world to hear,
Living and clear:
The feast is ready.
Come to the feast,
The good and the bad.
Come and be glad!
Greatest and least,
Come to the feast!

The Queenship of Mary, or Our Lady, Queen of Palestine

This feast was created by Pius XII in 1954. Mary participates in the reign of Christ, and honor given to her redounds to the glory of her Son, Christ our Lord. This is a privileged day (OL Queen of Palestine) for members of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem.

The first reading of today's Mass is taken from the Christmas midnight Mass: Isaiah 9:1-6: The people that walked in darkness has seen a great light; on those who live in a land of deep shadow a light has shone. You have made their gladness greater, you have made their joy increase; they rejoice in your presence as men rejoice at harvest time, as men are happy when they are dividing the spoils. For the yoke that was weighing on him, the bar across his shoulders, the rod of his oppressor, these you break as on the day of Midian.

It is interesting that in the weekday lectionary cycle we are now reading of Gideon and the "day of Midian." This refers to the destruction that Gideon and his small number of Hebrew forces won over the Midianites. The light that scattered the darkness, the increase of gladness and joy, are the result of Christ's glorious incarnation. Even at his birth, the yoke of sin was broken, the rod of the oppressor smashed. This recollection of the prophet Isaiah was not originally meant to speak about Jesus. However, the Church has long looked at the Old Testament as a gold mine of prophecy about Christ. Even if the prophets did not know of Jesus, their words can still tell us much of the coming holy redeemer.

Collect: Father, you have given us the mother of your Son to be our queen and mother. with the support of her prayers may we come to share the glory of your children in the kingdom of heaven. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.