No Greater Delight - Fr. Nathaniel Dreyer

October 31st - No Greater Delight

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Celebrations

  • Our Lady of the Miracle of St. Fort, in Chartres, France: “In the year 1116, a chorister having fallen into the well of Saint Fort, which is in the church of Chartres, was saved by Our Lady.”[1] Why the place is called Saint Fort is unclear: some seem to think it refers to the place’s ancient name, Locus Fortis, while others attribute it to the name of the first bishop of the place, Saint Fort, with the word fort meaning first.[2] Chartres is also known for housing a statue of Our Lady and a relic of hers as well (a tunic).[3] The statue is particularly interesting: originally, there was a well and a statue of a Druid goddess in that place, but the goddess was called “virgini pariturae,” the Virgin giving birth.[4] That’s not the statue there today, but it’s how devotion to Our Lady got started even before the time of Christ.[5]
  • The coronation of the image of La Virgen de Río Blanco y Paypaya (in Valle de Palpalá (Jujuy), Argentina) on Sunday October 31st, 1920: Since 1960 she has been the patroness of Jujuy, named so by Pope John XXIII at the request of the first bishop of Jujuy. The origin of the devotion to that image is unknown, but it dates at least back to the late 1600’s. There are many processions there throughout the month of October, but today’s is usually the largest.[6]
  • On October 31st, 1942, Pope Pius XII “solemnly consecrated the church and the whole human race to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of the Universe … on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the apparitions of Fatima.”[7]

    • Meditation:

    • Why “No Greater Delight”? The title comes from a homily preached by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, where he says: “Nothing gives me greater delight than to preach on the glories of the Virgin Mother.”[8] Yet, in that same homily, Bernard says it’s simply impossible to say the right things, or to speak perfectly about Mary; she’s just too far great, too far beyond us. How could we possible praise Mary enough? Fortunately, in The Imitation of Mary, a book meant as a companion to Thomas à Kempis’ Imitation of Christ, he gives us a simple formula: “Do you wish to praise Mary worthily; do you wish to praise her in all magnificence? Be simple, like the simple children of God, without deception, without envy, without criticism, without murmuring, and without any suspicion. Support all adverse things with charity, with great patience, and great humility.”[9] There will be no greater delight for us than to preach the glories of Mary with a life that imitates hers. We can ask ourselves: how well do we take to heart and practice those indications from à Kempis: are we simple, without without deception, without envy, without criticism, without murmuring, and without any suspicion? Do we support all adversity with charity, with great patience, and great humility?

      • [1] Orsini – Barthe – Hahn, The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, trans. F. C. Husenbeth (New York: Virtue and Company, 1864), 553. See also Nicholas J. Santoro, Mary in Our Life: Atlas of the Names and Titles of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and Their Place in Marian Devotion (Kansas City, MO: iUniverse, 2011) Position 18333.

      [2] See https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/st-fort-chartres.html and Santoro, Mary in Our Life, Position 18333.

      [3] See Orsini – Barthe – Hahn, The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 544, 545.

      [4] Santoro, Mary in Our Life, Position 6147.

      [5] For more information, see also 33-35.

      [6] https://www.todojujuy.com/jujuy/la-historia-nuestra-virgen-rio-blanco-y-paypaya-n140185

      [7] Manfred Hauke, Introduction to Mariology (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2021), 302.

      [8] Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Fourth Sermon for the Feast of the Assumption, in St. Bernard’s Sermons on the Blessed Virgin Mary (Devon: Augustine Publishing, 1987), 200.

      [9] Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Mary (Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1948), 1.

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