On my computer at work I have taped three prayer cards. One is the Anima Christi, one is a Novena to St. Benedict, and one is the Divine Praises.
“The Divine Praises” is an interesting prayer. I was struck recently by the specific line, “Blessed be the name of Mary”. It follows a list of other aspects of Mary, and is followed by a simpler prayer that says “Blessed be St. Joseph”. St. Joseph in total is blessed, but Mary in her various aspects and her name specifically is blessed.
This reminds me of a piece of trivia I heard that to ancient Jews, Names mattered a great deal. To know someones name was to have power over them, so true names were reserved for only the most intimate of family and friends; everyone else would know your public name. This is why they censored the name of God and refused to say it–it would be the height of pride to presume they have power over God and such intimacy as to be able to say His name.
As Christians we have adopted and seem to have inverted this idea. Jesus is the “name above all names”–the Divine Praises themselves begin with “Blessed be God. Blessed be his holy name.” This represents an inversion, because to say someones name is to call upon their favor or intercession–it creates a virtue out of the presumption the ancient Jews wished to avoid. They say an invocation of the name of Jesus is the shortest prayer you could possibly say–and why it is a sin to “take the Lord’s Name in vain”–to call upon him for petty or frivolous or blasphemous purposes.
It is good to call upon the name of the blessed because it reminds us that they are uniquely blessed and reminds us of what about them is particularly grace-filled–gracious. To call upon the Name of Mary, then, is almost to call upon her relationship with God. Mary, the Mother of God; Mary most holy; Mary, virgin immaculate; Mary, assumed into Heaven. These are extraordinary gifts which belong not just to anyone, but to Mary.
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A Side note about Mary, regarding the Assumption. At the Legion of Mary meeting recently, one of the Legionaries made the observation in response to a book we are reading that “Jesus wanted to be so close to his Mother that he took her up bodily into Heaven.”
While true, I also realized that nothing sinful can enter Heaven, and since Mary was immaculately conceived and lived a holy and immaculate life, she would have attained a very close approximation to the glorified and resurrected life–perhaps not so luminous as it will be, but certainly her Earthly body was perfect enough to be taken wholly into heaven.
Which made me realize–if she lived her entire life as a being worthy of being taken bodily into heaven, how hard life must have been. Certainly not so hard that it wasn’t worth living. Mary’s will was perfectly united to God’s, so she accepted the suffering of the world with perfect obedience and humility. But still: our world is full of petty little traps for fools and wounded people who insist on trying to wound others. And Mary, mother Immaculate, must have felt all of these worldly wounds with something like perfect empathy.
Thank you, God, for giving us your Mother also, and for giving us her example. Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother!
AMDG
Times-Dispatch of Vichy Earth 