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

Choosing a Lens for 2023

Many of us at the beginning of a new year make resolutions or set new goals for ourselves. Recently, I had the opportunity to view one of the TED Talks given by Dewitt Jones. Dewitt Jones is an American professional photographer, writer, film director and public speaker, who is known for his work as a freelance photojournalist for National Geographic. The title of his talk, Celebrate What’s Right with the World could easily be adopted as a very worthwhile attitude to adopt for 2023.

“… our vision controls our perception, and our perception becomes our reality” as Dewitt emphasises through his words and photographs during his twenty -minute presentation.

How might our moods and daily lives be altered if we set our personal compass on finding goodness, abundance, possibilities and what is right in the world.

Let’s pick up and use that lens of celebration!

-Sister Nancy Wales, csj

Christmas Message from the Sisters of St. Joseph

Christmas Message  

From the heart of silence leaps the living Word

like the dayspring rising where the dark is stirred

by our hope turned eastward toward the promised light

though the eyes see nothing but the depth of night.

(Genevieve Glen, OSB)

May Divine Love move us ever forward in acts of healing and whole-making.

Warmest Christmas wishes.

May Deep Peace be yours this Christmas Season,

The Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada

Christmas Eve: The Long Night

Christmas Eve, in the experience of many, is of a night of exquisite expectation, of fulfillment of the pregnant waiting of Advent and new life coming into being. It is a time of searching hope in the darkness even when darkness threatens to overwhelm us. We seek in the silent night sky, a star of promise.

At an everyday level we gather to begin a celebration. We prepare treats to share. Our excited children can hardly wait at all, creating mayhem and resisting sleep, just in case they miss Santa’s visit to place gifts under the tree! In Christian families a young child may also have a special role focused on the very meaning of Christmas. In my family living in the United States the youngest child, able to read, waits expectantly to be called on to recite the Christmas story from the old family Bible and then to place the baby Jesus into the waiting creche.

Christmas is, of course, a celebration of the birth of Christ so long ago. But it is also much more! Our celebration cannot be reduced simply to a sentimental re-enactment of that familiar scene, lovely though it is. For the very heart of the Christmas story is the vivid narrative of universal incarnation – God with us, God in all things, for time and for eternity. Christmas is, above all, a celebration of Divine Presence in all lives, in all events and in every element of matter – an ancient understanding.

A powerful image of this understanding of incarnation, is found in the Carmina Gadelica, a beautiful compendium of ancient Gaelic prayers and poems collected from the Hebridean Islands by folklorist, Alexander Carmichael.

In a Christmas carol entitled “the Nativity” found in that text we read that on Christmas Eve … in “the long night, Glowed to Him wood and tree, Glowed to Him mount and sea, Glowed to Him land and plain, When that His foot was come to Earth.”

The carol speaks of the light of Christ’s birth penetrating all and reflected in the entirety of God’s creation. Later, these words find more contemporary utterance in the writings of Teilhard de Chardin, Jesuit priest and paleontologist (1881-1955), as he exclaims,

“The Incarnation is a making new, a restoration, of all the universe’s forces and powers; Christ is the Instrument, the Centre, the End, of the whole of animate and material creation; through Him, everything is created, sanctified and vivified (The Phenomenon of Man).

This is what we celebrate at Christmas along with our more traditional practices. Truly it is a celebration, a joyful one but also one that de Chardin says, invites us into its deep mysterious significance not just for Christmas but for all of life in Christ. As we read in 2 Corinthians 5: 17, “if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation, everything old has passed away; see everything has become new.” This is the birthing of Christ in our hearts and world as we celebrate Christmas Eve. In the “long night” we are to birth Christ in the world anew.

This year, the “long night” of Christmas is a seemingly “dark night” for many; a night filled with violent conflicts worldwide, of the sufferings of people fleeing persecution, torture and starvation, a night of ecological degradation. It is a night still struggling with the ongoing shadows and isolation of a pandemic. Rapidly escalating prices in stores mean that many families are desperate simply to provide their children with some festivities. We face a night where the possibility of the light being extinguished forever seems real in ways not previously experienced in our world.

“with the celebration of Christ’s birth we are called to be “God’s light in our world.” ”

And yet … as Christians familiar with mystical references to “the dark night” we find in our faith the light of Christ at the heart of all things, incarnation, the God we can touch. As we celebrate this Christmas Eve and the days ahead may we be reminded that with the celebration of Christ’s birth we are called to be “God’s light in our world.” The silent, enveloping waiting in the long night calls us ever to the primacy of prayer and love in and for the world. It invites us to prepare actions that will make a difference.  Let’s truly celebrate with joy this Christmas and in the “long night of promise” may we share that joy. On this Christmas Eve may we again hear a call to new birth in the face of the challenges of our times. As Christmas dawns in our hearts then all of creation will indeed “glow where His foot was” and will, through us, once again, shine Christ’s Presence “on Earth”.

 -Sister Mary Rowell, csj