If Only I Could Speak Portuguese

Someone from Brazil left a comment today. Pretty cool. Only problem is this: I don't speak Portuguese.

But, from the little bit of Spanish that I do know, I could guess at a few words that looked like something I once learned in Spanish. One can never be sure, though, as Portuguese is not Spanish. And I barely know Spanish.

Even so, it was a real joy to see the comment-that-I-couldn't-quite-read. It represents something that makes me really excited. Our faith is universal. People see the name of this blog and because they are Catholic (and because the Catholic faith is in every nation, for every people, of every tongue), I get visitors from every corner of the world.

And we have this one thing in common. We are all Catholic by grace.

So, here is a short list of visitor locations from just the last 24 hours: Canada, United Kingdom, Israel, Malaysia, South Africa, and Dominica.

And yesterday: Singapore, Australia, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Republic of Korea, and the Netherlands.

I"m quite sure that a blog with another faith affiliation would not generated the same global response. You see, it isn't really that this blog is so fantastic as much as it is a sign of the universal Church. The Catholic Church. And the fact that she alone has truly gone into every part of the world for Jesus Christ, with the mission of spreading the Good News.

So, if you are a visitor from a far away place, thanks for stopping by and reminding me, by your visit, that this faith - which I now call my own - is truly universal!

If Only I Could Speak Portuguese

Mary, Mother of God

It wasn't a hard teaching for me. As a convert, I had so much more difficulty with the Immaculate Conception and Mary being Queen of the Universe. Mary, Mother of God, was easy in comparison.

After all, Elizabeth said it herself. As the infant John leaps in her womb, Elizabeth turns toward Mary and says, "Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled."

There is so much going on in this passage. Elizabeth stands in the place of Israel, representing the Old Covenant. How can we be sure of this? Like so many Old Testament references to Israel, Elizabeth is the once-barren woman, but now she is pregnant with her own child, like Sarah, like Hannah, like Israel herself.

Yet, even though God has blessed Elizabeth beyond her wildest dreams, she is able to look beyond that blessing and see the divine and promised one, hidden within Mary, and yet already in the process of his Incarnation. God has come to earth, and Elizabeth knows it.
Elizabeth knows this is no ordinary mother and no ordinary baby. In this moment, the Old Covenant and the New Covenant embrace, literally. God has chosen his mother, and Elizabeth seems to know it intuitively.

Maybe it's something every mother understands intuitively.

My daughter didn't inherit very many traits from me. Other than being female, she is a carbon copy of her daddy. And yet, I do not say that I am only the mother of those things that she inherited from me. I am the mother of the whole child. I'm not responsible for her nose. I'm not the reason she's a good artist or gifted in music or has a propensity for technology. And yet, I am her mother. The mother of all of her. Jesus' mother is also the mother of Our Lord's divinity. The Mother of God himself. Elizabeth pronounced it first. And today, we celebrate the mystery of Mary's motherhood. Indeed, every generation should rise up and call her blessed.

Mary, Mother of God