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The beauty of what the soul knows

Marian hymns, the four major seasonal anthems to Mary of Nazareth—Mother of Jesus, Mother of the Church—end the Divine Office at Vespers every day of the year. The hymns themselves are the finest examples of the power of plaiting melody, text, and chant to fulsome and meaningful theology. They are, at the same time, public statements of the value of women in the eyes of God in a church that both sings their value and keeps them invisible at all times, in all aspects of the official Church. Women are the holy secret of the Catholic Church—important to its ministries, ignored in its functions, left out of the development of its theology, denied identity in its sacramental life.

 

The role and place of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is a real one, however. Mary is a determinative dimension of the spiritual life. It is Mary who models commitment, courage, and compassion. It is Mary to whom Christians can look for confirmation of their lives and for the support they need to go on in dark times. It’s important, then, that Marian hymns guide the yearly liturgical journey of the Church. It is through these hymns that women and young girls, who search so desperately for their identity in the Church, learn the values upon which both their own worth and the faith rest. Otherwise, what proof is there in the documents or liturgy of the Church itself that women have any value at all?

The first Marian hymn, from the eleventh century—Alma Redemptoris Mater, Loving Mother of the Redeemer—is sung from Advent to the Feast of the Purification on February 2. This hymn focuses on Mary’s divine motherhood. Becoming a mother is a time of great joy—and great anxiety as well. Mary’s motherhood elevates a woman’s existence to the very heart of God. It is proof that God the Mother is with us all in darkness and in joy. It is a sign of trust in God and a promise to many in our own time.

Mary’s life encompasses joy, satisfaction, sorrow, and fulfillment. Her life is the proof of God’s recognition of all women everywhere. No matter what the current social or ecclesiastical powers understand or preach. Whether bishops and politicians and male standards everywhere realize it or not, women have been chosen by God to bring Jesus into the world and the world into God’s embrace. No doubt about it; God will vindicate this truth soon.

Over and over again, the community sings this simple Marian hymn, and three others like it. For all our lives we sing them. Then music becomes the memory of our theology. It becomes the beauty of what the soul knows to be true.

Sing on, dear friends. Let no one dampen the chords.

          —from The Monastic Heart (Convergent Books), by Joan Chittister