People brought little children to Jesus, for him to lay his hands on them and say a prayer. The disciples turned them away, but Jesus said, "Let the little children alone, and do not stop them coming to me; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs." Then he laid his hands on them and went on his way.
Today's Meditation of the Day, presented in Magnificat, a monthly magazine of daily mass readings, prayers, essays and meditions:
The unfailing love for mankind of the ever-Virgin Bride is a continual presence among all those who hear, encompassing all things and holding them in being. For she is near and ever standing by those who call upon her, through her tireless and most effective intercession to God her Son, which accomplishes all things for our good, as we ourselves know, having learnt from the benefits we have received, and having had our faith strengthened as a result.
Calling upon her with this faith, I hope to have her as my support to the end as I plunge now into the ocean of her wonders . . .
God graciously willed to create this ever-virgin Maid, his palace, if I may use the expression, who was shown to be capable of holding the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col 2:9) on account of her utmost purity, able not simply to contain him but - Oh marvellous wonder! - to bring him to birth and to form for all people, before and after her time, ties of kinship with God . . .
She is the sacred starting point of the spiritual Israel, by which I mean all Christian people, because she was the cause of him who is above all causality, and through him she lifted people up from the earth and rendered them heavenly, showing them to be spirit instead of flesh, and making them children of God . . .
Indeed, to express the honour of the Virgin Bride as is her due, she did not just act as a mediator for certain chosen races, but, standing between God and every race of men, she made God the Son of Man, and men the sons of God. She alone was shown to be the natural Mother of God in a supernatural way, and by her indescribable child-bearing she became Queen of the entire creation in this world and beyond, for "all things were made by him" who was born of her, "and without him was not any thing made that was made" (Jn 1:3).
Saint Gregory Palamas
Saint Gregory Palamas (+ 1359) was a monk and archbishop of Thessalonica
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