Augustine Day by Day - September 8 - Mary and the Church

"Mary is holy; she is blessed. Yet the Church is better than the Virgin Mary. Why? Because Mary is a part of the Church, a holy member, an excellent member, of the Body. If Mary is a part of the whole Body, it is clear that the Body is greater than its mother."

-- Sermon 72A, 7

O, hallowed vessel of God, the Church! Lord, what an honor we, Your Church, Your Body, have as Your are formed in us! Mary is our signal and our pattern to make Christ our chief love and our pattern. We groan in labor pains, just as she did, awaiting Emmanuel!

Prayer. Let our beautiful God, the Word with God, come to us that we may gaze upon him with the eyes of our minds. He was beautiful in the womb of the Virgin where, in taking on our humanity, he nonetheless did not lose his divinity.

-- Commentary on Psalm 44, 3

September 8