Sunday, December 04, 2005

Más que cuatro siglos antes Tepeyac, More than four hundred years before Tepeyac.

Temas Guadalupanos, topics related to our Lady of Guadalupe.


Cautionary Note: Sometimes things crop up in one language, even in translation, that seem to send a message that is almost prophetical in its content, but which is not so noticeable in some other translation, nor even in the original. Much less may it have been apparent to the person who gave utterance to the original thought. For whatever may be the case, what we have here below, courtesy of the online Spanish translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, seems to resonate especially well given that many of us are going to begin celebrating the Feast Day of our Lady of Guadalupe this coming December 12.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux lived from around 1090 A.D. to August 21, 1153 A.D., and had much reknown as both a writer and as a preacher. On day, while apparently writing in figurative language to describe the role played by the Church in uniting men with God, Saint Bernard drew from at least two different parts of the Canticle of Canticles, or The Song of Solomon. While he wrote his thoughts presumably in Latin, we are giving the modern Spanish translation below for the five lines of this entry attributed to him.

Catequismo de la Iglesia Católica #771.

"Qué humildad y qué sublimidad! Es la tienda de Cadar y el santuario de Dios; una tienda terrena y un palacio celestial; una casa modestísima y una aula regia; un cuerpo mortal y un templo luminoso; la despreciada por los soberbios y la esposa de Cristo. Tiene la tez morena, pero es hermosa, [oh] hijas de Jerusalén. El trabajo y el dolor del prolongado exilio la han deslucido, pero también la [¿ o, tal vez se debe poner es ? ] hermosa su forma celestial." San Bernardo de Claraval In Canticum Sermones 27,14.

Catequismo de la Iglesia Católica #773.

"María nos precede a todos en la santidad que es el Misterio de la Iglesia como la Esposa sin tacha ni arruga (Ef 5, 27). Por eso la dimensión mariana de la Iglesia precede a su dimensión petrina" (ibid.).

To carry this theme of #773 a little further, we have here the:

Companion to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, pp 318-319.

This is what it says:

Catechism #773 (2) Mulieres dignitatem 27

"In every age and in every country we find many perfect women (Cf. Prov 31:10), who, despite persecutions, difficulties and discrimination, have shared in the Church's mission. It suffices to mention: Monica, the mother of Augustine, Macrina, Olga of Kiev, Matilda of Tuscany, Hedwig of Silesia, Jadwiga of Cracow, Elizabeth of Thuringia, Birgitta of Sweden, Joan of Arc, Rose of Lima, Elizabeth Anne Seton and Mary Ward."

Then there is a certain famous quote from Proverbs 31, for which we hereby thank a certain "Brother Mel," a dynamic up and coming young member of a tried and true teaching fraternity, who xeroxed for us the relavent passages of Proverbs according to his English language Catholic Holy Bible, most likely an up dated version of the New American Bible.

Here, then, is a key component of the ideal woman, English version:

Proverbs 31:25

"She is closed with strength and dignity, and she laughs at the days to come."


The equally superb rendition of this passage from Los Gedeones Internacionales, El Nuevo Testamento, is likewise precise and to the point:

Proverbios 31:25

"Fuerza y honor son su vestidura; y se rie de lo por venir."

In either language, the thrust here is toward a straight forward triumphalism, one, moreover, soundly rooted in the Bible and which can be applied to both the New Testament times, as well as to the Old Testament era. While this does not preclude other published versions of this key, utterly revolutionary phrase in Proverbs, this is the one that is preferred on this blogspot, that's for sure!

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