Ad Jesum per te, Maria : 4/33

The Psalms of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary

By way of preparation for the great Feast of the Annunciation, I am re-posting a daily commentary on each of the Psalms of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin. The commentary includes text published by Father Ethelred L. Taunton in 1903.

 

To read the commentary on today's Psalm, click on the following link:

👉  Psalm 23

Here is an excerpt:

Attollite portas principes vestras et elevamini portæ æternales : et introibit Rex gloriæ.

Lift up your gates ye princes and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors ; and the King of Glory shall come in.

There are six principal meanings of this verse.

1. The first applies to Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday after His many wanderings, even as the Ark finally rested on Mount Sion.

2. The second, adopted by St. Gregory the Great, refers it to our Lord’s descent into hell, His bursting the gates of brass, and smiting the bars of iron in sunder. St. Epiphanius has, in one of his sermons, a magnificent passage in which he represents our Lord attended by an army of angels, Michael and Gabriel in the fore-ranks, demanding admission at hell-gate, bursting open the unwilling doors, tearing them from their hinges, casting them forth into the abyss, commanding that they shall never be raised any more. Christ, he exclaims, Christ the Door is present ; unto God the Lord belong the issues of death.

3. The third signification would see in this verse the exclamation of the angels attending our ascending

Lord. O faith, exclaims Gerohus, O eternal gate by whose present vision thou art perfected and exalted !

And thou, O hope of the elect, which fixed on eternal blessings canst never disappoint, now exult, now

rejoice, for lo, the King of Glory is about to enter in, to disappoint His servants of no part of the

blessings which have been promised by thee.

4. The fourth meaning, St. Augustine’s, is that the princes are the kings of the world who are called, by

accepting the Gospel, to permit the King of Glory to enter into their several territories. This would give

to the verse the idea of a prayer for the Propagation of the Faith that the earth which is the Lord’s might

be His by faith, hope, and charity.

5. The fifth meaning sees in the verse a prophecy of the Incarnation ; and on this account it forms the

offertory in the Mass for the Vigil of Christmas. This sense is adopted by St. Jerome, though here also

he would find a spiritual reference to the virtual opening of the gates of heaven by the fact of our Lord

taking flesh.

6. The sixth interpretation is in this wise : Ye who were once the sharers of sin, but are now not only free, but princes, as gods, kings, and priests, lift up your gates, removing the barriers which sin puts between you and God, and those once gone be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors of virtue and holiness which cannot pass away, and then the King of Glory shall enter His palace of the believing soul. So St. Bruno, and Richard Rolle, after Origen.

Previous Psalms

Psalm 8

Psalm 18

Psalm 94

Prayers 

The following prayers follow the model written by St Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort and are recited in preparation for the renewal of consecration* to Lord Jesus Christ our King, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on the Feast of the Annunciation. *PEEKPTEE&A[E]

Veni Creator Spiritus [To see a translation of this hymn to the Holy Spirit, click here:  👉 Veni Creator Spiritus ]

Ave Maris Stella

 

Magnificat

 

Gloria 

+       +        +

The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.