Feast of the Holy Name of Mary

“O Name of Mary! Joy in the heart; honey in the mouth, melody to the ear of her devout clients!”

In Hebrew, the name Mary is Miryam. In Our Lady’s time, Aramaic was the spoken language, and the form of the name then in use was Mariam, from the root, merur, the name signifies “bitterness.”

Miryam was the name of the sister of Moses; and the ancient rabbinical scholars perceiving in it a symbol of the slavery of the Hebrews at the hands of the Egyptians, held that Miryam was given this name because she was born during the time of the oppression of her people. We must remember that the Old Testament was filled with “types,” or foreshadowings of people and events which would be made manifest when the redemption of the Lord came. Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the sacraments, Calvary, everything was foreshadowed in the Old Testament, but we view them there as “through a glass darkly,” being explained by the guidance of the Holy Ghost through the Catholic Church, Which alone possesses the authority to interpret Holy Writ.

Miryam was a “type” of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as Moses was a “type” of Christ. She was a prophetess who sang a canticle of thanksgiving after the safe crossing of the Red Sea and the destruction of Pharhao’s army. The Blessed Mother Mary prophesied in her Magnificat that “all generations shall call me blessed!,” and she sang how God would topple the mighty from their thrones and exalt the lowly. Miryam supported her brother, the liberator of his people, as Blessed Mary is united to the sufferings of her Son upon the Cross of Calvary, He Who is our One Mediator. She laboured next to Him, the true Liberator of all His people.

“Mary means enlightener, because she brought forth the Light of the world. In the Syriac tongue, Mary signifies Lady.”- St. Isidore of Seville.

“Mary means Star of the Sea.”- St. Bernard.

“As mariners are guided to port by the ocean star, so Christians attain the Port of Christ through Mary’s maternal intercession.”- St. Thomas Aquinas.

“This most holy and worthy name was ’eminently fitted to so holy, sweet and worthy a virgin.’- St. Boneventure.

We could go on and on, but let us end with Holy Scripture that tells us “and the Virgin’s name was Mary,” which in latin means seas. Ave Maris Stella, this title goes all the way back to St. Jerome in the 400’s. He used the metaphor of the sea to be God and Our Lady as the guide through whom we find HIM. It is the Will of God that we have devotion to the Mother of the Son.

HOLY MARY, MOTHER OF GOD, PRAY FOR US SINNERS, NOW AND AT THE HOUR OF OUR DEATH. AMEN.

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