Sermon of the Right Reverend Dom Jean Pateau, Father Abbot of Our Lady of Fontgombault, Fontgombault, March 25, 2023
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
My dearly beloved Sons,
and most especially you, who are now going to make your religious vows,
Monks like to pronounce theirs vows and promises underMary’s eyes. They do that in the hope that these eyes will never turn away from their everyday life, and they can do it with a firm trust. How could a mother, the Mother par excellence, turn away from those she has received as children, for we are truly her children?
What then is this unique motherhood?
St. Irenaeus wrote in his Treatise against Heresies:
Thus it was, too, that God formed man at the first, because of His munificence; but chose the patriarchs for the sake of their salvation; and prepared a people beforehand, teaching the headstrong to follow God; and raised up prophets upon earth, accustoming man to bear His Spirit [within him], and to hold communion with God: He Himself, indeed, having need of nothing, but granting communion with Himself to those who stood in need of it. […] He does Himself truly want none of these things, for He is always full of all good. […] Moreover, He instructed the people, who were prone to turn to idols, instructing them by repeated appeals to persevere and to serve God, calling them to the things of primary importance by means of those which were secondary; that is, to things that are real, by means of those that are typical; and by things temporal, to eternal; and by the carnal to the spiritual; and by the earthly to the heavenly.
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RORATE CÆLI: Fontgombault Sermon for the Annunciation: Mary’s “Yes” is the Greatest Moment in Human History
RORATE CÆLI: Fontgombault Sermon for the Annunciation: Mary’s “Yes” is the Greatest Moment in Human History
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