The Divine Lamp

I am unable to post the document directly on this site so i have posted it on my other blog.

Art and nature alike produce their works gradually, and God Himself does the same.  The pencil precedes the brush; the architect’s design maps out the building to come:-there is no chef d’ oeuvre accomplished in the world but goes through its preliminary stages; whilst nature, in the development of her designs, often tries her ‘prentice hand in ways that seem almost like play.

The work in which our Maker most remarkably follows the same plan is that the Incarnation, for the sake of which He declared that He would “move the heaven and earth” (Haggai 2:7):-this being His One Work above all others.  Although its fulfillment was not to be till “the middle of years” Hab 3:2), He nevertheless began it from the beginning of the world.  The natural and the written Law-ceremonies and sacrifices-priesthood and prophets-were all, speaking reverently, merely sketches or outlines of the “perfect Man, Christ Jesus”.  They are called by an ancient writer Christi rudimenta; and the grand work itself was reached only through a succession of images and figures that served as preparatory designs.  But when the time comes close for the Mystery, God plans something yet more excellent than these:-He forms the blessed Mary, that He may represent Jesus Christ to us more naturally than before.  He is about to send Him on earth, and so combines all His most beautiful characteristics in the person of her who is to be His mother.

Tertullian, contemplating and discussing the marvelous interest that God displayed in the act of forming man from “the slime of the earth,” seeks for some explanation of the immense pains that He bestowed on the work.  He declares himself unable to believe that he put forth so much power, to mould so base a material, without some further great end in view: and this end, he finally concludes, is nothing less than Jesus Christ, Who is to be born of the race of man, and Whom God, therefore, chooses to typify to us by His manner of forming the first members of that race.  Quodcumque limus exprimebatur, Christus cogitabatur homo futurus.

If this idea is true:-if God, when He created the first Adam, meant to trace out the second; if He formed our first father so carefully with Jesus our Savior in view, and because His Divine Son was to spring from him after many generations:-surely today, when we see Mary-who was to bear Christ within her womb-come into the world, we may conclude that in creating her God was thinking of our Lord and working for Him alone?  Hence there is no cause for surprise either in His having formed her so carefully or in His endowing her with so many graces as he did: for to make her worthy of His Son He models her upon that Son Himself.  Intending soon to bestow on us His Word Incarnate, on the day of Mary’s nativity He gives us an outline-I might almost say a beginning-of Jesus Christ, in one who, though a creature, is in some sort a living expression of His own perfections.  Thus we may truly apply to such a day the Apostle’s beautiful words: “The night has passed and the day is at hand.”

The Redeemer of mankind, besides being in Himself an inexhaustible Font of Love, must necessarily possess the two qualities of exemption from sin and fullness of Grace.  He must be innocent to purify us from our crimes, and full of grace to enrich our poverty; for these qualities are inseparable from the character and office of the Savior.  When God formed the Blessed Virgin on the pattern of the Sun of Justice, some of the rays by which He was to dispel our darkness were permitted to shine forth in her, though only in a degree that faintly foreshadowed the brilliant light they were to shed over the world when they should stream in their fullness from Jesus Christ Himself; and hence it came that she was endowed with the very qualities that were to form an intrinsic part of her Divine Son’s human nature, especially with these two of innocence and fullness of grace.  We are here to consider shortly both the cause and the manner of Mary’s likeness to her Son in these particular points:-and, first, the special relation of her innocence to His.

Continue at page 42, first full paragraph: “In the whole teaching of the Gospels…“

“If I have been slanderously reputed of wishing to rob the Virgin Mary of her honor; then I say that all statements that have been imputed to me, such as that Mary had other sons besides Jesus Christ, and other such un-Christian, impious, yes, maliciously contrived staements, have been imputed to me unjustly”~Heinrich Zwingli, Hauptschriften 2, 35 ff.

THOSE who have only read the Fathers of the Church in the brief extracts from their works, which are so often cited, can have no idea of the amplitude and magnificence with which they extol the praises of the Mother of God. I propose, therefore, in this chapter, to give more satisfactory examples of the mode in which they speak of her. St Proclus was a disciple of St Chrysostom, and is highly commended by St Cyril, as well for his learning and piety as for his accurate observance of the discipline of the Church. In the year 429, on a feast of the blessed Virgin, in the great church of Constantinople, he preached a discourse on the Mother of God, which was received with great applause by the people. Nestorius was present, and unable to endure so much truth, he rose up and burst out with a reply. The discourse was afterwards placed at the beginning of the Acts of the Council of Ephesus. I propose to give the first part of it. St Proclus begins :” The Virgin s festival incites our tongue today to herald her praise. And well may this solemnity be considered fruitful to the assembled faithful. For we celebrate her, who is the argument of chastity and the glory of her sex ; her who is at once Mother and Virgin. Lovely and wonderful is this union. . . . Let nature rejoice, and mankind exult, for women have also received their honour. Let men show their delight, that virgins are held in esteem. For, where sin abounded there grace has superabounded. For now the holy Mary, Virgin, Mother of God, brings us together. That undefiled treasury of virginity ; that spiritual paradise of the second Adam ; that laboratory of the union of natures ; that mart of the commerce of salvation ; that bridal chamber in which the Word espoused flesh unto Himself; that animated bush of nature, which the fire of the divine birth consumed not ; truly the bright cloud, which bore Him bodily who sits upon the Cherubim ; the most clean fleece of the celestial shower, with which the Shepherd put on the condition of the sheep. Mary, I say, handmaid and Mother, Virgin and heaven ; the only bridge of God to men ; the awful loom of the Incarnation, in which, by some unspeakable way, the garment of that union was woven, whereof the weaver is the Holy Ghost ; and the spinner, the overshadowing from on high ; the wool, the ancient fleece of Adam ; the woof, the undefiled flesh from the Virgin ; the weaver s shuttle, the immense grace of Him who brought it about ; the artificer, the Word gliding through the hearing. Who ever saw, who ever heard how God dwelt in the womb, yet suffered no limitation r And now, Him whom the heavens do not contain, the Virgin s womb did nothing straiten. He is born of woman, not God only, nor merely man ; and by His birth He made woman the gate of salvation, who before had been the gate of sin. For where the serpent entered through the way of disobedience, and shed his poison, there the Word, through the way of obedience, entered, and built a living temple for Himself. From whence Cain, the firstborn of sin, came forth, thence, without man s concurrence, came Christ, the Redeemer of our race. It shamed not the loving God to be born of woman, for it was life He was building up. He contracted no stain from His lodging in that womb which He had formed without any dishonour. For except His Mother had remained a virgin, the offspring would be but man, and the mystery of the birth would be lost. And if after bearing she remained a virgin, how shall He not be also God, and a mystery which is unutterable ? He is born of no corruption, who went forth unhindered through the closed doors. And when Thomas saw His conjoined natures, he cried out and said : ” My Lord and my God.” * Think not, O man, that this is a birth to be ashamed of, since it was made the cause of our salvation. For if He had not been born of woman, He had not died ; and if, in the flesh, He had not died, neither would He have destroyed him through death, ” who had the empire of death, that is, the devil.” t By no means was the architect dishonoured, for He dwelt in the house which He Himself had built. Nor did the clay soil the potter in refashioning the vessel He had moulded. Nor did aught from the Virgin s womb defile the most pure God. For as He received no stain in forming it, so He received none in proceeding from it. O womb, in which the general decree of man s freedom was written. O womb, in which the arms against the devil were forged. O field, in which the divine husbandman grew wheat without sowing. O temple, in which God was made a priest, not changing His nature, but, through mercy clothing Himself as the priest according to the order of Melchisedec. ” The Word was made flesh,” though the Jews believed not our Lord when He said it. Truly God took the form of man, though the Gentiles deride the miracle. Wherefore St Paul exclaimed, ” To the Jews a scandal and to the Gentiles foolishness: They know not the force of the mystery, because it passes their reason and comprehension. For ” if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory. But if the Word had not dwelt in the womb, neither would flesh have been seated on the holy throne.” This commencement forms part of one of six discourses delivered by St Proclus on the blessed Virgin.~excerpted from chapter 2 of THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF THE MOTHER OF GOD, by Bishop William Bernard Ullathorne. The rest of the chapter can be read HERE on page 16, at the paragraph which begins: “Basil, Archbishop of Seleucia…”

LETTERS APOSTOLIC OF OUR MOST HOLY FATHER PIUS IX., BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE POPE, CONCERNING THE DOGMATIC DEFINITION OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF THE VIRGIN MOTHER OF GOD.

Pius, Bishop of the servants of God.

for a perpetual remembrance.

God who is ineffable, whose ways are mercy and truth, whose will is omnipotence, and whose wisdom reaches powerfully from end to end, and sweetly disposes all things, when he foresaw from all eternity the most sorrowful ruin of the entire human race to follow from the transgression of Adam, and in a mystery hidden from ages determined to complete, through the Incarnation of the Word, in a more hidden sacrament, the first work of His goodness; so that man, led into sin by the craft of diabolical iniquity, should not perish contrary to His merciful design; and that what was about to befall in the first Adam should be restored more happily in the Second;-from the beginning and before the ages chose and ordained a Mother for His only begotten Son, of whom made flesh, He should be born in the blessed plenitude of time, and He loved Her above all other creatures, that in Her alone He pleased Himself with a most benign complacency.  Wherefore, far before all the Angelic Spirits and all the Saints, he so wonderfully endowed Her with the abundance of all the heavenly gifts drawn from the treasure of divinity, that She might be ever free from every stain of sin, and all fair and perfect, and might possess that pleitude of innocence and holiness than which, under God, none is greater, and which, except God, no one can reach even in thought.  And indeed it was most becoming that She should be always adorned with the splendor of the most perfect holiness, and free even from the very stain of original sin, should gain a most complete triumph over the ancient serpent,-the Mother so venerable, to whom God the Father gave his only God the Father, and of the Virgin, and whom the Son Himself chose to make substantially His Mother, and from whom the Holy Ghost willed and operated that He should be conceived and born from whom He himself proceeds. Continue reading: “Which original innocence…“

May is a month specially dedicated to Our Lady.  Last
year I manged to put up a post in her honor every
day, and I will attempt doing so again this year. The
following brief excerpt is from Bishop Jacques Bossuet,
a famous French preacher.  A Link is included at the end
of the post so that you may continue reading his sermon.


First, then, on what basis is our devotion to Mary 
founded?" No one," says the Apostle, "can lay any 
foundation but the one that has been laid that is, 
Jesus Christ." Now, in a pre-eminent manner, Our 
Divine Saviour is the foundation of the honour we pay 
to the Blessed Virgin ; because we have received Him, 
in fact, through her. God predestined Mary, before all 
time, to be the means of giving Jesus Christ to the 
world. Having called her to so glorious a ministry, 
He did not choose that she should be a merely passive 
channel of His grace. He made her, farther, a voluntary
instrument who should contribute to the great 
work by the use of her own will. Is not this clear 
from the manner in which the Incarnation was 
announced to Mary ? When the moment for accomplishing 
that Mystery which has kept all nature 
expectant throughout the ages has arrived, the 
Eternal Father sends an angel to make it known to 
her ; and the angel awaits the maiden's decision, so 
that the great act shall not be performed without her 
consent. The moment she has given this the heavens 
are opened, the Son of God is made man, and the 
world has a Saviour. 

Hence, the love and longing of Mary were in a 
measure necessary for our salvation. St. Thomas 
declares that "the fulness of grace she then received 
was so great that it brought her to a most intimate 
union with the Author of Grace; that this fitted her to
receive into her holy womb the One who contains all 
graces ; and that thus, in conceiving Him, she became 
in some sort the source of that grace which He was to 
pour forth over all mankind and so concurred in giving 
the human race its Deliverer." 

There is a necessary consequence of this fact which 
is not sufficiently borne in mind : namely, that God 
having once elected to give us Jesus Christ through 
the Blessed Virgin, this order of things can never 
change ; for the gifts of God are "without repentance". 
It is, and always will be, true, that having once 
received the Author of our salvation through her, we 
shall necessarily continue to receive help towards that 
salvation in the same manner. The Incarnate Word 
is the universal principle of grace ; but the Christian 
life in its various phases consists in the particular 
applications of the grace proceeding from this principle 
to the individual needs of each soul. Mary, having 
been once chosen as the means by which grace should 
come into the world, has, as a natural consequence, her 
share in its application to the souls of men for their 
salvation. Continue Reading (start at last Paragraph on pg. 3)

8.  Origin of the One Indeterminate Idea-The idea of Being or Existence.

It remains still to explain whence comes the idea of being, the sole indeterminate idea. If we once admit that this idea is given to the human spirit, there is no difficulty as to the origin of the other ideas, because, as we have seen, these are nothing else but the same idea of being invested with determinations by the human spirit, on occasion of the sensations, and of whatever feelings man experiences.

Now in order to solve the problem s to the origin in our mind of the idea of being we must first of all consider certain corallories which follow from what we have explained above.

1^st. The idea of being in general precedes all other ideas. In fact, all other ideas are only the idea of being determined in one way or another, and to determine a thing supposes that we already possess the thing to be determined.

2^nd. This idea cannot come from our sensation or from our feelings, not only because the sensations are real, particular and contingent (whereas this idea furnishes the mind with the knowledge of possible being, universal and necessary in its possibility), but also because the sensations and the feelings do not furnish to the spirit any thing except determinations of the idea of being y which it is limited and restricted.

3^rd. It cannot come from the operations of the human spirit, such as universalization and abstraction; because these operations do no more than either add determinations to this same idea of being, or take them away when they have been added, and this on occasion of the sensations or feelings experienced.

4^th. The operations of the human intelligence are only possible, if we presuppose the idea of being, which is the means, the instrument, employed by it to perform them, nay, the very condition of its existence.

5^th. It follows that without the idea of being the human spirit could not only make no rational operation, but would be altogether destitute of the faculty of thought and understanding, in other words it would not be intelligence.

6yh. If the human spirit were deprived of the idea of being it would be deprived also of intelligence; it follows that it is this idea which constitutes it intelligent. We may therefore say that it is this same idea which constitutes the light of reason, and we thus discover what that light of reason is which has been admitted by all men, but defined by on one.

7^th. And since philosophers give the name of form to that which constitutes a thing what it is, the idea of being in general may be rightly termed the form of the human reason or intelligence.

8^th. For the same reason this idea may justly be called the first or parent idea, the idea in se and the light of the intelligence.

It is the first idea because anterior to all other ideas; the parent idea because it generates all others, by associating itself with the sensations and feelings by means of the operations of the human spirit. We call it the idea in se, because the feelings and sensations are not ideas, and our spirit is obliged to add them as so many determinations to that first idea, in order to obtain the determinate ideas.

Lastly, we call it the light of the intelligence, because it is cognizable by itself; whereas the sensations and feelings are cognizable by means of it, by becoming determinations, and, as such, being rendered cognizable to the human spirit.

If these facts are attentively considered, the great problem of the origin of ideas and of all human cognitions become easy of solution.

But in fact this problem has been solved long ago by the common sense of mankind. For the existence in the human spirit of a light of reason or intelligence is admitted by the common sense of men, which declares this light of reason to be so natural and proper to man that it constitutes the difference between him and the brutes.

Now since we have shown that this light of reason is nothing else but the idea of being in general, it follows according to the testimony of the same common sense that this idea is natural to man or proper to his nature, and therefore it is not an idea which is formed or acquired but innate, or inserted in man by nature, and presented to the spirit by the Creator Himself, by Whom man was formed.

In fact, being must be known of itself, or otherwise there is nothing else which could make it known; but on the contrary every other thing is known only by means of it, for since every thing else is some mode or determination of being, if we know not what being itself is, we can know nothing.

The term “First Nocturn” refers to the Psalm used at Matins on Sundays, Mondays, and Thursdays.  These Psalms change for Tuesdays and Fridays (the Second nocturn), and for Wednesdays and Saturdays (the Third Nocturn).  My source’s commentary on the First Nocturn is 30 pages long, for this reason I’ll be posting only on Psalm 8 today.  The other two Psalms for the First Nocturn are 18 and 23, and these will also be dealt with in individual posts.

Antiphon: Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb.

The following psalm being concerned with the wonders of creation, the Antiphon directs our minds to Our Lady as the choicest and most perfect creature of God.  For if man be made a little lower than the angels and crowned with glory and honor, how much more honorable and glorious is She whose Office and holiness is far above that of the highest Angel?  For which one of them could say to their God as She could say: Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee? (Heb 1:5).

Argument: Defines what the Psalm is about according to the views of Venerable Bede and Tomasi.

Tomasi:  That Christ, the Son of Man, was made in His Passion a little lower than the angels.  The voice of the ancient Church speaking of Christ and of faith.  Also of the Ascension of our Savior and of the infants that glorified Him and that said Hosanna in the highest! The voice of the Church giving praise to Christ for the fiath of all creatures.

Venerable Bede:  (The first verse of the Psalm is actually a directive and reads: To the Leader; according to the Gittih.  “Gittih” is probably a reference to a musical tune and is derived from the word “Gath,” meaning wine-press.  The gathering of the vintage harvest was a time of great joy, and it seems that the directive is indicating that the tune which accompanied the text was to be joyful.  This helps explain Bede’s argument).  For the wine-press; that is, a vintage song of thanksgiving.  As in the wine-press when the grapes are bruised and the hardest pips crushed the sweetest wine pours forth, so when obstinacy and pride are crushed in the Church,  which is the true wine-press, at the commencement of these Psalms sings the praises of her Lord God, setting forth His majesty and the greatness of His operations.  Then she speaketh more plainly of the nature of man which, from the low and depraved condition whereto Adam’s fall had reduced it, He raised to the height of glory; and the one Person of Christ in its two distinct and inconfused Natures is unhesitatingly acknowledged.

8:1 O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is Thy Name in all the world.

O Lord our Lord. God’s name is twice repeated; for He is twice our Lord, in that He made us and in that He redeemed us.  he is our Lord also through our knowledge and love of Him.  We also are His servants; by the special claim He has to our life, by our holy vocation; therefore His interests are in a special sense ours.  Again, our Lord naturally suggests Him Who by mortal birth is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh (Gen 2:23); our Elder Brother, Who has shown to us the infinite tenderness and love of the Father.

How admirable is Thy name: The name of God implying perfection, all beauty, all riches, all power, all wisdom, and implying also that sweetest of all relations, taught us by our Lord Himself, the Divine Fatherhood.  But the name of our Lord is still more admirable; for it is the name of Jesus, name above all other names at which every knee shall bow (Phil 2:10); the name which is the joy of the faithful and the true revelation of the Father.

8:2  For Thy magnificence is lifted up above the heavens.

Commentators take this for the most part literally of the Ascension according to the words of St Paul: Who descended, He it is also Who ascended above all the heavens that He might fill all things (Eph 4:10); For then Christ, sitting at the right hand of  God the Father, sent the Holy Ghost and charged His Apostles to speak salvation in His Name as the only means of reaching heaven, and that He was constituted Judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42).  Others, and especially the Angelic doctor, see here implied the infinite distance between Christ Who is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:24), and the very highest of the saints; not only the Apostles or the angels, but even Her who bare Him, Her whom Christian singers delight in styling the “new heaven.”  Father Lorin takes these words as implying the magnificence of glory of God is far beyond what we can gather from the Scriptures, which tell us of the mysteries of heaven, or from those wonderful manifestations of His power and wisdom, the seven sacraments.

8:3  Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou has perfected praise because of Thine enemies, that Thou mightest destroy the enemy and the avenger.

Literally, the Holy Innocents who thus glorified Christ by their death, and they cried Hosanna by their acclamations, as he Himself hath taught us (Matt 21:16).  Spiritually, the weaker members of the Church of whom the  Apostle writes: I have fed you with milk and not with strong meat (1 Cor 3;2).  And again, those who had the innocence and simplicity of babes; as the first-born of the Church, the Apostle, who, taught by their Lord to speak, fed by Him, like new-born babes with the sincere milk of the word (1 Pet 2:2), and called by Him His children (Jn 21:5).  So teach the Carmelite Angriani and Perez.  Also we may understand it of all religious souls who, in simplicity and innocence, look to God alone and receive from Him their meat in due season, the food of their souls, by the teaching of the Holy Ghost ever whispering to their conscience.

Because of thine enemies- for their conversion; or, if they will not turn, from their destruction, as it is written: The arrows of the little ones are made their wounds (Ps 63:8).

That Thou mightest destroy the enemy: for God has chosen the weak things of this world to confound the wise.

Avenger: Not only tyrants and unbelieving nations whom God has at various times raised up to chastise a sinful people, but the evil spirit himself who is only an instrument in his Creator’s hands, and whose power, like those other avengers, will be destroyed when the good designed to be done through them is accomplished.

2:4  For I see Thy heavens, the works of Thy fingers: the moon, and the stars, which Thou hast established.

The heavens, the works of Thy fingers: The whole course of events under God’s Providence, Who has declared that all things should work together for good to them that love Him (Rom 8:28).  Thy fingers, not hands, because, as St John Chrysostom says, this is but a small thing for God’s omnipotence.  .

The moon, that is, the Church, which is constantly renewed and receives all her light from the true Sun.  The stars, the Saints of God, as it is written: They that turn many to righteousness shall shines as the stars forever (Dan 12:3).  Note: He mentions not the sun, because the Sun of Righteousness (Mal 4:4, or, in some translations 3:20) was begotten not made.  Thus St Ambrose.  Again, the moon, says Jorgius, who was the confessor of Edward the First, denotes our ever dear and blessed Lady; and that for various reasons: as the moon draws all its brightness from the sun, and yet it is the most luminous object next to it, so Mary, made full of grace by Him whose countenance is as the sun shining in his strength (Rev 1:16), is the brightest of all the saints.  And yet, as the moon is nearest to earth, so our Lady is the lowliest of all in her humility.  As the moon rules the tides, so Mary by her prayers helps those who are tossed on the bitter surges of the world.  And as Easter, the festival of the Resurrection, follows the course of the moon, so the spiritual arising of the Man by the Incarnation followed the consent of Mary’s will to the message of the Angel.  The choirs of angels which are her fellows (Ps 44:15) and bear her company, are rightly compared to the stars; only less than the moon in glory and beauty.

8:5  What is Man that Thou art mindful of him? or the Son of Man that Thou visitest him?

When, therefore, the prophet considers all the things tending to man’s salvation, the Providence whereby all events work together for his good, the Church given him as a mother, the saints as examples and friends, his thoughts are naturally carried back to the one source of all, which is the Incarnation.  What is Man? The Psalmist answers in another place, Every man is bu vanity (Ps 39:12); and again, All men are liars (Ps 117:10).  Man: taken absolutely, as a sinner: the  Son of Man, those who are endeavoring to keep the law of God.  Thus St Augustine.  Also the Son of Man, our Lord’s own description of Himself.  In this sense the term is to be understood of His headship over the mystical body.

Visitest the Incarnation, was God visiting His people, as it is written: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He hath visited and redeemed His People (Lk 1:68).  And again, Thou visitest the earth and blessed it (Ps 65:9).

8:6  Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, with glory and honor hast Thou crowned him: and Thou hast set him above all the works of Thy hand.

The Carmelite says: For as much as Christ went not up unto joy, but first suffered pain, so here we see Him in His low estate first, and then in His glory; for the humility of His Passion was the merit of His exaltation.

Lower than the angels, in that He condescends to become mortal and passable.  A little lower:  And what marvel, then, of speaking in respect of His humanity, He saith: My Father is greater than I! (Jn 14:28).

With glory, as respects Himself; with worship, in reference to others.  Thus St Basil.  Again, a little lower, for it was but for a short time-a little, because He was mortal and passable of His own free will, and not like us, of necessity.  Glory, in the victory of the Resurrection; honor, on the throne of the Ascension.  And note, as St Albert the Great says, Christ is said to have many crowns, of which the chief are: the Crown of Mercy, wherewith He was crowned in the Incarnation and Nativity; the Crown of Sorrow, when the thorny diadem of the passion was given Him; that of Glory in the Resurrection and Ascension; and that of Dominion, which He will receive when the Court of the Redeemed gathers around Him.

Over the works of Thy hands: and therefore over those angels than whom for a season He was made a little lower.

8:7  All things Thou hast out beneath His feet, sheep and all oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field.

All things Thou hast put beneath His feet. Let the Apostle interpret: In that He put all in subjection under Him, He left nothing that is not put under Him (Heb 2:8).  But when He saith all things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is excepted Who did put all things under Him (1 Cor 15:27).  Note in these three verses of the Psalm we have the four living creatures of the Apocalypse (4:7) for these might denote the four parts of Christ’s works of mercy, as well as the four Evangelists.  What is man? Here we have the face of a man.  Thou hast made Him a little lower than the angels, there we have the ox, the animal fit for sacrifice; Thou hast crowned Him with glory and honor, there the victorious lion; Thou hast put all things under His feet, there the eagle that soars above everything else.  So thinks Rupertus.

Beneath His feet.  As the head of Christ is His Divinity, so His feet are His manhood; and to Him, as Man, is given the empire, which, as God, was always His, Who is the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature…that in all things He might have the headship (Col 1:15, 18).

Sheep: By these we understand those whose business in Christ’s Church is not to teach but to learn: My sheep hear My voice (Jn 10:27).

And all oxen: Those who labor in His word and doctrine; according to that saying of St Paul, quoting from Deuteronomy 5:4, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn (1 Cor 9:9).  For by these great profit is obtained in His Church; as it is written: Much increase is by the strength of the ox (Prov 14:4).

Yea: The word shows that a change of subject is made, namely, from the good to the wicked.

The beasts of the field: Those that own no master, but follow their own hearts’ lusts, like brute beasts, as St Peter teaches, made to be taken and destroyed (2 Pt 2:12).  For the wicked as well as the good are made subject to Christ.  Thus St Bruno, of Aste-Perez remarks, not only are the sheep, the lowly and the docile who hear the voice of the Shepherd, put under Him, but even the oxen, the powerful rulers of the earth; and the beasts of the field, the wandering and barbarous tribes which knew no law before.

8:8  The fowls of the air and the fishes of the sea, and whatsoever walketh through the paths of the seas.

The fowls of the air are the saints who rise above the world, but only by means of the sign of the Cross (A bird with extended wings forms a cross).

The fishes of the sea: ordinary Christians regenerated of water and of the Holy Ghost, and who are made fellows of Jesus Christ, the Divine Fish (The fish was an ancient symbol for Christ found throughout the catacombs.  The Greek letters for fish form an acrostic: Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior).

And whatsoever bad, as well as good, unholy, no less than holy; walketh through the paths of the seas, that is, exposed to the waves and storms of this troublesome world.  Thus Casiodorus.  But St Augustine will have the fowls of the air to be the proud and the ambitious, the fishes those who are restless and acquisitive.  While others see in the winged fowls the angels; in the fishes the evil spirits of the Abyss; or again, in a good sense the dwellers in the isles afar, and mariners in them who walk through the paths of the seas.  So Perez.

8:9  O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is Thy Name in all the world.

Admirable, not only because He is very God, as set forth in the first verse, but also because He is very Man, as taught in the succeeding verses.  Teh beginning and the ending of this Psalm is the same, as being in His praise Who is the First and the Last (Rev 22:13), the same yesterday, today, and for ever (Heb 13:8).

The Doxology: Glory be to the Father Who hath put all things under the feet of the Son of Man; Glory be to the Son Who vouchsafed to become Son of Man, made lower than the angels, but now crowned with glory and honor as Priest and King and Prophet; Glory be to the Holy Ghost, the Finger of God’s right hand by Whom the heavens were made.

The following is taken from Father Taunton’s public domain commentary on the little Office.  Text in red represent my additions and notes.

The God, Whom earth and sea and sky,
Quem terra, pontus, sidera
Adore and Laud  and magnify;
Colunt, adorant, praedicant,
Who o’er their threefold fabric reigns,
Trinam regentem machinam
The Virgin’s spotless womb Contains.
Claustrum Mariae bajulat.

Creation, as we see it, consists of earth, sea, and sky, and the three form, as it were, the machinam (”fabric,” apparatus) by which God works out His will.  The Claustrum Maria means her reverend womb, which for nine months did carry the Lord of all things.   (”claustrum”=cloister, enclosure.  The translation of the Little Office I use reads: “Mary’s frame”). Mary was the Tabernacle of Emmanuel-God with us-and the Most High sanctified His resting place (see Ps 14:4).  The Ark of the Covenant in the Temple of Solomon was of incorruptible wood covered with plates of massive gold.  It only contained the tables of the Law, a pot of manna, and Aaron’s flowering rod.  But Mary, the true Ark of the Covenant, incorruptible by her immaculate Conception and adorned with the gold of charity, contained within her, as in a most peaceful cloister, the very Giver of the Law, the very Bread of Life, and the true High Priest, Himself, Whom all creation worhips, adores, and proclaims.

The God whose will by Moon and Sun,
Cui luna, sol, omnia
And all things in due course is done,
Deserviunt per tempora,
Is borne upon a Maiden’s breast,
Perfusa caeli gratia
By fullest heavenly grace possessed.
Gestant puellae viscera.

That is: Our Lady, filled with heavenly grace, doth bear Him, Whom moon, sun, and all things serve according to the seasons and times appointed to them: And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made also the stars.  And God set them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good (Gen 1:16-18).  Notice the word perfisa, i.e., bathed through and through, soaked; like Gideon’s fleece was soaked with the dews of heaven (Judges 6:38); so Mary was full of grace.

How blest that Mother in whose shrine
Bedta Mater minere
The Great Artificer Divine,
Cujus supernus Artifex,
Whose Hand contains the earth and sky,
Mundum pugillo continens
Vouchsafed, as in His ark, to lie.
Ventris sub arca clausus est.

That is: “Blessed by the gift of the Holy Ghost is that Mother whose High Maker, that holdeth the world in His hand, is borne within the ark of her womb.  Our Lord is said to hold the world in His hand, for all the world is full little in regard to his greatness (i.e., the world is small when compared to His greatness).  And as a man may do what he wills with a thing he hath in his hand, so is everything in the power of His hand and all is kept in being by Him” (Myoure).  Artifex, i.e., artificer-one who works according to Art, according to design.  Art is the showing forth of the Beautiful; and in the Incarnation to which the verse refers, we have the most perfect manifestation of God’s art in adapting means to an end, in exhibiting the beauty of His power, and of His love, and of His wisdom.

Blest, in the message of Gabriel brought;
Beata caeli nuntio,
Blest, by the work of the Spirit wrought;
Fecunda sancto Spiritu,
From whom the great Desire of Earth
Desiderdtus gentibus
Took human flesh and human birth
Cujus per alvum fusus est.

Nuntio caeli-the message of Gabriel: Fecunda. (”Fecunda” can mean either “fertile,” or, “plentifully furnished.”  This last meaning can be synonymous with “blessed,” or “full of grace.”  obviously, “fecunda” can be used to sum up the Angel’s message to our Lady).  Sancto Spiritu-”The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee” (This is the high point of the Angel’s message of fecundity to Mary, see Lk 1:35). Desiderdtus gentibus: our Lord was the Longed-for One; the Desired of the nations: And the Desired of the nations shall come (Haggai 2:7).  His advent was the prayer of the prophets and holy ones of Israel: Drop down ye heavens from above and let the skies pour forth the Righteous, let the earth open and bring forth the Savior (Isa 45:8).  And when He came He told men that many kings had desired to see the things they saw (Lk 10:24); and that Father Abraham rejoiced to see His day, and saw it and was glad (Jn 8:56).  Fusus est:  poured forth as oil, or as light passing through a most pure crystal.  (In the translation the phrase Fusus est corresponds to the word “took” in the phrase “Took human flesh and human birth.”  The phrase can denote genorousity or liberality).

All honor, laud, and glory be,
Jesu, Tibi sit gloria,
O Jesus, Virgin-born, to Thee!
Qui natus est Virgine,
All glory, as is ever meet,
Cum Patre, et almo Spiritu,
To Father and to Paraclete.
In sempiterna saecula.

Amen.

This Doxology, or ascription of praise to the Adorable Trinity, is used for all the hymns in the Little Office.  Jesu, Tibi sit gloria: Our Lord as He is our thanksgiving, our Eucharist, so is He also our Praise.  Therefore to Him and through Him we give our praise to the Blessed Three in One.  The rememberance of His Mother, Qui natus est de Virgine, gives us the reason for the special act of worship-one of gratitude for the Incarnation which is Mary’s gift to mankind.  For, chosen herself by God, she freely consented to become the Mother of the Word made flesh.  Almo Spiritu: the revelation of the Holy Ghost to us is that of infinite love.   The Love of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given to us (Rom 5:5).  In sempiterna saecula:  The glory we give to God lasts forever; for He is the Father of lights with Whom there is no variableness neither shadow of turning (James 1:17); the Eternal God, The Great I Am (Ex 3:14).  This thought makes our act of worship deeper and fuller and brings a stillness over our soul as we think of the never-changing, never ending glory, which, as an everlasting fire, surrounds the Eternal.

The Translation I Use:

The Lord, whom earth, and sea, and sky
With one adoring voice proclaim;
Who rules them all in majesty,
Enclosed Himself in Mary’s frame.

Lo, in a humble Virgin’s womb
O’ershadowed by almighty power,
He, whom the stars and sun and moon
Each serve in their appointed hour!

O Mother blest, to whom was given
Within thy body to contain
The Architect of earth and heaven,
Whose hands the universe sustain:

To thee was sent an angel down,
In thee the Spirit was enshrined,
Of thee was born that Mighty One,
The long-desired of all mankind.

O Jesus, born of Virgin bright,
Immortal glroy be to Thee;
Praise to the Father infinite,
And Holy Ghost eternally.

Amen.

The edition I use is entitled “THE LITTLE OFFICE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY in English, Simply Arranged for use by Lay People” which is published by Franciscan University Press Quincy University. They have an online store but it is temporarily closed.  The edition I have uses Father Knox’s translation of the Bible, which some may find archaic.    An apparently more modern version designed for the Secular Franciscans can be found HERE (scroll down).