Tomás Luis de Victoria
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When we chose a reduced version of the words of Saint John Damascene, quoted from the Fourth Reading (first of the Second Nocturn) of Matins for the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, for our header verse, we did not expect to read those exact same words in the Homily of His Holiness for the occasion. He dedicated his sermon to the image of Our Lady as Ark of the Covenant:
"[The Blessed Virgin Mary], ark of the covenant, has a destiny of extraordinary glory, because she is so closely united to the Son whom she received in faith and generated according to the flesh as to be able to fully co-divide with him the glory of heaven. ... The greatness of Mary, Mother of God, full of grace, fully docile to the action of the Holy Spirit, lives already in God's Heaven entirely, body and soul.
"Saint John Damascene, referring to this mystery in a famous Homily, affirms: 'This day the holy and animated Ark of the living God, which had held within it its own Maker, is borne to rest in that Temple of the Lord, which is not made by human hands, ...' .
"Today, the Church sings the immense love of God for this his creature: He chose her as a true 'ark of the covenant', as the One who continues to generate and to give Christ the Savior to mankind, as the One who, in heaven, co-divides the fullness of glory and enjoys the very happiness of God and, at the same time, invites us to become, in our own small way, an 'ark' into which the Word of God is present, which is transformed and vivified by his presence, a place of the presence of God ... ."
Benedict XVI
Castel Gandolfo, August 15, 2011
