Praying—with the Saints—to God Our Mother. Daniel F. Stramara
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lay and academic, as well as within the various Christian churches and traditions.
The purpose of this book is to promote a healthy spirituality that embraces both the masculine and the feminine qualities of God. However, by its very nature, Praying—with the Saints—to God Our Mother emphasizes the feminine aspects of God, but not to the exclusion of the masculine. While honoring the masculine, it celebrates the feminine. Furthermore, femininity is far broader and richer than just motherhood. In this book are images of God as a woman who is sister, friend, teacher, guide, architect, baker, and so forth. Likewise God is depicted in female animal form: she-bear, leopardess, lioness, hen, mother bird, as well as other living creatures.
About the Format
Because I wish this book of prayer to be ecumenical I have chosen to use the format of prayer and meditation that predates all divisions within the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic faith. The structure is that of “monastic” prayer, commonly known as the Liturgy of the Hours. I in no way intend this book to replace the Liturgy of the Hours as used within the Roman Catholic Church or Orthodox Office of Readings; rather, it is to serve as a complement. Early Christian men and women assembled together to pray the Psalms, meditate on the Scriptures, and draw inspiration and encouragement from other writings and songs composed by recognized spiritual authorities.1 This was regularly done in the morning and evening of every day. For biblical witnesses to the regular practice of Christian prayer see Luke 11:1–13 & 18:1–8; Ephesians 5:18–20 & 6:18; Colossians 4:2; and 1 Thessalonians 1:2 & 5:16–20. Quite often prayer was done at home (Acts 2:46; 10:9; 12:5, 12). Those men and women who withdrew into the desert in imitation of Jesus, escaping the distractions of the world in order to focus upon God, eventually gave concrete form to this method of prayer and reflection. The morning was devoted to pondering how the Law, Prophets, and Writings prepared the way for the New Covenant revealed in Jesus Christ. Thus the scriptural texts chosen for the morning office in this book are usually taken from these books. The evening prayer celebrates the riches bestowed on us by God Almighty through the Word of God in the Holy Spirit. Consequently, the biblical texts are regularly drawn from the New Testament. In each office of prayer, three or more psalms were recited, usually chanted from side to side. A canticle was also sung. This structure is followed throughout the book. For those who have used the Liturgy of the Hours or other books for the Divine Office, you will only have to flip to the front of the book to find the indicated psalm and scriptural reading. The song, known as the “canticle,” is up to you. Everything else is printed in sequence except for the standard format for Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer, which is provided at the very end of the book. You will also have a choice of a doxology to use (see below).
About the Content
The vast majority of modern English-speaking Christians read translations of the Psalms based upon the original Hebrew. However, for over fifteen hundred years this was not the case. Early Greek-speaking Christians used the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, known as the Septuagint (abbreviated as LXX). In fact, nearly 97 percent of all the quotations in the New Testament from the Law, Prophets, and Writings were taken from the LXX, not from the original Hebrew. To this present day, the Septuagint version of the Bible is the official text used by Christians who call themselves Orthodox. In the West, the Scriptures were quickly translated into Latin; this version was naturally based upon the Greek. This Old Latin version of the Psalms was popular and survived in various renditions. Consequently, it is the Greek version of the Psalms which has been prayed by Christians, both East and West, for nearly nineteen hundred years, except for those Christians from the sixteenth century onward known as Protestants who used translations based on the Hebrew Bible. The purpose of the book is to recapture the experience of previous generations of Christians who recognized the feminine aspects of God. Most of them prayed and meditated upon the Greek version of the Psalms, and thus I have purposely chosen to make my own translation of them from the Septuagint. The Psalms will thus follow that numbering. Besides, this will provide you with variety in your prayer life.
The Scriptures play a vital role in the life of every Christian. The books of the Bible are authoritative and consequently authoritative translations were made. The Jews refer to their own Hebrew Bible as the Tanak, standing for Torah (Law), Neviim (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings). I will refer to the Hebrew Bible as the Tanak (abbreviated TNK) and all translations based upon this version will be noted as such. As already mentioned, the authoritative Greek version of the Bible is called the Septuagint, meaning “seventy,” abbreviated using the Roman numeral (LXX). The same applies to the Latin Vulgate (abbreviated VULG), the authoritative Bible in the Western Catholic Church. There is one other ancient authoritative version of the Bible that I have used, the Syriac, known as the Peshitta (PESH). The Peshitta is an Aramaic/Syriac translation of the Tanak and the Greek New Testament. It is authoritative among Syriac-speaking Christianity and churches that developed out of Antioch. Where I have made my own translation from the New Testament Greek and I wish you to use my version, the passage is followed by NT. If no abbreviation follows a scriptural reference it means you are to use whichever translation you prefer.
Christians consider certain books to be canonical, or authoritatively binding, thus forming the Bible. I, myself, am a Catholic Christian. Some quotations will be from books not found in the Protestant Bible. However, I am not attempting to impose my own beliefs and persuasions upon you, the prayerful reader. What I am trying to do is present the experience of all Christians in their encounter with God before the Protestant Reformation. Catholics have more books in their Bible than do Protestants; Orthodox Christians have even more. Thus I have chosen to use the largest canon of the Bible, that belonging to Orthodox Christianity. For the Protestant reader, these extra books are known as the Apocrypha, and are considered merely inspirational. For the Catholic reader, the extra books you will encounter are known as “extra-canonical.” For Catholic and Orthodox Christians, equal authority resides in the Scriptures and the Apostolic Tradition. For Catholics, the extra-canonical books, nevertheless, form part of the Church’s Tradition.
Case in point: one scriptural reading is taken from 4 Esdras, a book not considered canonical by any church but for centuries (even still) included in the Latin Vulgate after the New Testament. This book was quoted by numerous early church authorities such as Clement of Alexandria, Cyprian, Tertullian, Commodianus, Ambrose, Athanasius, and Gregory of Nyssa (known by Catholic and Orthodox Christians as Fathers of the Church).2 Several extracts from 4 Esdras were incorporated into the Roman Catholic Liturgy.3 In fact, a verse from this book persuaded Columbus and his royal sponsors that there was land to be discovered west of the Atlantic. Fourth Esdras has impacted Western civilization in numerous ways.4
I have also chosen to use one text found in 1 Enoch. Perhaps this extra-canonical book is more familiar to Christians. The New Testament epistle known as Jude contains a direct quote from it and mentions Enoch by name. This book forms part of the canonical Scriptures of Ethiopian Orthodox Christians. First Enoch was also used at Qumran and is found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Besides Jude 14–15 being a quotation from 1 Enoch 1:6, verses 6 and 16 of Jude are also influenced by it. Understandably, many early Church Fathers considered 1 Enoch inspired and meditated upon it, for example, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Origen, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian.5 First Enoch, as well as other biblical books not found in the Tanak but used by Christians throughout the world and throughout the centuries (i.e., Apocrypha), are employed as sources for passages in both Morning and Evening Prayer.
A regular part of the Liturgy of the Hours is a time for meditation upon a passage written by some spiritual authority. The question of authority can be a sticky issue. I have chosen to quote in the Liturgy of the Hours only passages taken from the Fathers of the Church and saints recognized by the Catholic Church. A word of explanation is in order. In 1 Corinthians 11:1 the Apostle Paul exhorts, “Take me for your model, as I take Christ.” Elsewhere Paul states, “Take as your models everybody who is already doing this and study them as you used to study us”