PART TWO

CHAPTER XIII

CANA I

And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee;
and the mother of Jesus was there; and both Jesus was called,
and his disciples, to the marriage.

S. John II, 1.

Grant, O Lord, we beseech thee, that we thy servants may
enjoy constant health of body and mind, and by the glorious
intercession of blessed Mary, ever a virgin, be delivered
from all temporal afflictions, and come to those joys that
are eternal. Through.

Having received, O Lord, what is to advance our salvation;
grant we may always be protected by the patronage of blessed
Mary, ever a virgin, in whose honor we have offered this
sacrifice to thy majesty. Through.

Old Catholic.

"There was a marriage in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was
there." To S. John Blessed Mary is ever the "mother of Jesus." He never
calls her by her name in any mention of her. Jesus who loved him and
whom he loved and loves always with consuming passion, held the
foreground of his consciousness; all other persons are known through
their relation to Him. As he is writing his Gospel-story toward the end
of his life, the Blessed Virgin has long been gone to join her Son in
the place of perfect love. We cannot conceive of her living long on
earth after His Ascension. Her "conversation" would in a special way be
"in heaven." Whatever the time she remained here awaiting the will of
God for her, we may be sure that the days she spent under the protection
of S. John were wonderful days for him, wherein their communing would
have been the continual lifting of their hearts and souls to Him, Child
and Friend, who is also God enthroned at the Right Hand of the Father.
It is not unlikely that the marvellous spiritual maturity of which we
are conscious in the writings of S. John was aided in its unfolding by
the intimacy of his relations with S. Mary. But always she remained to
him what she was because of what Jesus was; she remained to the end "the
mother of Jesus."

Here at the marriage of Cana the way in which she is mentioned suggests
that she was staying in the house where the marriage was celebrated: she
was simply there; Jesus and the disciples were called, invited, to the
wedding. Some relationship, it has been suggested, between S. Mary and
the bride or groom led to her presence in the house. That however is
mere conjecture. The marriage in any case