IN THE CATHEDRAL COURTYARD
Mary, Seat of Wisdom (Sedes Sapientiae)

Do whatever he tells you    John 2:5

The statue of Mary holding the Child Jesus stood for many years on the grounds of St. Edward’s Seminary in Kenmore, now St. Edward’s State Park. The image of Mary as the “seat” or “throne” of Wisdom had special significance for the young seminary students, who, each evening in the month of May, would turn towards this image of the Virgin and Child to invoke her intercession. When the seminary closed in the 1970s, this beloved image came to St. James Cathedral.

MEDITATION

Christ is the supreme Teacher, the revealer and the one revealed. It is not just a question of learning what he taught but of “learning him.” In this regard could we have any better teacher than Mary? From the divine standpoint, the Spirit is the interior teacher who leads us to the full truth of Christ. But among creatures no one knows Christ better than Mary; no one can introduce us to a profound knowledge of his mystery better than his Mother.

–Pope John Paul II, Rosarium Virginis Mariae

PRAYER

Holy Mary, Mother of God,
you have given the world its true light,
Jesus, your Son – the Son of God.
You abandoned yourself completely to God’s call
and thus became a wellspring of the goodness
which flows forth from him.
Show us Jesus. Lead us to him.
Teach us to know and love him,
so that we too can become
capable of true love
and be fountains of living water
in the midst of a thirsting world. Amen.

Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est

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