Mary, the Incomparable Daughter of Zion

The Icon of Our Lady of the Sign (Greek: Panagia or Παναγία; Old Church Slavonic: Ikona Bozhey Materi "Znamenie"; Polish: Ikona Bogurodzicy "Znak" ') is the term for a particular type of icon of the Theotokos (Virgin Mary), facing the viewer directly, depicted either full length or half, with her hands raised in the oransposition, and with the image of the Child Jesus depicted within a round aureole upon her breast.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_the_Sign

I am catching up with my reading habit. But these days I prefer to read slowly, reflecting on what I am reading. It is because what I read these days is real stuff !! Yesterday I read just 20 pages of Spe Salvi by Pope Benedict XVI.(Gasp........!!! Couldn't read any more than that because of the intensity of the matter discussed there.) I especially loved the part where our dear Pope Emeritus mentions St Gregory of Nazianzen :

In this regard a text by Saint Gregory Nazianzen is enlightening. He says that at the very moment when the Magi, guided by the star, adored Christ the new king, astrology came to an end, because the stars were now moving in the orbit determined by Christ[2]. This scene, in fact, overturns the world-view of that time, which in a different way has become fashionable once again today. It is not the elemental spirits of the universe, the laws of matter, which ultimately govern the world and mankind, but a personal God governs the stars, that is, the universe; it is not the laws of matter and of evolution that have the final say, but reason, will, love—a Person. And if we know this Person and he knows us, then truly the inexorable power of material elements no longer has the last word; we are not slaves of the universe and of its laws, we are free. In ancient times, honest enquiring minds were aware of this. Heaven is not empty. Life is not a simple product of laws and the randomness of matter, but within everything and at the same time above everything, there is a personal will, there is a Spirit who in Jesus has revealed himself as Love[3]

And the next paragraph (para 6) also is quite enlightening . It is about how  the Christian art seen on the Sacrophagi of the early Christian era   illustrates the concept of  Christ as the Shepherd  Philosopher. (That reminded me also of the logo of CCC).http://idlespeculations-terryprest.blogspot.in/2007/12/philosophers-and-shepherds.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catechism_of_the_Catholic_Church

Towards the end of the third century, on the sarcophagus of a child in Rome, we find for the first time, in the context of the resurrection of Lazarus, the figure of Christ as the true philosopher, holding the Gospel in one hand and the philosopher's travelling staff in the other. With his staff, he conquers death; the Gospel brings the truth that itinerant philosophers had searched for in vain. In this image, which then became a common feature of sarcophagus art for a long time, we see clearly what both educated and simple people found in Christ: he tells us who man truly is and what a man must do in order to be truly human. He shows us the way, and this way is the truth. He himself is both the way and the truth, and therefore he is also the life which all of us are seeking. He also shows us the way beyond death; only someone able to do this is a true teacher of life. The same thing becomes visible in the image of the shepherd. As in the representation of the philosopher, so too through the figure of the shepherd the early Church could identify with existing models of Roman art...

Now I must slowly take my time to meditate on these 20 pages.  . Meanwhile, let me  take a break from Spe Salvi !That has led me to "33 days of Morning Glory - A do-it yourself Retreat in preparation for Marian Consecration" by Michael Gaitley. But I will have to wait for a few more weeks to start the retreat because the next suitable date to start is October 19  so as to make the consecration on November 21, the feast of the Presentation of Mary.So I thought I'd just browse through the Week 4 section - Bl. John Paul II, "the most Marian Pope". I have a copy of  JP II's "Gift and  Mystery".Must read that too. And also I am thinking of taking an informal one-month retreat with Mary, my Mother. For that, I have Gabriel Amorth SSP's 'The Gospel of Mary - A Month with the Mother of God'. It must be light reading because it is about my Mother! But the first day's chapter itself has already led me to refer the 8th section of 'Lumen Gentium' -  "The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God in the Mystery of Christ and the Church" 
:

 II. The Role of the Blessed Mother in the Economy of Salvation

http://taylormarshall.com/2013/03/mary-untier-of-knots-pope-francis.html

 Pope Francis has a very special devotion to Our Lady Untier of Knots. 

55. The Sacred Scriptures of both the Old and the New Testament, as well as ancient Tradition show the role of the Mother of the Saviour in the economy of salvation in an ever clearer light and draw attention to it. The books of the Old Testament describe the history of salvation, by which the coming of Christ into the world was slowly prepared. These earliest documents, as they are read in the Church and are understood in the light of a further and full revelation, bring the figure of the woman, Mother of the Redeemer, into a gradually clearer light. When it is looked at in this way, she is already prophetically foreshadowed in the promise of victory over the serpent which was given to our first parents after their fall into sin.(284) Likewise she is the Virgin who shall conceive and bear a son, whose name will be called Emmanuel.(285) She stands out among the poor and humble of the Lord, who confidently hope for and receive salvation from Him. With her the exalted Daughter of Sion, and after a long expectation of the promise, the times are fulfilled and the new Economy established, when the Son of God took a human nature from her, that He might in the mysteries of His flesh free man from sin.
 
56. The Father of mercies willed that the incarnation should be preceded by the acceptance of her who was predestined to be the mother of His Son, so that just as a woman contributed to death, so also a woman should contribute to life. That is true in outstanding fashion of the mother of Jesus, who gave to the world Him who is Life itself and who renews all things, and who was enriched by God with the gifts which befit such a role. It is no wonder therefore that the usage prevailed among the Fathers whereby they called the mother of God entirely holy and free from all stain of sin, as though fashioned by the Holy Spirit and formed as a new creature.(5*) Adorned from the first instant of her conception with the radiance of an entirely unique holiness, the Virgin of Nazareth is greeted, on God's command, by an angel messenger as "full of grace",(286) and to the heavenly messenger she replies: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word".(287) Thus Mary, a daughter of Adam, consenting to the divine Word, became the mother of Jesus, the one and only Mediator. Embracing God's salvific will with a full heart and impeded by no sin, she devoted herself totally as a handmaid of the Lord to the person and work of her Son, under Him and with Him, by the grace of almighty God, serving the mystery of redemption. Rightly therefore the holy Fathers see her as used by God not merely in a passive way, but as freely cooperating in the work of human salvation through faith and obedience. For, as St. Irenaeus says, she "being obedient, became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race."(6*) Hence not a few of the early Fathers gladly assert in their preaching, "The knot of Eve's disobedience was untied by Mary's obedience; what the virgin Eve bound through her unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosened by her faith."(7*) Comparing Mary with Eve, they call her "the Mother of the living,"(8*) and still more often they say: "death through Eve, life through Mary."(9*)
http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html

That much for today. Below are two Post Vatican Council II quotes on BVM by none else than JPII and Pope Paul VI:

" ...through the mystery of Christ, on the horizon of the Church's faith there shines in its fullness the mystery of his Mother." Bl. John Paul II in Redemptoris Mater

 The Catholic Church, endowed with centuries of experience, recognizes in devotion to the Blessed Virgin a powerful aid for man as he strives for fulfillment. Mary, the New Woman, stands at the side of Christ, the New Man, within whose mystery the mystery of man(124) alone finds true light; she is given to its as a pledge and guarantee that God's plan in Christ for the salvation of the whole man has already achieved realization in a creature: in her. Contemplated in the episodes of the Gospels and in the reality which she already possesses in the City of God, the Blessed Virgin Mary offers a calm vision and a reassuring word to modern man, torn as he often is between anguish and hope, defeated by the sense of his own limitations and assailed by limitless aspirations, troubled in his mind and divided in his heart, uncertain before the riddle of death, oppressed by loneliness while yearning for fellowship, a prey to boredom and disgust. She shows forth the victory of hope over anguish, of fellowship over solitude, of peace over anxiety, of joy and beauty over boredom and disgust, of eternal visions over earthly ones, of life over death.

- Pope Paul VI, in the concluding paragraphs of  'Marialis Cultus' 
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_p-vi_exh_19740202_marialis-cultus_en.html