[Note this was written in 2017, on the day after the first “X” eclipse.]
In His great mercy, Our Blessed Lord gives us His Mother today in a glorious double Marian feast....it is the feast of the Heavenly Queenship of Our Lady in the new calendar and the feast of her Immaculate Heart in the old. He struck a sword through our heart just yesterday, but today reminds us that we always have recourse to the one who knows this sword well. Her own heart was stricken seven times with the sword and she knows just how many babies were slaughtered in their mother's wombs across that very path of darkness through our country yesterday....how many impure acts, blasphemies, lies, drug overdoses, suicides...she sees it all. The Immaculate Conception, Patroness of the United States of America, comes today to us with her graces, the Mediatrix, in her Queenly crown, with her bleeding heart....to show us the way out.
As darkness descended in the Northwest yesterday, the musical piece "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence," began to play on the Pandora channel in my kitchen. When I noticed this, I was amazed, shut the music off in obedience, went to the live-cam, and saw the eclipse approaching total blackness. Following are the words to this beautiful hymn, from the 4th Century Liturgy of Saint James. They seem frighteningly appropriate:
Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
And with fear and trembling stand,
Ponder nothing earthly minded,
For with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
Our full homage to demand....
Rank on rank the host of Heaven,
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of Light descendeth,
From the realms of endless day,
That the powers of Hell may vanish,
As the darkness clears away.
At His feet the six-winged seraph,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the Presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry,
Alleluia, Alleluia,
Alleluia, Lord Most High!
And ponder the words of Saint Francis of Assisi, from his "Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon:"
"Praised be Thee my Lord with all Thy creatures
Especially Sir Brother Sun
Who is the day through whom Thou givest us light
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendor
Of Thee Most High, he bears the Likeness"
If we follow Saint Francis' theology, then it is God who has been eclipsed. Look around. It would seem so.
As the journey of the Total Eclipse across our land was reaching completion, I was inspired to write the following poem on the Long Island Railroad, on my way to Forest Hills...traveling the same path as those who were massacred on the train 24 year ago (though they were heading the other direction):
O Brother Sun!
O Brother Sun! O Sister Moon!
What dost thou do?
In thy marriage, we are convicted
In this darkness, our blindness dispelled
As it once was, so long ago
When Our Savior hung upon the Cross
How Father orders the cosmos
To speak to His children!
Even from the beginning of time
He orders it according to our sins
O Brother Sun! O Sister Moon!
What dost thou do?
May all mortal flesh keep silence
In this hour
And as thou shinest once again, Brother Sun,
May we in turn, shine brilliant, resurrected
Returning to innocence, O may it be so!
By Mother Immaculate, our Patroness
Showering her graces, like a storm
O Brother Sun, see and rejoice!
We are not to forget this great sign given us at a most critical hour in human history. The rest of the world, with its short attention span, will forget even this....and many have seen the Total Eclipse of the Sun, but have not seen at all. But we, cherish these things and keep them in our hearts.
Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, Forest Hills, NY
The eclipse was very subtle in New York, but there was a feeling, a slight darkening, like an impending storm. My niece in Pennsylvania said it was subtle there also, difficult to describe, and "eerily still." Above, you see Our Lady, triumphant, in total brightness later in the day, her feet trampling the serpent, with blue roses to honor her.