Mary and Converts: How Our Lady shaped the first Christians after Pentecost
The newly-baptised Christians clung to Mary as their living link to Christ—and she prayed them into holiness.
The newly-baptised Christians clung to Mary as their living link to Christ—and she prayed them into holiness.
Editor’s Notes
In this part, Fr. Coleridge tells us…
How Mary’s motherly love shaped the Church’s first converts into a holy community.
That the new Christians looked to her as a living image of Christ, full of grace and guidance.
Why the early Church, in all its beauty, relied so deeply on her unseen but powerful intercession.
He shows us that the Church grew under the shadow of Mary, who reflected her Son more fully than any other.
Mary at the Day of Pentecost
Mother of the Church: Mary in the First Apostolic Age
Book I, Chapter III
Burns and Oates, 1886.
How Pentecost confirmed Mary’s mission as Mother of the Church
How St Peter’s Pentecost sermon revealed the Church’s mission
Mary and Converts: How Our Lady shaped the first Christians after Pentecost
Circumstances omitted in the Acts & Mary’s care for the converts
It is natural to think that there must have been a great number of circumstances on which St. Luke does not linger.
Each one of the converts had a history, each one was the object of a peculiar tenderness on the part of her who had been made the Mother of all.
There must have been some short course of instruction at which the Apostles and disciples must have laboured, perhaps with the help of the holy women and of our Blessed Lady in the case of converts of their own sex.
There must have been the first solemn administration of Baptism to numbers at a time, and then the preparation of the newly baptized for the reception of other sacraments, Penance, Confirmation, the Blessed Eucharist.
There must have been the blessed beginning of what was never to cease throughout all ages in the Catholic Church, the assembling of the faithful in crowds, as far as circumstances allowed, to hear Mass, and the holy and joyous scene of general Communion.
And growing out of all these, there must have been, under the eyes of our Blessed Mother, the instruction and formation of a Christian community, thoroughly penetrated by the spirit of, charity and mutual love, a glorious anticipation of the worldwide Church in every age and in every land.
The beginnings of the Christian society
It must be remembered that, in such works of God as the formation of Christian society, although there are developments and phases which naturally come later in the history, there is always at the very first a very peculiar outpouring of grace, the fruits of which have a beauty and purity all their own.
The Church was to grow in external amplitude and power, and by the side of the proportions of her later greatness the infant community at Jerusalem may seem insignificant.
But nevertheless we are justified in thinking that in the intensity of their charity and union, as in other points for which the highest spiritual perfection is required, the first members of the Church of Jerusalem have seldom been surpassed, or even equalled.
The simple modest words of St. Luke are enough to be made the foundation of long meditations on this early springtide, this sudden tropical burst of beauties and glories, which made it at once more like the ripe maturity of a splendid summer. ‘They were persevering in the doctrine of the Apostles,’ that is, they fed them- selves continually on the Word of God, as set before them by the appointed teachers of the Church.
‘And in the communication of the breaking of bread, and in prayer,’ that is, in the frequentation of the sacraments, attendance at the Holy Sacrifice, and in the praises of God and prayer to God, public as well as private.
For it was understood in the Church from the very first that Christian prayer, public and private, was to be the great ordinary and appointed instrument by means of which the blessings of grace were to be obtained for all.
St Luke’s description
Having said this, the Evangelist next subjoins a few words which describe the external position of the Church and the Apostles, of which we may have to say more in another chapter.
‘Fear came on every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the Apostles in Jerusalem, and there was great fear on all…’
… the holy loving fear which is produced on simple pure hearts when they feel that God is close to them, around them on every side, and within them.
Then comes the external fruit of the true spirit of charity among the faithful.
‘And all they that believed, were together, and had all things common. They sold their possessions and goods, and divided them to all, according as every man had need. And continuing daily with one accord in the Temple, and breaking bread from house to house…’
… for the celebration of the Christian Mysteries could not take place ordinarily in public.
‘They took their meat with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people…’
… for the jealousy of the priests was not yet aroused, and the beauty of the Christian character could not but attract love.
‘And the Lord added daily to their society such as should be saved.’1
This description only requires to be expanded in meditation, in order to give us an account of the many new subjects of thanksgiving and intercession which must have crowded upon the loving heart of Mary, in consequence of the doings of this glorious Day of Pentecost.
The obedience to the Church, the fruitfulness of the instructions of her prelates and of the sacraments and other means of grace which they administered, the pure fire of charity working out its blessed effects on the hearts and in the lives of the infant community, the attitude towards that community of the world outside, the Temple authorities, and the people at large, and, above all, the daily accession to the Church of new children, young in the faith and in the practice of Christian virtue, and exposed to many temptations and dangers of which they had little thought—all these things must have passed through the mind of the Blessed Mother and have risen up to Heaven on the incense of her prayer.
It was indeed a beautiful spring-time, the promise of which needed much intercession to strengthen it for endurance unto the harvest.
Devotion of the new Christians to Our Lady
Nor must it be omitted, that if the crowd of new children added to the Church awakened in the heart of Mary a most intense motherly love and care for their right nurture and education in the holy law to which they had become subject, there must also have been, on their part, a very great and eager desire to see and converse with the Mother of their Saviour, Whom great numbers of these new disciples had probably never seen.
This was a part of the office of Mary in that infancy of the Church, a part of the immense benefit which those first Christians derived from her presence among them, that she represented far more perfectly than any one else could represent, the character, the personal presence, the ways of thought and look and speech and action of her Divine Son.
While she was with them, our Lord was reflected among them in a manner and degree which could never be quite perpetuated afterwards, and that gracious Lady, with all her recollection and love of retirement and of solitude with God, would not deny to those youngest members of the great family the satisfaction of their pious cravings, from which they might derive so much light and strength for the conflicts to which they were so soon to be exposed.
The mere presence or nearness of our Lord, even at such times as when He was asleep in the boat, were virtually a great help and a great joy, and a great encouragement to His disciples. Now He was in Heaven, no more to be seen ordinarily by mortal eye, although He was still present among them in the Blessed Sacrament.
But the Apostles and all the faithful had in our Blessed Lady a living and speaking image and picture of her Son, and it is impossible to imagine the extent to which they found in this a resource, a comfort, a joy, and a protection against all troubles and assaults.
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Mary at the Day of Pentecost
How Pentecost confirmed Mary’s mission as Mother of the Church
How St Peter’s Pentecost sermon revealed the Church’s mission
Mary and Converts: How Our Lady shaped the first Christians after Pentecost
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Acts ii. 47.