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The Mariology of Polish Christmas Carols

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2024

Julien Wisniewsky
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Extract

Our Lady has a prominent place in the mystery of the Incarnation. The time when the Church celebrates this mystery, that is, Christmastide—Advent, Christmas, Epiphany—is a sort of prolonged feast of Mary. No wonder that her place in Christmas carols and especially in Polish ones is outstanding.

The Blessed Trinity: The significance of our Lady can only be fully understood if it is viewed from the most fundamental truth, namely, the Blessed Trinity ‘from whom all things proceed”.

In the Polish carols there is full awareness of this fact:

      I believe in one God in heaven
      The Father who created this world for himself
      And in Jesus his Son,
      In all things equal to the Father
      Our Lord.
      He desiring to save our human race
      From the high heaven descended on earth
      And was conceived of the Holy Ghost
      Is born among beasts
      From the maiden Mary…

This carol, which seems to be the Creed specially arranged for Christmastide, gives the proper setting for the whole problem. It introduces the right order. But it does not exhaust all the ways in which this truth is presented.

Type
Research Article
Information
Life of the Spirit , Volume 1 , Issue 6 , December 1946 , pp. 182 - 189
Copyright
Copyright © 1946 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

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References

1 Pohle-Preuss: Mariology p. 19.

2 Orat. contra Arianos IV, n.82, quoted by Pohle-Preuss loc cit.

3 Epist. 101 ad Cledon, c. 1, quoted by Pohle-Preuss id.

4 St Ephrem, Carmina nisibina n.27, quoted by P. Pourrat, ‘Christian Spirituality’ I, p. 238.

5 St Augustine, De Catech. rudibus, n.40, quoted by P. Pourrat op. cit. p. 237.

6 ‘This feast, which is not in the) universal calendar and falls on December 18th, may be considered as the duplicate of that of the Annunciation. In reality it is the feast of the Annunciation transferred to this date, since that feast on March 25th, generally falling in Lent, cannot always be celebrated with fitting solemnity, cf. Cabrol, The Year’s Liturgy, vol. I, p. 30.