Three Byzantine Prayers to the Holy Ghost

These three prayers to the Holy Ghost, originally special to the feast of Pentecost, are treasures of the Byzantine Rite.  The first troparion is sung as part of the customary devotions at the start of any liturgical act or prayer; the second troparion is sung at Communion at almost every Divine Liturgy (its reference to Trinitarian worship reflects the Eastern emphasis on Pentecost as the complete revelation of the Trinity with the coming of the promised Paraclete); the third is the special refrain for the second antiphon at the Liturgy on the feast itself.

Heavenly King, Paraclete, Spirit of Truth, present everywhere, filling all things, Treasury of blessings and Giver of life; come and dwell in us, cleanse us from every stain, and, O Good One, save our souls.

We have seen the true light, we have received the heavenly Spirit, we have found the true faith, as we worship the undivided Trinity, for the same has saved us.

Good Paraclete, save us who sing to you: Alleluia.

Three Regina cæli's

Regina cæli, lætare, alleluja:

Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluja,

Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluja.

Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluja.

Regina cæli, lætare, alleluja:

Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluja,

Jam ascendit, sicut dixit, alleluja.

Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluja.

Regina cæli, lætare, alleluja:

Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluja,

Spiritum misit, sicut dixit, alleluja.

Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluja.

******

Queen of heaven, rejoice, alleluia:

For He Whom thou didst merit to bear, alleluia,

Hath risen, as He said, alleluia.

Pray for us to God, alleluia.

Queen of heaven, rejoice, alleluia:

For He Whom thou didst merit to bear, alleluia,

Hath now ascended, as He said, alleluia.

Pray for us to God, alleluia.
(O.P., Ascensiontide)

Queen of heaven, rejoice, alleluia:

For He Whom thou didst merit to bear, alleluia,

Hath sent the Spirit, as He said, alleluia.

Pray for us to God, alleluia.
(O.Præm., Whitsuntide)

Overshadowed by the Spirit, Mary is Mediatrix

I quoted from Bulgakov some posts ago; I now continue with a fitting extract for the day of Pentecost, a rich panoply of intense theological contemplation concerning Holy Mary, Mother of God, Vessel of the Holy Ghost, as image of the Church, as Mediatrix, Advocate and associate with Christ's Sacrifice:

Mary as the personal habitation of the Holy Spirit is in truth the true personal expression of the Church, the heart of the Church of which Christ is the Head.  Overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, she becomes the Mother of God, brings forth the Logos, and in and through her this divine motherhood belongs to the whole Church: the Logos born of the Virgin is also born in the souls of the faithful, for every Christian soul has a part in the divine motherhood of the Mother-Church, Theotokos (cf. St Augustine).  The Church and Mary each bear the same relation alike to Christ and Christians.  It would be impossible to say in so many words that Mary is the Church, and yet it may be said that the Church is represented by Mary, in so far as in her person all the attributes of the Church find their personal, final, and most perfect embodiment.

The Mother of God has no need of prayer for herself, for as deified she is in possession of all things.  As the glory of God and the glory of the world, as the manifested love of God for the world and the manifested love of the world for God, in her prayer she glorifies God [cf. her Magnificat].  Her own prayer is glorification, eternally realized love, flaming and triumphant in its perfect joy—God's own love for himself in his creation.  But as the foremost representative of the world and of all creation, the Mother of God offers also a prayer which is not her own, and yet is hers as the prayer of all creation.  She gives wings to its prayer; raising it to the throne of God, she gives it power; she is the intercessor raising her hands to God as a high-priestess (orante [a pray-er]) and overshadowing the world with her veil.  The Mother of God is the praying Church itself in its personal embodiment, and in this sense she is the universal Mother, defender and guardian.  She is personal, incarnate mercy and pity for the world in its creaturely shortcomings and sinful distortion.  Being now absolutely free from these shortcomings and from the power of sin, she is the sunlit summit of the world, for she still belongs to it.  The saints and the prayers of the saints surround this summit like a bright cloud and draw near to it.  But even the angelic world and the greatest saints are separated from the Mother of God both by her perfect holiness and by her deification, that is, by the fact that in her creaturely shortcomings are completely overcome [though the angels and saints are likewise hallowed and deified, "star differeth from star in glory" - her holiness is greater by far than that of all others]: her own gracious life is the life of the Holy Spirit dwelling in her, and her vicarious life is the life of the whole created world to which she belongs.  It is in this that her mediatory significance lies: she brings to her Son, the world's Saviour, the world which he has saved; its salvation is realized in and through her, and nothing in the world takes place apart from her.  She has given flesh to her Son and she is herself the God-bearing flesh through which the flesh of the world is brought to him for salvation.  In her submission to God's will she has spiritually sacrificed her Son's life to God, and as she stood by the cross she was silently continuing to say that which she had said once and forever: 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord.'

We must take the last step in following this line of thought and admit that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh takes place with the participation of the Mother of God, who for that reason was present at Pentecost.  The central place she occupies in the Church precludes the possibility of anything in the life of the Church happening apart from her and not through her.  Owing to her significance as the havitation of the Holy Spirit, the action of the Holy Spirit in the creature involves her co-operation.

— from S.N. Bulgakov, The Burning Bush (Kupina Nepolimaya) (1927), quoted, translated from the end of pp. 183-8 and from pp. 203-6 in the original Russian, in A Bulgakov Anthology, J. Pain & N. Zernov, edd. (London: SPCK, 1976), 95-6.  [The notes in square brackets are my own.]

23rd Anniversary

Pentecost Sunday morning 2010, marks the 23rd anniversary of my Baptism, Confirmation and first Communion.  Glory be to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!

(To be accurate, I received the Sacraments of Initiation on Pentecost Sunday, 7th of June 1987, but I think it more fitting to keep the anniversary on the feast day rather than on the actual date.)

May He Who began the good work in me bring it to completion.  Amen.

Ken on the Holy Ghost

I must admit to a soft spot for many Anglican divines, such as the pious Thomas Ken (1637-1711), sometime Bishop of Bath and Wells in the Church of England, which see he gave up rather than forswear his rightful allegiance to King James II.  He was author of many spiritual tracts; just this morning I bought a pocket edition (cost in 1876 when new: 1 shilling; cost in 2010 when old: $25) of his Manual of Prayers, bound up with his Exposition of the Church Catechism and Directions for Prayer.  All contain valuable passages breathing a warm love of God; I quote now from the middle work, from the devout and loving paraphrase of the Apostles' Creed that it contains, which he wrote for the benefit of souls, "that your faith might work through love" (cf. Galatians v, 6):

"I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY GHOST."

The Third Person in the Trinity.

I believe in Thee, O Thou Spirit of God, the third Person in the most adorable Trinity; I believe, O blessed Spirit, that Thou art the Lord, (2 Cor. iii. 17. 18.) that Thou art God, (John iv. 24; Acts v. 3.) Eternal, (Heb. ix. 14.) and Omniscient, (1 Cor. ii. 10.) a Person distinct from both the Father and the Son, eternally proceeding from both, (Matt. x. 20; Rom. viii. 9.) and equally sent by both, (John xiv. 26; xvi. 7.) and joint Author with both of our salvation; and therefore, all love, all glory, be to Thee.

I believe, O blessed Spirit, that Thou art holy, essentially holy, (1 Pet. i. 15.) in respect of Thy divine Nature; and being essentially holy, art infinitely amiable; and therefore, all love, all glory, be to Thee.

I believe, O blessed Spirit, that Thou art personally holy, that Thou art the Author of all internal holiness, and of all internal and sanctifying grace; (Gal. v. 22.) that Thou art the principle of all spiritual life in us; (John iii. 5.) and therefore, all love, all glory, be to Thee.

Glory be to Thee, O Love Incarnate, for sending the Spirit in Thy stead, and for promising it to our prayers: (Luke xi. 13.) all love, all glory, be to Thee.

Glory be to Thee, O Spirit of Love, for "shedding the love of God abroad in our hearts," (Rom. v. 5.) for filling all that love Thee with exuberance of joy and consolation: all love, all glory be to Thee.

O Thou blessed Spirit the Comforter, purify my soul, and infuse Thy love into it, and consecrate it to be Thy temple, (1 Cor. vi. 19.) and fix Thy throne immoveably there, and set all my affections on fire, that my heart may be a continual sacrifice of love offered up to Thee and the flame may be ever aspiring towards Thee.

See what devotion is!  No wonder his Exposition of the Church Catechism was subtitled The Practice of Divine Love.  "All love, all glory, be to Thee."

First Vespers of Pentecost, O.P.

Using a nice mediæval Office has its pleasing surprises – such as tonight (it's but six o'clock and dark, for winter is here in Tasmania already, at the end of a sunny but freezing cold day of -1 to 12°C), when I first lit up the six candles atop the little book case before my prie-dieu, and readied myself to read First Vespers of this greatest feast, the Advent of the Holy Ghost: for it transpires that in the Dominican Breviary, both Vespers of Pentecost (and throughout its Octave) have but three psalms, not the usual five.  

In this, Whitsuntide parallels Easter Week according to the Rite of the Friars Preachers, when from Easter Sunday evening to Easter Friday evening, for those six days of the New Creation in Christ our Risen Lord, Psalms 109, 110 and 111 are read daily.  Just so, as I now discover, first this night we begin Pentecost with Psalms 145, 146 and 147 – for all these are Laudate psalms, and the Dominicans keep the common mediæval practice of singing only such psalms for first Vespers of all feasts (but including Psalms 112 and 116 first, to make up the usual five) – and then for the six Vespers of Whit Sunday through to Whit Friday evening, Psalms 109, 110 and 111 are sung each night.  Again we celebrate six days of the New Creation in God's Spirit!

I was very taken by certain significant lines in this Hour.  For a start, I give due thanks to the Holy Ghost for enlightening me (as I humbly hope He did) as to the deeper sense of the Little Chapter, Factus est repente (Acts ii, 2): for when we read that the Spirit "filled the whole house where the Apostles were sitting", do we not see that this "house" is the Church of the Living God, and that house only wherein sit "the Apostles" and their successors, the Pope and his brother bishops?  (The Breviary supplies the word Apostoli, "[the] Apostles", to make sense of this single verse; in the original, it simply says "they", evidently referring back two verses to Acts i, 26, which mentions the Apostles.)

Secondly, in the Vesper hymn Beata nobis gaudia, the Church sings in supplication, Te nunc, Deus piissime, Vultu precamur cernuo, Illapsa nobis cælitus Largire dona Spiritus – "Thee now, most kindly God, we pray Thee, bowing [Thy] Face down [to us], to grant unto us the infalling Gift of the heavenly Spirit" (or so I roughly read it).  Be it so!

Vigil of Pentecost

I hear that in Perth, W.A., the Traditional Vigil of Pentecost - complete with all the prophecies, the solemn blessing of the font and the Litanies of the Saints before the actual Mass – was carried out this morning.  (Question: since all these rites precede the actual Mass, could it be said that they are optional ceremonies?)

As for myself, I went to confession... Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created: and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.

Come, Holy Ghost, Creator, come

From Thy bright heavenly throne:

Come, take possession of our souls

And make them all Thine own.

Thanks for Prayers

I am grateful to all those who remembered me in their prayers, as I now feel matters relating to stress and strain have now improved.  May you be repaid a hundredfold.

Ad multos annos

My former parish priest over in Perth, Fr Michael Rowe, to-day celebrates the 16th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood.  Ad multos annos!

Litany of St Cuthbert Mayne

St Cuthbert Mayne, protomartyr of the seminary priests, suffered at Launceston, Cornwall, in late 1577, during the persecution of Elizabeth Tudor.  I regard him as patron of my hometown, the antipodean Launceston, also.  While a relic of him was kept at the Church of the Apostles here for many years, shortly after it was enshrined beneath the new marble forward altar within the last decade, it was stolen by person or persons unknown, and has not been recovered.  When paying a visit to the church, I often look to the now-empty reliquary.

Imagine my pleasure, therefore, when I read that the estimable Fr Hunwicke, he of Liturgical Notes fame (who so kindly shewed a friend and me round his church in Oxford, and even entertained us two rather naive and zealous R.C.'s to a cuppa), has been at Lanherne (once a Recusant stronghold, and latterly a female religious house), where Reservation of the Bl Sacrament has been continuous since the Reformation, and was there permitted by Reverend Mother to venerate their second greatest treasure: a relic of St Cuthbert Mayne.

Here is a litany I composed in his honour; for more expedition, the latter parts (after the invocations to "pray for us" are completed) may be omitted and only the first collect used:

LITANY OF SAINT CUTHBERT MAYNE

Assembled from various sources

(For private use only.)

Lord, have mercy.  Christ, have mercy.  Lord, have mercy.

Christ, hear us.  Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of heaven, have mercy on us.

God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.

God the Holy Ghost, have mercy on us.

Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.

Holy Mary, pray for us.

Queen of the English, pray for us.

Queen of Martyrs, pray for us.

Saint Cuthbert Mayne, pray for us.

Who wast of mild nature and sweet behaviour, pray for us.

Who didst repent of the trappings of false religion, pray for us.

Who didst at length embrace the True Faith, pray for us.

Who didst flee abroad to be priested, pray for us.

Who didst study for the priesthood at Douai, pray for us.

Who wast desirous as a priest to honour God, pray for us.

Who wast desirous to offer reparation for sin, pray for us.

Who wast inflamed with zeal to save souls, pray for us.

Who wast sent in secret to England, pray for us.

Who didst labour in Cornwall, enduring danger and peril, pray for us.

Who didst reconcile so many to the Church, pray for us.

Who wast seized by evil men, pray for us.

Who wast cruelly imprisoned, pray for us.

Who wast wrongfully tried, pray for us.

Who wast unjustly convicted, pray for us.

Who didst refuse to swear the unlawful oath, pray for us.

Who wast condemned to death, pray for us.

Who didst pray so earnestly, pray for us.

Who wast illumined by a great light, pray for us.

Who wast hung, drawn, and quartered, pray for us.

Protomartyr of Launceston, pray for us.

Protomartyr of Douai, pray for us.

Protomartyr of Oxford, pray for us.

Protomartyr of the seminary priests, pray for us.

Of whose converts none ever recanted, pray for us.

Whose relics work miracles, pray for us.

Who dost reign with Christ for ever, pray for us.

All ye holy Martyrs of England and Wales, pray ye for us.

Be merciful, spare us, O Lord.

Be merciful, graciously hear us, O Lord.

From all evil, deliver us, O Lord.

From all sin, deliver us, O Lord.

From the snares of the devil, deliver us, O Lord.

From anger, and hatred, and all ill will, deliver us, O Lord.

From error, dissension, and division, deliver us, O Lord.

From heresy and schism, deliver us, O Lord.

From everlasting death, deliver us, O Lord.

By thine eternal priesthood, deliver us, O Lord.

By that ministry whereby thou didst glorify thy Father upon earth, deliver us, O Lord.

By thine institution of the most holy Eucharist, deliver us, O Lord.

By thy bloody immolation of thyself made once upon the cross, deliver us, O Lord.

By that same sacrifice daily renewed on the altar, deliver us, O Lord.

By that divine power, which thou, the one and invisible priest, dost exercise in thy priests, deliver us, O Lord.

By the triumph of thy grace in all thy holy martyrs, deliver us, O Lord.

We sinners, we beseech thee, hear us.

That thou wouldst deign to rule and preserve thy holy Church, we beseech thee, hear us.

That thou wouldst deign to preserve the Apostolic See, and all ecclesiastical orders, in holy religion, we beseech thee, hear us.

That thou wouldst deign to humble the enemies of holy Church, we beseech thee, hear us.

That thou wouldst deign to grant peace and unity to all Christian people, we beseech thee, hear us.

That thou wouldst deign to recall all the erring to the unity of the Church, and to lead all unbelievers to the light of the Gospel, we beseech thee, hear us.

That thou wouldst deign to send faithful and unshakeable workers into thy harvest, we beseech thee, hear us.

That thou wouldst deign to deliver us from all heresy, faithlessness, and blindness of heart, we beseech thee, hear us.

Son of God, we beseech thee, hear us.

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Christ, hear us.  Christ, graciously hear us.

Lord, have mercy.  Christ, have mercy.  Lord, have mercy.

Our Father… (in secret until)

V/. And lead us not into temptation.

R/. But deliver us from evil.

Ant.  Under the altar of God I heard the voice of the slain saying: Why dost thou not avenge our blood?  And they received the divine response: Wait yet a little while, until the number of your brethren be fulfilled.  (P.T.  Alleluia.)

V/. What torments were suffered by all the saints.

R/. That they might securely come to the palm of martyrdom.

V/. The bodies of the saints are buried in peace.

R/. And their names shall live for evermore.

V/. Precious in the sight of the Lord.

R/. Is the death of his saints.

V/. The saints have entered the kingdom with palms.

R/. They have merited crowns of beauty from the hand of God.

V/. O ye Martyrs of the Lord, bless ye the Lord for ever.

R/. O ye choir of Martyrs, praise ye the Lord in the highest.

V/. Thee the white-robed army of Martyrs praise, O Lord.

R/. Thee the holy Church throughout the world doth confess.

V/. Make us to be numbered with thy saints.

R/. In glory everlasting.

V/. O Lord, hear my prayer.

R/. And let my cry come unto thee.

Let us pray.

O God, who didst grant to blessed Cuthbert before the other seminary priests to run the road of torments for the salvation of souls: grant to us in thy mercy, that inflamed with the same zeal for souls, we may not hesitate to lay down our lives for others.

Increase in us, O Lord, faith in the resurrection, who dost work wonders by the relics of thy Saints: and make us partakers of that immortal glory, a pledge of which we venerate in their ashes.

Stir up in us, O Lord, the Spirit that the blessed Martyrs of Douai obeyed: that being filled with the same, we may study to love what they loved, and to do the works that they taught.

O God, who didst strengthen thy blessed Martyrs Cuthbert and his companions with unconquerable courage, that they might fight for the true faith and the primacy of the Apostolic See: by hearkening unto their prayers, we beseech thee to help our frailty, that, strong in faith, we may be able to resist the enemy even to the end.

O God, who didst raise up thy blessed Martyrs Bishop John, Thomas, and their companions from every walk of life to be champions of the true faith and of the Supreme Pontiff: by their merits and prayers, grant that, by profession of the same faith, all may be made and remain one, as thine own Son prayed.

We beseech thee, O Lord, mercifully to receive the prayers of thy Church: that, all adversities and errors being destroyed, she may serve thee in secure freedom.

O God, who dost correct those who have erred, and dost gather those who were scatttered, and dost preserve those who have been gathered together: we beseech thee, clemently pour forth upon Christian people the grace of union with thee, that, rejecting division, and joining themselves to the true shepherd of thy Church, they may be able to worthily serve thee.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son, who with thee liveth and reigneth in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.  

R/. Amen.

V/. O Lord, hear my prayer.

R/. And let my cry come unto thee.

V/. By the intercession of blessed Cuthbert, may almighty God bless us, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

R/. Amen.

V/. And may the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

R/. Amen.

Ethiopian Excess

Most embarrassingly, owing to an incident some centuries back when a Jesuit was briefly Patriarch of Ethiopia and tried to forcibly Romanize his horrified flock, the nickname for Catholics in Ethiopia is "Enemies of Mary"!

What in Catholicism seemed so anti-Marian?  Well, consider the monastic dispute between the Tigrenses (monks of Tigre) and Dabra-libanenses (monks of Dabra-Lebanon?)...  (I am relying on Gordillo's Compendium Theologiæ Orientalis (Rome, 1950), so forgive me for imperfectly rendering his Latin.)

The first-named votaries denied Our Lady the worship of latria (thanks be), and adhered to the formula "To the Theotokos honour and glory agrees, and to her Son worship agrees" – a formula known for short as "and to her Son", wa-la-Waldâ.  The second group, however, preferred instead to say "To the Theotokos, together with her Son, worship agrees" (!) – or "together with her Son", za-mysla Waldâ, for short.  Thanks be to God, Who thus preserved the Ethiopians from entire Mariolatry, King John IV ruled in favour of the first opinion.  It is distressing, though, that matters ever came to such a pass.

Such ignorant error is only comparable to the Coptic error of the middle ages that made confessing to a thurible (!) an acceptable substitute for the Sacrament of Confession...

(I can think of some Traddies who'd just love an excuse to take up the latter!)

Kolbe and Bulgakov

Further to what I noted below about daring ideas in Mariology, it is instructive to compare the similar Marian insights of the martyr St Maximilian Mary Kolbe, O.F.M. (1894-1941) and Archpriest Sergei Nicolayevich Bulgakov (1871-1944), a not uncontroversial Russian Orthodox theologian.

Now Kolbe, with holy daring, wrote that Our Lady is almost the incarnation of the Holy Ghost.  He framed most arrestingly the thought that she was so guided and governed by God's Spirit as to be in moral union with Him, though she and the Paraclete remained two separate persons: which is more or less what Nestorius asserted of Jesus Christ as being a very holy man in moral union with the Person of the Eternal Word.

(Indeed, living a life suffused by the Holy Spirit is what the saints are called to, as St Philip Neri rather alarmingly demonstrated...)

Rather than quote Kolbe at length (his opinions about the Immaculata can easily be googled), I pass on to quote a representative passage from the less-easily-accessible writings of Bulgakov, which he introduces by saying "We must... be perfectly clear about the theological implications and the dogmatic meaning of venerating her who is called 'more honourable than the Cherubim and incomparably more glorious than the Seraphim'" (quoting the famous Megalynarion sung in the Divine Liturgy):

There is no personal, human incarnation of the third Person of the Trinity. But although the third Person is not personally incarnated as a human being in the same sense as the Son of God was, there is that one human, created personality which is the vessel filled by the Holy Spirit. She so completely surrendered her human, personal life as to make it transparent to the Holy Spirit, testifying about herself, 'Behold he handmaid of the Lord.' This being — the Blessed Virgin — is not the personal incarnation of the Holy Spirit but becomes his personal, living receptacle, an absolutely Spirit-bearing creature [Pneumatophoros?], a Spirit-bearing human being. For although there is no personal incarnation of the Spirit, there may be such a thing as personal Spirit-bearing, in which a created personality is completely surrendered in its createdness and is, as it were, dissolved in the Holy Spirit. This interpretation [sic; lege 'interpenetration'?] by the Spirit amounts to a change of kind. The Virgin is wholly deified, full of grace, 'a living temple of God'. Such a Spirit-bearing personality radically differs from the God-man, for she is a creature, but she differs as radically from the creation in its createdness, for she is raised and united to the divine life. And through this spiritualization is realized the image of God in man. It must therefore be admitted that in heaven the human figure of the Mother of God, together with that of the God-man Jesus, jointly manifest the integral pattern of man. The ikon of our Lady and her Child, the Logos and the creature receiving him and filled with the Holy Spirit, in indivisible unity forms the pattern of man in his integrity. The God-man and the Spirit-bearer, the Son and the Mother, manifesting the revelation of the Father through the Word and the Spirit, manifest the fullness of God's copy in man, or, the other way round, of the pattern of man in God.

— from S.N. Bulgakov, The Burning Bush (Kupina Nepolimaya) (1927), quoted, translated from the end of pp. 137-142 in the original Russian, in A Bulgakov Anthology, J. Pain & N. Zernov, edd. (London: SPCK, 1976), 92.  [The notes in square brackets are my own.]

Bulgakov's doctrine was roundly criticized by the Orthodox in the 1930's as most problematic; he was charged with making Our Lady into a goddess, a Fourth Hypostasis, and so forth; notoriously, in one passage in The Burning Bush, he called her "a creature, but also no longer a creature".  Given the three-way split of the Russian Orthodox jurisdictions in the diaspora then, there is some suspicion of politicking and intrigue in the accusations of heresy directed against him.

I also find it ridiculous that the Orthodox, of all Christians, would condemn a man for taking deification (theosis) so seriously, indeed, finding it in its logical apex in the Mother of God.  He clearly says that the Holy Ghost does not have a personal incarnation; he "rightly divides the word of truth"; he exalts Holy Mary as the Pneumatophoros in truth – to quote a Catholic source in entire agreement with this, one of the official catechetical texts prepared by the Theological-Historical Commission for the Great Jubilee, entitled The Holy Spirit: Lord and Giver of Life, "Mary is the pneumatophoros (bearer of the Spirit) to the highest degree".

The same source approvingly quotes from two Byzantine writers who seem to anticipate Bulgakov: "Mary from the beginning was united with the Spirit... her participation in the Spirit became a participation in being", wrote Theophanes of Nicæa; and the great Nicolas Cabasilas wrote that Mary had a "spiritualized body, that is, one transformed by the Spirit".

As once with the mystical paradoxes of Angelus Silesius (1624-1677) in his Cherubimic Wanderer, Bulgakov's holy effusions I think are unfairly dealt with when read suspiciously: I believe him orthodox insofar as these passages go.  Then again, I am not conversant with the depths of his "sophiology", his doctrinal focus on Sophia, the Wisdom of God...  (Not that he referred to Sophia in the New Age feminist manner of course!)