Our medal of Mary, Ark of The New Covenant is journeying to the holy ground where 2000 years ago, Mary went in haste to visit her cousin Elizabeth, while pregnant with Jesus. Steve Ray is on pilgrimage to the Holy Land and is praying for God's Will for our medal, that he will leave at the very sight of the Visitation! Steve was one of the first to endorse our Mary, Ark of The New Covenant Medal and as a Catholic speaker, author, pilgrimage guide, and frequent guest on EWTN, I am happy to call him my friend. Steve is such a well respected, passionate voice for the Church and was instrumental in the chosen scripture passage for the back of the medal from Mary's song of praise as she arrived at the home of her cousin Elizabeth. To get a taste of Steve's passion take a listen to the clip when I filmed him in action at a conference several years ago!
And to think that the Old Testament ark rested in the house of Obed-edom which is only about 3 miles "as the crow flies" from where Blessed Mother visited Elizabeth in the hill country of Judea! Both Arks stayed for 3 months and scripture tells us both houses were greatly blessed. It was at the house of Zachariah that She cried out, glorifying God in her hymn of praise. That beautiful scripture passage in St. Luke gospel is known as the Magnificat. In it, Mary goes on to prophesy that, All Generations shall call me blessed. In a recent homily, Bishop Robert Barron said that Mary, who carried the Word of God in her womb, was “the Ark of the Covenant par excellence. He parallels the readings from the Book of Samuel which indicated that the Ark was taken to “the hill country of Judah,” the same place referenced when Mary visits her cousin, Elizabeth. He noted that King David danced with abandon before the Ark of the Covenant, and that John the Baptist, in Elizabeth’s womb, performs his own David-like dance” in the presence of Mary, the true Ark. “The point is clear. The true vessel in which it pleased the God of Israel in his fullness to dwell is none other than Mary, the Mother of God.lt; Recently, I read something of interest that the Protestant Word Biblical commentary, wrote, Echoes of 2 Samuel 6:2-19 are to be found in verses of Luke 1:41, 43, 44, and possibly 56. If the last be granted, verse 56, “Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months.” Then we must go further and say that this taking up of paradigmatic responses has been artistically carried through by treating the presence of Mary, or the unborn Jesus, as equivalent to the presence of the Ark of the Covenant.
Bishop Barron is one of the foremost bishops who teaches further on Mary as the New Ark of the Covenant. In drawing our attention to what John saw in the Book of Revelation 11:19-12, Bishop Barron describes Mary as the Queen of Heaven, and a warrior queen battling the powers of darkness. This alludes also to the Ark of the Covenant, because the Israelites often took the Ark with them into battle, convinced it would act as a conduit of God’s power against the enemies of the nation. Therefore, the true Ark, Mary, the mother of God, also serves as a conduit of God’s mighty power against those forces that will threaten us. May our Lord use our Blessed Mother new medal of Mary, Ark of The New Covenant, as a powerful sacramental for His purpose!
O MARY, ARK of THE NEW COVENANT Pray for us
The table provided here serves as an excellent reference for typology of the Old Testament ark foreshadowing Our Lady as Ark of The New Covenant.