"All generations shall call me blessed", is a sure sign of someone who is sanctified.
"Glorious things are said of thee!"

We have now seen that there is a connection between the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the first of the key words listed above, City of GOD, since
Glorious things are said of both.

So where is all of this leading us?

To the third key word,
the Tabernacle:

The first time that the word "Tabernacle" is mentioned in Holy Scripture is in Exodus 16 (Douay, Vulgate), and with it we have more key words to consider...

Exodus 16:31-35, Douay
(31) "And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white, and the taste thereof like to flour with honey.
(32) And Moses said: This is the word which the Lord hath commanded: Fill a gomor of it, and let it be kept unto generations to come hereafter; that they may know the bread, wherewith I fed you in the wilderness when you were brought forth out of the land of Egypt.
(33) And Moses said to Aaron: Take a vessel, and put manna into it, as much as a gomor can hold; and lay it up before the Lord, to keep unto your generations,
(34) as the Lord commanded Moses. And Aaron put it in the tabernacle to be kept.
(35) And the children of Israel ate manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land: with this meat were they fed, until they reached the borders of the land of Chanaan."

So what key words do we see in those five verses?
1. Manna: this is the first time that the word "Manna" is mentioned in Holy Scripture.
The Hebrews, numbering some 600,000 men alone (Ex 12:37), wandered for forty years in a barren desert devoid of sustenance. GOD provided manna, the sustenance for bodily food, in what was called "Bread from Heaven" earlier in Exodus 16:4. Can you imagine how much manna was a daily requirement for well over a million people when women and children are added to the 600,000 men? After forty years the manna ceased as recorded in Joshua 5:12.

2. Forty years: A figure that could be equated to a human lifespan.
Numbers 32:13,
"And the Lord being angry against Israel, led them about through the desert forty years, until the whole generation, that had done evil in his sight, was consumed."

3. Meat: this word was used in the Old Testament (Douay) to describe the manna, a type, which sustained the body of so many for forty years. Is there a New Testament antitype for manna, maybe something so wonderful that it sustains the soul?

From the Didache 10:3,
"Thou, Almighty Master, didst create all things for the sake of thy name, and hast given both meat and drink, for men to enjoy, that we might give thanks unto thee, but to us thou hast given spiritual meat and drink, and life everlasting, through thy Son."

John 6:53-57:
(53) "Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen, I say unto you: except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you.
(54) He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day.
(55) For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed.
(56) He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me: and I in him."

Elucidation:

1. The Manna is the Old Testament type (Bread from Heaven Exodus 16:4), of the New Testament "Bread of Life" (John 6:35, 48), the flesh (Body) of Christ for which we are commanded to eat in John 6:53-57.
2. The Manna was kept in the tabernacle, a Holy place, since the Manna was sent by GOD.
3. The Manna, which fed the body, is symbolic of the flesh of Christ which feeds the soul.
4. The Blessed Virgin Mary served as the tabernacle of the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of the person of Jesus the Christ for the nine months of her pregnancy.

"Glorious things are said of thee, O city of God."
Psalms 87:3

With so many glorious things said of thee O' Blessed Virgin Mary, you certainly are entitled to be called "The Mystical City of GOD".

©
Written by Bob Stanley, March 15, 2007


"Have I then become your enemy, because I told you the truth?"
Galatians 4:16

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