Our Lady of the In-Between

A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, June 22nd, 2025:
Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

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Psalm 110

​R. You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

The Lord says to my lord, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.”

R. You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

The Lord sends out from Zion your mighty sceptre. Rule in the midst of your foes. 

R. You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

Your people will offer themselves willingly on the day you lead your forces on the holy mountains. From the womb of the morning, like dew, your youth will come to you. 

R. You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” 

R. You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

Translation nerd that I am, I was immediately arrested by a difference between the Douay-Rheims and NRSV versions of this Psalm. In the NRSV, verse three says “From the womb of the morning” and in the Douay-Rheims Bible it says, “from the womb before the day star I begot thee.” 

Aha! The "day star," A.K.A the "morning star." I know that one—that’s Mary! This may be one of King David’s great prophetic psalms about Jesus Christ, but still the Holy Spirit can’t help but sneak in a preview of His spouse. 

Mary’s title of Morning Star captures my imagination. The morning star is the brightest light in the night sky at dawn, after the sun and moon. It’s the third brightest celestial body overall. But in scientific reality, it’s not a star, it’s a planet. It’s Venus. And because Venus is also orbiting the sun, but is closer than Earth, the "star" moves around and appears at separate times of day throughout the year. For long stretches, it’s the evening star, appearing only at dusk. In between morning and evening star periods, there are weeks when it’s not visible at all. And it’s never visible during the day or the middle of the night because it’s either behind the sun or too close to the sun. For Venus, it’s only dawn, dusk, or hidden.  

Apparently, the Church's connection between Mary and the morning star goes back to the Song of Songs, "Who is this that looks forth like the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun" [6:10]. A text from the 1500’s says, “Like as the morning cometh before the sun rising, and divideth the night from the day, so the Virgin Mary rose as the morning before the Sun of Justice, and divided the state of grace from the state of sin, the children of God from the children of darkness.” 

I love that Mary, Morning Star, appears as both a herald and a guide during the in-between times. The liminal time; between darkest night and brightest morning, between hard-toiling day and slumbering night. I love to imagine that, like Venus, she is hidden during the brightest day because she is right next to the Sun, her Son. And during darkest night, we need faith to know she is there, because she is hidden in Christ, as we all will be when we die (Colossians 3:3). 

And I don’t want to imply that we cannot or ought not pray for Mary’s intercession at these hidden times–in fact, the Church has been praying the Angelus at noon for centuries. But even that was to mark the hour Christ was crucified, so once again, Mary has stepped out the spotlight in favour of glorifying her Son. But the Church also recognizes her role in our transition times—we pray the Magnificat in morning prayer, and with every Hail Mary, we hope that she is with us in the dusk of our lives, the hour of our death. 

Liminal periods in our lives, times when we feel like we’re in a murky dusk or dawn, are often the periods that are most fertile. We’re searching, praying, trying to piece together where we think God is drawing us next. Our souls, like Christ’s, are in the “womb of the morning”—safely enshrouded in Mary’s nourishing protection, and full of potential for the day ahead of us. Mary, Morning Star, Evening Star, eternal light, be our shining beacon every time we’re in-between!




Kate Plumb

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