Naomi had a prominent kinsman named Boaz,

   of the clan of her husband Elimelech.

Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi,

   “Let me go and glean ears of grain in the field

   of anyone who will allow me that favor.”

Naomi said to her, “Go, my daughter.”

 

Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter!

Do not go to glean in anyone else’s field;

   you are not to leave here.

Stay here with my women servants.

Watch to see which field is to be harvested, and follow them;

   I have commanded the young men to do you no harm.

When you are thirsty, you may go and drink from the vessels the young men have filled.”

Casting herself prostrate upon the ground, Ruth said to him,

   “Why should I, a foreigner, be favored with your notice?”

Boaz answered her:

   “I have had a complete account of what you have done

   for your mother-in-law after your husband’s death;

   you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth,

   and have come to a people whom you did not know previously.”

 

Boaz took Ruth.

When they came together as man and wife,

   the LORD enabled her to conceive and she bore a son.

Then the women said to Naomi,

   “Blessed is the LORD who has not failed

   to provide you today with an heir!

May he become famous in Israel!

He will be your comfort and the support of your old age,

   for his mother is the daughter-in-law who loves you.

She is worth more to you than seven sons!”

Naomi took the child, placed him on her lap, and became his nurse.

And the neighbor women gave him his name,

   at the news that a grandson had been born to Naomi.

They called him Obed.

He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

 

 

In the Book of Ruth we can find something that may rather fittingly be applied to the Mother of God. In her own person Ruth was quite praiseworthy; in her family she was conspicuous, being born of the base and accursed people of Moab. She chose to leave her relatives and the land of her birth and to reside in a land not her own. There, because of the great integrity of her life and habits, she was joined in marriage to a distinguished man of the Israelite people, named Boaz, and by him she had a son named Obed, who was father of the father of King David, of whose seed Christ, the Son of God, was born.

The name ‘Ruth’ means ‘hastening’, and the name, we think, is suited to the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was always ‘hastening’, that is, fervent in holy and good works. Ruth was descended from the base and accursed race of the Moabites....Ruth left her native land and her relatives in order to practice the faith of her mother-in-law, and she resided in a land not her own. Mary left her native place and her parents when, in order to remain faithful to God the Father and preserve her own chastity, she separated herself from the common life of the world. She regarded herself as an exile and pilgrim in this world, for she contemned everything that the present world loves, and she was hastening to the only true and endless glory of the heavenly homeland. From the lineage of Ruth King David was born; from the virginal flesh of the Virgin Mary was born our true David, of strong arm and comely face, our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the entire world has been saved.

Tamar, the ancestor of Boaz, prayed: Most merciful Judge, recognize in me faith and hope and love of you. These are your gifts, which you have given to me; as best I could, with your help, I have preserved them as a testimony to my salvation and have brought them back to you. Since these gifts have been acknowledged by Judah, that is, by God the Father, the soul shall be received into the joys of everlasting blessedness through him who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.

 

 

 

 

O God, who, fulfilling the promise made to our Fathers,

chose the Blessed Virgin Mary,

the noble daughter of Zion,

grant that we may follow her example,

for her humility was pleasing to you

and her obedience profitable to us.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Chosen Daughter of Israel I)