Prayer:
All praise
and glory are Yours, almighty Father:
You have
given us Your Son Jesus to save us from sin.
We praise
You for choosing Mary to be His Mother, for
teaching her to believe Your message, for helping her accept Your holy will.
Strengthen
us by Your Holy Spirit to be like Mary:
To ponder
Your word in our hearts,
To obey Your
will, To love Your Son, To sing Your praises every day.
Father, we
praise You through Jesus Christ, Your Son in the love of Your Spirit, for ever
and ever.
Amen
When Robert asked me to do a talk on Mary, two songs came
immediately to mind: I kept them in the
back of my mind while I looked at the Catechism and other sources to prepare
the talk- but the two songs stayed with me, coming to the front of my mind and
on to my lips at different times. I
wondered why but I continued reading and preparing the paper….
The first source I went to was the Catechism. For me the Catechism is something that at
first glance is kind of cut and dry but when I read and really take in what is
there I discover so much more.
And the catechism tells us:
To be sure, there are as many paths
of prayer as there are persons who pray, but it is the same Spirit acting in
all and with all. It is in the communion
of the Holy Spirit that Christian prayer is prayer in the Church.
We are reminded that in prayer we are united to the Son, which
then unites us in the Church with the Mother of Jesus. Mary, with her consent in faith, extended her
motherhood to the brothers and sisters of her Son. Jesus… is the way of our prayer; Mary, his
mother and ours, is wholly transparent to him:
she “shows the way” and is herself “the Sign” of the way. Think of that- wholly transparent, nothing
gets in the way of our seeing or knowing Jesus because He shines forth.
Beginning with Mary’s unique cooperation with the working of
the Holy Spirit, the Churches developed their prayer to the holy Mother of God,
centering it on the person of Christ.
The two parts of this prayer give us two pictures of Mary,: the first
“magnifies” the Lord for the great things he did for his lowly servant and
through her for all human beings,
the second entrusts the pleas, petitions and praises of the
children of God to the Mother of Jesus, because she now knows us and our needs.
This twofold prayer to Mary has found a special and beautiful
expression in the Ave Maria. The
catechism breaks down the prayer to give us a deeper understanding of the words
and I’ve added some thoughts and questions for personal reflection.
Hail Mary: the greeting of the
angel Gabriel opens this prayer. It is
God himself who, through his angel as intermediary, greets Mary. In our praying of the Hail Mary we dare
to take up this greeting to Mary with the regard God had for the lowliness of
his humble servant and to exult in the joy he finds in her.
Can we be counted among His lowly humble servants - exulting
in joy no matter our circumstances?
Full of grace, the Lord is with thee: These two phases of the angel’s
greeting shed light on one another. Mary
is full of grace because the Lord is with her.
The grace with which she is filled is the presence of him who is the
source of all grace Full of grace, Mary
is wholly given over to him who has come to dwell in her and whom she is about
to give to the world.
How do we or can we also give ourselves over to the One who
dwells within us, and how do we give “the One” to the world?
Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy
womb, Jesus. After the angel’s greeting, we make
Elizabeth’s greeting our own. Mary is
“blessed among women” because she believed in the fulfillment of the Lord’s
word. Mary, because of her faith became
the mother of believers, through whom all nations of the earth receive him who
is God’s own blessing, Jesus, the “fruit of thy womb.”
What are the fruits of our actions? How well do we nourish His life within us? Are we tending our field as it were?
Holy Mary, Mother of God:
With
Elizabeth, we marvel, “And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord
should come to me?” Because she gives us
Jesus, her son, Mary is Mother of God and our mother; we can entrust all our
cares and petitions to her: she prays for us as she prayed for herself: “Let it
be done to me according to your word.”
By entrusting ourselves to her prayer, we abandon ourselves to the will
of God - together with her: “Thy will be done.”
For me, and maybe for some of you, this is a difficult one-
abandoning myself to the will of God.
What will happen, the what ifs start to push in and take control.
Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. By asking Mary to pray for us, we acknowledge ourselves to be
poor sinners and we address ourselves to the “Mother of Mercy,” We give
ourselves over to her now, in the Today of our lives. And our trust broadens further to surrender
“the hour of our death” wholly to her care.
May she be there as she was at her son’s death on the cross. May she welcome us as our mother at the hour
of our passing, to lead us to her son, Jesus, in paradise.
The Catechism continues telling us that Mary is the perfect Orans (pray-er.) And when we pray to her, we are adhering with
her to the plan of the Father, who
sent his Son to save all men. Like the
beloved disciple we welcome Jesus’ mother into our homes, for she has become
the mother of all the living. We can
pray with and to her. The prayer of the
Church is sustained by the prayer of Mary and united with it in hope.
After reading the catechism I turned
to another source. There are videos on Ascension Press done by the Franciscan Friars of
the Renewal. I don’t know if any of
you have ever watched them. These are
mainly younger Friars and they have a wonderfully natural way of talking to
each other and about many things.
If you Google Ascension Press and Brother Pius, it will get
you there.
One video is “Praying the Hail Mary well”
Brother Pius speaks of the twofold structure of the Hail
Mary, and how it is based in
scripture. He talks about his 2 year
old niece who asks him to tell her a story, then sits in front of him, takes
his hand and stares up at him. He
likened it to praying the Hail Mary and sitting and being attentive to
Mary. Praying as if you were sitting at
the feet of Mary; spending time in her
presence. Being attentive and regarding
the one with whom we are speaking. This
can help us focus in on a particular part of a mystery or scripture (point of
mediation) and make it part of the prayer.
i.e. ‘and blessed is the fruit of
thy womb Jesus’ – and I might pray- hidden in your womb for 9 months. Or pray for us sinners now- because I need peace
to deal with a difficult situation. This
way of praying can deepen our experience of the Hail Mary.
Brother Pius expresses it as
being sort of like sitting at the feet of Mary and hearing her tell the story
of her son’s life.
When referring to the
rosary, he says there’s no reason to be suspicious of the repetition of the
prayers, because it creates space for contemplation, time to center ourselves and
focus. It is also similar to how the psalms have been prayed for thousands of
year, since they were, and are, prayed over and over as well.
Brother Pius reminds us that he doesn’t think our mothers
ever tire of us telling them we love them.
This prayer is a beautiful way to say I love you to our Mother Mary.
In another video, Father Mark-Mary and Brother Malachy talk
about the importance of Mary.
Brother Malarchy started
with saying that he didn’t always have a devotion to Mary. Then he realized that every time he read
about a saint, someone who inspired him- he found this woman in their life. He took note of how devotion to the Blessed
Mother is such a common trend among the holiest people who have lived. And
he realized that if he wanted to pattern his life after these people, he needed
and eventually wanted to have Mary in his life in the same way.
Mary as a spiritual mother provides what is needed to fill
that place in our heart for a mother. A place of refuge, strength and
encouragement. Who protects us on our
journey, to which Fr. Mark-Mary responded “A spiritual Momma bear! And you don’t
mess with a Momma bear or any Momma protecting her children. Mary is a Mom who wants nothing but the best
for her children, and Jesus is the best.
Fr. Mark-Mary spoke about a prayer he has taken as his own, a
favorite prayer of Saint Mother Teresa, especially in time of trouble:
“Mary, be a mother to
me now.”
So…back to the two songs. I was reviewing the two videos from Ascension
I spoke about as I was working on the talk and wondering if the songs really
fit in when I saw another video, this one by Father Mike Schmitz called The
Virgin Mary’s Struggles”. For me it
brought things together….
In the video Father
Mike speaks about people possibly being upset because Mary was born without
sin- how could she possibly know, or understand what we go through. She’s perfect, never had to worry and we have
to muddle through life while she didn’t.
What we need to remember, Fr. Mike said, is that God called her to a
particular role in a single act of grace – a unique situation - and remember
too that we are all given what we need to accomplish that to which we are
called.
Father Mike continues- If you’ve ever strived to follow God,
to do the right thing, you know how lonely that can be. Mary wasn’t perfect, even though she was
without sin, but whenever it came to the choice of whether to compromise or not
compromise regarding sin – to fight for good, she never compromised. If you’ve ever refused to compromised, you
know how that feels. Still, even though
we might know how it feels, Father Mike believes that no one has ever walked a lonelier
road than Mary. Walking through this
broken world, she never compromised. She
didn’t present herself as holier than others, even though she was. As lonely as she was, it was the struggle to
resist given in and compromising that made her just as powerful- maybe more so. She, and Jesus, even though she was born
without sin and He is God and man, both know how hard it is to fight against
sin. People might be tempted to think that
neither one of them don’t know how hard it is. But if you give in to sin, if you compromise
over and over- you don’t, you can’t know how hard it is.
As C.S. Lewis said “only the person who stands against the
wind knows how strong it is.”
If you find yourself lonely- you have a friend in Mary
If you find yourself alone, the one in the group who will not
compromise- you have a friend in Mary
If you find yourself being excluded or isolated –for just
trying to choose Jesus- you have a friend in Mary
If you feel exhausted with the fight, thinking about giving
up - you have a friend, a model, a Mom in Mary.
And what does she do, she always brings us to Jesus. She doesn’t point to herself and say look at
how I did it, she says – come with me, I know what this is about, I know what
you’ve been through - come with me….to
HIM. Because He’s the Son- As Fr. Mike
says… He’s not just the SON but the SUN, Mary is a moon, everything good in her
is a reflection of Jesus. Both Mary and
Jesus know what it is like to be lonely and rejected.
So, we’ve got some friends!!! And that’s pretty good company.
NOW Do you think you know what
songs came to mind for me???
Well one is - Mary, Did You Know?
The beautiful song that combines the loving actions of a
mother with the reality of the actions of Jesus.
Did she know? How did
she feel when she realized or saw what He was doing?
Was the mother in her not just proud of Him but afraid for
Him, wanting to do whatever she could to keep Him safe- knowing that she had to
let Him complete His mission. How
difficult to watch those events unfold but trusting, always trusting in the
will of God as she had from the beginning.
The other is the Amy Grant song-
Breath of Heaven
Mary waits and wonders if she has to go through this alone,
frightened and wondering what she has done.
And then the line that always strikes a chord in me:
Do you wonder as you watch my face; If a wiser one should have had my place
I’ve
had that thought with each weekend I’ve served on team and each role in
Cursillo I’ve held, sometimes more than others.
But then I try to remember to pray the next line of the song:
But I offer all I am; For the mercy
of your plan
So
the songs were a reminder to me of all Mary is, all we revere, respect, admire,
believe, love about her. The way we hold
her in high regard, see her as our Mother, as the Mother of Jesus, as pure and
holy…all that is as it should be.
However
if sometimes this possibly makes it difficult to connect with or relate to her,
recall her as a person, a mother, someone who had pain and struggles like us
but someone of faith, trusting in the will of God who will take us to herself
and lead us to Him.
Mary
is complete - born without sin but not without all the emotions and parts of
life we all know and experience. She is always
ready to hear us, hold us and guide us.
I’ll
leave you with this short reflection from Loyola’s 3 minute retreat:
The
scripture verse this particular day was:
Luke 1:38 - Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid
of the Lord. May it be done to me
according to your word.” Then the angel
departed from her.
The reflection:
It seems like all the angel needed was Mary’s answer. “Then the angel departed from her.” The angel’s mission was complete, and Mary’s
had just begun. She couldn’t have known
all that being the Mother of God would entail.
But she did know that God had chosen her and, through faith, she knew
that would be enough. She would have what
she needed at each step of the way.
Through faith, we have that same assurance. We may have questions or want more
information or doubt whether we have what it takes to do what God asks, but we
can always be assured that God will provide for us wonderfully well.
So, remember….you’ve got some friends!!! And
they are really good company.
DeColores
