We Come to Do Your Will March 26

Ask for a sign from the LORD, your God; let it be deep as the nether world, or high as the sky! (Is 7:10)

Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will. (Ps 40:8a)

By this “will,” we have been consecrated through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Heb 10:10)

Piety

Almighty God, we bless and we praise you. We thank you for the gift of Mary who became our mother in her humanity, God’s mother in her acceptance of your will. We thank you for your continued presence with us as we seek to say “yes” to your will as well. We ask you for strength, courage, wisdom and peace as we seek to acknowledge and be your sign in the world. Amen

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/032607.shtml

In Medieval paintings, Mary was often depicted as sitting embroidering or sewing, interrupted by the announcing angel. In a Christmas pageant for fifth graders, however, Mary is sweeping the floor when the Angel emerges. While chosen for its stage appeal, perhaps this is actually more real: would a poor woman in the ancient Middle East have much time to sit? Mary would most likely spend her days very active and busy for the survival of her family. Yet, as a devout woman she might also contemplate her faith, something today we call walking meditation.

And she was ready. To do your will, O my God, is my delight, and your law is within my heart! (Ps 40:9) We don’t know if she ever heard these words, but she knew them in her soul and opened herself to the action of God – a sign unexpected and as high as the sky. Her action puts into motion the certainty of death and the promise of resurrection

“It is fitting therefore that the holy Fathers see Mary as used by God not merely in a passive way, but as freely cooperating in the work of human salvation through faith and obedience. For, as St. Irenaeus says, ‘being obedient, she became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race’.” Lumen Gentium Chaptire VIII 56 II Vatican Council

The world changed with her “yes” although, certainly, the world did not yet know. Citizens of Nazareth continued to pull water out of the well, stoke the family fires and herd their sheep. Fully conscious and free, Mary gives humanity to God, allows God into the world in a new way and forges a special bond between God and the lowliest people of creation. Gerard Manly Hopkins tried to describe such a mystery, such a sign, in his work “The Blessed Virgin Compared to the Air We Breathe” excerpted below.

This air, which, by life’s law,

My lung must draw and draw

Now but to breathe its praise,

Minds me in many ways

Of her who not only

Gave God’s infinity

Dwindled to infancy

Welcome in womb and breast,

Birth, milk, and all the rest

But mothers each new grace

That does now reach our race—

Mary Immaculate,

Merely a woman, yet

Whose presence, power is

Great as no goddess’s

Was deemèd, dreamèd; who

This one work has to do—

Let all God’s glory through,

God’s glory which would go

Through her and from her flow

Off, and no way but so.

Action

What mystery, sign, miraculous do we miss? As you begin the fifth week of Lent, focus on a new way to love God, a new way to be open to God, a new request or desire which will bring you closer to God. Keep this request in the back of your mind all day – a walking meditation. Talk with God and listen throughout the day. Will you be ready when the miraculous appears? Will you be ready to “let all God’s glory through”?

Of interest: The International Center Mary of Nazareth laid its first stone of renovation in Nazareth on March 25. http://www.mariedenazareth.com/