Posted on 03/25/2015 10:24:32 AM PDT by Mad Dawg
Today is the feast of the Annunciation. On this great day, the eternal Word of God stooped down from heaven, was made flesh, and came to dwell among us. In His great goodness, in the wise folly of His boundless love for us, God gave Himself to us, humbling Himself and taking the form of a slave so that we who had been conquered by sin and evil might in Him be made their conquerors.
Yet today is not called the feast of the Incarnation, but rather the feast of the Annunciation. The great mystery of the incarnation was made known to us, through the message of an angel. God chose to work this marvel of love through the Mary’s surrender to His word. Let us ponder this event: Gabriel announces the joyful news to Mary: “you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
All this is beyond Mary’s power to accomplish, but she does not become flustered or assume that she needs to do all that is humanly possible towards achieving it; rather, with perfect confidence in God, she asks how He wants to bring it about. The answer reveals new marvels: Mary is to be not simply the mother of the long-awaited Messiah, but also the bearer of her God, the marriage-chamber of God and man, and the ark of the new covenant. It staggers the mind: that uncreated Wisdom should take one’s flesh and become man. Yet all this is to be God’s work, through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit.
And so she responds very simply. What God wants of her is beyond her, and He wishes to bring it about in her through His own action. All that remains for her to do is to surrender herself completely to whatever He wants to do: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to thy word.” Simple words, yet of great power, for they allow God to act as He wills. Simple words, yet not easy to say and less easy to live, surrendering the comfort of having something she can get done, of having any focus other than what God is asking of her in the moment.
Mary is the great contemplative, the model for all contemplatives. What God asks of us is also beyond any ability we have, and can only come about as a result of His action. Let us ask Mary to help us live as her true children, ever more surrendered to God, ever more focused on God even in the practical daily things of life that God asks of us in the moment. Let us ask her to help us pray those words, “be it done unto me according to thy word,” and to truly allow God to do with us what He likes. We know that what He, in His great love, wants to do with us is better than anything we can imagine or achieve: He wants to conform us to Himself, remaking us after the pattern of Christ, the Divine Word, so that through us He might draw others to Himself, and that together we might be united to Him forever!
I think it's a nice talk, and shows Marian devotion in action -- which is perhaps a little different from what others think it is.
Lovely meditation.
Beautiful. Thank you for posting this.
BTW, I know these sisters through their online soap shop. :)
I’ve bought the soap, too. I’d get more, but I know I have one stashed somewhere, just can’t remember where.
I’m so happy you all liked it.
Salvation, I think you’d like it too.
**Mary is to be not simply the mother of the long-awaited Messiah, but also the bearer of her God, the marriage-chamber of God and man, and the ark of the new covenant. **
Through the Holy Spirit and Mary’s “Yes.”
I know what happened. You stashed the soap so your kids wouldn’t take it, right? But now you forget where.
Exactly. It might be in the drawer with my pajamas, and I just didn’t dig all the way to the bottom last time I looked!
Amen!
:)
I hide all my Weight Watchers snack bars and lose them, too.
And, if you cannot restrain yourself from disagreeing, can you do so without sophistry? I saw, and I do not forget, how when one extremely silly anti-Catholic contention was parried you changed the subject. Can you be honest and fair here? Can you?
Are you looking for my input?
Um, I meant to ask what I asked. I don’t know what else to say.
A word of caution here: Some of our separated brothers and sisters equate Mary with a cow. Sad, really.
I believe God had worked in her heart to have it align with His plan .. she was "willing" because God made her willing with His grace
We need to pray that God do a work in us to make us as willing to do difficult things that are His plan.. remember "here I am Lord send me"
Yes.
This whole “volunteering” theme is great! From Gideon's tricks with the fleece and the dew to Mary's fiat and Paul's staggering into Damascus ... lots there.
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