Spiritual GPS
The angel sent by God finds the Virgin recollected in solitude and “being come in,”
says to her: “Hail full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among
women.” At these words according to the sacred text, Mary is troubled“; we must
not however take this phrase to mean real disturbance, which destroys the peace
of the spirit; it means rather a profound astonishment at this unusual greeting, an
astonishment so great as to cause a kind of fear. This is Mary’s first reaction to the
angelical message - a reaction arising from her humility, which makes her think this
extraordinary eulogy very strange.
Meanwhile the angel communicates to her his great message: God wishes her to
become the Mother of the Redeemer. Mary had always lived under the continual
direction of the Holy Spirit and under His inspiration had made a vow of virginity;
therefore, she was convinced that she should remain a virgin and that this was God’
s will. But now God lets her know that He has chosen her to be the Mother of His
Son and she, humble handmaid that she is, is ready to adhere to the divine plan.
However, she does not yet understand how she can be at the same time a mother
and a virgin, and she questions the angel on this point “How shall this be done?”
The angel explains: “ The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee and the power of the
Most High shall overshadow thee.” Her maternity will be the direct work of the Holy
Spirit and will respect her virginity.
The will of God is then entirely clear to Mary, and she, who during her whole life
has always been moved by the divine will alone, accepts it immediately, with an
entire adherence and a most intense pure love: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord,
be it done to me according to Thy word.” The total acceptance is accompanied by a
total donation: Mary accepts by offering herself and she offers herself by giving
herself. She offers herself as a servant or rather as a slave, if we take the word in
the full sense of the Greek text; she gives herself by abandoning everything that
God may ask of her. Her adherence to Him is both active and passive: Mary wills
all that God wills and she accepts all that He does. Thus Mary appears as a model
of a soul completely united to God, fully given up to His divine will.
The Angel’s explanation does not prevent many future events and circumstances
from remaining hidden and obscure to Mary. She finds herself face to face with a
mystery, a mystery which she knows intuitively to be rich in suffering; for she has
learned from Sacred Scripture that the Redeemer will be a man of sorrows,
sacrificed for the salvation of mankind. Therefore the ineffable joy of the divine
maternity is presented to her wrapped in a mystery of sorrow: to be willing to the
Mother of the Son of God means consenting to be the mother of one condemned to
death. Yet Mary accepts everything in her fiat - in joy as well as in the sorrow of the
mystery she has but one simple answer: “ Behold the handmaid of the Lord.” By
this acceptance the Blessed Virgin becomes intimately associated with the life of
suffering of her Son Jesus, and therefore with His work of Redemption, thus
becoming the spiritual Mother of the human race. This is the divine plan for her,
and Mary accepts it wholly without reserve, precisely because her will is wholly
united to the will of God.
Every Christian receives a vocation from God, a mission to fulfill, by means of
which he is called to participate in the redemptive work of Jesus. For souls
consecrated to God, this mission always finds its culminating point in a task of
spiritual paternity or maternity. If ever souls would respond to the divine appeal by
as complete an acceptance as Mary’s! Behold, the handmaid of the Lord, Be it
done!
Many times in the course of our life we have received invitations from the Lord -
and we shall certainly continue to receive them - invitations to suffering, to
sacrifice - to the gift of self. How have we corresponded? Perhaps the thought of
the fatigue and suffering which we would have to embrace had held us back. Let
us try in the future to keep the eyes of our soul open to the light of faith , so that
like Mary, we shall understand that it is through suffering that God calls us to
collaborate with Jesus in the sanctification of souls.
CONCLUSIONS:
How do we react to this tremendous act of self giving done by Our Lady? Could we
do the same things that she did? We often think that by giving up some little thing
we are following her example - even to the fact that by doing our Legion work etc
we are doing all that we can - and yet, when we ask ourselves just what more we
can do - to what extent we might stretch ourselves - we sometime shirk at the
possibilities that can lie before us.
If we look at the submissiveness of her to her divine Son we marvel at the fact that
she, realizing that the Mother of the Redeemer was in a commitment to a life of
sorrow and suffering herself as His mother. We would shudder at the
consequences we would have to undergo with that same bleak future in mind. We
want to imitate her - but we should try first in the simple things in life rather that
just jump in with great things - the Little Flower always thought little things were
great!
How about charity in speech?
How about charity in thought?
How about ALWAYS getting in our prayers and work?
How about offering help to those who need help -spiritually and materially?
How about doing the corporal works of mercy - visiting the sick, burying the dead (
by attending a wake service) by visiting the family of the deceased?
How about doing some menial service for those who find it difficult to do anymore?
How about offering up our day when we want to gripe about things in it?
So you see, there are plenty of things we can imitate our Lady in. As she submitted
herself to her divine Son, we too can, through her, submit ourselves to Him. It can
in a way be something like True Devotion without the entire giving of self for the
rest of our lives. We have to first learn to give little by little, to offer little by little,
obey little by little until we get a good pattern in life - then we can truly say with
Mary “ Behold the hand maid of the Lord.” Then we can truly say we try to imitate
her.
© copyright 2009
says to her: “Hail full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among
women.” At these words according to the sacred text, Mary is troubled“; we must
not however take this phrase to mean real disturbance, which destroys the peace
of the spirit; it means rather a profound astonishment at this unusual greeting, an
astonishment so great as to cause a kind of fear. This is Mary’s first reaction to the
angelical message - a reaction arising from her humility, which makes her think this
extraordinary eulogy very strange.
Meanwhile the angel communicates to her his great message: God wishes her to
become the Mother of the Redeemer. Mary had always lived under the continual
direction of the Holy Spirit and under His inspiration had made a vow of virginity;
therefore, she was convinced that she should remain a virgin and that this was God’
s will. But now God lets her know that He has chosen her to be the Mother of His
Son and she, humble handmaid that she is, is ready to adhere to the divine plan.
However, she does not yet understand how she can be at the same time a mother
and a virgin, and she questions the angel on this point “How shall this be done?”
The angel explains: “ The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee and the power of the
Most High shall overshadow thee.” Her maternity will be the direct work of the Holy
Spirit and will respect her virginity.
The will of God is then entirely clear to Mary, and she, who during her whole life
has always been moved by the divine will alone, accepts it immediately, with an
entire adherence and a most intense pure love: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord,
be it done to me according to Thy word.” The total acceptance is accompanied by a
total donation: Mary accepts by offering herself and she offers herself by giving
herself. She offers herself as a servant or rather as a slave, if we take the word in
the full sense of the Greek text; she gives herself by abandoning everything that
God may ask of her. Her adherence to Him is both active and passive: Mary wills
all that God wills and she accepts all that He does. Thus Mary appears as a model
of a soul completely united to God, fully given up to His divine will.
The Angel’s explanation does not prevent many future events and circumstances
from remaining hidden and obscure to Mary. She finds herself face to face with a
mystery, a mystery which she knows intuitively to be rich in suffering; for she has
learned from Sacred Scripture that the Redeemer will be a man of sorrows,
sacrificed for the salvation of mankind. Therefore the ineffable joy of the divine
maternity is presented to her wrapped in a mystery of sorrow: to be willing to the
Mother of the Son of God means consenting to be the mother of one condemned to
death. Yet Mary accepts everything in her fiat - in joy as well as in the sorrow of the
mystery she has but one simple answer: “ Behold the handmaid of the Lord.” By
this acceptance the Blessed Virgin becomes intimately associated with the life of
suffering of her Son Jesus, and therefore with His work of Redemption, thus
becoming the spiritual Mother of the human race. This is the divine plan for her,
and Mary accepts it wholly without reserve, precisely because her will is wholly
united to the will of God.
Every Christian receives a vocation from God, a mission to fulfill, by means of
which he is called to participate in the redemptive work of Jesus. For souls
consecrated to God, this mission always finds its culminating point in a task of
spiritual paternity or maternity. If ever souls would respond to the divine appeal by
as complete an acceptance as Mary’s! Behold, the handmaid of the Lord, Be it
done!
Many times in the course of our life we have received invitations from the Lord -
and we shall certainly continue to receive them - invitations to suffering, to
sacrifice - to the gift of self. How have we corresponded? Perhaps the thought of
the fatigue and suffering which we would have to embrace had held us back. Let
us try in the future to keep the eyes of our soul open to the light of faith , so that
like Mary, we shall understand that it is through suffering that God calls us to
collaborate with Jesus in the sanctification of souls.
CONCLUSIONS:
How do we react to this tremendous act of self giving done by Our Lady? Could we
do the same things that she did? We often think that by giving up some little thing
we are following her example - even to the fact that by doing our Legion work etc
we are doing all that we can - and yet, when we ask ourselves just what more we
can do - to what extent we might stretch ourselves - we sometime shirk at the
possibilities that can lie before us.
If we look at the submissiveness of her to her divine Son we marvel at the fact that
she, realizing that the Mother of the Redeemer was in a commitment to a life of
sorrow and suffering herself as His mother. We would shudder at the
consequences we would have to undergo with that same bleak future in mind. We
want to imitate her - but we should try first in the simple things in life rather that
just jump in with great things - the Little Flower always thought little things were
great!
How about charity in speech?
How about charity in thought?
How about ALWAYS getting in our prayers and work?
How about offering help to those who need help -spiritually and materially?
How about doing the corporal works of mercy - visiting the sick, burying the dead (
by attending a wake service) by visiting the family of the deceased?
How about doing some menial service for those who find it difficult to do anymore?
How about offering up our day when we want to gripe about things in it?
So you see, there are plenty of things we can imitate our Lady in. As she submitted
herself to her divine Son, we too can, through her, submit ourselves to Him. It can
in a way be something like True Devotion without the entire giving of self for the
rest of our lives. We have to first learn to give little by little, to offer little by little,
obey little by little until we get a good pattern in life - then we can truly say with
Mary “ Behold the hand maid of the Lord.” Then we can truly say we try to imitate
her.
© copyright 2009