In this reflection we will attempt:
• To understand the importance of the Person of Mary Most Holy
• To understand Her union with the will of God and so be modeled
through it.
• Understand what should be our response to Her (consecration) so
that we can more fully respond to God's will.
1. God’s ways are not our ways
There is a willful consent between the three persons of the
Trinity to grant to Mary a singular honor in the order of grace and
of salvation. Our Lord has set an irrevocable unity between our
Mother Mary and our life in the Spirit. This is a reality that can
be seen simply in the mystery of the Trinity, in the relationship
which our Lady has with the Blessed Trinity. She is the:
Most Beloved daughter of the Father
Mother of the Son
Spouse of the Holy Spirit
Each of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity have established a close,
intimate contact with the Heart of Mary and have established with
her a lasting relationship. But God has not done willed to do this
only for her benefit, rather it is done so that we too could be
benefit from the abundance of her graces.
A primary example of this is seen in the Scriptures, during the
event of the Visitation of Our Lady to her cousin, Saint Elizabeth.
We read how: “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant
leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.”
(St. Luke 1:41). In other words, it at the moment in which Mary
became present, in whom the Spirit was working in a new and
overflowing manner, that both Elizabeth and her unborn son, John,
too become able to share in a new way in the mystery of grace: “the
infant leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy
Spirit”.
Another example of this can be seen in the last apparition which
Sister Lucia had of our Lady of Fatima in Pontevedra. (See the story
of Our Lady of Fatima). Sister Lucia testifies how through the
presence of our Lady she came to understand profound mysteries of
the Holy Trinity which she had never known before.
Thus recognition of the person of Mary should never deviate us from
God, on the contrary. Hers is the virginal life which He desires to
use in order to lead us to deepen our own desire and knowledge of
God. God wants Mary to be honored and this can occur only when we
honor Her. God wants to work through her, and this can only occur
when we allow ourselves to be led by her. When we do this,
therefore, we become instrument in fulfilling the will of God.
This is so crucial for us to understand. It is inherent in the very
first of the Ten Commandments: “You must love the Lord your God.”
When we love God we must also love His will, love His way of
realizing our salvation and sanctification. We must love His
designs! And unless we open ourselves to His Truth and His designs
of Mercy Will, we will not be able to fulfill it.
We must be careful not to attribute to God a will and a design that
is one that it would seem to us that He should have. In other words,
to us it seems logical that giving honor to Our Lady is to steal
honor from God, because that is the way we would handle our
relationships. Because we are limited by feelings of envy. But God
is not. And so, if there is one thing which we should have realized
by now it is that God never does things the way we think He should.
We think He should never have let Adam and Eve sin, then we would
have had no problems (freedom)
We think that He should never have died on a Cross, that is too much
humiliation, (love)
We think that He is taking to long to return and that He should have
left us a perfect Church (mercy).
Yet, how then would true freedom, true love and true mercy have been
possible, NOT in God.... in US!.
How would we, finite and limited creatures that we are, have lived
freedom, love and mercy? We need God’s plan just as He has
determined it to be, because it is the most truly, most perfect way
in which we can live freedom, love and mercy.
We do not necessary think like God. And this is so important to come
to terms with because it is the first step to an authentic
discernment. Discerning the will of God means two things that are
both equally important: 1. coming to understand what God desires and
2. to know how he desires it to be done.
But since it is not easy because we do not think like God, we are in
need of help.... this is the role of Mary. She can help us to come
to know the will of God because she lived it fully and perfectly.
2. Our Lady Does All She Does for Us, for Our Benefit
God tested Mary too.
The Second Vatican Council, in the document on the Church, includes
a chapter on Our Lady. IT states that Mary had her own “pilgrimage
of faith”. Thus we see how, in the Annunciation, the angel told
Mary: “Do not fear for you have found favor with God.” Implying that
God had in some way, observed Mary up until that point and found her
fitting for the role which she was about to take on. This is why the
Angel told her that she had found favor.... because she had already,
--even at such a tender age--, she had already shown herself to be
faithful.
And this favor that she had, was slowly revealed to those who also
had an important role to play in the life of Jesus and Mary, most
particularly in the life of St. Joseph.
When St. Joseph was having difficulty understanding what was
happening to Our Lady, an angel appeared to him and told him... “Do
not be afraid to take Mary as your wife because what is born within
Her is of the Holy Spirit.” St. Joseph was led to understand the
extraordinary election that God had made of this humble handmaid.
And because he accepted it and responded to it with faith, by
receiving Mary into his home and life, St. Joseph now was able to
receive the gift of being the foster father of God become child.
What he accepted superseded most greatly whatever he had to render.
Mary became for him an instrument of an even more extraordinary
grace in his life. A grace that he would never have received if he
had not received her first.
And so today we must repeat these words in our own life..... “Do not
be afraid to take Mary into your home, into your heart, into your
life, because what is born of Her, what She will bring with Her,
what She will grasp for you is the Holy Spirit, is the presence of
God, is the capacity to love Him more and to fulfill more fully His
will. And it is interesting to see how, St. Joseph comes to
understand his own vocation, his own destiny, the mystery of his own
life, from the moment in which he takes Mary into his home and
heart. With her comes the Holy Spirit.
St. Joseph becomes our model in turning to our Lady to discern the
presence and the will of God in our own lives. The closer we draw to
her the better we will understand what God wants, we will be able to
see His will. This is because with Mary will always come her Son and
the Holy Spirit. Do not be afraid to take Mary as your own because
what is born of her (Christ), is of the Holy Spirit.
Consecration to Our Lady
Christ'sfirst coming into the world was a physical presence among
us as a man. Therefore God was pleased to prepare for Him a most
worthy, a most Immaculate Mother from whom He was to take flesh.
Christ's second coming into the world is to be a reign of the Heart,
of His Heart over ours, over His mystical Body. Therefore He has
prepared for Himself a most pure, a most Immaculate Heart.
St. Maximilian Kolbe tells us: “We have to win the universe and each
individual soul, now and in the future, down to the end of time, for
the Immaculata, and by her for the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Further,
we must watch so that nobody tears any soul away from its
consecration to the Immaculata; we should strive rather that souls
may constantly deepen their love for her; that the bond of love
between her and these souls may grow ever closer. Such souls will
come to love the Sacred Heart of Jesus much better than they have
ever done up to now. Like Mary, they will come to penetrate into the
very depths of love, to understand the cross, the Eucharist much
better than before.”
“Just as the Kingdom of God is with (Lk. 17:21), in like manner the
kingdom of our Blessed Lady is principally
in the interior of man, that is to say, in his soul.” Thus She is
the Queen of all Hearts
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
Mary
The
Role of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary in Our LiveS