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God Changed History Through Motherhood

I am deeply moved by the simple and mysterious encounter [of the Visitation]….Two women meet each other and affirm in each other the promise given them. The humanly impossible has happened to them. God has come to them to begin the salvation promised through the ages. Through these two women God has decided to change the course of history. Who could ever understand? Who could ever believe it? Who could ever let it happen? For three months Mary and Elizabeth live together and encourage each other to truly accept the motherhood given to them. Mary’s presence makes Elizabeth more fully aware of becoming the mother of the “prophet of the Most High” (Luke 1:76), and Elizabeth’s presence allows Mary to grow in the knowledge of becoming the Mother of the “Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:32) (from Nouwen’s The Road to Daybreak).

Prayer: Lord, as we prepare for your birth as Mary’s Son, may we find our own “Elizabeth” to be a refuge of wisdom, comfort, and joy. Let us acknowledge to you that we are never too old, never too filled with the effects of sin, never too far away to receive you and your Mother with all hospitality and trust. Amen.

The genuine significance of Catholic devotion to Mary is to be seen in the light of the Incarnation itself. The Church cannot separate the Son and the Mother….

Mary, who was empty of all egotism, free from all sin, was as pure as the glass of a very clean window that has no other function than to admit the light of the sun. If we rejoice in that light, we implicitly praise the cleanness of the window. And of course it might be argued that in such a case we might well forget the window altogether. This is true. And yet the Son of God, in emptying Himself of His majestic power, having become a child, abandoning Himself in complete dependence to the loving care of a human Mother, in a certain sense draws our attention once again to her. The Light has wished to remind us of the window, because He is grateful to her and because He has infinitely tender and personal love for her (from Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation).

Published inReflections