Caritas Christi Urget Nos

Category: Blessed Virgin Mary

  • Solemnity of the Annunciation

    Solemnity of the Annunciation

    Today's Readings | Today's Feast

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    "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
    May it be done to me according to your word."

    Today, we celebrate one of the most critical feasts in all of Christian history. In fact, it might be the critical feast. Without the Annunciation, there could never have been a Christmas. Without the Annunciation, there never could have been a Good Friday or an Easter. The faithfulness of Mary, even as a very young girl, is such an inspirational event. Nobody had ever given birth to God before, so she obviously had no frame of reference, yet, she is very firm in her fiat – her decision to exercise her faith: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word."

    We too are called to that same kind of faith, because surely the glory of God is aching to be born in all of us. We are called to bring Christ's presence to every corner of our world, every place where we are. The prospects of that can be scary, because we too don't know what the implications of God's work in us will be. We may be called upon to feed the hungry, or clothe the naked, or visit the sick, or shelter the homeless, or any of the other corporal works of mercy. But do we have those resources? Maybe not, but we are called to be Christ in those situations anyway. We might respond as Mary did at first: "How can this be?" But ultimately, we must respond that we are the Lord's handmaids an accept the call with great faith.

    Mary is our patron whenever we feel overwhelmed by the task. May we rely on her intercession to guide us through the dark pathways of the unknown. May we look to her for an example of faith. May we follow her great example and let the Lord be born in us too, so that our Incarnate Lord can be made manifest in our world yet again. May we, like Mary, cry out in faith, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word."

  • Mary, the Mother of God

    Mary, the Mother of God

    Today’s readings | Today’s Solemnity

    And Mary kept all these things,
    reflecting on them in her heart.

    Mary Mother of GodLuke notes all throughout Jesus’ young life that Mary kept the events of Jesus’ life and reflected on them in her heart. Just yesterday, on the feast of the Holy Family, after finding Jesus in the temple, Mary kept that incident for later reflection, since neither she nor Joseph understood it at the moment. It’s kind of like she was keeping a scrapbook of memories in her heart, and I found myself wishing these past few days, that I could take a look at that scrapbook. She had a first-hand view of how Jesus grew in wisdom and grace, as Luke told us yesterday, and her perspective of God’s work in the life of her family had to be incredible.

    Mary’s reflection on the life of Jesus is a model for us. Keeping those events close to her and reflecting on them later is her way of reflecting on the Word of God. She did not understand at first – who could blame her? – but she didn’t just live through the moment and move on. She went back to those events later in her life – after the death and resurrection of Jesus – and came to a new understanding guided by the Holy Spirit. And thank God she did that. It’s probably her later reflection on those events that made the early Church Evangelist able to record them and pass them on to us.

    We too, must reflect on the Word of God. We must put ourselves in the presence of the Story, whether we understand it or not. If we’re confused by Scripture, we have Mary as our patron to help us ponder that Word and come to understand it, guided as we are by the Holy Spirit. But we also have her encouragement to keep those Scriptures in the scrapbook of our hearts, to keep coming back to them. That’s the only way the Spirit can work on us and help us to come to new and more beautiful understandings of the Word of God.

    If we would make a resolution for this new year, maybe it could be to follow Mary’s example. Maybe we could set aside some time on a regular basis – even if just once a week – to put ourselves in the presence of the Word of God. And not just here at Mass, although that’s a good start. But maybe in private prayer or a more organized Bible Study like CREEDS. IF we regularly open ourselves up to the Word of God, maybe we too could come to new and more beautiful understandings of the Scriptures; and a closer and more beautiful relationship with Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word of God.

    Mary, mother of God the Word, help us to understand the Word as you did.

    Pray for us, O holy Mother of God:
    That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

  • The Immaculate Conception of Mary

    The Immaculate Conception of Mary

    [Mass for the school children.]

    Today’s readings | Today’s feast (more)

    Immaculate ConceptionI know that I could ask you all what holiday we are getting ready to celebrate and you’d all tell me… But what do we call the season of the Church year that we are in that helps us get ready for Christmas? That’s right, Advent. Advent is a time that reminds us that God’s promises to us will always be fulfilled.

    Advent is a time that we can see how dark our world is. Since it comes in winter, the days are “shorter:” there is less daylight and sunshine than we have in the summer. The days are also colder. This makes us think about how dark and cold our world can sometimes be. When we see war and crime and people hating one another on the news, the world looks darker. And even closer to home, when we hurt our family or friends or don’t act the way we should in school or in Church, our hearts can look darker and colder.

    But the Good News is that God has promised that none of this has to stay that way. God has also promised that we don’t have to worry about changing it all on our own, because well, we can’t. God has promised us a Savior: Jesus Christ, who would come to our world and lead us back to the warmth and light of God’s presence, where we were always supposed to be in the first place. During Advent, we are waiting for God’s promise of a Savior.

    And there’s still more Good News. During Advent, God gives us some special people to help us in our waiting. Those people remind us of God’s promises and direct us back to thinking about how much God loves us. One of those special people is the Blessed Virgin Mary, and today we celebrate her feast day.

    Today we remember that Mary was always special. In order to be the Mother of Jesus, the Mother of God, she would have to have been a very good person. Today we celebrate that God made her special even before she was born; God made her special all the way back to the very beginning. Because of that, she was chosen to be Jesus’ mother, the one who would give birth to him and raise him as a child.

    And we know how special Mary was as a mother. Even when she had no idea how she could become the Mother of God, she said, “I am the Lord’s servant! Let it happen as you have said.” She gave birth to Jesus in a very lonely place. She raised him and helped him to become a strong and wise man. She followed him as a disciple and stood by him, even when he was nailed to the cross and died for all of our sins. After he rose from the dead, she stayed with the first Christians and helped to spread the Word about her son. Finally, at the end of her life, Jesus took her up body and soul into heaven, because he would not let death touch someone who was so special to him.

    And the Good News doesn’t stop there. Because Mary was so special to God, she shows us how special we are to God. As we celebrate God’s love for Mary today, we can also celebrate his love for us. Mary got to hold her Savior – the One God always promised us – in her own arms. When those of us who are old enough come to Communion today, we will be able to hold our Savior – the one God always promised us – in the palm of our hand. Mary’s life was brightened when Jesus was born. Our lives will be brightened too, this Christmas time, and every time when we make room in our hearts for Jesus.

    Winter can be a dark and cold time, and we can see lots of darkness in our world and feel coldness in our hearts. But Advent always reminds us, with the help of special people like Mary, that God will always keep his promises. God promised Mary that she would be the mother of Jesus because by the power of God, she was special. God promised us a Savior and he sent us his only Son. God promises all of us that we too can be his special people, and he will fulfill that promise just like all the others.

    Today, we pray with Mary’s help, “Come, Lord Jesus!”

  • The Presentation of Mary

    The Presentation of Mary

    Today's feast | Today's readings: Zechariah 2:14-17, Luke 1:46-55, Matthew 12:46-50

    You know, I'm not sure how my mother would react to my not acknowledging her presence like that, but I know it wouldn't be good! But, lest we impute the wrong motives to our Savior, we should understand that He was well aware of Mary's contribution to the will of God. St. Augustine reminds us that Mary was extremely obedient to God's will and singularly cooperative with God's plan of salvation. He says: "Indeed the blessed Mary certainly did the Father's will, and so it was for her a greater thing to have been Christ's disciple that to have been his mother, and she was more blessed in her discipleship than in her motherhood."

    Jesus was holding up Mary as an example of discipleship to all of us. Our constant efforts and prayers should be directed at being as open to the will of God as she was. By her fiat, saying yes to God through the angel Gabriel, Mary opened the world up to the possibility of salvation through Jesus Christ.

    The feast of the Presentation of Mary goes back to around the sixth century in the Eastern Church. It appeared in the Latin Church around the eleventh century and was made a feast of the Universal Church in the sixteenth century. This feast is not historical, but is based on a tradition from the early church of Mary having been presented in the Temple to God by Joachim and Anne when she was around three years old. This was to fulfill a promise made to God when Anne was childless. The tradition continues the theme which begins at Mary's Immaculate Conception, continues through the celebration of her birth, and through the Presentation we celebrate today. This tradition teaches us that Mary's destiny to fulfill God's will began before she was born and continued through her early childhood.

    We call on the intercession of Mary our Mother today, that she would guide us to lives open to the will of God, and that she would lead us always to proclaim the greatness of the Lord in soul and in spirit.

    Pray for us, O holy Mother of God;
    That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.