The Betrothal of the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph

The Betrothal of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Saint Joseph

Feast ~ January 23



The Marriage of the Virgin ~ Pedro Ramirez ~ 1668



This is a rather traditional posing of this theme: Mary, Joseph and the High Priest at the moment of Joseph placing the ring on Mary's finger. The High Priest is not looking at the couple but at us. The dark sky is breaking up and it is the Holy Spirit (in the form of a dove) who seems to be the source of light in a double ringed aureole. The sphere of light has a kind of rainbow quality to it - symbol of a new beginning.

But what is most amazing is the two hands that reach around Joseph and Mary. At quick glance we might think they are the High Priest's hands, but he is already busy directing Joseph placing the ring. No, the hands are God's  hands reaching into the scene, seeming to push Joseph and Mary together. Have I ever felt God's hands reaching into my own personal world: opening up an opportunity, putting me back on my feet after some failure, guiding me along my life-way - This way; not that?

Our Father...

Ancient Jewish marriages happened in stages. First there was a betrothal in which the couple was blessed and gave their consent. They were truly married. But then, before they lived together as husband and wife there was a period apart from each other for up to a year. It was a year to learn from older married people how to be good Jewish spouses. Waiting. We're not good at it. We want to win millions of dollars in the space of a TV show. We expect to lose thirty pounds with a couple of pills in a weekend. But nothing in the spiritual life happens that quickly. Without waiting, we miss a great deal of life and a great deal of God.

Hail Mary!

The gospel tells us, "When Mary was engaged to Joseph, before their marriage, she was discovered to be pregnant - by the Holy Spirit." (Matthew1:18) Matthew makes no reference to the shocking law which said Mary would have been stoned to death for being pregnant and not yet married. We know that Mary's elder relative, Elizabeth, was happy about the pregnancy. But what about the other relatives, and the friends and neighbors? Wouldn't it sadden me to know that Mary was talked about in a slanderous or unkind way? A lot of people have a lot to say about everything. I'll pray that the Lord would put a guard on my lips, (Psalm141: 3) and that I would never cause hurt or damage by the things I say.

Hail Mary!

In their betrothal Mary and Joseph began their married lives together. Along with all the other saints, we say that they are holy. Holiness isn't a quantitative thing, like a product we pick off a shelf or collect. "We are created for holiness," Mother Teresa said. But like Mary and Joseph I must discover holiness for myself. Holiness means that I would live my own unique self as truthfully and as beautifully as Jesus lived his. It's that personal! Mary discovered and lived her holiness as wife and mother. Joseph lived his holiness as husband , guardian and protector. And  I am called to holiness too! Let's think about these things often.

Hail Mary!

Two young boys were taken into the doctor's office while their mother had an early sonogram. Watching the screen, in unison they said, "Oh, look at the baby!" We know what it is. And if a woman loses a pregnancy, the suffering that comes with loss can be profound. We all can't be mothers physically, but we can all nurture and support life. Tending a garden nurtures life. Carefully watching for children and animals while I drive nurtures life. Preparing and serving food nurtures life. Loving presence to the sick, the little ones, the elderly and persons with  special needs supports life.

Hail Mary!

The Gospels are clear: Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus. He is the guardian of the Virgin Mary; he is the protector of the Infant Jesus. And in choosing him for these roles God created a place of safety and peace - an environment of love for this Mother and Child. In their betrothal, Mary and Joseph were saying: I will help you to be good and to live a God-pleasing life. In a world of quitting and broken promises, can I image this kind of committed relationship? I promise to help you to be the best person you can be!

Hail Mary!

We're told in the gospels that Joseph was of the house or blood line of King David. This is quite a claim! Mary is marrying into a royal family, indeed, the most famous family in Israel's history. The royal family of David ruled Israel for centuries. But by the time of Jesus' birth, that era of glory had passed and there hadn't been a ruler from David's family in power for hundreds of years. So there was no inheritance, title, prestige, palace or power for Mary. No one could say that Mary was marrying Joseph for the money. Instead, Joseph was a laborer who worked with wood. They lived their lives simply and quietly in Nazareth, such a miserable people made jokes about it. Does it trouble me that God's gospel-ways are so small and insignificant?

Hail Mary!

Why would Mary accept betrothal to Joseph if she intended to remain a virgin? Maybe because virginity wasn't very do-able in bible times and Joseph's companionship would offer Mary protection and economic stability. Maybe the marriage was arranged. Perhaps God felt the Child needed to grow up in a family setting. Maybe God wanted to protect Mary's reputation. Maybe Joseph understood Mary's vow and other men wouldn't have been as protective. Indeed, maybe Joseph shared his own ideal of virginity with Mary. Some married couples live this way - though this may seem nearly impossible for us to understand who live in a commercialized world of television and movie sex-drama.

Hail Mary!

There are only a few gospel-sentences that tell us anything about the relationship of Mary and Joseph. It is quite clear however, that the relationship was one of committed love. Joseph was tempted to divorce Mary because he wasn't the biological father of her baby, but an angel told him what was happening and how he was needed. Then the drama unfolded and in the middle of the night Joseph, warned in a dream that the newborn's life was in danger, quickly moved his family to safety in Egypt. (Matthew 2: 14,15) And all of this was accomplished in silence. We never hear a word from Joseph. What a contrast with the world of chat rooms, Twittering, Tweeting, Texting, Skyping, interviews and online polls and endless talk show entertainment.

Hail Mary!

We defend abortion today by posing questions about the most irregular situations: rape and incest, teen age and out of wedlock pregnancies, baby deformities. One could say Mary's pregnancy was irregular - the baby conceived by the Holy Spirit. The child doesn't belong to Joseph biologically or genetically as he does not have a physical relationship with Mary, thought she is his wife. Does Joseph re-define fatherhood? He accepts the new life in Mary's womb by honorably remaining loyal to her. He takes her to Bethlehem to register his family, acknowledging  the pre-born life within his wife. He gives the child a name in David's bloodline and protects the child from the threats of Herod. It's hard to imagine a better father - a protector and defender of the child.

Hail Mary!

Joseph obeyed the word of the Angel and took Mary into his home as his wife. (Matthew 1:20-24) At the end of Saint John's Gospel, Jesus will speak to John from the cross, instructing him to take Mary into his home as Mother. (John 19:25-27)  In 1879 the Virgin Mary appeared with both Saint Joseph and Saint John at Knock, Ireland. When Mary is taken in, suspicion and greed decrease and the soul begins to warm and expand in joyful hospitality and generous love.

Hail Mary!

Glory be to the Father...



The Earlier Mysteries of the Blessed Virgin Mary ~ Her Presentation in the Temple

The Presentation of the Virgin Mary in the Temple

Feast - November 21 

 

There are more than a few things in the Bible (and the New Testament is no exception) wherein story elements offend or confound our own contemporary sensibilities - like Jesus releasing the demons and the herd of pigs goes over the bluff and into the sea and drowns. Bible writing is ancient and it's unrealistic to expect that all the facets of the story will make sense to our way of thinking and living.

Joachim and Anne had prayed long for a child. And when God answered their prayer in the birth of Mary, they were  so grateful, at age three they presented her to the priest in the Jerusalem temple to live! Some young people feel exiled in being sent to summer camp or a residential school, but Mary was sent away as little more than a toddler. But the story is told so we can understand how profoundly God-centered her life was. Let's look for what's beautiful and good in the story and not worry about "How could they...!"  which would be to look at the story too simply.

There's resurrection in this young Mary, isn't there? The going up the stairs is important! And she is not only dressed in white, but she seems to radiate light from within. And Joachim, her father, is holding an empty glass jar. Was the painter just showing off that he had the skill to paint a transparent object? Maybe it signals Mary being emptied for God's purposes. Or Mary's transparency of soul!

Our Father...

At her Presentation at age three, Mary climbed the temple steps. Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel has said in an interview, "I think every human being is almost by  definition capable of hatred. But what I've learned is that a child until the age of three is not. A child begins to hate at the age of three. In other words, the child has been taught how to hate." Hate is strong feelings against other people. With Mary, I want to climb inner temple steps: up and out of ignorant hatred, to insight, consciousness and understanding.

Hail Mary!

In the ancient biblical world, to be childless cause terrible suffering, sadness and shame. By the time God answered their prayer for a baby Joachim and Anne were already elderly. God's ways are often very strange to us. But even though they had waited so long for this child, the parents were quick to keep their promise to give the child to God's care - placing God first by allowing Mary to be brought up in the temple. And while this may be seemingly impossible for us understand, we might at least pause to consider how I might come a bit closer to that reality. What could it mean for me?

Hail Mary!

Old Zechariah received the three-year-old Mary who climbed the steps unassisted to to the Holy of Holies. It was right for Mary to climb the temple steps - she is higher than the angels. And when she reached the top, Zechariah took her by the hand, leaning on her as if she were a little staff who would lead him to the Holy. Then she went past the veil into the deepest and most secret place of the temple, where only the High Priest was allowed to enter once a year. Oh Lady, enter with your brightness, and light up the inner places where I am blinded by shadow and dark inclinations.

Hail Mary!

Presentation means to make a gift of something. At first glance it looks as if Joachim and Anne present Mary to Zechariah for life in the temple. But when Mary climbs the stairs and enters the holy place, we sense she is presenting herself to God and for God's purposes. Each day I can make a presentation of myself ~ like the glass jar Joachim holds, presenting myself to God, waiting eagerly to be filled.

Hail Mary!

There is something very beautiful about Mary that draws even non-believers to her. Do I notice that even as a little girl, she is fully dressed? That pleases us somehow. Maybe deep inside we feel shame that today in our country, everything is sold by sex - even soda and cars. Undressing is celebrated and expected. Our dancing is no longer elegant and disciplined but now sexualized in a primitive way. Women and girls are exploited for sex, and even the nakedness of little children is desired, sought after and paid for. Mary is modest, which means: not everything has to be shown and seen. It is a very beautiful virtue.

Hail Mary!

The Child Mary climbed the steps before the temple altar and on the third step, she danced, and all of Israel loved her. In many  traditional dances, there are patterns and rules to follow and someone leads while taking the hand of the other. Oh, let's take the hand of Mary who leads the joyful  dance that guides souls. And let's pray that she would lead us out of the abyss of self-loathing; out of the inner land of lies, dark and hateful thoughts - to the contemplation of God's face.

Hail Mary!

The Infant Mary was the fruit of Joachim's and Anne's long, fervent and persevering prayer. And there are people who say, "Oh I tried prayer; it doesn't work." Some people keep daily tabs on the performance of their stock portfolios and make adjustments to maximize their profits. Some people have never missed an episode of a favorite TV series. Some people people spend countless hours talking on the phone everyday with the same friends. But prayer? "Oh I tried that; it doesn't work!" Oh heaven, how we use and abuse you!

Hail Mary!

There is a book for children about the years in which Mary lived in the temple as a young girl: Mary was blessed by God with all goodness. She became very strong in her faith. She was humble, kind, helpful and friendly to everyone. She offended no one, nor spoke ugly words. She never allowed unclean thoughts to enter her heart. And so she grew in wisdom and grace blessed by God. I want to be this alive too: growing in wisdom and grace. 

Hail Mary!

Mary was presented to God in the temple at age three. And at Mass there is the presentation of the bread and wine to be transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ. There is nothing in our culture any more which invites transformation - only the transformation of how much weight I can lose with these pills over a weekend, or whose face can be transformed most successfully by surgery. But the best transformation is from hatred to kindness, justice, mercy and compassion. And when I have undergone that transformation, then I am free. But it begins with an oblation: a conscious offering of myself to God, who wants so much to grow-me-up in goodness.

Hail Mary!

We know almost nothing of the twelve years which the young Mary lived while in the temple. She lived with other girls. Widows helped to care for her. We can imagine Mary quite alone with God. Her life was lived with no publicity. God was building a living temple in which Jesus the Savior would live. God is heard in silence. But what did the young Mary hear? Surely God's law which says: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with your whole mind." (Matthew 22:37,38)

Hail Mary!

Glory be to the Father...

The Earlier Mysteries of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Her Holy Name

The Most Holy Name of Mary

Feast ~ September 12

The name itself is a prayer.

Our Father...

In the ancient biblical world newborns died so frequently that they were not named for over a week...a little test of time. And so, as Jesus was given his name on the 8th day following his birth, so was Mary. When we are born, we enter a dangerous and risky world. But Mary survived and was named. Welcome Mary!

Hail Mary!

It was the Christians of Spain who first started celebrating Mary's Name in the early 1500's. And in 1688 the global Church joined in an act of thanksgiving to her for the victory of John Sobieski, King of Poland, over the Turkish invaders who were besieging Poland and threatening the West. But of course the real warfare of Christians is interior - the real enemies being: fear, self-pity, self-deception, self-preoccupation, self-destruction, ingratitude, arrogance. When I"m feeling besieged, afflicted, assaulted, oppressed - from a deep inner place, call our their holy names: Jesus! Mary!

Hail Mary!

But while Mary is given her Hebrew name, Miryam, it's deeper than just a name. We're named, called or chosen for something more. This is so for everything that God has made. An old monk says that in praying about this, we need to pray not so much for clarity but for courage - for the courage to step out, to make myself available for what's challenging and new. The stars understand. The Prophet Baruch writes: "The stars at their posts shine and rejoice and when God calls them, they answer,  'Here we are!' shining with joy for their Maker."  (Baruch3:34-35) And Mary will grow and say to the angel, "I am the Lord's servant, let it be done to me as you have said." (Luke 1:38)

Hail Mary!

If you follow her, you will never go astray.

If you pray to her, you will never need to despair.

If you keep her in mind you will never fall.

If she leads you, you will never be weary.

If she help you, you will reach heaven's home safe at the last.

And so you will show in yourself how right it is to say:

"And the Virgin's name was Mary!"

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

Hail Mary!

When parents name a child they're making the baby their own. And when Christians take Mary as their own, she is called Magistra Nostra - Our Teacher. But how is this, that an infant girl would teach us? She teaches us that our cries are not lost to God. That as the baby's cries are inarticulate and we must guess their meaning, God knows. I cry in joy that I have been granted some undeserved forgiveness or that some lovely gift has been given to me. Or my cries can say, yet again, I have made a mess of things, or that I am suffering a terrible loneliness or discomfort of spirit. Attend to me, Lord! I am your child, no less than Mary!

Hail Mary!

The little girl is given the Hebrew name Miryam: a strange name to give a girl as it means rebellion. Why then? In Mary and her Son, God is drawing near to us, not rejecting or rebelling against us. Mary is God's associate, as I might be as well - rebelling against the forces that want me living  in an inner collapse: cynical, perpetually disappointed, without conscience, the wounds of the past festering. Mary lived in the tough, bullying world of empire. Saint Paul writes: "We are up against the unseen power that controls this dark world, and spiritual agents from the very headquarters of evil." (Ephesians 6:10ff)

Hail Mary!

After walking from slavery in Egypt through the parted Red Sea, the Hebrew people grew hungry and complained loudly to Moses. And God took care of the problem at once. "In the morning dew lay all about the camp and when the dew evaporated there on the surface of the desert were fine flakes like hoarfrost on the ground." (Exodus 16:13,14) Saint Germanus calls Mary the cloud that sprinkles over us Jesus, the divine spiritual dew. Surely we can feel the dryness of souls today: the suffering and sadness which weighs down on people, the paralyzing fear and feeling of hopelessness. Praise Mary, the moisture-laden cloud!

Hail Mary!

Maggie Doyne is a young woman from New Jersey who went backpacking in Asia after her high school graduation. While in Nepal she met dozens of abandoned and orphaned children wandering in cities and remote areas. She bought an acre of land and built an orphanage for the little girls who were no longer useful to the sex trade and for the damaged boys too weak to fight any longer as child-soldiers. It's a dirty world. But what's this? That Mary is called Spouse of God? That in Mary, God, bridegroom-like, loves this muddied world and enters into our condition so deeply at Bethlehem, to forgive the world's sins and to teach us how to love people.

Hail Mary!

Known and loved, Joachim and Anne named their little girl. But I might consider that there are so many children who begin their lives un-named, like the newborn who is left under a bridge, or in a heap of garbage. There are some religious sisters who have a kind of night drop box where an infant can be left, trusting the nuns will provide and take care. And at the other end of life, there are those who are un-identified: those un-named in wars or by disasters, or who become unknowns in  brutal institutions. God knows the number of the stars and calls each one by name, Psalm 147 tells us. How much more then, each of us!

Hail Mary!

We have the expression, "Making a name for yourself." Sometimes that sounds a little negative, as if the name has been gotten by some illegal or unworthy behavior. In Genesis the people set out to build a city with a tower that would touch the heavens and they say, "Let us make a name for ourselves."  But  Mary has a name that is revered all over the earth. There are more references to Mary in the Quran of Islam than in the New Testament. When naming the best woman who ever lived, Mohammad named Mary. And when the mother of Mary gave birth to her infant daughter she prayed: "O my Lord! I have delivered a female child...and I have named her Maryam and I seek refuge with You for her and for her offspring from Satan, the outcast." (Quran 3:35-36) We might draw upon this common love as a way to peace: humbly asking for, and granting forgiveness for the offenses of the past and celebrating the Name of Maryam.

Hail Mary!

Glory be to the Father...

The Earlier Mysteries of the Blessed Virgin Mary ~ Her Nativity

The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Feast ~ September 8

The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

THIS IS A MOSAIC FROM THE GREAT CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA in Trastevere in Rome. It is part of a marvelous cycle of mosaics by Pietro Cavallini, called The Life of the Virgin. Here we see Saint Anne resting after she has given birth to her new daughter. Women-friends bring her room service, while others prepare the bath for the new baby. One pours water and the other tests the temperature of the bath water. It's so wonderfully human. A lovely decorated curtain is slightly open as women are coming and going. But we might also see in this, that the veil between heaven and earth is being pulled back, as God brings to birth the one whose womb will be heaven on earth for God's presence among us in Jesus Christ.

Our Father...

God is taking care of everything. The Mother of Jesus the Savior is born. Heaven opens to us wider than ever. In Mary's birth there is a new beginning with God. And this heavenly opening is over me too! In accepting the Mother, who offers the world the Divine Son, there is a new beginning of goodness for me. It is as if I am coming out of darkness into light, after perhaps a very long and deep sleep. The priest-poet Gerard Manly Hopkins, likens Mary to the air we breathe. She is an atmosphere of love surrounding Jesus - of humility, fidelity and a pure heart.

Hail Mary!

The nous is the eye of the soul, our inner man; inner woman. It is the purest part of the soul, its highest attention. Some people speculate that the nous is infused in us at conception. Others say we receive it at birth. Seemingly small matter perhaps, but it is the source of our awaking to God; our remembering God. Mary is born, and at once she is awake to God's desires, designs, purposes and love. And I am born too! I sing with Mary the words of the Prophet Isaiah: With delight I rejoice in the Lord, (Isaiah 58:14)

Hail Mary!

The Irish poet, William Butler Yeats wrote:

Things fall apart; the centre will not hold,

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

are full of passionate intensity.

But God's response to our trauma is not to abandon us in a fit of angry regret. Rather, God comes to be with us in humility. First there is Mary, the little girl full of grace and then most  perfectly, her Son, Jesus. Perhaps things appear at times to be so dark that this heavenly visitation seems not to be enough. But that's why it's called faith. However slowly, God knows what he's doing and is working out his intentions and purposes.

Hail Mary!

For the Feast of Mary's Nativity the Church reads the record of the ancestry of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew. (Matthew 1:1-17) It is a long list of names: patriarchs and prophets, kings and warriors, saints and sinners. It is a mysterious list of names which draws to a close with Jacob being the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. Father Mark wrote about this: "The long list is transformed by the birth of Mary. The ancestors of Christ standing on tiptoe to see the joy that comes to them from afar. With the birth of Mary they begin to rejoice ahead of time."

Hail Mary!

Lesley Parrott is the mother of Alison, an eleven year old girl who was abducted off a train, brutalized and found dead two days later. The mother knew that if the details of the girl's death were made known there would be a great public outcry for the murderer to be executed. Instead she made it known that she didn't believe in capital punishment before her daughter's death and that the murder did not change her thinking. She said, "We're here to make the good parts of the world come true."  I consider Mary's birth and my own, contemplating how I might live, so to help the good parts of the world come true.

Hail Mary!

The sin of Adam and Eve (the world's disease or original sin) isn't disobedience or even pride, but power. The serpent convinced the woman to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree by saying to her, "No! You will not die! God knows in fact that the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods." (Genesis 3:5) But in the birth of Mary, we are always beginning again: beginning again in humility, in littleness, in vulnerability. From her crib, she teaches us who we are: God's children, crying out from the inner place of our hunger, anxiety and need.

Hail Mary!

And in the power-quest, intimacy with God was lost. We were expelled and banished from the garden. The devil is a spoiler. But it seems that God knew all along that we would not be able to hold up our end and that we would find ourselves far away, lost in the distant place of shame. And so God always had in mind that in love he would come to search for what had been lost to him. And this searching-call for us started in the cries of the Infant Mary.

Hail Mary!

Babies make wonderful sounds. The sounds of the Infant Mary mean happiness for the world - God's voice in Jesus is near. We will hear Jesus cry at Bethlehem. He'll speak his first words at Nazareth and read the scriptures in the synagogue. In the Jerusalem temple he'll ask questions of the teachers. In Galilee and Judea he'll teach us. In the Upper Room and the Garden of Gethsemane we'll hear him pray. From the Cross at Calvary he'll say, "Father forgive them," (Luke 23:34) and on the Easter-morning beach he'll ask Peter, "Do you love me?" (John 21:17). The cries and sounds of the newborn Mary announce all of this!

Hail Mary!

If the enormity of your sins troubles you,

if the foulness of your conscience confounds you,

if the dread of judgment appalls you,

if you begin to slip into the depths of sadness

into the pit of despair,

think of Mary.

In danger, in difficulty, or in doubt,

call on Mary.

Let her not be away from your mouth

or from your heart.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux


Hail Mary!

Babies are unifiers as people instinctively gather around to enjoy them. The child's weakness calls us out of ourselves, beyond our status, prestige, divisions, hierarchy, titles and elitism. All of this is seen as useless and falls away in the baby's presence. At the birth of the Infant Mary all of heaven watches as she plays. The eyes of God take delight in her. My eyes too! I imagine myself at her crib - standing around and alongside all the people with whom there is pain and troubling divisions.

Hail Mary!

Glory be to the Father...

The Earlier Mysteries of the Blessed Virgin Mary ~ Her Conception

SOME YEARS AGO, Father Mark organized for our prayer what he has called the mysteries of  The Early Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We discover these events of Mary's early life in the extra-biblical Gospel of Saint James which dates back to the first half of the 2nd century.


Italians speak warmly of Maria Bambina: the Infant Mary, the Child Mary. What a lovely thought! Could it be the beauty of the young Mary that the Canticle of the Hebrew Scriptures is contemplating when it is written:  

"O my dove, let me see your face

let me hear your voice;

for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely."

Canticle 2:14

With a meditation between each Hail Mary and the little prayer itself offered as a kind of rose-gift, the rosary becomes a sensory offering to the Mother of Jesus, who is also Mother to each of us in spiritual things. Perhaps then I can image these Earlier Mysteries of the Blessed Virgin Mary with a pink rose.


Pray that in a hard world, there can still be found within each of us a young and innocent place that delights in giving flowers as a gift - especially flowers to a particularly lovely little girl. Or has the world become too cynical for that?

The Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

in the Womb of Her Mother, Saint Anne

Feast ~ December 8



The Meeting of Joachim and Anne at the Golden Gate

Icons never show carnal things - even nakedness is suffused with grace. Here Joachim and Anne, who so longed for a child, are meeting by the temple in Jerusalem. The city is beautiful - as if the Heavenly Jerusalem has already come down and merged with the earthly. Their bed is behind the elderly embracing couple. This little girl will be conceived as babies are normally conceived. Anne seems to dance. Can you feel their joy?

Our Father...

From the 700's Christians have celebrated a feast day happily recalling Mary's conception in the womb of Saint Anne. This is Mary's Immaculate Conception. But what does this mean? In Jesus Christ, God has  come to be with us in a human body. And God has gone to a great deal of trouble to get the world ready for that visit. From the start, in her own mother's womb, Mary was holy: she never wrecked the beautiful idea God had created for her to be.

Hail Mary!

And God has created a beautiful idea for me to be as well. This idea was conceived in the heart and mind of God. I'm supposed to be an immaculate conception too. Maybe foolishness and even terrible choices have seemingly spoiled things. But God is good and won't allow me to be lost to any of that. God will be born of Mary at Bethlehem, and Jesus will show me again and again, that when God loves, he loves by forgiving. God speaks to us in the psalms: "Even though your sins be scarlet, I will make them white as snow." This is the most hopeful thing most of us will ever hear.

Hail Mary!

Mary is conceived in the womb of her mother, Anne. Later, the Angel Gabriel will tell Mary that her own child, Jesus, will be called Emmanuel. Perhaps this is a kind of nick-name which means, God is with us. And so Mary's womb will be like a heaven on earth. God's plan and dream, that we would belong only to God, is starting to come true. The demons shake and run for cover as they realize in Mary's Conception that their days are numbered.

Hail Mary!

In her great song of praise, Mary sings, "All generations will call me blessed," (Luke 1:46-55). If nothing else on this earth is true, this is: that for over 2000 years each generation has called Mary blessed. And with Mary, I want to recount the marvels and wonders God has done for me. What's that? That God has called me from non-being into life. That God has a purpose and plan for my life. That I have a capacity to give and receive love. That as I live on this earth I can discover God's presence and beauty - God's goodness, truth and joy!

Hail Mary!

Human persons are often filled with good desire: to be with family and friends, to enjoy celebrations, to succeed at school, work or sports. But there is a shadow side to desire too: the desire for power over people, the desire to possess people sexually, the seemingly endless desire for things. Joachim and Anne, Mary's parents, always desired their child as a blessing from God. Our death-embracing country has forgotten this simple truth: that children are a gift from God. Let's pray that every baby in the womb would be desired, protected and welcomed as a gift.

Hail Mary!

  

The Latin is very beautiful: Tota pulchra es, Maria:et macula originalis non est in te. You are all fair, O Mary, and in you there is no stain of original sin. This means that Mary was free of the passions which cause us to forget God. I must be spiritually wide-awake and on the look-out if I am to participate in this inner freedom which Mary enjoyed. For the would-be disciple of Jesus, this will require some kind of withdrawal from the world, even though I must still live in it. Any thoughts?

Hail Mary!

Oh, if you know yourself to be here

not so much walking upon firm ground

but battered to and fro by the

gales of this life's ocean,

if you would not be

overwhelmed by the storm,

keep your eyes fixed upon this

star's clear shining.

If the hurricane of temptation rise against you

or you are running upon the rocks of trouble,

look to the star;

call on Mary.

If the waves of pride, or ambition, or slander,

or envy toss you,

look to the star;

call on Mary.

If the winds of anger or greed

or the pull of the flesh beats

against the little boat of your soul;

look to Mary.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

Hail Mary!

Mary is conceived to be the Mother of the Messiah. But what's Messiah? The Messiah is the long awaited great king, greater even than King David and King Solomon. He would be the one who would rescue and liberate God's people and set them up in freedom from political oppression, abuse and servitude. But Jesus is the Messiah in a bigger, spiritual sense. He wants me freed of hatred, dishonesty, death-dealing addictions and slavery to fear and imaginings. I welcome the Mother of the Messiah-Son.

Hail Mary!

 

When the Church celebrates Mary's Conception in her mother's womb, oddly enough, the gospel reading for the Mass that day is of Jesus' Conception, announced by the angel who greeted Mary: Hail full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women, (Luke 1:26ff). Oh, I want to make my own this angel-greeting of Mary: Hail, full of God's intentions, shared life, strength and love! And I want to be a mother of Christ too - conceiving and birthing him spiritually in some new way for this world, which while a paradise, is also a valley of tears.

Hail Mary!

 

On the feast of Mary's Conception the Church sings: Draw us, O Immaculate Virgin; we will run after you in the loveliness of your ointment, (Canticle 1:3) Here we are - running - like playful children, after Mary, who gathers us. And we are pleased with her whose fragrance is spiritually alluring: the fragrance of her delighting in God; the fragrance of her becoming fruitful in God's Word; the fragrance of her faithfulness to Jesus; the fragrance of her joy which chases away fear, suspicion and coldness of heart.

Hail Mary! 

Glory be to the Father...