Preparation for Total Consecration

WEEK 3:
KNOWLEDGE OF OUR LADY

Our Lady is a superb person to help us come alive to what it means to be baptised. Graced as she is by the Holy Spirit, always reflecting the glory of God on the face of Christ, her authentic living of the Gospel can only help us too if we open ourselves to what she now sees.

Seventh Day Lk. 13:20, 21

ALIVE AND DYNAMIC

Parable.To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.

Reflection.Consider our Lady in the light of that parable. Again, the detail Jesus may have seen at home, except that the quantity of flour mentioned might have fed the village, not just the family! With the addition of the necessary leaven or yeast, flour has such potential.

Jesus did not arrive cellophane-wrapped from heaven. First, God invited human personal co-operation: 'The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth' (Lk. 1:26). There in the person of Mary, God's Spirit was met by a whole-hearted response in faith. Her subsequent motherhood was to change the world.

Mary brought her faith and love to the leaven of the indwelling Spirit of God, and so gave birth to a new creation in her Son. Here was the genius and dynamic of the kingdom of God that was to extend world-wide.

We tend to notice the high-profile, insistent beat, or whatever is fashionable. Mary, on the other hand, is shown in the Gospels as listening always - to the angel, the magi, Simeon, shepherds, Elizabeth, and her Son - and pondering on what she heard 'in her heart'. So her love and faith would mix with God's will in the events of daily life.

The dynamic, verve, spirit and influence she brought then and since to the kingdom of her Son is beyond calculation. Her presence is with us still. Faithful, feminine, maternal, her creative being fosters life in those open to her influence. So many who first came to see our Lady in faith have stayed, and blessed the day they met her.

Prayer.Lord Jesus, the woman in the parable prepared bread to feed many. Add yeast to the flour and so many benefit. Your Gospel has the same leavening, transforming power. It can radically change any circumstance. If we want your Gospel to nourish those you mean it for, we must mix with people, to give as well as receive.

May Your Mother, who nourished so many in making your Gospel come alive, enliven and encourage us too.

Montfort.'If Mary, the Tree of Life, is well cultivated in our souls by fidelity to this devotion, she will in due time bring forth her fruit ... Jesus' (TD 217).