BLESSED ARE YOU AMONG WOMEN (Luke 1, 42)

A woman near to us, like us

Mary!

A married woman who lived and shared the love of a man

in the bosom of a home

Mary!

A believer who knew, as we know, how hard it is to believe

but who when the moment came, told God “yes” without hesitation.

Mary!

A mother who, like all mothers,

worried when the child had caught cold or when the adolescent failed to return home at the expected hour

Mary!

A mother who accepted not being the only or the first

in the heart of her son.

Mary!

A brave woman who accompanied this abused and ill-treated son of hers to the foot of the Cross.

Mary!

Intimate of the Holy Spirit from her conception, waiting and praying with the apostles for the prodigious manifestation of this Holy Spirit the day of Pentecost.

Mary!

Ceaselessly evoked in the liturgy because she knows the secrets

and the way of the heart of God.

Mary!

Invoked ceaselessly by millions of Christians

because every one of them knows her to be the best advocate

for the humble and for the humiliated.

Mary!

She lives body and soul, fully and eternally, in the presence of God, witnessing the glory promised by God for all men.

MARIA…AVE MARIA.

Rev. Eusebe-H. Menard