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The Interior Life

30/12/2022

A Reflection on the Gospel for Sunday, January 1st, 2023:
The Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God

Luke
2.16-21

The shepherds went with haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them.

But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the Angel before he was conceived in the womb.

January 1st has the distinction of being the day the Roman Catholic Church celebrates the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Quite an impressive title – one of many we assign to Mary. We have a lot of theology, teaching, and dogma around Mary, a woman who is mentioned more in the Qur’an than she is in the Bible.

What we do see of Mary in the Bible is rich and meaningful, but it’s more snapshots rather than a documentary. She receives the annunciation. She bursts out in the celebratory song of the Magnificat. She gives birth after a perilous journey. She loses Him during a journey to Jerusalem. She asks Him to turn water into wine at a wedding. She walks alongside Him and waits in agony at the foot of the Cross.

Every part of Mary’s story is told entirely in the context of Jesus. Her story starts out big – the virgin Mother of God – and then we hear only bits and pieces. For the Mother of God (and Mother of the King), the outside of her life is essentially unchanged. She has no earthly castle or crown. She gets no earthly acclaim. Her faithfulness is seen by Heaven and not by men.

The Gospel for this Sunday reminds us of her rich interior life. After all of the drama leading up to this moment, she is silent, reflecting on the wonders happening around her. She doesn’t make a fuss, even though she has just given birth. She takes the amazement of the shepherds and later the three kings, and assumes no glory for herself. She treasures the moment in her heart, and does not grasp for attention.

Mary is the model of the perfect Christian. She gave everything without remainder to Jesus, and over the course of the Gospel she asks only for things that will benefit others. She is for Him and for others. I can but imagine how her heart overflowed with the Holy Spirit, infused with grace and love. It is through her “yes” that she found herself in that moment and through all that followed.

But her “yes” wasn’t a one-time thing. Her “yes” was an everyday acceptance of the fullness of the Holy Spirit in her very being. What a beautiful example she is, showing us that we should always seek God’s will and not ours, in good times and bad – and that, when we have God in us, anything is possible.

Stephanie Potter

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Chosen Moments

29/12/2022

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A Reflection on the Second Reading for Sunday, January 1st, 2023:
The Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God

Galatians
4:4-7

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.

St. Paul proclaims that Christ came into the world in “the fullness of time.” Jesus’ arrival was purposefully positioned, with everything in place for his salvific plan to unfold as God desired. Not only were the environment, culture, and circumstances ready to enable the Gospel to spread, but God also made Mary for that chosen moment in history and allowed her the freedom and opportunity to cooperate in His plan and become the Mother of God.

Last winter, my husband and I learned that we were expecting, and in early autumn of this year I gave birth to our first child. I am immensely grateful for our son’s safe delivery, his continued health, and the simple joy of his presence. Some friends and family have expressed that the timing of his arrival was especially meaningful because he became a source of laughter and hope amid suffering.

Even with these affirmations, there are moments where I am tempted to evaluate my life and judge the timing of my motherhood journey through a worldly lens. I absolutely love my little boy, and yet I have had intrusive thoughts when I compare my place in life with that of others. I am embarrassed to admit that I have wasted time worrying, feeling “behind,” and questioning, “Should I have had my first child sooner?” I have wished that I could shift major events in my young adult life (education, marriage, career, motherhood) so that they’d happened on an earlier timeline. These thoughts and feelings frustrate me. I wouldn’t want to evaluate other’s lives based on the criteria I use yet, in moments of weakness, I become self-critical and act as if I’ve been alone and unguided in discernment.

When my heart is insecure about my age, future fertility, or other facets of my being, I know I need to ask for forgiveness and for the Holy Spirit to remind me of God’s Truth. In His love and mercy He has never abandoned me, and whenever I turn back to Him I always find Him affirming my value based on who I am in Him. I trust and believe that God chose my son to be born in this moment, and for me to receive the gift and responsibility of being his mother. God’s timing may be mysterious, and His lens out of my sight, but I have faith that His love has called this child into the world now – with purpose and for His glory.

I repent for forgetting the good God has gifted me in my times of waiting and wanting, and I thank and praise Him for how he has stretched my heart over these years to prepare me to receive my beautiful son at this precise time. God, grant each of us a better understanding of Your “fullness of time” in our lives, and help us to surrender our hearts to You with childlike trust and confidence. Amen.

Kendra L.

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Can We Bless God?

28/12/2022

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A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, January 1st, 2023:
The Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God

Psalm 67

R. May God be gracious to us and bless us.

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations.

R. May God be gracious to us and bless us.

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.

R. May God be gracious to us and bless us.

The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us. May God continue to bless us; let all the ends of the earth revere him.

R. May God be gracious to us and bless us.

The psalm for this Sunday prays, “May God be gracious and bless us.” In preparation for this reflection, I rolled that around in my mind, considering the ways God has blessed and continues to bless my life, and reminding myself of how important it is for me to thank God for these blessings — not because I need to butter up God to keep the blessings flowing but because practising gratitude in this way improves me. It transforms me. It reminds me that I need God and that He gives me all I need; I am the beloved, recipient of all good things poured out from the heart of a devoted, divine Parent. Most of us are clear that, when we ask God for His blessing, God is the generous giver and we are the needy receivers.

Then, out of the blue, into my mind there popped a question whose answer was less clear to me: what does it mean for me to give God my blessing? What does it mean in Psalm 34, for example, when we pray, “I will bless the Lord”? Does this mean that we switch places with God so that we are the generous givers and God is the needy receiver? I could see that this didn’t add up, and yet the question remained: How should I bless Him?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is handy for answering these head-scratching conundrums, so I had a browse through the online Catechism. Right off the top, in the Prologue, it says, “[God is] infinitely perfect and blessed in himself.” Ah, just as I thought: God doesn’t need us to bless Him. God has everything He needs in Himself. Hmm.

Then I thought, let’s have a look at what “bless” means — and there was the answer, right under my nose. “Bless” means to praise and glorify, to speak of with approval, to call holy. It is with my praise that I give God my blessing.

As a cradle Catholic I have been singing hymns about “blessing” the Lord for most of my life, but I wasn’t paying attention to the meaning behind the words. I saw I + bless + God, equated it with God + blesses + me, and simply got on with my singing. I was confused because we use the same word — bless — but the meaning is different, depending on whether I’m blessing God or God is blessing me. I’m grateful that I finally got that straight.

Here’s what excites me: it’s not because I finally understand that “bless” means “praise” and so now I can finally get on with the job of praising the Lord, and speaking of the Lord with approval, and calling the Lord holy. I’d been having a go at that already. What excites me is the insight that, when God blesses me, my response is to praise Him. This is our back and forth, our conversation. Even in the most simple and familiar words, God has revealed to me a new way to converse with Him in a language of love and gratitude. Lord, you give me all of Your blessings, and I give You all of my praise.

Donna Davis

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Love's Peace

27/12/2022

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A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, January 1st, 2023:
The Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God

Numbers
6:22-27

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: "Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, 'Thus you shall bless the Israelites: You shall say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. So they shall put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them."

These translations, variations, and synonyms helped to bring to life for me this beautiful prayer of blessing given by a loving Father – God – to Moses and Aaron and to the people of Israel.

The Lord bless you and keep you.
May Love favour you and protect you.

The Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you.
May Love’s angelic face turn toward you, and be kind and merciful to you.

The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.
May the gaze of Love be upon you and give you completeness, soundness and contentment.

I’ve heard that we especially ought to pray this blessing over our children, as they grow and encounter the difficulties of life, so that they may know deep in their hearts that they are protected and held in peace by Love itself.

Years ago, if someone had told me that God wanted to bless me, I would likely have been skeptical or even downright dismissive of that as pure sentimentality, considering that my own father had died in an accident and I did not see that as any kind of a blessing. In fact, I’d say that I saw “love” as outside of practicality, as a particular form of weakness or idealism that certainly wasn’t sovereign over anything.

The truth is that nowhere in this prayer does it say that bad things won’t happen to us, even as children of God. What I didn’t understand years ago was that the face of Love can still shine upon us and help us find peace in the midst of tragedy that is wrought by nature, human error, or even calculated evil deeds.

God knows that the deepest desire of all our hearts is for peace. Peace – completeness, soundness and contentment – flows out of Love, a Love that makes us feel secure and inspires us to be our best selves. We can talk about the subtleties and sociology that influence this, but I believe that God’s influence is sovereign over all; the ultimate truth is that Love is the only everlasting source of peace.

I can do my best to control my environment and the people in my life in my search for peace – or I can operate out of this blessing that God has spoken over me and trust that Love will bring me to the peace I seek. In spite of the painful acknowledgement that God allows evil, opening to His grace has allowed me to see the truth of the Love that has been all around me throughout my life and even during the time of my dad’s death.

I am grateful and filled with the Holy Spirit as I sit with this powerful and prophetic word that has been spoken over me, and I pray that God will do the same for you.

Holy Family, pray for us.

Lindsay Elford

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The Interior Life

​A Reflection on the Gospel for Sunday, January 1st, 2023:The Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God

Chosen Moments

A Reflection on the Second Reading for Sunday, January 1st, 2023:The Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God

Can We Bless God?

A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, January 1st, 2023:The Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God

Love's Peace

A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, January 1st, 2023:The Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God

Archives

A Reflection on the Gospel for Sunday, January 1st, 2023:
The Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God

A Reflection on the Second Reading for Sunday, January 1st, 2023:
The Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God

A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, January 1st, 2023:
The Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God

A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, January 1st, 2023:
The Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God