December 1980
"Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!"
Six months later, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel, entering her presence, said to her: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!" Troubled by these words, she wondered what such a greeting might mean. But the angel said to her: "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."
Then Mary said to the angel: "How will this be, since I know not man?" And the angel answered her: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren, for nothing will be impossible with God." And Mary said: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.
(Luke 1:26–38)
Mary, Teacher of Hope
Lourdes reveals itself slowly. At first you see only the rock—hard, solid, massive, crowned by the Church. But as you draw closer, you discover the fissure: hidden, deep, mysterious. You cannot see where it ends.
No mountain stands without some crack in its stone. In this very cleft the "Lady" appeared to Bernadette. This is where Bernadette waited for her. This is where Mary asked her to draw near without fear, then to dig, to keep digging—so that the spring would flow.
Each of us can hear this call from Mary in the everyday meetings of our lives—at home, at work, in Fede e Luce, or elsewhere. It falls to each of us to answer this call through a pilgrimage in daily life, one that will prepare us for the gathering of nations in 1981.
It takes time to discover the fragility of a human heart beating beneath a heart of stone. It is hard to lay bare the crack that runs through the depths of each of us—that world of darkness, of blocks, of fear.
Yet there Mary waits for us, day after day, in the thousand small gestures that make up the fabric of our lives. She goes before us into all our fractures. None are foreign to her, not since the crowd seized her Son and cried out, "Death to him!"
She takes on the shape of our wounds so that within them God's answer may dwell—his response to the cry of our weakness. This is why she is Teacher of Hope. There is no crack from which she is absent, and in each one she calls upon Him who "turns the rock into a pool of water and the hard stone into a flowing spring."
Louis Sankalé—Priest
Praying the Gospel: The Rosary
As we speak the words "Hail Mary," the great episodes of Jesus Christ's life pass before the mind's eye. These are the joyful, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries, which unite us in living communion with Jesus through the heart of his Mother. At the same time, our own heart can find in the decades of the Rosary every dimension of what human life truly is—the life of the individual, of the family, of nations, of the Church, and of all humanity. Our personal struggles, the struggles of those near us, and especially of those to whom we are most deeply bound. In this way, the simple prayer of the Rosary beats in rhythm with human life itself.
John Paul II
(Angelus, October 29, 1978)
Suggestions
Seek out the various events in Mary's life as told in the Gospel, and listen to what she wishes to tell us—especially during this Christmas season.
Our journey as a community happens in Mary's company. Find a practical way to express this…….
On the theme of Christmas, exchange gifts with the community with whom you are twinned (songs, poems, cassettes, records, greeting cards………)
I remember a young man who went to a secondary school. His classmates asked him: "What more does praying to Mary give you? It doesn't make you any smarter than anyone else." And that was true. But he answered: "It doesn't give me anything more, that's true. But it changes everything!"
If we live with Mary, she will transform us into Jesus. We will enter the Kingdom and find peace there.
Father Lochet