{"id":22093,"date":"2022-08-25T15:00:05","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T20:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/?p=22093"},"modified":"2022-08-25T15:02:43","modified_gmt":"2022-08-25T20:02:43","slug":"some-thoughts-about-mary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/some-thoughts-about-mary\/","title":{"rendered":"Some thoughts about Mary."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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One of the first prayers we learn as children is the Hail Mary. It\u2019s a simple praise of the Blessed Mother and a request for her prayers. Did you ever wonder where the prayer came from?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first part comes from the Gospel of Luke where the Angel Gabriel appears to Mary to invite her co-operation with God\u2019s plan in sending His Son into the world through her. \u201cHail Mary full of grace\u201d, he says, \u201cBlessed are you among women . . .\u201d The second part, also in Luke, is Elizabeth\u2019s greeting to Mary as the expectant mothers meet in Mary\u2019s visitation. \u201cBlessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This prayer is on the lips of young children as they go to sleep at night and years later in the final breaths of those about to die – – – \u201cpray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.\u201d In their visits to the hospital, priests come upon people barely conscious who haven\u2019t spoken for hours. Simply bending close to their ear the priest whispers, \u201cHail Mary full of grace . . . \u201c and with that the patient begins to mouth the words of this holy prayer. Next stop, heaven! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But there\u2019s more to Mary than her prayer. In Jesus\u2019s last words before he died he gave his mother to us as our mother. To John and Mary at the cross Jesus said, \u201cWoman, there is your son. There is your mother.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what does this mean, \u201cyour mother\u201d? I guess it\u2019s for each of us to search our hearts for what \u201cmother\u201d means. On a natural level it means someone who gives us birth. Someone who gave us every cell in our body. Someone who watches our first steps and rejoices as we grow into maturity. And perhaps most comforting, someone who loves us as her very own child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each day the Church urges us to turn to Mary – – the real person who gave birth to Jesus; the woman who has us as her children. – – turn to her for her encouragement and prayers. She\u2019s real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes in the spiritual life we feel confronted by the big and imposing figures of God the Father and Jesus, the Son of God. (I\u2019m speaking psychologically now). They \u201creign in heaven\u201d, \u201cThey will come to judge the living and the dead.\u201d Jesus is \u201cKing of kings and Lord of lords. \u201dIt can be intimidating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not with Mary. She\u2019s not there to judge. She\u2019s there to nourish, to comfort, and to gently point the way to Jesus. She wants nothing more than for her children to find their happiness and, as a mother, she knows this can only occur when we love and follow her first born son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary doesn\u2019t take away the challenge of following Christ. (She herself bore this at the foot of the cross.) What she provides is a little shade on the journey with Christ; a little space to gather ourselves under her veil of womanly grace. Once renewed, we begin again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So if praying to God the Father and Jesus is a little scary sometimes, if you feel \u201cThey\u2019ll only be disappointed in me\u201d. Talk to Mary. She knows you. She\u2019s your mother. Something like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh Mary. I know God loves me but I just can\u2019t face him right now. Please tell your Son I love him and I\u2019m sorry for being so weak. Take my case to God, tell God I\u2019ll try again. Right now I need your loving way with me, not your judgement. And please help my spouse\/child\/friend who\u2019s just as weak as me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear Mary. Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fr. Tim<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the first prayers we learn as children is the Hail Mary. It\u2019s a simple praise of the Blessed Mother and a request for her prayers. Did you ever wonder where the prayer came from? The first part comes from the Gospel of Luke where the Angel Gabriel appears to Mary to invite her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-column"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22093"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22098,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22093\/revisions\/22098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}