{"id":7586,"date":"2020-08-13T07:56:45","date_gmt":"2020-08-13T12:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/?p=7586"},"modified":"2020-08-13T07:56:45","modified_gmt":"2020-08-13T12:56:45","slug":"mary-what-a-gal-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/mary-what-a-gal-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Mary. What a gal."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I mentioned to you some time ago that it\u2019s taken me a long time to understand, in a personal way, Mary (The Blessed Mother) and her role in my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be sure I\u2019m properly educated in what the Church teaches about Mary, she is: Mother of Jesus and Mother of God and Mother of the Church. She is Our Lady of the Rosary, Mother of Sorrows, Immaculate Conception etc..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe all these things. And that\u2019s the way it\u2019s been for most of my life . . . I know what the Church teaches about <\/em>Mary, but it\u2019s been on a theological level. She\u2019s been someone to study; a holy woman who did a great job with her son Jesus. But that was all long ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s been missing is a personal relationship with her. I always thought that was for me and Jesus. (I didn\u2019t want to go to Mary when I could go right to her son.) In other words what does Mary have to do with me? Can I talk with her? Does she know who I am? Can she teach me what I need to know? Will friendship with her take away from friendship with Christ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So for years I ignored Mary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it happened. I was praying on retreat one night in chapel. Sitting in the silence for some days had become quite frustrating and I had grown increasingly restless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a reason I can only call God\u2019s grace, it suddenly came to my imagination that someone was kneeling in the dark up by the tabernacle. My thought then led me to consider that it was Mary, praying as she had that day at the foot of the cross. (This is called \u201cmeditation\u201d in the spiritual books).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being the \u201cwise guy\u201d, I decided to challenge this woman and in my mind (or perhaps out loud, I can\u2019t remember), I said to her, \u201cYour son is awfully quiet tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this moment I can only remember her face, partially covered with her veil, turning slightly and with a smile that was fresh and young and confident, she said: \u201cDon\u2019t worry. He knows you\u2019re here.\u201d All questions stopped. There was no need for further conversation. \u201cMary, if He knows I\u2019m here that\u2019s all that matters. Thanks.\u201d The chapel returned as it was, dark and empty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

What had just happened? As I say, it was a grace. God gave me something to think and feel. (I don\u2019t think Mary was physically in the chapel that night!) But the real gift was what followed in the days after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was given to realize that for all her exulted titles, Mary was my \u201cprayer partner\u201d. She prays with me. And she prays with much greater clarity about God\u2019s will for me than I do. Her smile that night in chapel continues to tell me that as quiet as Christ seems in my life \u2013 he is with me and it pleases him that I want to be with him as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, and best of all, I now have Mary to \u201ctake things to Jesus for me\u201d. I figure hey, if she is so certain he\u2019s with us, then she knows his mind better than I do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not , as I once feared, taking away from Jesus. In fact, Mary intensifies our relationship with Christ. What she adds is her \u201cpartnering\u201d with me. I\u2019m not alone in this sometimes confusing search for God in my life. Most times I begin my prayer straight to Jesus or God the Fa- ther. But I try at some point to include a little word to Mary my \u201cprayer partner\u201d. \u201cWhat should I tell your son Mary?\u201d \u201cTell Jesus I want to love Him more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t worry.\u201d She says. \u201cHe knows you\u2019re here.\u201d God is good.
Fr. Tim<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PS. The Catholic Faith has always taught these things about Mary. I\u2019m just late for the party!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Previously posted on November 6, 2016).<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I mentioned to you some time ago that it\u2019s taken me a long time to understand, in a personal way, Mary (The Blessed Mother) and her role in my life. To be sure I\u2019m properly educated in what the Church teaches about Mary, she is: Mother of Jesus and Mother of God and Mother of […]<\/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-7586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-column"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7586","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=7586"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7587,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7586\/revisions\/7587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}