The Sisters Of the Visitation of Tyringham

Live + Jesus

MOTHER OF JESUS IS OUR MOTHER TOO.

by Sister Mary Ruth

December 2008

Printer safe version

Dear Friends of the Heart of Christ,

Christmas is a Feast that is celebrated throughout the world in varied ways. Its celebration is not reserved to, Christians alone but is celebrated in many countries as a day of family feasting, of beautifully decorated Christmas trees, of presents. Pageants, concerts and caroling also play a part in the festivities.

For Catholics the world-over, however, the month of December is a festival of Feasts. The first feast to occur this month is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, December 8, followed by the Feast of Saint Juan Diego on December 9, of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 12, and finally, the great feast of Christmas on December 25, preceded by the Christmas Eve Vigil.

Tomorrow, December 8, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the day on which we Catholics honor the privilege that was bestowed on Mary at the moment of her conception - that is, she was conceived without Original Sin. At the moment of her conception, God preserved Mary from the sin incurred by our First Parents when they disobeyed God. The action of Adam and Eve that declared to God that "We will not serve" has been passed on to every human being ever since. However, it was not passed on to Our Lady. At her conception she was free from original sin and from its effects. Those of us who have been baptized no longer bear the stain of original sin but we still suffer from the effects of that sin. We are subject to temptation and at times we give in to those temptations and commit sin. Mary never sinned.

Mary's Immaculate Conception was not always held to be a doctrine of the Church. It was defined by Pope Pius IX only in 1854. The decree states "... that the Blessed Virgin Mary from the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the Faithful." \

Four years after the definition of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady appeared to a young French girl, born into an impoverished family, Bernadette Soubirous. This year, 2008, we have been celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Apparitions of Our Lady to Bernadette in 1858 in Lourdes, France. The Blessed Virgin appeared to her 18 times from February 11, 1858 until July 16, 1858. In the sixteenth apparition, Our Lady identified herself with these words, "I am the Immaculate Conception". Bernadette said of this apparition of Our Lady, that she "had never seen her so beautiful before."

On December 9 we celebrate the Feast of Saint Juan Diego. The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is celebrated on December 12. In 1531 the Blessed Virgin appeared to a poor Aztec Indian named, Juan Diego. "My dear little son, I love you. I desire you to know who I am. I am the ever-virgin Mary, Mother of the true God who gives life and maintains its existence. He created all things. He is Lord of Heaven and Earth. I desire a church in this place where your people may experience my compassion. All those who sincerely ask my help in their work and in their sorrows will know my Mother's Heart in this place. Here I will see their tears. I will console them and they will be at peace." Mary then told Juan to tell the Bishop that a church should be built in the place where she had appeared to him. The Bishop asked for a sign so Our Lady had Juan pick Castilian roses in the cold of winter and place them in his cloak. When he came before the Bishop, Juan open his "tilma", his cloak, and the roses fell to the floor. However, imprinted on the cloak was a full-sized picture of Our Lady just as she had appeared to him. This cloak is enshrined in the cathedral in Mexico City to this very day. In 2002 Juan Diego was canonized by our late Holy Father, the Servant of God, Pope John Paul II. The canonization assures us that the humble man from the Tepayac hill country of Mexico lives with Jesus and His Mother forever in Heaven.

What we notice about the account of the apparitions both to Saint Bernadette and to Saint Juan Diego is that these saints were children of the poor. It seems that Our Lady delights in using the "little ones" of God to be her messengers. The other assurance that all of us receive through Saint Juan Diego are the words of comfort he received from the Blessed Virgin. Mary told him, "All those who sincerely ask my help...will know my Mother's Heart. I will see their tears. I will console them and they will be at peace." Mary is telling us through Juan that she is our Mother, too.

Finally, we come to the greatest feast in December, the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord. We travel from France in Europe, to Mexico in Central America and finally to the Middle East, to Palestine, to a little town named Nazareth.

"In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, ‘Hail, favored one, the Lord is with you...Then 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 name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High Luke 1: 28-33. Mary conceived her Child through the action of the Holy Spirit. At that moment she becomes the Mother of the Son of God, Jesus. In just three weeks' time that Son's heart will have been formed and will begin to beat. In four months' time Mary's unborn Child, Jesus, will begin to hear His Mother's heartbeat. Jesus will have a heart formed from his Mother's substance alone since He had no earthly father. In four months' time Mary's unborn Child will begin to hear his Mother's heartbeat and will be constantly comforted by that heart beating for love of Him and for God.

Like all of the chosen "little ones" of God, Mary and Joseph were also poor. Even though Mary was about to have her child, she and Joseph had to leave their home in Nazareth because they were victims of a proud and power-hungry monarch, who commanded that all of his subjects return to their own proper city for the sake of a census.

"Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." Luke 2: 4-7

As we celebrate the Feast of Christmas this year, let us remember that the Lord loves the "little ones", the "poor ones". We all qualify as little, poor ones irrespective of our material goods since we are at times spiritually "poor". We do not always accept the trials and difficulties of life as opportunities to grow in great love and union with Our Lord; we are not always kind to those we love, and we are even less kind to those we do not like. We all have a long way to go before we can truly qualify as God's "poor ones" which is really synonymous with being called His "holy ones". The Heart of Jesus, living in Mary, will bestow the gift of holiness on us if we let him.

During this Holy Season, let us keep in mind the words that Our Lady spoke to Saint Juan Diego more than four hundred years ago: "My dear little son, I love you. All those who sincerely ask my help in their work and in their sorrows will know my Mother's Heart. I will see their tears. I will console them and they will be at peace." These words are still being spoken to each of us by the Infant Christ living within His Mother.

I would like to conclude our time together with this prayer:

O Jesus, living in Mary,
Come and live in Your servants,
In the spirit of Your holiness,
In the fullness of Your might,
In the truth of Your virtues,
In the perfections of Your ways,
In the communion of Your mysteries.
Subdue every hostile power
In Your Spirit, for the glory of the Father. Amen.

This presentation was given at the Monastery of the Visitation of Tyringham, MA on Sunday December 7, 2008

God be Praised