Mary's Advent (Over at Ignitum Today)

Hail Mary by RakstarDesigns (Used with Permission)

The season of Advent is a time for waiting, preparing, and eagerly anticipating the birth of Christ.  It seems like no one could understand this period of time more than Mary, as she waited what probably seemed like a very long nine months for the birth of her son.

You could say that Mary’s personal Advent journey started at the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel greets her, saying: "Hail, full of Grace! The Lord is with you."  Even Mary was “greatly troubled” by these words, and pondered their meaning. We can look to Mary in our own walk through Advent as we prepare for Christ, discovering through her what it means to be full of grace and for the Lord to be with you.

When Mary told the angel Gabriel to let it "be done according to your word", she said yes to being with God, yes to being full of grace.  Her yes affirmed this greeting—just as when we say yes to God, we are filled with His grace.

Her yes can be a guide as we journey through Advent (and life) and as we truly prepare ourselves to be with the Lord.

We can never carry Christ like Mary did.  She quite literally was with the Lord as she physically carried Him in her womb. However, we can also be "pregnant" with Christ by carrying him in our hearts, and through receiving Him in the Eucharist.

Kissing the Face of God, by Morgan Weistling (Used with Permission)

To truly prepare for Christ’s birth, it must go even further than just being with the Lord in our own hearts.  Mary also spent her time of waiting in service to others—she ran with great haste to be with her cousin Elizabeth. Elizabeth immediately recognizes that she is in the presence of God by being in Mary’s presence, as John leaps in her womb. Mary’s Advent preparation thus also involved her physically bringing Christ to others.  We too can be a vessel for Christ, especially during this Advent season, by bringing the light of Christ to all that we meet and serve.

Mary’s Advent was long. She spent nine months waiting and traveled many miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem. We only spend four weeks in preparation, and (most likely) don’t have to travel very far by riding on a donkey. But we can apply how Mary prepared for the coming of Jesus to our own Advent season—by pondering the meaning of being with the Lord, saying yes to accepting His grace, and bringing Christ to others.

This post was originally published at Ignitum Today.

The Lord is with you

It's very fitting that on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, we hear the story of the Annunciation.

The angel Gabriel greets Mary with, "Hail, full of Grace! The Lord is with you." But what does this mean, to be full of grace? What does it mean for the Lord to be with you?

(Source)

The answers to these questions aren't easy - even Mary was "greatly troubled" and "pondered" their meaning.

When Mary told the angel to let it "be done according to your word", she said yes to being with God, yes to being full of grace.  Her yes affirmed this greeting - just as when we say yes to God, we are filled with His grace.

Just as John the Baptist cried out to prepare the way of the Lord, Advent is a time for us to truly prepare ourselves to be with the Lord.

We can never carry the Lord like Mary did, because she literally and physically had Him with her - she carried Him in her womb. We can, however, be "pregnant" with Christ by carrying him in our hearts.

(Source)

The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. God chose to come into the world through Mary, through her yes. Let us pray that in this last week of Advent, we will say yes to the ultimate Christmas gift and also share God with the world by carrying his grace in our hearts.

Saint Stories

Saints: Picking Them, Picking Us

Julie @ The Corner with a View

Befriend the Saints and Be Prepared by Trista @ Not a Minx

My Unexpected Friends by Amanda @ Worthy of Agape

...and YOU! Join us on Facebook!

I don't know what I did without the saints.

Or, I guess the more accurate way of saying that is that they were always there, but I don't know how I survived spiritually before I realized they were there with me.

I've shared a few saint stories here and there as I've come to know the saints more on my faith journey. Each saint has their own story to tell; each saint's story is unique. Yet each saint has at least one thing in common with the others: they each offered up everything they had to love, serve, and follow God. Each saint has a story with their name; and each saint has that story to share with us.

Tonight I was praying the Rosary, and I decided to try out something a bit different for me. Instead of meditating on how the mystery related to my intention, I instead placed myself into that moment in Christ's life and tried to experience it as those who were present at the time experienced it. I watched as they watched, and waited to see where each of these meditations took me.

My mind started out watching Christ, thinking of his experience and what it meant in our salvation story. Yet, the other people who were present and watching Christ quickly distracted me. What about them? What did they see? What did they think? How did they feel? Most importantly, were their hearts converted in that moment?

That is when it hit me. There are men and women and children who were present at each of these moments of Christ's life who experienced profound conversion of hearts - whether it was at that moment in time or later in life - and who are now among the saints in Heaven. These events were not stories out of history books, but Christ was actually present and these things actually happened and these were real people who actually witnessed each of these moments in time firsthand.

Real people!

So I joined my heart with those surrounding me in each of these moments, and called out to these saints. Please! All of you who witnessed this moment, all of you who felt a stirring in your heart as you experienced this moment with Christ, join with Mary and pray for my intention! As you gave your hearts over to Christ in these moments, give him my heartfelt prayer! I did this throughout Christ's public ministry, all the way from his baptism to his crucifixion. I begged those who were there and believed to take my intention to Christ.

I instantly felt surrounded by something outside of myself. I wasn't speaking to people I had never met before, but I was calling upon people who had been and always will be there. I was calling upon thousands of saints to hear my plea and pray for it. Thousands! There were thousands of hearts that witnessed Christ just in these few moments and were changed for forever; thousands of hearts that now live with him in eternity in Heaven. And these thousands of hearts were praying with me; praying for me.

Death doesn't separate us from those in the past. Christ conquered death, and because of that, we are still all connected through him and with him and in him, connected to each heart and soul that has traveled before us on the path that led them each to sainthood in Heaven. I may not be able to call on each of them by name, but each saint has a story. They each share this story with me, pray with me, and cheer for me, as I stumble along trying to write my own saint story.

Mama Mary

I've written before about how I've struggled to have a relationship with Mary.

That was until Mary quite literally nudged her way into my life a little over a year ago.

I had been praying for a special intention that I hold very close to my heart for some time, but I felt like I had hit a stumbling block. I could only do so much by praying, and things weren't happening on the timeline that I wanted. Add in that I still felt like I was in the midst of that pesky spiritual dry spell, and I was getting frustrated... I wanted things to happen now.

There had been a few times during all of this prayer that I had felt a little nudge to pray a rosary for my intention or to talk to Mary about it, but I kept shrugging that feeling away.

What can Mary do to help me with this? How can I even begin to relate to her?

So I kept pushing her away.

On a night like any other, I found myself praying in the chapel. It was very late; the chapel was dark and quiet, and I was completely alone. I sat as I usually do when I'm alone in the chapel - on the floor, right in front of the tabernacle. I had just finished praying a novena for my intention, and was having a little beg session chat with the saint of my novena when it happened.

Mary snuck her way into my thoughts again.

Turn to me.

I pushed the thought aside as I always had before.

Ask me for help. Please.

I gave a mental exasperated sigh.* I closed my eyes, and cleared my mind.

(Source)

Fine. I give up. What do you want, Mary?

And at the exact moment when I decided to let Mary in, I no longer saw the darkness of my closed eyelids, but instead my vision was flooded with one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen.

I could see Mary, as if I was watching her from above. She held my intention tightly in her arms, close to her heart. Her mantle was wrapped around it, to shield and protect it from all harm. Just as she once held her Son, she was holding my heartfelt prayer with all the love and care that a mother can give. Most importantly, she wasn't letting go.

It was in this moment that I began to cry.

This is why you've been bugging me for so long, I thought. You've been trying to show me, all along, that you're taking care of this.

And so, that night, and every night since, I've handed this intention that I carry with me over to Mama Mary. I see her hold it close to her heart, and I know that she will never let go, until the time is right for her to place it at the feet of her Son.

Recently, my spiritual director encouraged me to do a 54 day novena to Mary. As I set out on perhaps the most challenging spiritual quest I've ever taken on, I can't help but think that Mary is behind this, too. Always trying to nudge me into a deeper relationship with her, because she longs to bring me closer to her Son.

*In retrospect, I was so rude to Mary. I know. Again, I'm pretty sure she's forgiven me, because she loves me and we're pretty much like this now:

When we finally get to meet Mother Mary in Heaven, 
from Let Me Be Catholic Tumblr

Men, Aspire to be Worthy!

“When a man loves a woman, he has to become worthy of her. The higher her virtue, the more noble her character, the more devoted she is to truth, justice, goodness, the more a man has to aspire to be worthy of her. The history of civilization could actually be written in terms of the level of its women.”

- Fulton J. Sheen, Life is Worth Living

Kissing the Face of God by Morgan Weistling

I have stilled my soul

Lord, my heart is not proud;
nor are my eyes haughty.
I do not busy myself with great matters,
with things too sublime for me.
Rather, I have stilled my soul,
Like a weaned child to its mother,
weaned is my soul.

Kissing the Face of God

Psalm 131 is a song of trust, giving all thoughts and worries of the world to God - like a child who quiets in the arms of its mother. It is the perfect bedtime prayer to still the soul, surrendering to sleep, imagining being held in the warm mantle of our Mother's embrace.

7 Quick Takes Friday (#32)

Thanks to Jen for hosting!

1.

Last week, life as I knew it came to an end. As Tim Staples would say, I learned something “that, shall we say, rocked my world?” Elizabeth and I have always claimed to be the same person. We like the same things, have pretty much the same thoughts on things, and are just generally identical twins separated at birth (minus the looks – we look nothing alike). 

Until last week, when we discovered that we disagree on the issue that divides the nation. Yes, I am talking about this:

Looks kinda like a presidential election map...

I can’t believe it. We're supposed to be the same person! How on earth could someone so like me call pop by any other name (that would NOT smell as sweet), such as – I shudder as I write this – “soda”… or even worse “Coke”!

COKE! COKE?!?! Coke is a brand name. A glass of root beer is not a Coke. Pepsi is most definitely not a Coke. They are all pop. I don’t have an official source on this, but I’m pretty sure that pop is the name that Adam gave to this sweet, sugary liquid in the beginning of time.

Then we had a debate on if this dilemma could be decided with democracy or Truth. Clearly, I won, because the last time I checked, the Magisterium has not made any official proclamation defining pop as pop (they do have more important things to be dealing with, after all), so therefore we must go with our consciences and also turn to the polls. From this map, the blue states are clearly winning. Also, Ohio is all blue - and since Ohio is always the swing vote in elections and has decided the president for the last 20 years or so - whatever Ohio says is correct. In conclusion, pop wins. (Can you tell I’m from Ohio?)

But I just don't know what to do now. I just feel so lost because of this revelation. Elizabeth and I can – I'm tearing up now – no longer claim to be the same person! I feel like I’ve lost my identity... I guess I'll go drown my sorrows and become a pop-aholic. BAM! (Elizabeth, that was just for you!)

2.

Bringin' Sexy Back is a full-time job

I joined the Bright Maidens again last week! It was a fun topic on being desirable versus being sexy, and I enjoyed taking a fun look at it. Apparently, others did too since it's already made my top ten most viewed post! If you haven't seen my post or any of the other posts, be sure to check them out!

3.

Did you see my massive post on Spiritual Dry Spells this week? I spent a lot of time on it, so be sure to check it out and let me know what you think! (Side note: I promised part 2 for this week, but it just hasn't been polished yet - next week, I promise!)

4.

I can't figure out if it's because there's a parish with very convenient daily Mass times down the street from the place I am temping or if I'm finally getting my butt into gear because I posted my dry spell to the world, but I started going to daily Mass again! I think the last time I went regularly was Holy Week, so let's see if I can keep this up.

5.

I really found Jen's post about fitting God into your schedule really thought-provoking. I mean, I only have to worry about myself, and while I have a lot going on in my life right now, I don't have to take care of any kiddos or devote time to a significant other. It's just me - yet, I still have problems adding time for God into my daily schedule. So this week, I found recordings of the mysteries of the rosary online, and I put them on a CD so I can pray the rosary during my morning commute! It's not the most meditative state, but it's better than nothing, right? It will also help me learn all the mysteries - I only have the Sorrowful mysteries memorized (is it odd that those are my favorite mysteries?). Hopefully, this will be a start into writing God into my daily routine.

6.

I had a lot of frustrating disappointments in job search world this week. It seems like I just keep striking out every. single. time. Thankfully, I am blessed to have found a temporary job for at least two months that gives me 35 hours a week, but please pray that I will find something more permanent soon. I appreciate all of you who have been praying for me so far - it's been a long search!

7.

Finally, I'd like to give a shout out to my guardian angel! We celebrated the Feast of the Sts. Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel the Archangels this week, and it was a reminder that we have so much good fighting for us each and every day. When I was little, I somehow became convinced that my guardian angel's name is Emma, so this my shout out to you, Emma. Thanks for watching over me!

Why Mary?

This post is part of the Bright Maidens series of posts. Thanks to those lovely ladies for opening it up to all of us!

I've never really had a relationship with Mary.

I've often struggled with talking to her in prayer. I've certainly never been good at meditating on the mysteries of the rosary (I didn't even pray a full rosary until a year and a half ago!). Honestly, in prayer, I've just always wanted to go straight to Christ. Yes, I love my little saint intercessory prayers (my new favorite is a little rhyme to my confirmation saint, St. Frances Cabrini, for finding parking places in downtown DC... it works every time). I also send more than a few "Hail Mary" up to Heaven each day, but when I get deep down into prayer (which isn't often enough), I attempt to have a conversation with Christ (key word: attempt).

Sure, I understand why Mary is important. Her "Yes" made her the new Eve. Her "Yes" brought the new Adam into the world to redeem us all. God chose Mary to be His mother. That's a big deal. I understand and truly believe all of this, but there has still always been a roadblock between me and forming a relationship with Mary.

I think the biggest stumbling block for me is when I hear women say that it is easier for them to relate and talk to Mary, that they always take things to Mary, because she understands how it feels to be a woman.

I've always been confused by this, because I usually feel the exact opposite. Mary was perfect here on earth, and now she's perfect in Heaven. How on earth could I ever hope to relate to someone who is the perfect human being, and how could this perfect embodiment of submission to God's will ever be able to understand me?

Then, on Good Friday this year, I finally watched The Passion of the Christ for the first time. I was shocked and amazed at the brutality that Christ suffered for us. Yes, I always knew and understood that it was the ultimate suffering, and so it would be bad, but seeing it played out made it all the more real. I cringed when his flesh was ripped from his body at the scourging at the pillar. I winced when the crown of thorns was pushed onto his head. I literally curled up into a ball on my chair when the nails were driven through his hands and feet.

But my eyes as I watched Christ suffer? My eyes were dry.

I'm the kind of girl that cries in movies all the time. I've cried during The Prince of Egypt (*sob* God is *choke* soooo gooood! *hiccup*). I tear up during the scene in Pride and Prejudice as Lizzy and Mr. Darcy walk towards each other across the dew-soaked fields (he loves her *sooo* much that he did all those things just for her *tear*). I have been known to watch The Notebook when I just need emotional release through a good cry.

But as I watched Christ's Passion, my eyes were not moved to tears. Yes, I had the proper visceral reactions, but I had thought I would sob like I never have before.

Was there something wrong with me? Was I so cold that I couldn't even shed a tear for the One who died to redeem me? Cry, just CRY!, I screamed in my head.

And then I saw Mary.

I watched Mary place her ear against the stone ground, right above Jesus shackled underground, just to be nearer to her son.

I watched as she comforted Mary Magdalene, letting the young girl cry on her shoulder.

I watched as she used crisp white towels to soak up her son's blood from the cobblestones.

I watched Mary's memory of Jesus as boy: watching him fall, running to pick him up, whispering in his ear that she was there for him. I watched Mary run to whisper in the ear of her grown son, who was carrying the burden of the world on his shoulders, letting him know that she was still there for him.

I watched as Mary accepted John as her son when Christ gave him to her from the cross. I watched as he accepted her as his mother.

I listened as Mary cried out in agony, "Flesh of my flesh, heart of my heart, My son, let me die with you."

I watched Mary cradle her dead son as he was removed from the cross.

I watched her tears, watched her shake, watched her shudder in pain, but never to turn her eyes away from what her son was suffering. She always watched with a steadfast faith, even though her heart was being torn from her chest.

It was during these times when I watched Mary that I finally cried.

It was through this that I came to a new understanding of what it means to relate to Mary as a woman. It means relating to Mary as a mother, because all of us women are called to be mothers, whether it is physically bringing a child into the world or being a spiritual mother to friends and family. All women have that motherly instinct rooted within their souls, even though many "feminists" today try to ignore it and push it aside. 

I was in too much shock to shed tears watching Jesus suffer, but I was able to cry whenever I saw Mary, because that motherly instinct rooted in my soul could experience an ounce of the pain she felt as she watched her son die.

I'm not a mother, and maybe I'm not called to be a mother, but serving and loving others as a mother would love a child is ingrained in what it means to be a woman. 

This is why Mary is important to me, to all women, and to the Church as a whole. It's not just because she was perfect. It's not just because she was the vessel through which God was made flesh. Yes, those things are crucial. 

But now when I ask myself - and more importantly, when others ask me - "Why Mary?" - I'll know the answer. 

It's because she teaches us how to be women in how she teaches us to serve others by being the perfect mother.