Meditation on Mary




I’ve been thinking about Mary today.  She was a “little girl” in our present day way of thinking, and yet the moment when the angel appeared to her and she consented to God’s intervention in her life became the watershed of history—the event that changed everything for all us…. forever.  So. Much. Power. Focused on one small life in one quiet moment.  A moment we might never have known about had not the gospel writers chosen to record it.


That amazes me.


It makes me think of all the still, small moments in my own life when God has broken through my inner storm and whispered, “Peace. Be still, and hear the plans I have for you…”





"Mary asserts herself before God saying, 'Here am I.' There is no arrogance, however, but only holy fear and wonder. Mary proceeds - as we must do in life - making her commitment without knowing much about what it will entail or where it will lead. I treasure the story because it forces me to ask: When the mystery of God's love breaks through into my consciousness, do I run from it? Do I ask it what it cannot answer? Shrugging, do I retreat into facile cliches, the popular but false wisdom of what 'we all know.'? Or am I virgin enough to respond from my deepest, truest self, and say something new, a 'yes' that will change me forever?"

-Kathleen Norris, Amazing Grace





Lord let me come in to your quietness long enough to hear the angels sing, to gaze upon the twinkling of the stars and once again appreciate the love you so kindly lavish upon us at Christmas.  Amen.

 

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