Vol.5 No.11 DoM E Message
Spiritual Gift of the Week
We pray for the grace to see and the kingdom in our midst, and to live a life of love and service as our mother Mary faithfully and quietly modeled for us.
Spiritual Instruction of the Week
Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done…let us pray with the emptiness of Mary.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dear Beautiful Daughters of Mary,
The greatest instruction we receive happens in prayer and contemplation. Audrey Patterson reminded us of this truth on Tuesday. We pray often asking for the grace to model Mary’s life. Let us enter into the following contemplation, submitted by Audrey, that we may also model Mary’s prayer:
We think of Mary in lofty terms because we honor her, Queen of Heaven,
Queen of all Saints, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, and indeed she is all of these.
This is what she became – but it is not what she was. Before the Angel
Gabriel appeared to her she was an ordinary girl. My friend Lissa says she
Was extraordinarily ordinary! She was humble, totally devoted to prayer.
She had offered to God her virginity, her total gift of self and so she stood
Completely empty before Him and willing to be filled by whatever His will
For her might be.
With this is mind I want to share with you a contemplation by Caryll Houselander
From her book “The Reed of God”.
The Emptiness of Mary
Mary’s emptiness was like the hollow of a reed, the narrow riftless emptiness
Which can have only one destiny: to receive the piper’s breath and to utter
The song that is in His heart. She was a reed through which the Eternal Love
Was to be piped as the shepherd’s song.
The reed grows by the streams. It is the simplest of things, but it must be cut
By the sharp knife, hollowed out, and the stops must be cut in it; it must be
Shaped and pierced before it can utter the shepherd’s song. It is the narrowest
Emptiness in the world, but the little reed plays infinite music.
It plays the song of the mother rocking the cradle.
It plays the song of the shepherd calling His sheep.
It players the song of the Lover sung to the beloved.
It plays the wedding song of the Bride.
In the virginal emptiness of Mary of Nazareth, Christ was conceived; it was the
Wedding of God to a human child, and the wonder of it filled to earth for all time.
Thus it is with us – we may be formed, pared down and cut for our purpose.
We may be marked indelibly by a succession of events and shaped
for our destiny by the love and tender devotion of our Maker. We must come
to God empty:
free from our cares
free from our desires
free from our pride
If we want to play the song of the Savior.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The following thought from the Hebrew Scriptures may inspire our Thanksgiving prayer:
“Thank God! Give him the praise and the glory. Before all the living, acknowledge the many good things he has done for you, by blessing and extolling his name in song. Before all men, honor and proclaim God’s deeds, and do not be slack in praising him”…Tobit 12:6.
Rendiamo grazie a Dio—Thanks be to God,
Deb
Author Info
