Mary, in Time and Eternity

The Assumption presents us with Mary mothering us, both in time and eternity. This is possible only because she is everywhere God is. Were that not true, she could not be on earth and in heaven. In the first reading we see Mary first of all in the eternal heavens: She is the “great sign that appears in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars”.

Then the image shifts, and we next see Mary with us on earth: “She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth”. Time and eternity intersected in her womb as she birthed Christ into our history, bringing the Father's Son into our world.  As Mother of the Church, she continues to birth us into the People of God, the Church, generation after generation, until the end of time, and into eternity. She does the in the face of all present and future dangers, all the suffering and evil we face while we journey through life towards God.

As the reading tells us: “the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth, to devour her child when she gave birth.” That child  is now every one of us born into time from the beginning of the world to its end.  Mary is the New Eve, the Mother of all the living, Mother on earth of the New Creation's beginnings and its cosmic fulfillment in the age to come.

When the Christ child “was caught up to God and his throne” where now in glory he “rules all nations with an iron rod”, “the woman herself fled into the desert where she had a place prepared  by God”.  Until the end of time, the Church remains under Christ’s and Mary’s protection as it wanders in the desert, this “valley of tears”.

Mother Mary remains with us, her children,  even as she reigns with her Son in glory.  His most precious possession, she was given to us by him before he died, when he also gave us to her. Christ told John “behold your mother”. And he told Mary: “behold your son”.  He did not also need to tell her that she is to love us as his precious gift to her. She knew the price he paid for us, and so cares for us with very love, intensity, and total devotion she poured out on him. Could she do less with the gift that cost her Son his life?

She mothers us now, we sinners,  part of the old creation groaning and struggling on the way to becoming the New Creation. Mary mothers us from both perspectives, that of the Resurrection in which she shares, and that of the Cross which she helps us carry.

She sees us from eternity and from time.  She rejoices with those of us in glory as she also helps us who are on the way.

She sees all of us in our individual, unique, lives, in our isolation and loneliness. She sees us in our timid, weak, and fearful attempts at communion with one another. She sees us growing in our identity as Church, as the Body of Christ her Son on earth. She also sees us as the New Israel, the Heavenly Jerusalem, participating in His Risen Life of Glory.

She sends us the graces we need on the way to become the New Jerusalem that her Son is transforming us into. She sees the interconnections between all our lives and destinies, as we grope to work them out, confusedly helping one another as we fall and rise on the way, and she sees our lives purified, perfected and fulfilled, as we celebrate the eternal wedding feast of the Lamb who was slain.

She walks with us in time, and she glories in the embrace of the triune God who holds time, cosmos, and his Church in his hands as we travel to him.

Mary is the living memory of the Church on earth and in glory. A mother never forgets the details of her children’s lives. Mary loves each child as the individual, unique person it is, and ponders her Son’s workings in that child’s life. She mediates his graces to each and every one of us and watches over us as we grow in the awareness of our new identity as Christ’s little ones and children of the Father.

She witnesses our many failures and falls as she mercifully inspires us to turn and return to him. She is the Mother of all grace, Mother of every yes we say to her Son, mother of our conversions and continued growth, mother of our repentance and contrition, mother of our on-going, inner purification and transformation, mother of our prayer and contemplation, mother of our spiritual life.

All of our lives, the life of every one of her children, is part of her living memory. She is the living memory of the Pilgrim Church and the Church  in glory. She is the live, divine history book, the repository and record of the all the Trinity’s actions and graces which brings her Son’s sheep into the one sheepfold of heaven. 

Mary is prototype and exemplar of all consecrated religious. Her motherly body that has birthed so many children into the kingdom is ever young and endlessly fruitful because of her consecrated viginity. Completely surrendered, body and soul, flesh and spirit, to God alone, He has used her as the infinitely fertile vessel of his Holy Spirit and the free-flowing channel of his graces to all mankind.

Mary's Hidden Words

Mary spoke very little.  The silence in which she concealed herself reveals the Son’s word all the better. She lets Him speak, and yet in His Word hers is also hidden.

Mary and her Son walk side by side in such a way that there is always room for both; there is never any need for one or the other to step aside.

Because the only thing I can do is love, I turn my eyes to you sinners, and all I can think of is the birth of my Son, for which I thank you. At the same time I do not see my path or suffering, but only His future path. If it were not for your sin, I would not have had to say my fiat, and so I would have been left without Him. For His sake, then I can look away from Him and look gratefully upon you. And by doing that I can give Him wholly to you, and so, to the Father, so that the Word might be fulfilled.

He came in order to forgive as savior and judge, to give the gift of His grace, to walk the path of suffering, and to take your sins upon Himself. But I can only love, dwell in Him; and because I have received the divine Son through you sinners, on your account, I can love you in God, even as the sinners you are.

Through you I love Him, and through Him I love you.

Lumina/New Lumina,  pp.50-51    Adrienne Von Speyr,  Ignatius Press

Litany to Our Lady of the Annunciation

Mother of the Good News

Apple of God's Eye 

God's Possession 

Favorite of the Father

Mother of the Divine Mercy 

Enflesher of the Word  

Ocean of Eternal Fruitfulness 

Christ Bearer

Dispenser of the Spirit  

Fountain of All Grace 

Sea of Infinite Increase

Lady Wrapped in Mystery 

Pillar of Fire 

Spouse of the Spirit

Cloud of Divine Presence  

Fountain of Fruitfulness 

Birth of Our Salvation  

Mother of the Most High 

Queen of Eternal Life 

Mother of the Church 

Barren Woman

Consecrated Virgin 

 Fruitful Mother 

Mother of Faith 

Mother of the Hope 

Mother of Love 

Mother of Christ's Life 

Mother of Christian Life

Bearer of the Holy One 

Mother of the Christ

Anointer of the Faithful 

Font of the Unforeseeable 

Dispenser of Divine Surprises

Humble Handmaid 

First Disciple 

Total Yes, 

Treasure Chest of Divine Life 

First Disciple

First Apostle 

Mother of Evangelists 

Silent Proclaimer 

Eloquent Witness 

Converter of Nations

Bearer of the Good News 

Center-Point of Triune Life 

Prayer to Mary, by de Grandmaison

Holy Mary,  Mother of God, 

preserve in me the the heart of a child, 

pure and clean like spring water; 

a simple heart that does not remain absorbed in its own sadness;

a loving heart that freely gives with compassion;

a faithful and generous heart that neither forgets good nor feels bitterness  for any evil. 

Give me a sweet and humble heart that loves without asking to be loved in return,

happy to lose itself in the heart of others,

sacrificing itself in front of your Divine Son;

a great and unconquerable heart, which no ingratitude can close and no indifference can tire;

by a heart tormented  by the glory of Christ,

pierced by his love with a wound that will not heal until heaven.

Life Promises Life, by Vincent Nagle, p.26

Litany to Our Lady of Cana

Mother of the Unexpected
Mother of the Unpredictable,
Mother of surprises
Mother of the mundane
Mother of the ordinary and the sublime
Mediatrix par excellence
Mother of our glorification
Mother ever present
Mother of new beginnings
Mother of our mission in life
Mother of our inspirations
Our Lady of Grace
Mother of our insights
Mother of our growth
Mother of our individuality
Mother of our obedience,
Mother of our freedom
Mother of our trust
Mother of our solidarity
Mother of our present and our future
Our Lady of Suffering
Our Lady of Glory
Watchful Woman
Caring Lady
Gentle Nudger
Intuiter of our needs
Co-Sufferer
Mother of our love for one another
Compassionate Lady
Mother of future graces
Mother of future generations
Mother of Embryo and Infant
Mother of Stillborn and Newborn
Mother of the Miscarried
Mother of Slaughtered Innocents
Mother of Human Life
Our Lady of Superabundance
Mother of overflowing fullness
Mother  of ourTransformation
Mother of the Best Wine
Wineskin of the New Creation
Mother of Christ
Our Lady of the Christ Event
Our Lady of the Divine Presence
Mother of Divine Gifts
Mother of our spiritual growth
Mother of our human enjoyments
Mother of our natural satisfactions
Mother of our hunger for more
Mother of married couples
Mother of priests and sisters
Mother of God's Family
Our Lady of the Sacraments
Mother of the living and the dead
Mother of the glorified
Mother of all fruitfulness
Source of New Wine
Mother of the Word Enfleshed
Mother of the Marriage between God and Man
Mother of our Beginning and End

For the Fun of It: Multi-tasking

Multi-tasking is:

1) a necessity if I am to accomplish all that has to be done,

 2) a great way to burn up calories and nervous energy, 

3) a convenient way to avoid focusing consciously on what God wants me to deal with,

4) a way to dodge the promptings of grace and do my own will instead, 

5) great technique to appear useful, important and creative to myself and others while aimlessly running around in circles and accomplishing nothing; 

6) a way of not letting myself sit and see consciously what is bubbling in my subconscious;

7) what is demanded by modern life if we are to survive its hectic pace;

8) what Martha does so that Christ will be impressed with her, and what Mary does not do because she is impressed with him;

9) what I do to avoid the challenge of honesty, intimacy, and openness with another human being;

10) all or any of the above in any combination you like.

11) Multi-tasking is......(please add your own clarifications and contradictions)