I’m sure many of you were expecting posts about the Rome and
Assisi pilgrimage, and that is what I thought I would be writing about too, but
I changed my mind!
Before we had to be in Rome, we had a few days to travel on
our own, and it has been tradition for my household to go to Loreto, where the
Holy House of Mary is now. I was excited to spend time with my household, but
at the same time I really just wanted to get to Rome and not have to deal with
all the trains to get to Loreto and then to Rome. But I put on a smiling face
and got on the train to get to Loreto.
Well,
naturally, everything did not go as smoothly as we had hoped for. Getting there was way more complicated than
it needed to be. Train schedules got all messed up, we had complications with
our Eurail passes, and we really thought we would never get there. Eventually, we did, but only for about a half hour.
After twenty hours of riding on trains, sitting in train stations, etc., we
finally arrived in Loreto…and our train to Rome left in an hour and half. The Holy
House is quite a hike from the train station, so like I said before, we really
only had a half hour at the Holy House.
Well, even though it was just a half hour, the trip was so
worth it. Walking into the house where Mary said “yes,” where she gave her life
to God without questioning, and where she conceived Christ! I prayed in the
same room where Our Lady prayed!
After spending our half an hour there and almost missing our
train (we literally had to run to catch it)
I was sitting on the train really thinking about Mary’s fiat.
And as Christmas is drawing nearer (just over a month away,
not that I’m counting down the days or anything…) it seems like the perfect
topic. So many people pass through the Christmas
season without really even thinking of Mary’s yes. Most of us, hopefully,
recognize the true “reason for the season” but how many of us think about what
leads up to the birth of Christ? We celebrate the Annunciation, but why not the
excitement of the pregnancy all throughout it? When you hear a friend is
pregnant, do you congratulate her and then never ask questions, see how she is
doing, etc., until the child is born? By now Mary (thousands of yeas ago) would
be about 35 weeks pregnant! She could probably feel Christ kicking her! She is
going to be so obviously pregnant to everyone that sees her, and she’s probably
going through a lot of persecution. Mary’s fiat wasn’t just in accepting Christ
into her womb on March 25th, it was for the length of her pregnancy, and her
whole life after that!
I’m not saying we should take away from the attention
leading up to the birth of Christ and put it on Mary, but just take a minute
and ponder it deeply. Think about the fullness of Mary’s yes. Would you be
willing to say yes as she did? Is Christ calling you to do more? As the Advent
season starts in just a few days, I hope and pray that you let Christ into your
life, just as Mary did.
Luke 1:38, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me
according to thy word.”
No comments:
Post a Comment