4 quick, unrelated reflections on Mary

Oh, hai. Even if you don’t understand Marian devotion, I have a Marian devotion, and we can talk more about it later if you want, but, for now, I’m just going to jump in with some short things, all disconnected, about Mary. I’ve been loving them. Let’s jump in! These don’t connect, but here they are, fresh on the internets from swirling around in my brain…

1. On “Meeting the Family”
   So. When I first learned about Total Consecration to Mary, I was afraid that, if I drew closer to Mary somehow I would be taken farther from Jesus. I was thinking about this a few days back and I realized that I should have thought about this in a different way.

   It’s more like this: most of the time, when you meet someone, you meet them in a place that’s cool and expresses a side of them. Awesome. But, sometimes, if you’re lucky and they like you and you like them, they begin to introduce you to their world. “That’s where I went to school,” they’ll say, one day when you’re driving and you’ll look at the area and be like: “how interesting. I somehow you know better, now.” And sometimes you’ll meet their families–moms and dads–and suddenly you’ll understand in a deeper way the inflection of their speech and the mannerisms of their motions.

   That, too me, is kind of what meeting Mary in a deeper way has been like. Suddenly, I know a different part of Jesus, too. And it’s beautiful.

   (and I kind of want to go to the Holy Land but WHO DOESN’T, right?)

2. “She is the friend who is ever concerned that wine not be lacking in our lives.”
   This is from paragraph 286 in Evangelii Gaudium, and it’s been haunting me. There are other roles he mentions about Mary, too, and they’re ones I’ve heard before, ones I’ve loved before. But this one. This one references the Wedding Feast at Cana, how Mary was like, “Son. We’re running out of wine,” and I guess I never thought of her as Our Lady Queen of Keeping the Party Rolling but, how wonderful and wonderful is that?

   I mean, we all know that celebration is a key element in our faith…and it’s fun to reflect on the Mother of the Church doing her role in our lives as well.

3. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. (Luke 2:19)

This is a verse in the Bible, one you’ve probably already read. I’ve been thinking about it, too, though, as I’ve been thinking through new projects, new possibilities, new events and activities.
I usually externally process and I externally-process hard and across multiple mediums, so as not to overwhelm a singular source. I type hundreds of words into this blog and I talk to my family and I call my friends and I say, “Hello. Listen to this…” before starting tirades of text.
But, I’ve been noticing, lately, that for some of my possibilities/ projects…I don’t have words. The seeds are still too delicate and fragile; they still need to wait in my heart.
Also, maybe, I don’t understand them fully quite yet. And, maybe again, I won’t have the words to explain them to other people well.
It’s kind of a lonely place to be, at first, and I feel for Mary who was in a cave after just giving birth to the Son of God when all the shepherds crowded in with good tidings of great joy or in the temple where hopeful-beyond-hopeful expectation collided with astounding reality collided with gruesome prophecy. But, then, I realize: I’m not alone. Mary has been here before, too, with the silence and the pondering within our own hearts. So then we ponder together.

4. Alma Redemptoris Mater
   This is a prayer that Father Ryan shared with me. And, now, I’m sharing it with you:
   Loving Mother of the Redeemer,
   gate of heaven, star of the sea,
   assist your people who have fallen yet strive to rise again.
   To the wonderment of nature you bore your Creator,
   yet remained a virgin after as before.
   You who received Gabriel’s joyful greeting,
   have pity on us poor sinners.
   Amen.

   (Pray it out loud. It flows so poetically).

So, yes. Marian reflections, unrelated and short.

Love love,
-N-