Dai­ly Reflec­tion
Decem­ber 12, 2014

Today is the feast of our Lady of Guadalupe hon­or­ing Mary, the Moth­er of Jesus. It com­mem­o­rates the appear­ance of Mary in 1531 to St. Juan Diego near Mex­i­co City. He car­ried a mes­sage, at Mary’s request, to build a church on the Hill of Tepey­ac.
The Gospel read­ing today recounts the appear­ance of the angel Gabriel to the Vir­gin Mary, a young teen betrothed to Joseph of the House of David. When the angel told Mary of her selec­tion to bear the Son of the Most High she was trou­bled and I’m sure in grave doubt. As the angel told her of the work of the Holy Spir­it and the fact of Elizabeth’s con­cep­tion in old age Mary gave her­self to God’s will.

One of the great gifts of Igna­t­ian spir­i­tu­al­i­ty is the use of imag­i­na­tion to place our­selves in the pres­ence of Jesus, of God, or per­haps the Saints. Let us use our imag­i­na­tion and place our­selves with this young teen woman who is told she will be preg­nant with­out know­ing rela­tions with a man. Can we pic­ture her con­cern? Can we imag­ine her fear at being ostra­cized with the scan­dal? Can we see the doubt and ten­sion on her face as she con­fronts God’s will for her? Yet sup­port­ed by her faith in God and the pow­er of the Holy Spir­it she declares “may it be done to me accord­ing to your word”. Mary respond­ed to the angel and to the man­i­fes­ta­tion of anoth­er mir­a­cle in the form of Elizabeth’s pregnancy.

Mary’s exam­ple is a light to us in today’s world, in today’s times.  While we may not have the direct inter­ven­tion of an angel are we atten­tive to the move­ments of the Holy Spir­it in our hearts? Can we qui­et the cacoph­o­ny of dis­trac­tions in our world long enough to lis­ten to the will of God for us? Are we inten­tion­al­ly look­ing for God in all things and all peo­ple to catch those Eliz­a­beth-like mir­a­cles that are tes­ti­mo­ny to God’s con­tin­ued and active pres­ence in our own spheres in the world today?

I this Advent sea­son let Mary’s exam­ple inspire us to become qui­et and cen­tered so we may lis­ten to God’s will for us. Let us be able to pro­claim  “may it be done to me accord­ing to your will”. Amen!