Thursday 24th May, 2012
Our Lady Help of Christians. Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31. You are the highest honour of our race. Judith 13:18-20. James 3:13-18. Luke 1:39-56.

  
Meditation: mp3 | podcast
Readings: Text | mp3 | podcast

‘From now on all generations will call me blessed.’

And so they have. But perhaps all those centuries separating Mary’s life in Nazareth and ourselves have blunted some of the impact of Mary’s song. We too often forget that these are words of a pregnant young girl who had every reason to be frightened, not rejoicing. When the angel told her she would bear a child, she had asked the obvious question—’How?’ No doubt she also wondered, ‘What will become of me now?’ But her final answer was, ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord.’

Mary’s response is a model for ours. So often, God seems to be asking us to do something that makes no sense and offers only pain and humiliation. But we pray: ‘My spirit rejoices in God my saviour.’