Mary TV Daily Reflection 5/31/2012

The Visitation (Mariotto Albertinelli)

May 31, 2012 The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary   Dear Family of Mary!   "Dear children! I am calling you to that love which is loyal and pleasing to God. Little children, love bears everything bitter and difficult for the sake of Jesus who is love. Therefore, dear children, pray that God come to your aid, not however according to your desire, but according to His love. Surrender yourself to God so that He may hear you, console you and forgive everything inside you which is a hindrance on the way of love. In this way God can move your life, and you will grow in love. Dear children, glorify God with a hymn of love so that God's love may be able to grow in you day by day to its fullness. Thank you for having responded to my call." (June 25, 1988)   Our Lady wants us to be swept away by God's love! It seems as if she would wrap us up in a mantel of God's love, sweeping us off our feet and clasping us to her heart in an ecstasy of love. Like little babies who can only surrender, she would have us comply with God's wish to carry us away in His love, consoling us, forgiving us and moving us into His plan of love for each of us. If she had her way, we would begin to live each moment in the nurturing atmosphere of love, fed by it, led by it and changed by it! This is what it means for Our Lady to live in God, and she wants it for us.   How do we know that this is Our Lady's experience of God? She has told us so. She has shared her "Hymn of Love" with us, that hymn she sang to her cousin, Elizabeth, all those many years ago. Her Hymn of Love:   My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.   From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name.   He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation.   He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit.   He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.   He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.   He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children for ever. (Luke 1: 46-55)   Blessed Mary is God's lowly servant. She is one who fears the Lord. (We see this in the way she responded to Gabriel at the Annunciation.) She has seen the strength of God's arm. (In so many ways God intervened to protect and nurture Our Lady. Think of the dream to St. Joseph, or the Flight to Egypt.) He has lifted her up, because she is lowly (making her the Mother of God!!). He has filled her with good things because she was hungry (hungry for God's love). He has helped her because she lived in the faith of His promises to Israel. She saw the fulfillment of all the Old Testament promises in the Incarnation of God's Son. And so, she is fully aware of the great love of God. She actually carried that great Love within her.   Our Lady asks us to sing a hymn of love to the Father as well. She wants us to recognize all God has done for us and sing it back to Him in joy and gratitude. In doing this we will begin to grow in love. The Holy Spirit will be able to fill us with all good things as we sing a hymn of love to God.   We might take Our Lady's Hymn of Love and use it as a pattern for our own hymn. How am I lowly? How do I fear the Lord? How has God's arm moved in my life? When have I been lifted up precisely because I am lowly? When have I been filled with good things? When have I witnessed the fulfillment of God's promises? In all these moments in our lives we can find the content for our hymn of love! We are all so blessed. Indeed, all generations will call us blessed, because GOD has done great things for us!! Let's sing!!   In Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Cathy Nolan ©Mary TV 2012

 

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