hey, mama!

Mary’s role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it. “This union of the mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of Christ’s virginal conception up to his death”; it is made manifest above all at the hour of his Passion:

Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross. There she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, joining herself with his sacrifice in her mother’s heart, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim, born of her: to be given, by the same Christ Jesus dying on the cross, as a mother to his disciple, with these words: “Woman, behold your son.”

After her Son’s Ascension, Mary “aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers.” In her association with the apostles and several women, “we also see Mary by her prayers imploring the gift of the Spirit, who had already overshadowed her in the Annunciation.”

964-965 Catechism of the Catholic Church

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twenty-second week

Our Catholic Mass has a melodic rhythm to it. An Order. A Beauty. This week’s Prayers have been particularly moving to me and have stirred my heart to wondrous examinations. I have been grateful to recite them, to lift them up, to enfold them into my Spirit. May you too find a little nugget of peace for yourself as you read them & may all that we’ve gathered in our hearts remain with us, even as we move into a new series of prayers during the Twenty-Third Week…

Every Mass there is The Order of Mass. When the people are gathered, the Priest approaches the altar with the ministers while the Entrance Antiphon is sung or recited.

The Twenty-Second week in Ordinary Time Entrance Antiphon: Have Mercy on me, O Lord, for I cry to you all the day long. O Lord, you are good and forgiving, full of mercy to all who call to you.

And all pray in silence with the Priest for a while. Then the Priest, with hands extended, says the Collect prayer.

The Twenty-Second week in Ordinary Time Collect: God of might, giver of every good gift, put into our hearts the love of your name, so that, by deepening our sense of reverence, you may nurture in us what is good and, by your watchful care, keep safe what you have nurtured. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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in the silence of her heart

“But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.”

Luke 2:19

I have loved that scripture for years.

I love that, after the eager shepherds left to spread the
word that the newborn Savior was finally here, Mary was quiet; that she was still.

I especially love how even at the foot of the Cross, no doubt agonizing over the brutality that her son endured, Mary was yet again quiet; she remained still.

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