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December 31

Eve of the Feast of Mary, Mother of God

Mother benign of our redeeming Lord, Star of the sea and portal of the skies, Unto thy fallen people help afford – Fallen, but striving still anew to rise. Thou who dids’t once, while wond’ring worlds adored, Bear thy Creator, Virgin then as now, O by thy holy joy at Gabriel’s word, Pity the sinners who before thee bow.

-Roman Breviary, Antiphon of the Blessed Virgin

For Reflection

Spend some quiet moments with Mary by reflecting on this antiphon. Journal your reflections.

December 28

“True love of God consists in adhering perfectly to His holy will, not desiring to do or to be other than what God indicates for each of us, to the point of becoming, as it were, “a living will of God.”

-Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene, OCD

For Reflection

How does the Blessed Virgin Mary demonstrate true love of God according to the definition given to us in this quote? How and why is she the icon of “a living will of God?” To what extent am I the same? What one strategy in the coming new year can I employ to help me be more so? Add it to my list of resolutions.

December 27

“The Blessed Mary certainly did the Father’s will and so it was for her a greater thing to have been Christ’s disciple than to have been His mother, and she was more blessed in her discipleship than in her motherhood.”

-St. Augustine

For Reflection

Consider this quote in light of Luke 11: 27-28. Write your thoughts and reflections. How did Mary’s discipleship begin at the moment of the Annunciation and continue throughout her life? To what extent does your discipleship mirror hers? Formulate a new year’s resolution to help you grow in this way in the coming year.

December 26

Her Feet Shod with Holiness

And, if our faith had given us nothing more Than this Example, of all Womanhood, So mild, so merciful, so strong, so good, So patient, so peaceful, loyal, loving pure – This were enough to prove it higher and truer Than all the creeds the world had known before. Virgin, who lovest the poor and lonely, If the loud cry of a mother’s heart Can ever ascend to where thou art, Into thy blessed hands and holy Receive my prayer of praise and thanksgiving. Let the hands that bore our Savior bear it Into the awful presence of God; For thy feet with holiness are shod, And, if thou bearest it, he will hear it.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

For Reflection

What qualities does Longfellow cite that underscore for him why Mary is the “Example of all Womanhood?” How have we seen these virtues expressed in the excerpts from A Woman Wrapped with Silence? Which of these virtues do I most need to acquire? What does the poet admit is the benefit of offering our prayers to Jesus through Mary, His Mother?

December 24

A little girl Had wandered in the night, and now within The shadows of a broken stall, was waiting, While the night winds and the breath of time Were moving over her.

The beat of pulses and the hush of heat Had made a silence more intent within Surrounding silence. Deepening of night. …And then a moment’s fall, …A sigh, unheard within the dark, and then…

She…wrapped him up in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger.

She knelt and held Him close against her heart, And in the midnight, adoration fused With human love, and was not separate.

And very near, the man named Joseph came. He was the first To find her thus, the first of all the world. And when her faint smile called for him to take Him for a breathless moment, he was first To know there is no other blessedness.

For Reflection

What is Mary’s interior response to Jesus? Joseph’s? What is your response to Jesus when you behold Him in the Blessed Sacrament? When you receive Him into your being at Holy Communion? How can you increase your devotion to the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Entrust to Mary, Mother of God, your reception of her Son. Her intercession will yield abundant fruit, the Fruit of her womb.

(Excerpted from A Woman Wrapped in Silence By John W. Lynch)

December 23

December 22

A little while, And then the day was slipping down behind The dark, and clung there, like a crystal drop… O, was there here some haste That pushed the light more hurriedly, as if This were an ending era, and the last Of days? … Then suddenly, the road Was turning, and ahead, some clustered roofs… He turned, And called to her: “Mary. It is here. This is Bethlehem.

So now he pulled the bridle on a path Well worn, ahead of him. …A fire and feel that there were others near. A kind of courtyard, square, but with a roof Around the edges, and a gate to close… Joseph’s eyes were hopeful as he stood To wait an answer. Then he heard them say, There was no room for them within the inn.

For Reflection

These lines speak of hope and promise, new beginnings and graces. But, they also speak of the Cross. Where and how do you see both? Consider how the Cross is implicit from the moment of Mary’s annunciation to the moment of Golgotha. How is it at the heart of the Christmas story – in its joys and its deprivations? How have your crosses also produced joy? Journal your thoughts. What do you make of the words, “…as if this were an ending era, and the last of days?”

(Excerpted from A Woman Wrapped in Silence By John W. Lynch)