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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)

December 21

“A Christmas Journey of Prayer

Then the word came with the iron Of empire forged in it:… Of enrollment. Lands and provinces, They’d said, and men and citizens and slaves.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem…to be enrolled with Mary, his espoused wife, who was with child.

And then, A door was closed behind them, and the sound Was loud in isolated emphasis Against the stillness and the dawn’s cold fog… A woolen shawl And wrappings clutched together for the cold Enveloped her… A final glance had shut away this house That had been hers, the echo of her movement Fades to silence… It’s true enough, that they had often stopped, And she had gone, as one among the rest Of women then to find relief against The road’s fatigues, and when the fires were made, She worked among them in the fading day. Did they not know? Could they not feel the nearness? …The Source? Already, some unheld reflection Of the questing light that was to rest Forever in His eyes, looked out from hers As answering, she said: “To Bethlehem.”

For Reflection

“Enveloped her…” In addition to the cold, what else do you think enveloped Mary as she trod the distance to Bethlehem? What is suggested throughout the poem? What do you think enveloped Joseph? What envelops you now? What do you make of the last four lines – consider them in light of the previous GraceLines?

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

December 19

“…Mary acquired a very special relation with God. The blood of Jesus, the heart of Jesus and the body of Jesus are formed by the blood of Mary. By adoring the blood, the sacred wounds and the heart of Jesus, we adore something proceeding from Mary which was assumed by the Son of God.”

-Blessed James Alberione

For Reflection

The words of St. Maximilian Kolbe come to mind: “Oh, Immaculata! Who are you?” What great mystery is ours in the Incarnation! Jesus is in Mary. And Mary is in Jesus. Ponder this mystery of our Faith and journal your thoughts. Then pray the following prayer:

Dear Mother, draw me into your Immaculate Heart and chain me there with cords of grace. In this Sweet Vessel, imbue me with the life of your Son, Jesus Christ. Teach me how to imitate your virtues that I may be filled with grace. Carry me to the Sacred Heart of your Son that in Him I may rest forever. Amen.

(Excerpts from A Woman Wrapped in Silent by John W. Lynch, reprinted by permission of Paulist Press.)