The Nativity...

Dear Sisters,

I, unlike so many people have always liked Mondays.  I am usually refreshed after the weekend and the week's beginning always seems like such a hopeful time.  On Monday, the possibilities are endless.  This might be the week I stick to an exercise routine. Or I'll make only healthy meals and of course I'll go to daily mass.  The start of the week, like the start of any adventure fills me with hopeful anticipation.  This is a quirk of mine I suppose, as most people prefer Friday.  The problem with Fridays, is that it sheds a glaring light on all the dashed hopes of earlier in the week.  I am usually tired, a bit cranky and mad at myself for not fulfilling the promise of all my Monday hopes.

Another reason to like Mondays, are the Joyful Mysteries.  I must admit that I love to ponder these mysteries.  It might be because I can see the mysteries unfold from Mary's maternal point of view.  As a mother myself, I can feel her excitement, confusion, wonder, fear and bittersweet sentiments.

Today I prayed the rosary during Adoration at St. Mary's.  There is such a deeply spiritual poignancy to the rosary during adoration, where I can see a gorgeous statue of 'La Virgen de Guadalupe', the cross and of course the Lord in all His Eucharistic glory.  Usually I key in on Mary, sometimes dear Joseph, or cousin Elizabeth, but this time during the 3rd decade, I pondered deeply the nativity from Jesus' point of view.

I imagined all the cells dividing within our blessed Mother until they grew into a beautiful baby boy.  This little human was snug, warm and safe within his mother's womb.  He experienced the joy of hearing his mother's heartbeat and hearing the tone of her voice from within the womb.  Imagine the wonder as God experienced in the flesh the pinnacle of  his most wondrous creation: the human person. 

Imagine the violence of the birth, with Our Lady's womb contracting to push Our Lord from her body and into her arms.  Imagine the Lord's first breath of air with human lungs and the lusty cry of new life.  Imagine him being wrapped into a warm cloth and placed on Our Lady's chest.  Imagine that first look of utter love between mother and child; between the Creator and his most blessed creature, His mother.

The poignant beauty, hushed silence, transcendent love, takes my breath away.  Imagine the Lord experiencing as a human being the miracle of succor from His mother's breast.

God experiencing with human clarity the wonder of all he had created.  How marvelous an image!

I was transfixed by the images flooding my brain and I thought again as I do so many times throughout my days...How great is our God?!!!! 

Dear Mother,
You held Our Lord in your protective and loving arms. 
You fed with  your own body, the sweet boy, who is our Savior. 
You held his hand when he took his first steps, and taught him to say his prayers. 
You made his meals, washed his clothes, and kissed his hurts away.
You taught him traditions, table manners, and social conventions.
You watched him teach others and become who he was meant to be.
You gave him to us that we might have the Good News and in the fullness of time, you watched your baby die, that all human persons may have the possibility of everlasting life.

Teach me to love Mother, as you loved, without regrets and without conditions.
Teach me to hold Our Savior always in my heart. 
As you helped Our Lord become his authentic self,
help me to become the person that God wants me to be.

Mother of God, Mother of Mine
Pray for Me!

Amen