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We can learn from Mother Teresa's devotion to Mary |
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By Deacon Jim Lannan
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Thursday, 12 August 2010 |
At the conclusion of every daily Mass, the sisters of the Missionaries of Charity sing this simple prayer written to the Immaculate Heart of Mary:
Sunday Scriptures
Deacon Jim Lannan
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“O most pure and loving Heart of my Mother and my Queen,
Grant that I may love thee, love thee daily more and more!”
This prayer, written by Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, points to the
personal desires of the sisters to follow God’s will in their daily
duties with an amazing sense of joy, as they lift their hearts to the
Lord.
Perhaps if we struggle to joyfully recognize God’s presence in our daily
work, we can learn from their devotion to Mary. These holy women
joyfully radiate the presence of Jesus Christ, through Mary, because
they reflect her fidelity to God’s will in the “attraits” of her life.
“Attrait,” a French word meaning an interior desire, is used by Father
Jean Pierre de Caussade in his spiritual classic “Abandonment to Divine
Providence” to ex-plain how God is concealed in the shadow of our
interior desires and daily work, bringing Jesus to life in our heart.
Shadows enhance light
Shadows are relevant in the spiritual life. If we overlook the presence
of a shadow, we take for granted the light that preceded the natural
object casting the shadow’s shape. In noticing God’s shadow in the
duties of the moment, we acknowledge the divine light presently drawing
us closer.
Parents and children all have ordinary duties such as: typing a document
at work, changing a baby’s diaper or doing homework. We can often
dismiss these as just routine work. Yet, Mary looked at her own ordinary
duties as momentary opportunities for divine union by surrendering
her will. She joyfully recognized God’s shadow in them as part of his
plan to sanctify her life.
This Sunday’s Gospel is the visitation of Mary to Elizabeth and her
joyful proclamation of the Magnificat. Yet, just prior to the
visitation is Mary’s fiat, the extraordinary movement of the Lord in her
life, as the angel Gabriel told her: “The Holy Spirit will come upon
you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the
child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).
Readings
Sunday, Aug. 15
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
» Revelation 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab
» 1 Corinthians 15:20-27
» Luke 1:39-56
For reflection
Make a list of the things you do to live a happy life. Thank God for
the opportunities you have been given.
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Joy in the ordinary
Mary says “yes” to the Father’s will and then does what may seem like an
ordinary task of visiting her cousin. Here we see the spiritual
animation of Mary’s heart as she joyfully bursts into the Magnificat.
This teaches us that this kind of joy is possible when we surrender our
desires to the divine will in both the extraordinary and ordinary
moments of our lives, over which God casts his shadow.
If it has been some time since we found joy in our daily routine while
waiting for some fantastic gesture from God, we can learn from what
Mother Teresa taught her sisters.
Such extraordinary movements of the Lord within us have already
occurred and still remain with us today. They include our participation
in the sacramental life of Christ’s church: baptism, confession,
confirmation, holy Communion and marriage.
Fully living the sacramental life in Christ spiritually transforms every
duty into a form of nourishment for our faith as a sacrament of the
sacred moment. So we lift up our hearts in joy to Jesus through the
Immaculate Heart of Mary, our “Mother and our Queen.”
Deacon Jim Lannan is in formation for the priesthood at the St. Paul
Seminary. His home parish is Our Lady of Grace in Edina and his teaching
parish is St. John Neumann in Eagan.
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