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In
Search of the Spirit
A
monthly letter from the Glenmary Vocation Office
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December 2004
Mary, Queen of December
By
Father Steve Pawelk
October and May are officially the months dedicated to Mary, the Mother of our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is in December, though, that I find myself most reflecting on her.
This month we have several feast days revolving around Mary: Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8) , Our Lady of Guadalupe (Dec. 12), Christmas (Dec. 25), and the Feast of the Holy Family (the Sunday after Christmas). Glenmary is a Marian missionary order and, as such, these days all have significance for discerners of our way of life.
The Immaculate Conception is really about the grandparents of Jesus and how God prepared the way for our salvation over generations. Still, the reading for the day is from Luke 1: 26-38, which ends with Mary's fiat : "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." Is this not the freedom and trust out of which each of us hopes to make our response to God's challenge and call in our own lives?
An outdoor mural of Our Lady of Guadalupe holds a place of honor at our residence in Cincinnati. I am told the image came to Glenmary as a result of a pilgrimage that some of our men took in the 1950s. Now, as Glenmary serves thousands of Mexicans in most of our missions, this feast day has taken on even greater significance.
The story is a great example of evangelization by using local images to bring home the message of Christ so it may take root in the hearts of people of every race and nation. (If you do not know the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I invite you to "Google" it to find out.) As a missionary group, we plead for Our Lady of Guadalupe's assistance both to help us minister to immigrants and to inspire us to communicate the message of Christ so that all people in rural America may come to believe and joyfully live out that belief.
Christmas focuses on the birth of Jesus. Yet one of the most powerful images of Christmas is from Luke 2:15 -20 where we read, "And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart." According to Luke it is clear that Jesus was born in poverty, was seen first by the poor, and came to give hope to the poor. As Glenmarians, we keep all these things in our hearts with a special love for the poor and a deep desire to bring hope to those in poverty.
Finally, we have the Feast of the Holy Family on the Sunday following Christmas. Matthew's Gospel tells of the flight into Egypt (Mt 2:13-15; 19-23). Here we see how God protected Jesus through visions given to his foster father, Joseph. A famous image of Joseph leading a donkey bearing Mary with Jesus in her arms communicates an overriding sense of love despite the burdens of life. (This image, by the way, is at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.). Men from Nigeria and Kenya are now part of the Glenmary community--which reminds me of a beautiful painting in the Josephite Chapel in Nigeria that shows the flight into Egypt leading to the United States. God protects us all and his Word is carried in the loving arms of missioners from around the world to our rural regions of the United States.
Mary certainly shines in December. May she continue to guide Glenmary, keeping us focused on the good news of her Son, Jesus, from whom all salvation comes. May she also help you in your day-to-day discernment of the Spirit.
