Recherche

image-i-nations trésor

Mary Mother of God

4th Sunday of Advent, Year C

21 décembre 2018
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: contemplate, hurry, Luke 1:39-45, Mary Mother of God, meditate, reflect

Just a few days before Christmas, many of us are rushing – hurrying to do this, to go there, to buy that. So many things to do, so many tasks to see to, so many people to contact…

So much, so many – it seems a mountain to climb to accomplish all that we are faced with before…

Before what?… Well… before Christmas!

The gospel text of today (4th Sunday of Advent, Year C – Luke 1:39-45) shows us Mary, precisely before Christmas. She, too, is in a hurry, we are told, and she too has a mountain to climb (at least, a hill, as the text describes it).

“At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country…”

She has just been visited by an angel, she has been asked to be the mother of God’s own Son and… she goes – she gets ready and moves on, not for herself but to help someone else. 

Some people would have expected her to stay home and reflect on what has just happened… Reflect, meditate, contemplate, adore – of course! Yes, of course, she will do all that, I believe… on the way!

Perhaps our own way to prepare for Christmas could be similar to hers: Reflect, meditate. contemplate, adore… in the midst of all the chores and duties that we are faced with.

If that way was good enough for her, should it not be good enough for us?!

 

Source: Image: infovisual.com

Note: another reflection is available on a different theme at: 

https://image-i-nations.com/4e-dimanche-de-lavent-annee-c/

Feast of Mary, Mother, Year A

29 décembre 2016
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: Christmas, Gal.4:4-7, getting used to, God's plan, God's Son, human being, Mary Mother of God, New Year, praise, wonder

There are attitudes which can be helpful and make life easier and more pleasant. Other ways are less conducive to growth and happiness. One of these is called: ‘Getting used to’… Of course, the repetition of certain tasks can make them easier to perform. Exercise and practice can make one more proficient. But this does not apply to understanding some realities.

You may wonder where this reflection is leading to. These thoughts came to me while reading the letter to the Galatians (2nd reading, Year A – Gal.4:4-7) where we are told that God’s Son was “born of a woman”. We repeat it every time we pray the Creed: “He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.”

Do we ever stop at this point unable to go on out of sheer amazement? Has it ever happened that other people around us went on reciting the text while we remained in total wonder at this extraordinary reality: GOD IS THE CHILD OF A HUMAN MOTHER. The fact is that we have got ‘used to it’… It somehow seems that the words flow of themselves as if things could not be otherwise – we have repeated them for so long!

Only God can make such plans: to involve a human being like us for his own Son to become precisely this: a human being like us. This is what we celebrate at Christmas, and this is what we celebrate today on this Feast of Mary, Mother of God.

In fact, what we celebrate is: God who needs – God wanting to be in need: is this not astonishing? –in need of a created being to carry out His design. Mary said ‘Yes’ not only to a baby of her own, but to… a son of God’s own, and yet… a son or her own!

Is this not enough to keep us in wonder and praise for the whole of this new year?!

3rd Sunday of Easter, C

7 avril 2016
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: 153 fish catch, Adam, fishermen, Gn.2:19, God's concern, Jesus, Jn.21:3, Jn.21:9-10, Lc.1:32, Mary Mother of God, Risen Lord

How are you doing?
How are things with you?
Are you managing all right?
How are you faring?

So many expressions that we hear repeatedly – expressions of interest in another person, expressions of concern about what is happening to him or her.
They manifest to others that we care for their well-being, we may even worry somehow about their welfare.

stchrysostoms.wordress.com

This is the language that the ‘man-on-the-shore’ uses to greet the group of fishermen getting closer to the lakeshore. “Friends, have you caught anything?” The faces surely give the answer as well as the lips: “No.” So the stranger – so he appears – adds: “Throw the net out to starboard and you’ll find something” (Jn.21:3).

The story is well-known to us including the catch of 153 fish. Human concern, so it seems, has provided what every fisherman dreams of! More still, God’s concern expressed in the of the Risen Lord slowly recognised as the Master.

Whenever I read this gospel text, I marvel at many aspects of it but there is one that especially retains my attention: “As soon as they came ashore they saw that there was some bread there, and a charcoal fire with fish cooking on it. Jesus said, ‘Bring some of the fish you have just caught’.”(Jn.21:9-10).
Jesus had already prepared breakfast for his apostles – everything was there ready and yet… he asks them to contribute something.

This is what I call: ‘God’s method’, yes, God’s way of doing – from the first chapters of Genesis (Gn.2:19) when God tells the newly-created man to name the animals, to the moment of the Annunciation (Lc.1:32) when God asks Mary, a woman of our race, to be the mother of his Son – God wants us to collaborate with him. He wants us – poor, weak, unreliable though we may be – to take part in his plan to make the world a better place, that is to save it, literally!

And in this ‘year of grace’ 2016, I do not see God’s method having changed… only his collaborators have… looking very much like you and me!

Source: Image: stchrysostoms.wordpress.com

Feast of Mary, Mother of God, C

28 décembre 2015
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: blessings, chance, good luck, Happy New Year, Mary Mother of God, Moses, Numbers 6:22-27, opportunity, Psalm 66-67, synchronicity

Moses, uncyclopedia.wiki« I will bless them… »

Our reflection for yesterday – the last day of the year – was inviting us to ‘Count our blessings’.
And our celebration today, on the first day of the New Year is all about BLESSINGS.
The word comes back in different texts of the liturgy.

In the 1st reading (Numbers 6:22-27), we see Moses calling on God’s blessing for his people: “May the Lord bless you…”
And we hear God’s own promise: “And I will bless them.”
The Psalm (66 (67) echoes the same words: “May God be gracious to us and bless us… May God still give us his blessing.”

Nativity Michael Gleghorn.com

As we celebrate today the Feast of Mary, Mother of God, we recall the prayer that we, Christians, address her so many times.
We repeat again and again: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.”

In our daily conversation, we do not often mention the word ‘blessing’. We hear people talk about chance, opportunity, good luck. A recent addition to this list is that of ‘synchronicity’ an expression that underlines the fact that something good happened just at the right time. Strangely, the word ‘blessing’ seems absent.

Is it that we do not recognise it under its disguises? Would it be that we no longer discern God’s visitation to us and the many gifts (another word for ‘blessings’) that his coming brings to us? Is it that… we look without seeing, that… we hear without perceiving?

In the text of Luke’s gospel today (2:16-21), we are told: “Mary stored up all these things in her heart.”
Perhaps that was the secret why she was happy (another word for ‘blessed’).
During this festive season, we exchange good wishes of all kinds and we often repeat to all those we meet: ‘HAPPY New Year!’ Yes, we want this new year to be happy in all manner of things.
We want it to be… ‘blessed’, filled with the Lord’s precious gifts as the weeks and months go by.

It will be so, if only we keep in our hearts the memory of God’s repeated blessings reaching us from day to day!

Pics: Moses uncyclopedia.wikia.com      Nativity Michael Gleghorn.com