For the nine months Christ was in His Mother's womb, "She had nothing to give Him but herself. He asked for nothing else. She gave Him herself." (Reed of God
, pgs. 55-56) Houselander's images of Mary preparing "His hands for the nails" and "the Host for the Mass" were so moving to me. Again we see how to imitate Mary in our ordinary lives by giving Him our hands, our voice, our ears, our very breath. And in doing so He transforms our ordinary lives into something infinate and permenant- Christ in the world. As she notes, "To-day Christ is dependent upon men" (Reed of God, pg. 59). He gives our insignificance, significance; our ordinariness, extraordinariness; our chaos, purpose; our confusion, clarity. He offers our mortal souls eternal life, and like fools, we wonder skeptically what He really wants.
Giving Christ time- time to gestate, time to flourish, time to whisper to our souls. It is not for me to insist upon or expect an immediate answer (from Christ, my husband, for a baby...) but to wait, and wait with tenderness, patience and care as a mother waits for her child to be born, as Mary waited for Jesus.
In this light, this period of waiting for a phone call, an answer, a child in my arms, a finalization from the judge, all of this waiting is a time of Advent. "In the seasons of our Advent- waking, working, eating, sleeping, being- each breath is a breathing of Christ into the world" (Reed of God, pg. 68).
7 comments:
Beautiful I love it. Keep these reflections coming. I love to wake up and read them.
I gave your blog an award!
I finished the chapter last Thursday and have been anxious all week for the discussion. I said it once and I'll say it again-this book is amazing!! Since I didn't want to read ahead-I found myself going back and re-reading the first three chapters!
The beautiful reflection on p 56 (Mary giving Him sight, sound, sleep, etc) blew me away. I don't know if I've ever read anything more beautiful. It especially struck me as someone who has been blessed with a baby in my own womb. It just gave me an overwhelming sense of honor and privelege and responsibility. And that last line! "She prepared the Host for the Mass," So profound! I have a new love for Mary because of this one paragraph.
The questions on p 57 really challenged me to strive for holiness during pregnancy because I'm now responsible for TWO souls.
P 60 got me too. "Sometimes it may seem to us that there is no purpose in our lives, that going day after day for years to this office or that SCHOOL or factory is nothing but waste and weariness. But it may ne that God has sent us there because but for us Christ would not be there. If our being there means that Christ is there, that alone makes it worthwhile." This was what I needed to hear after my last year of work. There was a purpose, there was a reason. Thank God!
The image of the flowering bud on p 63 was beautiful. It made me want to be more in tune with the Holy Spirit to be able to have that effect on people.
Awesome, awesome chapter!
I mentioned it (I think) in my introduction, but thinking about how "For nine months Christ grew in His Mother's body" (55) always resonates with me. C was due Dec 28 (but came nearly 4 weeks early!), so throughout my first pregnancy I felt intimately tied to the rhythm of Mary's own pregnancy. As first time mothers of a surprise pregnancy that would drastically alter our lives, we seemed connected in the joy, suffering, acceptance, and anticipation.
The part in this week's section that really convicted me was on pg 57, where Houselander asked how anyone who knew that Christ wied to work with His hands could then create anything short of humanly-capable perfection. How often do I only go halfway with things because I'm just anxious to move on. My husband fits much better into the idea of one who strives to do everything fully in order to make it as pleasing and perfect as possible. I need to learn from him in that way.
On pg 59 I thought a lot about how sometimes when I do good things for others, it *is* with the intent of making myself more kind or unselfish.
The part Kaitlin identified on pg. 60 really struck a chord, especially the idea that, "But it may be that God has sent us there because but for us Christ would not be there." This will hopefully help me to be more content in any situation I'm in, seeing a bigger picture in general, a picture I can't see with my earthly perspective.
I feel like I'm going on too long... my last thoughts deal with pg 64 (creativeness left out) and pg 66 (suffering seen as failure). I have to go feed a baby now, but will continue to think on these things and hopefully find time to post later.
I love how this chapter describes how we are capable of blessing everyone and every situation simply by the fact that we are bearing Christ. We needn't explain or say a word about it, we need simply live out our lives with that protective consciousness of Him whom we are bearing. The deeper our awareness of this inner intimacy of ours with Jesus, the more inclined to loving service and the less inclined to sin should we be. Simply by bearing Christ, Mary's mere physical approach to Elizabeth caused John in Elizabeth's womb to leap and caused Elizabeth to cry out "Blessed is she...!"
I really need Houselander's emphasis on patient, silent biding of time. I am such a control freak. The references are so beautiful to precious, tender, buried seed life requiring darkness, silence, time - God's own time, not mine. Especially consoling was her reference to those poor people who, having suffered greatly, suffer further because they sense themselves feeling colder, harder, further from God because of having suffered, rather than having become ennobled, more beautiful, holier. She assures them that even in this difficult time, God is working, coming to fruition in them; that they just need to let this "'Advent' in sorrow run its course"; to be patient, to "trust rightly that Christ is growing in their sorrow, and that in due season" will yield "a splendour of peace."
As she speaks to us in different ways I continue to hear the seemingly constant reminders that some of God's greatest works, some of our closest times with him are just in our every day, ordinary tasks. *Why is it so hard for me to realize this!?*
p 55 "His own will she formed Him from herself, from the *simplicity* of her daily life"
p 60 "Sometimes it may seem to use that there is no purpose in our lives, that going day after day for years to this ... is nothing else but waste and weariness... If our being there means that Christ is there, that alone makes it worthwhile."
The second reoccurring theme for me is silence/patience. p55 "It is the season of humility, silence and growth"... She mentions it several times and the way she speaks of it just makes we want to go and be patient! :) That's some good motivation! And even when we feel we are failing that if we are just patient enough to let our season of Advent run it's course we will "flower". (p66)
On p 62 I really liked the idea that if Christ is growing in us we shall find that we are driven more and more to act on the impulse of His love. And similarly on p 57 "we must believe that He is growing in our lives...This attitude it is which makes every moment of every day and night a prayer".
This was just all very motivating to me and yes, it does touch us each in a different way which I find completely amazing!
I just went back and re-read this chapter to kick start my Advent. Wow! I think I need to read this on an annual basis.
Here were some things that stood out the second time:
Advent is "a season of humility, silence, and growth." Let's all keep THAT in mind as we try to prepare for Christ's coming!
I loved the image on p 59 of Christ going from being totally dependent on Mary to being totally dependent on US in the Eucharist. We have the same privilege that Mary had!
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