LEARNING FROM MARY HOW TO LIVE IN UNITY WITH JESUS

The theme of Mary’s being united with Jesus, and thus being a model for his own unity with Jesus, returns often throughout the years that Eugene was at the seminary. On Christmas morning he wrote to his mother:

Dearest Mother, do you really think that I was not beside you last night? How could I fail, meditating as I was on the holy Mother of God, who had just been filled with consolation on giving the world its Saviour, and at the same time had to experience so vividly the poverty, weakness and misery to which she saw her Divine Master reduced for love of men, how could these tender sentiments fail to draw me close to you? Indeed yes, darling mother, we spent the night together at the foot of the altar, which for me represented the crib in Bethlehem; together we offered our gifts to our Savior and asked him to come to birth in our hearts and strengthen us in all that is weak, etc. 

Letter to his mother, 25 December 1809, EO XIV n 37

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1 Response to LEARNING FROM MARY HOW TO LIVE IN UNITY WITH JESUS

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    I think of the times in my life when I was yearning for something, or when my heart was missing something and how I was so unaware of what I wanted that I could not conceive it, put a word or a name to it. And so was so very unaware of what was waiting for me, until I received it.

    Yet once I received it, I was able to name it, and I think back to how I met Mary in my own life and how I recognized her immediately (just as I had instantly recognized Jesus when he spoke my name – I knew in the deepest way that this was my God).

    I think once again of the Magnificat (Luke 1:46) and of how it has for many years now been one of my favorite and most loved pieces of scripture. And how even as I try to ‘recite’ it, my heart sings the words with joy and gratitude. It was only last week that I consciously realized it is all about God, praising and giving Glory to God. How could I not have realized that sooner?

    I remember the joy of learning, recognizing how Mary was/is our first model of ‘oblation’, of how we give ourselves to God. It is never just me or another, but always a matter of ‘we’ – joining together to become one, to live in unity with Jesus – that’s how we become one. My prayer begins with me moving towards God – always towards God and all that is greater than just myself alone. This morning I as together we give thanks and being to move together in life, in unity with Jesus.

    My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
    my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
    for he has looked with favor on his humble servant.
    From this day all generations will call me blessed,
    the Almighty has done great things for me,
    and holy is his Name…

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