Weekly Pause & Ponder

God, active and present throughout all ages, mindful of our every need, has chosen Mary to collaborate in the gestation of justice in the world. As "spokeswoman of the anawim" ... – the poor – Mary models in her surrender the receptivity essential for the transformation of all our spiritual and material poverty, blindness, and hunger into the fullness and joy of the risen presence of Jesus.... The Advent mother awaiting birth is one with the Easter mother awaiting and welcoming the new life of Christ’s risen presence. Together they call each of us to enter into the joyous song of exultation and praise that was Mary’s. Her song is the call to rejoice in gratitude for the ever-present, merciful God of love who offered to her, and offers to us, a timeless, pregnant convenantal intimacy, an intimacy rooted in mutual promise and surrender.

Freedom: a guide for prayer

, by Jacqueline Syrup Bergan and S. Marie Schwan, pp. 22-23.