From Season to Season

  Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." —Luke 1:38 The Gospels do not relate a single word spoken by Joseph, the husband of Mary. He is a silent, protecting figure standing in the shadows during the Season of Advent, coming into view only in the final days of this season of watching and waiting. And, while we do hear from Mary in the gospels of Luke and John, few of her words have come down to us.  Despite the fact that we hear so little from the parents of Jesus, we can nevertheless recognize one particular virtue that both shared: obedience.  “Obedience” isn’t a particularly popular word in our culture, including within the Church. Sadly, too many people have to come to associate obedience with some sort of blind submission. Instead, if we look at the history of the word, we see that it comes from two Latin words, ob and audire , and our English word “obedience” means to listen or to hear.  This sense of l...

" Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God."— Colossians 3:16 Although this admonition from Saint Paul is not among the readings that may be used for Masses in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as I reflected on today’s Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, they seemed to reflect Mary’s engagement of God’s Word, both as the Mother of Christ and as a woman of faith. Recently, Pope Francis reminded us that Mary faced life’s journey with “great realism, humanity, and practicality.” While the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary most often invites reflection on Mary’s contemplative spirit (which Blessed John Paul II highlighted in his Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae , in which he introduced the new “ LuminousMysteries ”), this title of Mary reminds us that she was a woman of active faith, a faith which took her infinitely beyond the...