FROM THE PASTOR’S DESK
Dear St. Mary’s Parishioners:
Can you guess who the most popular woman subject in artistic history is? She’s been the subject of marble statues from the great medieval masters such as Michelangelo and Fra Angelico. She adorns the walls of humanity’s most audacious structures. Poems and paintings have been inspired by her the worldover for more than two millennia. In fact, she still changes hearts in our very day.
Of course, I am speaking about none other than the woman whose name graces our parish – St. Mary, the Blessed Mother. Under various titles, we love her. She’s the Theotokos in Greek – the God-Bearer – carrying the Christ child in her womb. She’s the Immaculate Conception, as she told St. Bernadette in Lourdes, France where the sick go to bathe themselves in the miraculous springs. She’s Our Lady of Fatima to the Portuguese, where she promised a miracle in 1917, witnessed by thousands, as the “sun danced in the sky.” She’s Our Lady of Guadalupe, who helped pave the way for the conversion of ten million Aztecs to Catholicism giving birth to the Mexican people. She’s Our Lady of Victory to the soldiers at the naval battle of Lepanto in 1571, whose intercession helped save all of Christendom from invading armies of the Ottoman Empire. She’s Our Lady of Akita to the Japanese, whose tears mysteriously shed from a wooden statue broadcasted to the entire country in 1973. She’s Our Lady of Kibeho to the Rwandans, where she appeared in the 1980s to school girls in a small rural village. I can go on and on and name more places and cultures but I shall stop here.
We must ask ourselves, why has this woman affected the lives of literally billions? After all, she is not a goddess, of course. She bears no towering intellect or earthly power. The answer is remarkably simple; she’s great because she listens. We read in the Gospel, “The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.” (Cf. Luke 2:16-17) That last line explains Mary’s magnificence. Her sole purpose is to ponder the will of God and act accordingly. She always leads us to her son – Jesus Christ. A healthy Marian devotion will increase one's love for the Lord. Now do you see why Mary will never stop inspiring Christians for all ages? All she does is point to God and tells us, “Do whatever he tells you.” (Cf. John 2:5)
A Slave of Jesus Christ,
Fr. Brian J. Solive
