Feast of Mary, Virgin Mother of Grace

Good morning. Today from the Gospel of John Jesus offers us some insight into what it means to love and in the Book of Acts Saint Paul gives witness to love. If I truly love, if I truly love as I am called to love, as God loves, then, as Paul in the Book of Acts, I will give witness to that love. It seems that we live in a world void of conviction and certainty, everything, everyone seems to rule their lives, their every movement, yes, even their every word, and revealed belief by what is politically correct. I see this all the time with folks, an artificial, pretentious sort of getting along with others. But that’s the beauty of love. Love allows us to be, to be who we are, to be real. But that freedom we experience to be in a loving relationship can only be if we nurture that relationship, if we take steps to allow that love to grow and maintain it. A major part of how we do this is prayer and the sacraments. Blessed Teresa in her letter for Lent of 1996 wrote to her lay co-workers: “We need this deep connection with God in our daily life. How can we obtain it? By prayer.” This same sort of thing is required in our marital relationships. Just as we abandon ourselves to God’s will in our daily prayers we too need to engage in like abandonment with our spouse and remain connected as we do in our relationship with God. In both instances, when we abandon ourselves to the other it allows for an authentic sense of connectedness with the other. There can only be a true sense of connectedness and openness when we abandon ourselves to the will of that other, when we come to trust fully the goodness and good will of the other. Unlike the words in the one hit wonder by The Romantics, What I Like About You, “Tell me all the things I want to hear”, if we truly love, if we truly trust, we can share even those things we fear the most about ourselves. Of course it doesn’t hurt to once in awhile whisper in their ear things they want to hear. Make a great day!

Today we celebrate the Feast of Mary, Virgin Mother of Grace. Virgin Mary, full of grace, may we come to trust as you did in accepting to be the Mother of Our Savior. Help married couples to trust each other more fully.