Friends, today is the great feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In Mexico she is affectionately known as La Morenita, the dark one. I always think it is fascinating that when Mary shows up, she looks familiar to those she is appearing to. It also seems appropriate that today we pray the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary because in the first two mysteries Mary is pregnant, which reflects her condition when she appeared as Our Lady of Guadalupe.
At the Annunciation many things happen. I love using the
Ignatian method of imagining ourselves in the scene to see what happens.
***
I imagine I am at Mary’s home. I walk over to the doorway
leading to the back of the house. The opening has a curtain over it. It is a coarse
homely cloth. I draw the curtain aside to go through but I stop because I hear
an otherworldly voice. It’s like music. You can almost see it shimmering in the
air. The voice says, “Hail, full of
grace, the Lord is with you.” I look at young Mary and I don’t see fear but she
is clearly in awe and her eyes are open very wide.
She doesn’t reply immediately but she is pondering what this
greeting might mean. Her smooth olive brow has a little furrow in it. The being
says, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold
you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name
Jesus.”
I am so shocked I let the curtain fall shut, but I clearly
hear Mary respond, “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me
according to your word.”
A sudden breeze makes the curtain flutter open. The other
being is gone. Mary slowly rises from her seat, smooths her dress over her
belly, letting her hands rest there for a moment. Nothing will ever be the same again.
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