As the world celebrates Mother’s Day, I wanted to acknowledge the gentle woman chosen to be the Mother of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary.

The Virgin Mary is a source of inspiration to all Christians.

Chosen by God to give us Our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, God incarnate, she shows us from the beginning her unconditional love and perfect consent to God’s will.

Upon learning that she is chosen to be the Mother of Our Saviour Jesus Mary says, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word.” Luke 1:38

Let us take a moment to ask ourselves have we given God our unconditional love and perfect consent to His will or is our consent tempered by our own preferences, our own priorities and our selfish desires?

“Do whatever He tells you.” John 2:5   These are the words the Virgin Mary spoke to the servants at the Wedding of Cana. Her words remind us to do all that Her Son Jesus, Our Holy Lord commands.

Jesus said, “You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit–fruit that will last–and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.” John 15: 14-17

Jesus chose us to be His disciples and we are instructed to be fruitful. I regret that I spent too much of my life focused on my own priorities, not understanding that God had a plan for me and during that time of ignorance God waited for me. Now that I am no longer ignorant to God’s Will and His Way, I am striving to be focused on God’s priorities and now I am waiting on Him, striving to do His will.

I am mindful that all of us have a role to play in God’s plan of salvation and that like the Virgin Mary we must be ready to give God our full and unconditional consent to His plans as we rejoice in God’s willingness to live in us and work through us.

Let us praise God and give thanks to Him as the Blessed Virgin Mary did, acknowledging His greatness, His holiness and His infinite mercy.

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.” Luke 1:46-50

I think the greatest gift we can try to give our children is faith. If only we could prepare faith on a platter like the finest food, it would be so easy to give it to them.   Faith is a gift from God, and we know from the Scriptures that “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” Romans 10:17

I think the best way to help people understand God’s message is to live it. If we want to teach forgiveness, then we need to forgive. If we want to help people to be merciful then we need to say “I am sorry” when we have wronged them. The hardest thing I have had to do as a mother is teach my children that I couldn’t support some of their choices because they were contrary to God’s will. I told them that in time I hoped they would understand that I couldn’t be a good mother by choosing a path that would not be pleasing to God.

Helping people to embrace faith can be difficult, but if we are really God’s people we will never stop praying and witnessing to our faith, encouraging one another to trust in God’s infinite love! Good mothers must be ready to make difficult choices when we are pushed to choose between God’s way and the world’s way.

In Jesus’ final words on the Cross, He says “Behold your mother.” Jesus spoke these final words while He was suffering in great agony so we should carefully contemplate their significance.

When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, behold your son,” and to the disciple, “Behold your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. John 19:26-27

I don’t believe that Jesus waited until He was dying on the Cross in agony to make new living arrangements for His Mother. I believe that when Jesus was saying “Behold your mother” He was pointing to the ongoing role the Virgin Mary would play in His plan of salvation; she would become a Spiritual Mother to the disciples of Christ and we, like St. John, would become her spiritual children. The Virgin Mary would be a spiritual guide to all Disciples of Jesus, interceding for us, enabling us to pray with confidence “Hail Mary full of Grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen.”

All men and women of faith are called to be “spiritual guides” not just to our biological children, but to all the people God gives us. Through our example, through our words, through our prayers we can help God’s people who are in need of nurturing and conversion.

Let us strive to be courageous people of faith like the Virgin Mary who stood at the foot of the Cross of Jesus loving Him and suffering with Him. How much she suffered to watch her Son Jesus, Our Holy Lord, be tortured and killed for our redemption! The Holy Mother of God was selfless, totally devoted to God’s will! She gave up her Son Jesus so that all her spiritual children could be saved by the infinite love of God. Thank you Holy Mother for loving Jesus so much and thank you for loving us too!

Each day let us unite as Christians at the foot of the Cross of Jesus at 3pm (in our local time zones), the time He died for us, as we thank Jesus for loving us so much that He would die for us.  At this time let us ask Jesus to send His Holy Spirit upon all souls, especially those most in need of His mercy. Let us pray for our Christian brothers and sisters who are being persecuted and martyred for their faith in Jesus today. Remember the instructions of Jesus: “Love your enemies and pray for those that persecute you.” Matthew 5:44

Jesus we trust in YOU and we thank You for the many spiritual guides who help us to understand Your will and Your way, especially Your Blessed Mother and our Spiritual Mother, the Virgin Mary.