8 May
May 8th, 2010
‘Behold the handmaid of the lord’
Luke 1. 38
The month of May has for a long time been known as Our lady’s month. May processions may be a thing of the past but devotion to Mary the Mother of God is still very much part of our Faith. How do we express this devotion? For some it is the recitation of the Rosary or other marian prayers. Others like to make a pilgrimage to one of Mary’s shrines. But all of us are called to show our devotion by striving to imitate Mary – the disciple who did God’s will throughout her life.
‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord’ was on Mary’s lips and in her heart not just at the Annunciation but in every situation. She was the faithful disciple who walked the way of the Cross with her son, stood at the foot of the Cross and shared Jesus sufferings in an unique way.
We can have no doubt that at Easter Our Lady was the first to share in the joy of the Risen Lord. And having remained for some time to share the life of the first Christians she was taken up to heaven to share in the glory of her son.
Today she speaks to us as she did to the wedding guests at the wedding of Cana, ‘Do whatever he tells you’. That is how we show true devotion to Mary – obey her Son.
Prayer
Queen of Heaven, rejoice. Alleluia
For he whom thou dids’t merit to bear. Alleluia
Has risen as he said. Alleluia
Pray for us to God. Alleluia
The prayer for each day has been prepared by various members of the Holy Family Association. All who visit our website are remembered in prayer. If you would like us to pray for a particular need, simply complete and submit the form on the right hand side of this page. You may wish to leave a comment in the space below.
Just a Thought
How the Holy Family prayer: A Reflection by Pope Benedict XVI
“I would like to invite you to reflect on the place of prayer in the life of the Holy Family of Nazareth. The home of Nazareth, in fact, is a school of prayer where we learn to listen, to ponder and to penetrate the profound meaning of the manifestation of the Son of God, drawing our example from Mary, Joseph and Jesus.
Pope Paul VI during his visit to Nazareth said “we come to understand the need for a spiritual discipline, if we wish to follow the teaching of the Gospel and become disciples of Christ.” And he added: “First, it teaches us silence. Oh! That there would be reborn in us the esteem for silence, that wonderful and indispensable atmosphere of the spirit: while we are deafened by so many noises, sounds and clamorous voices in the frantic and tumultuous times of modern life. Oh! Silence of Nazareth, teach us to be resolute in good thoughts, intent upon the interior life, ready to listen well to the secret inspirations of God and the exhortations of the true masters.”
We can glean several insights on the Holy Family’s prayer and relationship with God from the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ childhood. We may begin with the Presentation of Jesus in the temple. St. Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph, “when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, brought the child up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord”(2:22). Like every observant Jewish family, Jesus’ parents go up to the temple to consecrate the firstborn son to God and to offer sacrifice. Moved by fidelity to the law’s prescriptions, they set off from Bethlehem and go up to Jerusalem with Jesus, who is now forty days old. Instead of a one-year-old lamb, they present the offering of simple families; that is two young pigeons. The Holy Family’s pilgrimage is one of faith, of the offering of gifts, a symbol of prayer, and of encounter with the Lord, whom Mary and Joseph already see in the son Jesus.”
