FEAST OF OUR LADY, MOTHER OF ALL GRACES
June 12th, 2010
“The mother of Jesus said to the servers, ‘Do whatever he tells you’.”
Jn. 2 : 5
Celebrations were very important in the life of Jesus. He valued them because these festivities involved people, and Jesus came to be with people. Our mission, too, can be accomplished in times of joyous celebrations with others. In Jesus’ day, weddings were week-long festivals. Often the whole town would be invited – it was considered an insult to refuse an invitation to a wedding.
To run out of wine was most embarrassing. Mary approached her Son. She was probably not asking Jesus to perform a miracle: she was simply hoping that her Son would help solve the major problem and find some wine. Jesus’ answer to Mary is difficult to understand. Although Mary did not understand what Jesus was going to do, she trusted him to do what was right. Jesus said, ‘My hour has not yet come’ – that is the hour when he would manifest his glory. Mary, however, continued to trust and simply said to the waiters, “Do whatever he tells you.”
When the headwaiter had tasted the water that had become wine, he commented that “everyone serves good wine first” and later “when the guests have drunk freely, an inferior wine is served.”
The Gospel tells us that the disciples believed when they saw Jesus’ miracle. St. John uses the word ‘signs’ when he refers to the extraordinary manifestations of Jesus’ power. They point to something beyond the event. We are told that this was the first of the signs which Jesus performed. It is important, too, to bear in mind the words of Mary: “Do whatever he tells you.”
Prayer
Lord, help me to be alert like Mary to the needs of those around me and give me the sensitivity to respond as she did.
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.”
