Prayer of the Day

Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

November 21st, 2014

When the crowd told Jesus that his mother and relatives wished to speak with him, he used the opportunity to remind them that anybody who did his Father’s will could be regarded as a member of his family.

Jesus’ own journey to the Father is enclosed between the two statements: “At the head of the book it is written, ‘I have come to do your will’ and ‘Into your hands I commend my spirit.” Christ’s mission causes him to extend the boundaries of his dwelling place and his family: “Whoever does the will of my Father is my brother and sister and mother.”  The will of the Father took Jesus all the way to Calvary. In the Garden of Gethsemane we have the final handing over of his will – “Father, not my will, but yours, be done.”

Jesus identifies his mother as the one who did the Father’s will. It was that same will that sustained her as she took her place beside the Cross of her Son. We don’t know how Mary got there; the Gospel simply tells us that “she stood there.”

This faith and fidelity to the Father’s will sustained our own people in hard times. A common phrase on the lips of our people was, “May God’s holy will be done!”