My Dear People
I grew up when bumper stickers were popular. One of my favourites was:
Mary and Joseph knew that they weren’t. In the normal course of things parents desire a child and decide to have one. But this Child chose his father and his mother.
From all eternity God the Father had thought of this Child. It was through and for Him that the world was created; of Him that the prophets spoke; for Him that Mary had been attracted to virginity and Joseph to chastity, and they to marriage. A great light enveloped them both, and their gratitude was boundless.
To be chosen by God to be the parents of His Son – could there be a happiness more profound? To have been chosen by their own child, is there a more amazing joy for parents? Whereas for other people the child is the one who must be grateful to his parents for the life he has received from them, Mary and Joseph gave thanks to the Child for the life they had received from Him.
This Child was entrusted to them by God. Jesus ‘needed’ from his parents the protection of his childhood and his youth, and an education that would turn him into a man of a particular time, milieu, race, and religion. God had entrusted Him to Joseph and Mary. He who created, inspired, directed, and sanctified them for that very moment and mission, delegated his paternity to them. An unbelievable privilege.
Their willingness not to be normal – and to accept the huge responsibilities and inevitable suffering to which it would lead, led to our salvation. We owe them our gratitude. And for God’s sake,
Yours in Christ,
Fr John
Regular Services:
All Saints, Godshill:
Sung Eucharist
11:00 a.m. every Sunday
Holy Communion
9:30 a.m. every Thursday
St Alban’s, Ventnor:
Sung Eucharist
9:30 a.m. every Sunday
Holy Communion
9:30 a.m. every Wednesday
St Margaret’s Hall, Ventnor:
Holy Communion 11:00 a.m. 8th & 22nd December
Baptisms, Marriages, Deaths
None in December
Special Services & Events:
Christmas (pt2)
Epiphany:
Sunday 6th January
Candlemass:
Sunday 3rd February
We can ask Mary anything
Mary is a mother. We should all start by asking ourselves about our relationship with our own mother. Was that relationship life-giving and constructive, or hurtful?
Next, we should examine our relationship with Jesus. Because Mary brings us back to her Son, every time. She doesn’t keep anything for herself, and all the graces we obtain come from Jesus.
It does not matter what we ask her. If we ask from the heart, with the faith and love we should reserve for a mother so beautiful and so perfect, then we will receive graces, even if they don’t always match our initial request.
Why ask Mary instead of Jesus? Jesus is the primary object of our prayer, with the Father and the Holy Spirit. But “the heart has its reasons, which reason does not know” (French philosopher, Pascal). Our hearts naturally turn to Christ’s Mother and ours. To pray to Mary is perhaps a way to make our prayer more concrete, closer to the realities of our daily lives. It is believing in love and thus opening our hearts wider and wider, as sons and daughters.
Finally, turning to Mary in prayer is to contemplate Jesus in a different way, as Son and Brother.
