{"id":7214,"date":"2021-08-22T15:55:58","date_gmt":"2021-08-22T05:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=7214"},"modified":"2021-08-22T15:55:59","modified_gmt":"2021-08-22T05:55:59","slug":"lessons-from-st-mary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/lessons-from-st-mary\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons from St Mary"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Lessons from St Mary<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Michael Fanous<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

St Mary is loved by the whole world for so many reasons. How\ncan we imitate the life and virtue of St Mary? By analysis of her words and actions\nrecorded in the Gospels, there is much for us to learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked questions of the Lord<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

How can this be since I do not know a man?<\/p>Luke 1:34<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Archangel Gabriel came to her and this was the first question\nthat she asked of him. It wasn\u2019t that she was surprised that she had an angel\nbefore her, but the request he made of her. This shows us that she wanted to remain\na virgin all her life, and thought this was most favourable in the eyes of God.\nGod had other plans that came a surprise to St Mary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are all allowed to ask questions of the Lord for the purpose\nof understanding. We can tell Him what we wish as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abraham asked questions of the Lord as well. When the Lord wanted\nto destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham asked, \u201cFar be it from You to do such\na thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous\nshould be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the\nearth do right?\u201d<\/em> \u2013 Genesis 18:25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the questions of Abraham that would have spared the nation\nof Sodom and Gomorrah if just one righteous man was dwelling there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We see in Moses as well the question that Moses asked that prevented\nGod from killing the nation of the Israelites when they turned to worship Baal.\nMoses says to God, \u201cLord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people\nwhom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a\nmighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, \u2018He brought them out to\nharm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of\nthe earth\u2019? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your\npeople\u201d <\/em>(Exodus 32:11-12). The Lord listened to Moses and His wrath against\nthe people was defused. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Psalm 73, when Asaph, the prophet, was wondering how he\ncould say to the people of Jerusalem that the Lord is good while the ungodly\nwere prospering? One day he went into the sanctuary and he saw the Lord and he\ncame out with great revelation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was so foolish and ignorant;
I was like a beast before You.
Nevertheless I am continually with You;
You hold me by my right hand.
You will guide me with Your counsel,
And afterward receive me to glory.<\/p>Psalm 37:22-25<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In the end, we see that Asaph finds delight in the Lord above\nall ungodly pleasures that the world has to offer. The end result is our submission\nto the Lord. As St Mary says, \u201cBehold! The maidservant of the Lord.<\/em>\u201d We\ncan ask questions of the Lord but our end must remain the same; that we reach\nsubmission under the Providence of our Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St Mary carried the joy of the Holy Spirit wherever she went <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As soon as Mary greeted Elizabeth, the babe leapt within her\nwomb for joy. The place became filled with joy, peace and of the Holy Spirit.\nElizabeth asks, \u201cBut why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord\nshould come to me?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We then read the prophecies of St Mary, being so full of the\nHoly Spirit. When we greet others, do we take Christ with us? Do we share our\njoy to that person? Does the Holy Spirit fill the place we are in? Wherever St Mary\nwent, she took the Holy Spirit with her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My soul magnifies the Lord,<\/em> And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Every time we are blessed or receive grace from the Lord,\nthis is what should come to mind. Moment by moment we receive grace from the\nLord that we can\u2019t help but give thanks for. We give glory to God, for He is\nthe Provider of all good things. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Searched for the Lord until she found Him<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

When Christ was twelve years old, St Mary and St Joseph searched\nfor Him for three days and eventually found Him in the temple. Do we search for\nthe Lord? Do we keep searching until we find Him? We know that we will only\nfind Him in His home; His church. We are joined with Him in the altar. We find Him\nin the small churches of our homes and in our hearts. The Holy Spirit resides\nwithin us. We need to search for Him and His Word. Keep searching until you\nfind Him, and then never let Him go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St Mary did not demand action from the Lord, but trusted in His response <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

At the wedding of Cana of Galilee, St Mary only needed to\nsay, \u201cthey have no wine,\u201d and knew the Lord would take care of it. St Mary\nshared her feeling with the Lord and then left the solution up to Him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It could almost be assumed that Mary and Martha learnt from\nSt Mary. They say to the Lord, \u201cthe one whom You love is sick,\u201d (John 11:3) and\nnothing more. They didn\u2019t say come immediately or just say a word and he will be\nhealed. They knew the Lord would do the best. Do we do the same? Do we put our\nproblems before the Lord and allow Him to do as wishes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are we open to hearing no from the Lord? Our Mother Mary\nshowed us how to live the way of holiness, to be godly, through submission and\nacceptance of all that comes from the Lord. Sharing our lives with Him, whether\nit is joy, a request or our needs. We are always in communication with the\nLord, then truly we will be sons and daughters of the Lord and be able to have\njoy with Him in all until the very last days where, \u201cthere shall be no more\npain, for the former things have passed away\u201d <\/em>(Revelation 21:4).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glory be to God forever, Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lessons from St Mary Adapted from a sermon by Fr Michael Fanous St Mary is loved by the whole world for so many reasons. How can we imitate the life and virtue of St Mary? By analysis of her words and actions recorded in the Gospels, there is much for us to learn. Asked questions … Continue reading “Lessons from St Mary”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7215,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7216,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7214\/revisions\/7216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}