"The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming." Romans 10:8

"The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming." Romans 10:8

Lectio

Mary made space for the Word to dwell. This is also our vocation. Mary abandoned herself in "the obedience of faith.” with her fiat to the Incarnation. At the foot of the cross she most completely "abandoned herself to God without reserve" (RM, 18). Bl. James Alberione refers to the two high points, in Mary's life of faith, as her “two annunciations”: announcing that she would be Mother of God and Mother of the Church. At the crucifixion Mary shared in Christ's own self-emptying. Her journey of faith did not end here. She was present when the Church's journey of faith began on the day of Pentecost. “The Church is the new incarnation of Jesus Christ, mystical but true and real” (Abbot Rolland). Mary's faith inaugurated the new and eternal covenant. Ratzinger submits that the chapter on Mary in Lumen Gentium, “rounds out the Council’s ecclesiology” by bringing it back to its Christological and Trinitarian starting point (152). Mary is type and exemplar of the Church, herself a mother, bringing forth to new and immortal life children, conceived by the power of the Spirit and born of God. (MC 19). Only when the connection between Mariology and ecclesiology is grasped, writes Ratzinger, will we have understood correctly the “picture of the Church the Council was trying to portray” (150).

Meditatio:

A proper understanding of Mariology is a key to ecumenism. She made space in the world for God to dwell with us. “She carries within her the whole mystery” (151) of the unique and concrete existence of the Church - the body of Christ.

Oratio:

The Church is here in order that holiness, the dwelling of God with women and men, of men and women with God, may come about.  The Marian view of the Church and the ecclesial and salvation-historical view of Mary lead us back in the end to Christ and to God the Trinity; because here it becomes clear what holiness means, what the dwelling of God in man and in the world, actually is…” (152).

Actio:

You have the 'Word of God so close to you, in your heart and in your mouth - this is the covenant promise of your baptism. How do you share faith with your family and your neighbors? Does this include "self-emptying" as well as "annuncation?"