Mary Contemplating the Word
We are very Mary-oriented Franciscans and to us it has seemed that the Mother of God invited us, ‘Come my way to Jesus’. This is our way of living and we apply it to our approach to Sacred Scripture. Mary is the model of what happens when the Word dominates our lives, her life reflects the successive stages of encounter with the Word.
Annunciation
Luke 1:26-38
We listen to the Word of God, to a personal message, the Word invites us, we say yes. We conceive the Word, it becomes alive in us. We are moved to charity, we act in God’s name.
Visitation
Luke1:39-56
The Word moves us to the service of others in our community. We speak words of gratitude and praise in formal prayer, the Magnificat becomes our song.
Nativity
Luke 2:8-20, Matthew 2:7-19
We bring the Word into the world. We become evangelists. Others come to the Word and we listen to the Word through their witness, we listen to the shepherds who heard the angels sing, we listen to the Magi, to their convictions, we watch as they kneel in adoration to the Word, we accept God’s direct revelation to Joseph. We become missionaries. We take the Word to other lands, to Egypt. We become protectors of the Word, its sanctuary.
Presentation in the Temple
Luke 2:22-38
We present the Word in the Temple, offering the Word to the Father, we accept the Word as the law of our hearts that it may be continually fulfilled, that it may continually go forth to accomplish the will of the Father. We accept the sword, the double edged sword that comes between our soul and our spirit, that penetrates where no other living thing can go. We offer ourselves.
Finding in the Temple
Luke 2:41-51
We become aware of the absence of the Word in our lives, but we can find the Word afresh each day, the Word is the Temple, not fixed to one place or one time, from the Temple flows the living waters by which we live. The Word shows us how to live a life in hidden obedience, in the quiet of our spiritual home.
Cana
John 2:1-11
The Word is our prayer, we become intercessors to bring to others the power of the Word, we become encouragers to others to lead a life of obedience, to do as the Word tells us. We become prophets of the Word.
Disciples
Matthew 12:46-50
We are the mother and brothers and sisters of the Lord
To us, through Mary, he says:
Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and do it!
Under the cross
John 19:25-30
The Word is in our suffering, our suffering is in the Word We watch, pray, ponder, contemplate all things in our heart. We find our unity in the Word.
Pentecost
Acts 1:13-2:13
The Word, through His Spirit, makes everything clear, all is revealed, the Church is birthed and gives us the wisdom and insight to teach, the discernment to lead, the power to heal the broken hearted, give sight to the blind, to let the lame walk, to drive out demons and raise the dead – to bring all peoples to life in Christ The Spirit makes the Church the living Word.
Assumption
Ephesians 1:16-23
The Word gathers us up into the heavenly kingdom, we have done what is ours to do, we live with the Word into eternity