Our Blessed Mother's Day
Mother's Day comes every year in May. In fact, it's this coming Sunday. And May is Our Lady's special month. It's no coincidence.
Even though she was born without sin, and was, of course, the mother of Our Lord, let's not just put Our Lady up on a pedestal. She's not some sort of a goddess. She's our mother. And like any mother, she wants us to do good and be good.
The other day, I was thinking that maybe she could help those of us who can't seem to make some time each day to read Scripture. The thought occurred to me when I was reading Luke's Gospel the other day.
A woman calls out to our Lord: "Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the paps that gave thee suck. But he said: Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it." (Luke 11:27-28)
This is incredible. Our Lord gives us two simple things to do to be as blessed as the woman who bore Him and nurtured Him while He lived here on earth - Our Blessed Mother: hear the word of God; keep it. Just imagine being as blessed as Our Lady! Well, if Our Lord said it, why not go for it? Let's start with hear the word of God.
For most of us, our best shot at hearing the word of God every day is reading Scripture for a few minutes. (We're certainly not going to hear His word in most of our other interactions in this world!) So that's step one.
Can't you find, let's say 5 - 15 minutes each day to read a few passages from the Bible? I can tell you it took me a while to develop the habit, but I did. Believe me, if I did you can.
Here's what I do. I read a Psalm, something from the Old Testament, a passage from the Gospels, something from the rest of the New Testatment (Acts, Letters, Paul, Revelation). I simply started this process with Psalm 1 in the Old Testament, then the first book of Genesis, the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.
So my reading had four parts: Psalms, Old Testament, Gospels only, rest of the New Testament (starting with Acts, ending with the Apocalypse).
The first few times, I just read straight through until I got to the end of each of those four sections. Then I just started that section over again. Now that I think about it, that means I've read the whole Bible more than once, probably more like two or three times. I don't know for sure.
Maybe it's not the most informed, educated way to read Scripture, but for me it got the ball rolling. Some mornings I spend 5 minutes, some 15. I don't always hit every part, but I at least read the Psalm and a Gospel passage.
You could rely on hearing scripture at daily Mass, if you go every day, I suppose. The problem with that approach, though, is the readings are limited, plus if you miss Mass, you miss the Word that day. Besides, if you're like me, when I'm at Mass during a work day, I must confess I really have trouble concentrating on the Mass. But maybe that's just me.
In any case, you probably should just try to get into the habit - not because I did, but because you'll get 'step one' accomplished - "hear the word of God." And try developing the habit of reading in the morning, if you can, before the day gets away from you. Again, 5 - 15 minutes - it's not really all that tough.
And if it seems especially challenging to you, then just ask Our Lady to help. Remember: she want to do good and to be good.
Of course, that's just step one in be as blessed as Our Blessed Mother. Then there's that other step, the one about keeping the word of God. I'm still working on that one.
But wait! Our Lord never suggests anything to us that we can't do. So if He said hear the word of God and keep it, then He knew that it was possible for us to do. There's hope. And who do you think can help us right now to keep the word of God?
Again, Our Lady, our Blessed Mother, wants us to do good and to be good. So if we call on her to help us read Scripture every day, we can surely call her to help us keep the Word of God by being good, right?
So that bit of Scripture from Luke that I read led to my spending a few moments thinking about it (call it "meditating" if you want), and that led to all these connections. But don't give me any credit. It was all Our Lady's doing. She must have been watching over me, loving mother that she is.
Isn't it wonderful to have Our Lady as our mother? Happy Mother's Day, Mary!
Even though she was born without sin, and was, of course, the mother of Our Lord, let's not just put Our Lady up on a pedestal. She's not some sort of a goddess. She's our mother. And like any mother, she wants us to do good and be good.
The other day, I was thinking that maybe she could help those of us who can't seem to make some time each day to read Scripture. The thought occurred to me when I was reading Luke's Gospel the other day.
A woman calls out to our Lord: "Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the paps that gave thee suck. But he said: Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it." (Luke 11:27-28)
This is incredible. Our Lord gives us two simple things to do to be as blessed as the woman who bore Him and nurtured Him while He lived here on earth - Our Blessed Mother: hear the word of God; keep it. Just imagine being as blessed as Our Lady! Well, if Our Lord said it, why not go for it? Let's start with hear the word of God.
For most of us, our best shot at hearing the word of God every day is reading Scripture for a few minutes. (We're certainly not going to hear His word in most of our other interactions in this world!) So that's step one.
Can't you find, let's say 5 - 15 minutes each day to read a few passages from the Bible? I can tell you it took me a while to develop the habit, but I did. Believe me, if I did you can.
Here's what I do. I read a Psalm, something from the Old Testament, a passage from the Gospels, something from the rest of the New Testatment (Acts, Letters, Paul, Revelation). I simply started this process with Psalm 1 in the Old Testament, then the first book of Genesis, the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.
So my reading had four parts: Psalms, Old Testament, Gospels only, rest of the New Testament (starting with Acts, ending with the Apocalypse).
The first few times, I just read straight through until I got to the end of each of those four sections. Then I just started that section over again. Now that I think about it, that means I've read the whole Bible more than once, probably more like two or three times. I don't know for sure.
Maybe it's not the most informed, educated way to read Scripture, but for me it got the ball rolling. Some mornings I spend 5 minutes, some 15. I don't always hit every part, but I at least read the Psalm and a Gospel passage.
You could rely on hearing scripture at daily Mass, if you go every day, I suppose. The problem with that approach, though, is the readings are limited, plus if you miss Mass, you miss the Word that day. Besides, if you're like me, when I'm at Mass during a work day, I must confess I really have trouble concentrating on the Mass. But maybe that's just me.
In any case, you probably should just try to get into the habit - not because I did, but because you'll get 'step one' accomplished - "hear the word of God." And try developing the habit of reading in the morning, if you can, before the day gets away from you. Again, 5 - 15 minutes - it's not really all that tough.
And if it seems especially challenging to you, then just ask Our Lady to help. Remember: she want to do good and to be good.
Of course, that's just step one in be as blessed as Our Blessed Mother. Then there's that other step, the one about keeping the word of God. I'm still working on that one.
But wait! Our Lord never suggests anything to us that we can't do. So if He said hear the word of God and keep it, then He knew that it was possible for us to do. There's hope. And who do you think can help us right now to keep the word of God?
Again, Our Lady, our Blessed Mother, wants us to do good and to be good. So if we call on her to help us read Scripture every day, we can surely call her to help us keep the Word of God by being good, right?
So that bit of Scripture from Luke that I read led to my spending a few moments thinking about it (call it "meditating" if you want), and that led to all these connections. But don't give me any credit. It was all Our Lady's doing. She must have been watching over me, loving mother that she is.
Isn't it wonderful to have Our Lady as our mother? Happy Mother's Day, Mary!
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