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Gospel: Luke 1: 39-47
Mary set out
and traveled to the hill country in haste
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
“Most blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled.”
And Mary said:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my savior.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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This is the only Gospel where two women appear… and they’re both pregnant. It’s what we celebrate today, “motherhood.”
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We’ve all had mothers. Some of us are mothers. We celebrate them because you cannot be a mother to yourself. You’re always a mother in relation to someone else – offering life, protection, nourishment, and love.
Mary was the mother to Jesus. Elizabeth, the mother to John. And Our Lady of Guadalupe, a mother to Saint Juan Diego.
She appeared to him in his native Mexico over the course of 4 days in the year 1531. During these appearances, she said to him, “Am I not here, who is your Mother? Are you not under my protection?”
Her message converted 8 million natives, and through the centuries, millions more.
It’s why the Blessed Mother was featured on the cover of National Geographic Magazine a few years ago. They named her the most powerful woman in the world because of our universal Catholic devotion to her.
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Mary offers each of us what she offered Saint Juan Diego – the assurance of her prayers and the comfort of her embrace. Do we feel it?
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We turn to her today in hope, that she will intercede on our behalf before Jesus as we pray, Hail Mary, full of grace…
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Image credits: (1) Our Lady of Guadalupe (2) Our Lady, cover of National Geographic (3) Our Lady Queen with Child Jesus, Etsy