The Virgin Mary comes to us from the glory of where she lives and she speaks to us from the spiritual reality in which she is situated and to which she wants us to one day come too.

She had a road very similar to ours. She lived her vocation and relationship with God in faith. She has become an instrument of God’s love and mercy with her “I do”, when she responded to the proclamation of the angel which was also surprising and too great for her. And she brings us God’s love in these messages which appeal to us.

Mary is God’s servant, completely subordinate to his will, and prepared to carry it out in her life. She gives God the space to be able to work his miracles. With her “I do” Mary allowed God to come into this world and so she became the new Eve. Eve first brought destruction and suffering. Mary, the new Eve, thanks to her obedience to God, has untied the knot of disobedience that Eve brought about. Mary’s heart is a place in which God dwells. God comes to us through Mary and invites us to transformation, conversion and faith.

…We experience her as the one who stands on our side and fights for us…

Mary also had to walk the path of faith. In her life, there was nothing of the miraculous. In her life she experienced many difficulties and tribulations and had to overcome them: the search for a refuge for the birth of her Son; the flight to Egypt; looking for twelve year old Jesus; and at the end, bravely standing at the foot of the cross. God did not protect her from anything. She withstood the darkness of the cross together with her Son and she did not try to escape, nor did she give up.

In Mary, Jesus’ and our mother, we recognize each one of us. We experience her as the one who stands on our side and fights for us. Each of her revelations, every message and every word are her efforts to be heard and taken seriously. She does not cry, does not force one to accept, but persistently and lovingly invites in silence.

Many people have experienced her help and intercession. In their own lives they have experienced that Mary has untied the knots of their suffering and difficulties, the knots in human relationships, the knots in one’s own soul and the enslavement of knots that are the aftermath of guilt and sin.

…To turn ultimately means to believe in God’s love…

She as our mother wishes us to be happy. She knows that we can be so only if we turn away from the darkness of sin, destruction and evil, and that we turn to the light, to goodness, to God.

To turn means to turn away from our sins, to stand back from the abyss and to turn our heart back to God who is our health, peace, victory – who is the meaning of our life. To turn also means to believe Jesus’ words and promises: The kingdom of God is at hand. Believing in the kingdom of God means to believe that we can restore all in God, revive and turn to good even death itself. Whenever we decide for sin, evil, lying, we are in fact going on the path which leads to death, the path where we cannot find peace or life.

To turn ultimately means to believe in God’s love, that he gives us now through the mother of his Son.

Let us pray:

Mary, thank you that you do not give up on us. Thank you for your motherly patience and love that you desire to pour into our hearts. Thank you for every heart that is open and that has experienced the newness of life that God gives. Thank you for your obedience in faith. Obtain for us the grace of an open heart so that we can recognize God’s will and fulfill it in our life. We want to learn from you. Following the example of the Apostle John at the foot of the cross, we also want to take you to ourselves, and to learn from you to believe, live and love. Amen.