A Special Place for Mary in our Hearts

Do you have a special place for our Lady in your life? During my stay here in the seminary there are countless virtues that are imbued to us; these virtues are given in many forms such as in work, chores, studies, and in our 9 nosegays prior to the celebration of a special feast or solemnity. Some groups have their own way of encouraging us to participate in our daily nosegays – a good example is the one given to us now, by the ACTS youth group. But the question is; are we fulfilled every time we do a particular virtue for just one day? Are we contented with the minimum? Why is it that we just practice it nine days before the feast day itself? Can’t we do it for 365 days? The point of the matter is – isn’t that unfair for her whom we honor in these novena days? All her life she practiced all the virtues that you can think of. How can we imitate her? How can we be generous, pious, tempered, prudent and etc and etc?

We also have these prayers and practices in honor of our Lady. But what is the use of the recitation of the Holy Rosary if we have conflicts with each other; what is the use of the novenas if we cannot be brothers to each other. We tend to see ourselves the oppressed and the lowly ones but in fact we are among the proud ones. I cannot but just ask myself; is this the congregation/community that really loves our Blessed Mother? But what is the answer to all these questions?

My dear brethren all start with the big letter A – acceptance. For me it is the key for us to understand the entire situation that we encounter. With this we can engrave in our hearts every virtue that we know. Just like our Blessed Mother she accepted the will of the Father, and now we honor her for she is the model of all virtues. For me this must be the very first thing that we should learn; to accept. It will spring up like plant and grow into a beautiful tree and bear fruits, much fruits, copious fruits. The very first thing to do is to say “I accept.” Accepting ourselves might be difficult for us to do the next moment for we might excavate long lost memories that are hurtful for us, but it will all have to start here. Just say it “I accept.” After having said that to ourselves may I now invite you to approach the person you hate most yes the one you hate most it may not be necessary to do this now, for this might be very difficult but imagine that you might not wake up tomorrow morning. If find that you are not yet ready for that, don’t be plastic for it might just hurt our Blessed Mother. Tell those people you hate, “I accept you as my brother.”

In giving a special place for our brothers in our hearts we also give a special place for Mary in our hearts. I cannot guarantee how long we are going to continue accepting each other, but I hope and pray that we may persevere not just in our vocation but in being brother to our brothers. May God bless us all.

Mary Immaculate Help of Christians