Our Lady’s Fidelity

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

“Be it done unto me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

When John Paul II went on his first international trip in 1979 to Mexico, he said, “Among the many titles that the filial love of Christians has attributed to Our Lady through the centuries, there is one with the most profound meaning, Virgo Fidelis, Virgin Most Faithful.”

Then he asked the question, “What does this fidelity of Mary signify? What are its dimensions?”

He said, “The first dimension is called ‘search.’ Mary was faithful above all when she began to seek lovingly the deep meaning of God's design in her and for the world. ‘How shall this come about?’ (Luke 1:34), she asked the Angel of the Annunciation.

“Already in the Old Testament, the meaning of this search is translated into an expression of rare beauty and extraordinary spiritual content. ‘Seek the Lord's face’–Vultum tuum, Domine, requiram! (Ps. 27:8).

“There would be no fidelity were there to be absence in its source, this burning, patient, and generous search, were there to be lacking in man's heart a question to which only God has the answer, or better yet, a question to which only God is the answer.”

“The second dimension of fidelity,” he says, “is called welcome acceptance. The ‘How can it be?’ on Mary's lips becomes ‘Let it be done’ (Luke 1:38). I am ready. I accept.”

He says, “This is the crucial moment of fidelity, the moment in which a man sees that he will never totally comprehend the ‘how.’ In God's design, there are more mysterious zones than evident ones; that however much he tries, he will never come to comprehend everything.

“It is then that man accepts the mystery and gives it a place in his heart, just as ‘Mary conserved all these things, pondering them in her heart’ (Luke 2:19).

“This is the moment then in which man abandons himself to the mystery, not with the resignation of someone who surrenders to an enigma or an absurdity, but rather with the availability of one who opens himself up to be inhabited by something—by Someone!— greater than his own heart.

“That acceptance is fulfilled definitively by faith, which is the whole being's adhesion to the mystery being revealed.

“Coherence is the third dimension of fidelity. To live according to one's beliefs. To adjust one's life to the object of one's adhesion. To accept misunderstandings and persecutions, rather than to permit ruptures between one's life and one's belief: this is coherence.

“It's here perhaps,” he says, “that one finds the most intimate core of fidelity.” It's a type of unity of life.

“But all fidelity,” he says, “must pass through the most demanding test: that of duration. Therefore, the fourth dimension of fidelity is constancy.

“It's easy to be coherent for one day or some days. But it's difficult and important to be coherent for one's whole life.”

We see this great virtue lived out in the whole life of Our Lady, and each one of us is called in our particular place to follow that example.

Here is where we can get great hope and inspiration from all those who went before us—people who dedicated their lives to God, the Church, and the world, and did wonderful things in education, in health care.

We have to help many people to know those historical realities so that it gets passed on from generation to generation.

“It's easy to be coherent in the hour of praise; difficult to be so at the hour of trial.” Mary stood beside the Cross. “Only a coherence that lasts for one's whole life can truly be called fidelity.

“Mary's fiat–“Let it be done” at the Annunciation, finds its fullness in her silent fiat that she lives out of the foot of the Cross. To be faithful is not betraying in darkness what one has accepted in the open” (John Paul II, Homily, January 26, 1979).

We're told in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that Mary is the model of all the virtues.

We can ask her to help us to be faithful in difficult moments, in business deals, in our marriage, in our family, and our living of the virtue of temperance, so that we always do what is right at all moments.

When that moment comes to make a professional decision, it may be very tempting to do something wrong, that we know is against the moral law. Maybe even everyone else in our own profession is doing it.

But here's where we're called to be faithful, to give example, not to compromise with evil, even in the most trying circumstances. For that, we need a great fortitude.

In the Gospel of St. Mark, it says Our Lord “appointed twelve to be with him and to be sent out to preach” (Mark 3:14).

There are two dimensions of the call of the apostles: being with Jesus and being sent out. There's no fidelity if one of these is missing.

Our Lord has given us the means to make sure that we can always be with Him. We don't need to make appointments. We don't need to inform Him.

We can call on Him any time, anywhere we find ourselves. He's always available. He tells us, ‘I’ll be there for you.’ He’s there for us 24/7.

“Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). How can we say no to a person who always says yes to us?

In the Old Testament, it says, “I was like a beast before you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.

“Whom do I have in heaven but you? And there is nothing upon earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

“For lo, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to those who are false to you. But for me, it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord my refuge, that I may tell of all your works” (Ps. 73:22-28).

“For me, it is good to be near God.” We can ask ourselves: How do I take care of the periods of mental prayer?

And we say, like the Psalm, “I am continually with you.”

Do I tell Our Lord to talk to me? ‘Tell me what you want to tell me. Tell me what I need to hear. Wake me up. Egg me on. Give me courage. Give me strength.’

We can ask ourselves: Do I try to get to know Our Lord better in the reading of the Gospels or in spiritual reading?

Do I tell Him, ‘Lord, speak to me as I read. Help me to occasionally interrupt my reading with prayer, not with distractions. Help my reading to become a source of light that I can pass on to others. Help me to contemplate your life in the mysteries of the Holy Rosary.’

We can ask Our Lady to help us to get to know Him better, to also “ponder all these things carefully in our hearts.”

Help me to detach myself from those things that prevent me from speaking with you. Take away from me whatever takes me away from you.

Give me the gift of knowledge to understand the relative worth of these things.

Help me not to invent needs. Help me not to complain when I don't even have the necessary things. Remind me that I only need one thing and that is to be with you.

“Only one thing is necessary” (Luke 10:42).

The second part of those words of St. Mark (the first one said, “to be with him and to be sent out to preach”)—in Psalm 73:28, we're told, “I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.”

Faithfulness means staying with the Lord. It also means doing the work to which He sends us: “to tell of all His works.”

Fidelity is proselytistic. A deep, personal, familiar, and intimate friendship with Jesus Christ infects us with the desire to save souls.

“I came to cast fire upon the earth, and would that it were already enkindled” (Luke 12:49).

Lord, burn us with the fire of your Spirit–Uri igne Sancti Spiritus.

In this way, when our hearts are aflame with love for you, we will want to transmit your love to others. We will tell them of the wonderful things you've done.

First of all, we want your charity to warm our family life. And fidelity is contagious.

When we're always with you, we will learn lessons of service, of thoughtfulness, of attentiveness to others' needs. Lessons of kindness, of affability, of forgiveness, of patience. Lessons of fortitude, of magnanimity, of joy.

St. Paul teaches us, “Love is patient, love is kind. Love is not jealous or boastful. It is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrong but rejoices in the right. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Cor. 13:4-7).

The love of the Sacred Heart of Christ will impel us to “launch ourselves into deep waters” (cf. Luke 5:4), to look for souls one by one. Our lack of talent will not be a hindrance because your grace will be there.

The first Letter of St. John says, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life…that which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us.

“And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And we are writing this, that our joy may be complete” (1 John 1:1, 3-4).

During a visit to Brazil, Pope Benedict said, “I send you out, therefore, on the great mission of evangelizing young men and women who have gone astray in this world like sheep without a shepherd.

“Be apostles of youth. Invite them to walk with you, to have the same experience of faith, hope, and love; to encounter Jesus so that they may feel truly loved, accepted, able to realize their full potential.

“May they too discover the sure ways of the commandments, and, by following them, come to God” (Benedict XVI, Address at Meeting with Youth, May 10, 207).

To God's will, Our Lady has but one reaction: to love it. Proclaiming herself to be the handmaid of the Lord, she accepts His plans without any reservation, whatever.

In the world of antiquity, in which slavery, the lot of the servant, was a common condition, this expression of Mary is seen in all its force and depth.

The slave, you could say, did not have a will of his or her own, nor could he or she have any desire independent of their master’s.

Our Lady agrees with the greatest joy and with all her heart to have no other wish than that of her Master and Lord. She gives herself to Him unreservedly, without condition.

In imitation of Our Lady, we could also try to have no other will or any other plans other than those of God.

And we want this in the things that are obviously of transcendent importance for us, that is, in our vocation to sanctity, and also, in what immediately relates to it in the ordinary little things of every day, the mundane details of our work, our family life, and our social relations.

When we meditate on the second Joyful Mystery of the Rosary, The Visitation (Luke 1:39-45), we could focus our consideration of it on one specific aspect of service to others which is a part of our vocation: the order of charity.

The visit of Our Lady to her cousin presents one outstanding manifestation of the order of charity. We have to love everybody because they are all, or can be, children of God.

But in the first place, we must love those who are closest to us, those with whom we have special ties, such as members of our families. This charity has to be shown by deeds, not only by affection or fondness.

We could think in our prayer of our dealings with our family, of the numberless opportunities that come our way of exercising, quite normally and naturally, our love and spirit of service.

For each one of us, our vocation is the central theme of our lives. It's the axis around which everything else turns.

Everything, or almost everything, depends upon our knowing and carrying out what God asks of us.

To follow and to love our vocation is the most important and joyously fulfilling thing in our life.

But in spite of its being the key that opens the door to happiness, there are many who do not want to know what their vocation is.

They prefer to do what pleases them, to do their own will instead of God's will, to remain in a state of culpable ignorance, instead of seeking in all sincerity the road that will lead them to happiness and enable them to reach heaven in safety as well as to bring this same joy to many others.

Our Lord calls every one of us by our own name, today as much as ever. He needs us, it seems.

Furthermore, He calls all of us to a holy vocation, a vocation to follow Him in a new life whose secret He alone possesses: “If any man would come after me…” (Matt. 16:24).

Through Baptism, we have all received a vocation to seek God in the fullness of love.

St. Josemaría says, “For the ordinary life of man among his fellows is not something dull and uninteresting. It is there, in their ordinary lives, that God wants the vast majority of his children to achieve sanctity.

“It's important,” he says, “to keep reminding ourselves that Jesus did not address himself to a privileged set of people. He came to reveal to us the universal love of God.

“God loves all men, and he wants all men to love him—everyone, whatever their personal situation, or their social position, or their work.

“Ordinary life is something of great value. All the ways of the earth can be an opportunity to meet Christ, who calls us to identify ourselves with him and carry out this divine mission—right where he finds us.

“God calls us through what happens in the ordinary course of our day: through the sorrows and joys of the people we live with, through the human interests of all our colleagues, and the things that go to make up our family life.

“He also calls us through the great problems, conflicts, and challenges of each period of history, the portentous events attract the interest and idealism of a large part of mankind” (Josemaría Escrivá, Christ Is Passing By, Point 110).

The call of Our Lord urges us to a greater self-giving, because for many reasons, and many other reasons, “The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few” (Matt. 9:37).

And there are some harvests which perish daily because there is no one to gather them in.

Our Lady says, “Be it done unto me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). And we contemplate her, radiant with joy.

As we raise up our minds and hearts in prayer, we can ask her ourselves: Am I seeking God in my work or in my study, in my family, out in the street…in everything? Am I doing daring things in the apostolate? Does Our Lord want more of me?

When we look to Our Lady, all the time we learn lessons.

Mary appears as the virgin Mother of God, she who will give all her love to Jesus with an undivided heart, as the prototype of that self-surrender that Our Lord will ask of many souls.

“In the fullness of time,” we’re told, “God sent the Angel Gabriel to Nazareth where Our Lady dwelt.”

Mary is often represented as recollected in prayer as she hears, most fervently, of God's plans for her and learns of her vocation.

The Angel said to her, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28). She gives her full consent to the divine will.

From this moment on she accepts her vocation and begins to put it into practice. Her vocation is to be the Mother of God and the Mother of men.

Unknown to anyone, the hub of human history and the center of all mankind is now the little village of Nazareth. Here lives the woman most loved by God, she who is to be the most loved human being in the whole world, the most frequently invoked and called upon of all time.

And in the intimacy of our prayer, we also can say, “Blessed are you among women” (Luke 1:42).

In the exercise of her Motherhood she was adorned with all the graces and privileges which made her a worthy abode for the Most High. God chose His Mother and put in her all His love and power.

He did not permit that there would be the least taint of sin, neither original nor personal. She was conceived Immaculate, without any stain of sin.

And He granted her so much grace that under God, it would be impossible to conceive of anyone greater than she. Her dignity is almost infinite.

All these privileges and graces given to her are there so that she could carry out her vocation. As it is with each individual, her vocation was the central moment of her life.

She was born to be the Mother of God, chosen by the Blessed Trinity from all eternity.

She's Our Mother too, something that we want to constantly remind ourselves of.

We can frequently say: “Remember, O most holy Virgin Mother of God, when you stand before the Lord, say good things for me.” Virgo fidelis, ora pro nobis.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

JOSH