EVERYTHING IS GRACE
In her writings St. Therese of Lisieux states “Everything is a grace, everything is the direct effect of our Father’s Love-difficulties, contradictions, humiliations, all the soul’s miseries, her burdens, her needs-everything, because through them, she learns humility, realizes her weakness. Everything is a grace because everything is God’s gift. Whatever be the character of life or its unexpected event-to the heart that loves, all is well”.
In simple terms, according to St. Theresa “grace” means the attractive face of God, the signs of his favor that draw us to his heart. The Blessed Mary was attracted by those many signs from a young age. She meditated on the prophetic promises and the great events of the history of salvation; every word increasingly manifested the fascinating love of Lord to her heart.
During October, the month of the holy rosary, I pray that our veneration and love for the Blessed Virgin Mary must be renewed not downplayed but rather deepened, through recitation and meditation of the mysteries of the rosary. If it is authentic, our veneration for the Virgin Mary will reveal itself as a sign of God’s presence in our life and in the life of the Church.
Through the special grace of divine intervention, the Virgin Mary came to know that she is the sign of hope and the certainty of the promise for Israel. Through prayer and vigilance, Mary found favor. She is “full of grace” because she always gives grace to God by remaining open to his gifts and responding with gratitude and generosity. Mary’s faith is a humble and thoughtful search for the divine will. In faith Mary knew how to discern the signs of God’s presence and knows how to combine gratitude for the grace and service of others.
Mary is more pleasing to God than any other creature, because her faith and her hope are very strong. With even greater faith Mary welcomes the grace and mission of being mother and handmaid of the Savior of the world. Mary’s faith is a “yes” a “here I am”: it is a faith full of trust and hope. In faith she welcomed the Only Begotten of the Father as Son made Flesh. And in the same faith she offered everything she received from the Father, herself and Jesus up to the altar to the Cross. The Marian faith inspires and establishes continuous vigilance for the will of God and bears fruit in love for all men.
The month of the holy rosary is a moment of grace, where we are invited to honor Our Blessed Mother, in the words of an Angel at annunciation “Greetings, favored one” This God’s greeting to Mary through an Angel is an effective word, a sacrament so to speak; it is communication of messianic joy in this historical moment.
It is also a moment being at the school of “the full of grace” and “mediatrix of divine grace”. We come to her so that through her prayers and intercession graces may be preserved within us and that more graces be given us “pray for us now and at the hour of our death”. The Blessed Virgin Mary is the strong woman, the one who lived the new law of the beatitudes, the humble servant of God and men, the queen of the Apostles, and of saints. The Blessed Virgin Mary lived her faith by keeping her gaze fixed on Jesus. This is how she teaches us to do, this is how she teaches the Church, so that she remembers that there is no salvation in any other name than this: Jesus, source and giver of all and every graces.
Every Christian family is called to be and to increasingly become a house of prayer, a small Church through renewed praying of the rosary together in our homes. This devotion will help us discover the signs of God’s presence and respond promptly to help each other as the Blessed Virgin Mary did.
Queen of the holy rosary! Pray for us.
Fr. Justus