Marry Them Young to Avoid Rape: Village Councils

Marry Them Young to Avoid Rape: Village Councils

we need to respond to situations such as this!!! as educators and youth works.....

Mary: Revealed in the Beatitudes

We have been hearing a lot about the virtues and titles of Mary, but we have beatitudes too, depicting Mary’s virtue in each of them.

            In the first place we have Mary’s song of praise, the ‘Magnificat’. The song portrays Mary, the humble servant in whom the Lord has done great things and who stands out among the poor and humble of God. Her emptiness, her total openness and availability made blessed and full of grace.

            Mary, the mother of sorrows experienced the sword that pierced her heart when she from the moment of her birth to Jesus right up to the crucifixion and death of her son on the cross.

            After her visit to the holy city of Jerusalem she experienced a mother in search of her lost child. When Mary found the child Jesus in the temple after three days of pain and worry, she in her meekness remained open to Jesus’ words and quietly pondered on them.

            Mary lived according to God’s plan and will from the moment of her ‘Fiat’ till her departure from this world. Sometimes God’s plans were incomprehensible but she lived the pilgrimage of faith with the only desire of being able to carry out God’s will in her life. She was hungering and thirsting to do God’s will.

            Acknowledging Mary as the mother of Mercy has been an ancient tradition in the Church. St. Bernard concludes a prayer to Mary saying “In you is mercy; in you is pity, in you is united whatever goodness there is in every creature.”

            Mary is the purest, the holiest, and the immaculate one. Mary expresses the dignity of the human vocation that God intended for all creation. What Adam and Eve could have achieved was achieved in fullness by mother Mary through her glory and purity of mind and heart.

            Mary is the mediatrix and queen of peace. At the wedding fest in Cana, there was possibility of a great shame and confusion to befall the bridegroom’s party. Mary sensed the situation and came to bring peace and joyful celebration among the panicked people by informing Jesus about the plight of the host. She sets right every difficulty and brings peace to our daily lives. She becomes the queen of peace and a comforter of the afflicted.

Mary herself feels blessed. She is filled with joy and flooded with love. In the ‘Magnificat’ she sings: “Henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.”

            My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, today it is an invitation for each one of us to imitate and imbibe the principles of the Beatitudes. Each moment, each day, each person we meet, each situation we go through is a time for us to live out the Beatitudes like Mary. May God give us the strength in our effort to life out the Beatitudes and may Mary pray for us to live life according to God’s will. 

Holy Rosary