Dear Friends in Abba,
Once again, it’s time to wish Our Beloved Mother a very Happy Birthday ❤ ! Like Her, may we always be obedient to the Will of Our Father and faithful to Him. In our lives too, may it be done to us according to His Word!
Sharing a lovely write-up by one of Abba’s little friends who has painstakingly taken out meaningful excerpts from the blog: ‘To Jesus, Sincerely’ by Sara.
Mary, the perfect daughter of God The Father
“Hail Mary, daughter of God the Father, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”
“God my Father, teach me how Mary is my model as Your perfect daughter.”
Mary said yes to You: “Be it done unto me according to your word.”
I often think of saying yes to Your will as an active response to grace: Yes, I’ll do this or that. Choosing to willingly and cheerfully do the right thing is a good way to do Your will.
• To choose to volunteer,
• to choose to pray the Rosary,
• to choose to act chastely,
• to choose to read spiritual books,
• to choose especially to serve my family,
and to do so cheerfully.
Saying ‘Yes’ to doing Your will is a good thing. But Mary’s way is an even better way, the perfect way. She goes beyond saying yes to doing Your will. She teaches me not only to do, but also to accept.
The task You gave her – to bear, give birth to, and raise Your Son, wasn’t an easy role – it almost cost Mother Mary her dear husband, St. Joseph. She was worried it would conflict with her vow of virginity. But she said yes.
Her yes wasn’t a statement of courage and bravado. It wasn’t a yes of stepping up to the plate. Her yes was a yes of humility and trust – “Be it done unto me.” A yes that not only accepted and conformed to Your will, but put You in total control.
My yes to doing Your will is sometimes a thinly veiled attempt to cling to control in my life. An incomplete letting go, but a small step in the right direction.
Teach me to say yes like Mother Mary, not only to doing Your will, but to letting Your will be done to me.
Let the distracting toddler in my arms at Mass be done unto me. Let the saving grace of Confession be done unto me. Let the blessings and disappointments which You place in my life be done unto me.
As Your perfect daughter, Mary placed all her trust in You. There were still times of confusion, misunderstanding and even sorrow in her life. But that through it all she never lost sight of Your all-powerful hand.
When she lost Jesus, she searched in sorrow, she found Him and experienced confusion, she questioned Him in surprise. He answered that He was doing Your will, Father.
There’s a consolation: even Mary, Your perfect daughter, who lived Your will for her life flawlessly – even she didn’t know Your will for others, not even for her own Son, Jesus, at 12 years old. How humbly she handled the situation. Like Mary, I must be content to discern and accept Your will in my life, and not try to play God.
Teach me, by Mary’s example, to truly acknowledge Your hand in all that’s good in my life, and to seek to share the joy of Your grace with others.
Teach me that being Your daughter (or son) doesn’t mean being entitled, or better than others. It means being open to Your grace in my life, to the opportunity to witness to that grace, and humbly sharing my experiences with friends. Let me, like Mother Mary, be willing to be there for others, for Your sake and theirs, because it’s the right thing to do.
God my Father, please help me learn from Mother Mary’s example as Your daughter/son, and apply it in my life to become a better daughter/son too. Let me say “yes”, like Mary, not only to doing Your will, but also to accepting Your will to be done to me. Let me place all my trust in You, like the Blessed Virgin, even when worry, fear and confusion are part of Your will for me. Amen.
Abba Avinu 