Mary, The Most Graceful Woman

When beginning this website, like any project, I thought about the objectives.  What do I hope the readers, you, get out of this site?  And who would be my readers?  I was able to answer all these questions quickly.  The audience is all women: single, religious, married, and/or consecrated.  What are my hopes for all of you (and myself)?  It is for us to be strong, Godly women, to grow in virtue, and to help save souls beginning with our families.

As I began to pray about these objectives, who is the best woman I know?  Mary, the Mother of God, because she is the “model of the Church in the matter of faith, charity, and perfect union with Christ” (Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Lumen Gentium, 63, https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html).  Looking to Mary and asking for her intercession will help us, but it is more than just that.  We need grace, and Mary was “full of grace” (St. Luke 1:28).  

Grace is a gift; it is power to do God’s will.  Grace is not something we earn; it is something that God gives.  How do we get grace?  We can pray and ask the Lord of grace.  When we practice virtue, the Lord will give us more grace (Cf. St. Luke 19:26).  By saying “yes” to God’s will, we will even get more grace.  This is why Mary is “full of grace” (St. Luke 1:28).   She was perfect and never said “no” to God. Thus, each time we say “yes” to God’s will, we receive more grace.  Since Mary never said “no,” you can imagine she would be full of grace.  

In the scene of the Annunciation, Mary says, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” (St. Luke 1:38).  How Mary reacts always astounds me.  Here comes an angel who tells her that she is going to conceive a son not by Joseph, her betrothed, but by the Holy Spirt, name him Jesus, and He will reign and His kingdom will have no end (St. Luke 1:33).  Wow, that is a lot to take in! Bibical scholars think Mary was thirteen at this time. Can you believe if you heard all of this when you were thirteen?  I don’t know about you, but I would probably be asking a lot of questions. But that is just it, Mary does not ask questions because she doubts God’s plan, but to better dispose herself to cooperate with God’s will.  She asks questions to better say “yes” to God and cooperate with God more fully.

Sometimes we think we know better and we need all the answers, but this is not how God works.  It takes great humility not to know everything, and this is how Mary accepted God’s will, with great humility. Not only does she say that she is a servant of the Lord, but she defines what type of servant, a handmaid.  Looking back in history, it tells us that a handmaid is the lowly of the lowest of servants.  Mary who was chosen to be the Mother of God identifies herself first as nothing and a slave of the Most High.

Mary’s “yes” had a huge impact on humanity.  Your “yes” to the Lord also has an impact; on your spouse, children, family members, others you come in contact with and even on yourself.  Like Mary, we should say “yes” to the Lord.  We can unite our prayer to hers in saying: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (St. Luke 1:38).