God Says: Fasten Your Eyes on My Son Jesus Christ
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Did you ever wonder what it would be like to peer into the heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary and know what she might be thinking and feeling while on this earth?
What I mean is, to know the depth of love that she felt for all of those around her whom she knew were affected by the original sin of Adam and Eve?
That means drawing closer to her immaculate heart!
In a talk by the Carmelite scholar Anne Harris called, “Mary is Our Guide to Prayer,” we get a sense of Mary’s perception of others, and what she might have been thinking throughout her earthly life.
“I see that surely Mary knew herself to be a daughter of Eve and consequently everyone's sister,” said Anne Harriss in a lecture that is part of our Wisdom Lectures video series. “And therefore that she felt a deep solidarity with everyone she met.”
In our video series, Anne lays out three titles of Mary that are strongly reflected in Carmelite spirituality: sister, queen, and mother.
In her description of Mary as sister, she relates a compelling explanation written in 1935 of Sr. Genevieve of the Holy Face, whose family name was Celine Martin, the sister of St. Therese of Lisieux:
“[D]uring the Great Silence [quiet time in the monastery], I felt ineffably united to my mother in heaven. I experienced an indefinable feeling that one hardly dares to express. It seemed to me that the Blessed Virgin was one of us. That she was my sister, my friend. There was a familiarity between us - a sort of equality as part of the family. Oh, how sweet it was.”
Reflecting on this, our Carmelite scholar said,
“I see that surely Mary knew herself to be a daughter of Eve and consequently everyone's sister, and therefore that she felt a deep solidarity with everyone she met.
“But as the new Eve conceived without sin, Mary had this huge difference with her contemporaries. A deep sense of the horror and tragedy of sin as it undermines the goodness God wills for us, and as it wounds each person – the loss of justice and goodness on this earth.
“This infused perception – a consequence of her own sinlessness, would have been within her from her earliest years of consciousness, and it grew. It increased within her as she grew up, certainly from the age of reason.
“She truly knew and felt that all people were estranged from God by sin. Imagine growing up like that. It was her sorrow. The purer she was the more she was conscious of sin. Sin surrounded her. So she felt this sense of estrangement from the world.”
Anne continues,
“As she lived by faith and she was growing up like a normal child does, this feeling of estrangement of the whole world from God would have haunted her mind and her imagination, her prayer life. She would have increased her compassion, her charity….
“If Mary was holy, then it was charity, burning love within her towards God and towards others. And sin was the key as much as she related with us.
“Now during all the years of her infancy and her adolescence and without knowing it, Mary most holy was thus being prepared for her future role, through developing an ardent charity and immense desire for the coming of the Messiah.”
Anne Harriss surely helps us draw closer to Mary in our prayer life – to see the Blessed Virgin as a sister who feels great compassion for us sinners, and to whom we can go to intercede for us before the throne of God.
The insights explained by this scholar gives us an inner glimpse into the life and thoughts of Mary. There is an awareness here that you would be hard pressed to find elsewhere.
I don’t know about you, but I feel drawn closer to Mary with these insights into her inner life. These movements of the soul can draw us into a deeper prayer life with our greatest advocate in heaven.
Anne Harriss’s videos and one hundred others have been produced by the newly-formed DecorCarmeli Media, a service of the Order of the Discalced Carmelites in the United Kingdom. We produce these videos so that people can have access to authentic teachings on the spiritual life and benefit from the insights from the Carmelite tradition that has produced many saints and Doctors of the Church.
Monthly and annual subscriptions to the video platform will be available soon. We will let you know – simply sign up for our mailing list: DecorCarmeli Media.
Kevin J. Banet is a journalist and publicist. He provides marketing for religious communities, non-profits and healthcare services. Kevin and his family live in the Chicago area. His website is VocationPromotion.com.
