Letter From Heaven

The Magnificat is one of the most powerful prayers in the history of the Incarnation.  Just imagine Our Lady, more so Our Blessed Mother, conversing with St Gabriel.  She was likely startled to an extent by his presence, even though she may have seen angels regularly.  Whatever the case, she seemed startled, and in holy fear speaks her Magnificat to the Archangel.  Thankfully, St Luke recorded it from her, otherwise we wouldn’t have it.  By the way, to our Protestant friends, where did God commission his early Church to write?  Rather, He commissioned his Apostles and disciples to preach!  Thankfully, The Holy Spirit guided in the writing of The New Testament too, among other traditions...  The prayer of Our Lady thanks be to God was recorded…                                                          When we pray or read the Magnificat, or study it for that matter, we can see that it’s actually a letter, or a note, for us children of Our Blessed Mother - and those that are her lost children.  As we read each line in the Magnificat, we can see that Our Lady is literally talking to us from the past, and being perpetually with God, from the present too.  What an amazing thing!  We are literally holding one of the most important documents in the history of the world.

House of Gold...

Our Lady is a “house of gold” as it says in the litany to her.  Not only does she possess all virtues, the true gold, but lived them.  In her “letter,” we can see her “anchoring” us in our “exile” here on earth.  She knows… of all creatures, she knows.  She was the mother of the “Man of Sorrows, accustomed to infirmity.”  She knows all the sufferings we bear, but knows not the penalty of original sin nor the burdens of death, as she was called home by God in a dormition, not a death as we know it; albeit she felt and feels the pains in the depths of her heart as Co-Redemtrix with Christ, and in daily seeing and walking with us her children...  Her assumption was a not only  a calling home by God Himself, done by His arm, but in a way a movement of the heart too.

Can you imagine your own earthly mother, shortly after you were a year or two old, had to leave this earth?  You never met her as you recall, and she knew you wouldn’t meet her in a comprehensive manner.  So she left you a letter to understand her and remember her by.  Let’s take a little tour of one or two passages in her “letter…”

My soul proclaims the greatness of The Lord.  There, right there.  Can you hear it?  Can you not hear her perfect, sweet and caring voice telling you right then and there, to revel in that?

Is that not a call for us to plant ourselves in the here-and-now and regroup, with her?  If we are already doing very well spiritually, and in a time of consolation in our lives, is it not then a call to rejoice?  She was not only proclaiming this to St Gabriel 2,000 years ago, she was fully aware that “all generations would call her blessed.”  She was laying a pavement for us on the rocky road of life.  I once read in a private revelation that her favorite prayer composed by holy mother Church is the Glory Be to the Father prayer.  It’s easy to see why if that really is the case.

I’m going to jump forward to another passage in her Magnificat, he has mercy on those who fear Him in every generation.  Another reason to take a deep breath and have hope.  No matter what our sins, or our trials, if we fear God, avoid sin and trust in Providence, we instantly have much hope and recourse to salvation is essentially a given.  Whether we have attrition (fear of God and damnation) or contrition (sorrowful, sheer love of offending the God whom we should love), we can be assured Our Blessed Mother will do the rest to make sure we receive the sacrament of penance or extreme unction!  If we fear God not, ask her to help us to.  If we love God not, ask her to help us to.  She won’t let her children down.  In these slightly paraphrased words of Fr Don Calloway, “a mother doesn’t reject her child that comes running to her in a dirty diaper, she focuses on the child, not the dirty diaper!”  But, like any good mother, she wants to change that nasty thing!

A late friend of mine, who was Jewish and Catholic (he saw a miracle of the sun, after someone twisted his arm to visit a Catholic prayer ground), used to wear a T-shirt of the Blessed Mother holding a Rosary, that said “Urgent Call Home," on the back, and on the front: "Your Mother hasn’t heard from you in decades.”  It was a play on words, meaning the decades of the rosary.  This was a great evangelism tool, and definitely turned heads and roused questions!  I suppose a pivot-point in evangelisim with those who have gone astray is this letter, the Magnificat, in addition to the Rosary, aka a letter from "Mom..."  Also, it’s a good idea to use the Magnificat as a focal-point when praying the first joyful mystery, perhaps try that next time you do.