so that I may know the love and mercy of Jesus.
February 3
“I love you, O LORD, my strength. / The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, / my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, / my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” — Psalms 18:1-2
The beautiful words in Psalms 18 could have been penned by the hand of our Blessed Mother herself, for they are reflective of Mary’s relationship with God. For Mary, the Lord was a rock, the foundation on which she built her life. God was Mary’s strength, every day and especially in times of adversity. He was also her refuge. Mary trusted that the Lord was her shield and would keep her safe from all harm.
Because Mary knew God’s love for her, she returned God’s love completely. As our spiritual mother, Mary invites us to love the Lord God with our entire being as she did. She is here to help us build our lives on the love of her Son, Jesus. When we do so, we, too, will experience the unconditional love of God that Mary knew every day of her life. Let us turn to Mary seeking a deeper, loving relationship with God.
— Lauren Nelson
WHAT PRAISES OF LOVE can you give to God today? How has the Lord been your foundation or your refuge?
Prayer: Mary, teach me to praise God in all I do and to love God with all that I am.
February 4
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” — Matthew 22:39
When our friends suffered a house fire a few days before Christmas, their newly married daughter and son-in-law took them in. Across the street from the house that had the fire was a vacant house for sale. When they heard about what had happened, the owners of the vacant house took down the “For Sale” sign and told our friends, “It’s yours, live here.” What a beautiful example of the way we are all called to love our neighbors as ourselves.
I imagine that Mary was the perfect neighbor. Her heart brimming with love, Mary surely baked bread and shared it, or took an extra jar to the well to draw water for a neighbor. Mary understood that it was impossible to love God without loving the people God created. Let us seek our Blessed Mother’s help to see and respond to the presence of God in all people.
— Mary Beth Desmond
HOW DO YOU SHOW love to your neighbors? Have you received love and kindness from others who have seen you as their neighbor?
Prayer: Mary, your love for others inspires me to take care of my friends and family. Help me to see God’s presence in all people and to count them as my neighbors.
February 5
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” — Matthew 5:5
Mary was “blessed.” The angel Gabriel was the first to announce this gift of God’s grace in the young Mary’s life. Elizabeth, too, recognized that Mary was blessed. Mary was the Mother of God, but she did not consider anything beneath her. Love, and a willingness to serve, inspired Mary to go and visit her cousin Elizabeth. And this act of love opened Mary to a new world, one with the wisdom and insight an older family member like Elizabeth could give her.
— Larry Dreffein
HOW CAN THE LOVE that Mary demonstrated for Elizabeth manifest itself in your life? Is there someone you love who could use a helping hand? Sometimes just growing old creates new needs and dependence on others’ loving kindness.
Prayer: Mary, your loving ways prepared you to be the mother of our Savior. Your love lived out each day with your Son gives us insight into his life as well as our own. May I embrace lowliness in the love I show others. May the loving example you gave inspire me to be a willing servant in my world.
February 6
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love.” —John 15:9
Have you ever wondered how glue works? Have you ever noticed that if you pull a peanut-butter sandwich apart that the peanut butter is stuck on both pieces of the sandwich bread? Scientists still don’t fully understand all the details of how gluey substances make one thing stick to another. If you want a short answer, the word is “forces.”
Stickiness is a wonderful metaphor to use in the spiritual life when thinking of Mary and Jesus and our relationship with them. In a way, Mary can be the binding agent who brings us to Jesus. Her love for humanity draws us into a loving union with Jesus, one in which we learn to rely on — and “stick” to — him. Mary is like glue in our spiritual lives. Without Mary, we would not have the gift of Jesus. As the mother of our Savior, Mary’s role in salvation history is to lead us all to her Son, that we may remain in his love all the days of our lives.
— Joseph Abel, PhD
I INVITE YOU to sit in prayerful silence and reflect on the ways that Mary’s life can lead you to Jesus.
Prayer: Mary, draw us closer to your Son, Jesus, that we may live and move and have our being in his love.
February 7
“A woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!’ But he said, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!’” — Luke 11:27-28
Many people think of being “blessed” as a divine favor that is merited or earned. Jesus, however, proclaimed that blessedness belongs to all who hear the word of God and act upon it. That is because they encounter God’s word as an invitation to love. Mary is the example par excellence of one who was blessed in this way.
Luke presents Mary as one who pondered the wonder and joy of being loved by God and allowed that love to take root within her and bear fruit in the manner in which she lived her life. Her pondering was an encounter with love.
Mary’s pondering is an invitation for us to move beyond simply hearing God’s word to an encounter with love that takes root in our lives.
— Father Tom Borkowski
DO I PONDER God’s word? Do I see obedience to his word as a response to his love? Do I consider myself blessed?
Prayer: Mary, woman of joy, be my guide to ponder God’s word so that it becomes an encounter with love that bears joyful and abundant fruit.
February 8
“Love one another; even as I have loved you.” — John 13:34
When I picture Mary, I see the eyes of motherly love, a beautiful gaze. I imagine Mary’s look of love when she saw her newborn Son for the first time. I imagine, too, the many times Mary looked through the eyes of love to Joseph, Jesus, and her cousin Elizabeth. I can also see her eyes pouring out tears of love for her Son as he hung on the cross.
My eyes always fill with tears whenever I see someone serving in the military return home from deployment and reconnect with their families. Can you think of a time when you saw someone’s eyes light up or sparkle when they spoke about someone they love? I believe that expression of love is God’s divine light shining through. But loving one another as Christ has loved us also means loving oneself. That is not being selfish but rather learning to fully appreciate the divine presence within.
