The Blessed Virgin was born with the birth of her Son and died with Him on the Cross.
The New Year will commence at midnight tonight. The new year will dawn full of all the promises and fears that this new year will bring.
Every new year I have – since I was a little girl – made new year’s resolutions. My father liked to encourage us to set goals and as a result he would encourage us each year to set some goals about what we should do for the new year and the ways that we would move forward in the new year – a way to measure our progress.
And in order to set goals for a new year, the first thing that we needed to do was to have a think about how we would like the year to go and what we would like to happen in the new year. Would this be a year of health, happiness, wealth, Godliness or a combination of all of those things…
And today, as I have been thinking about the new year and the resolutions that I may be setting, it occurs to me that there was a Soul Created on this Earth, who never set a New Year’s Resolution and never wanted to set one…
The Blessed Virgin…
The Blessed Virgin was the ONLY sinless soul ever created after Adam and Eve. While Saint John the Baptist was Baptised in his mother’s womb during the visitation when the Blessed Virgin visited her cousin Elizabeth at the bidding of the Angel and the child “leapt” within his mother’s womb, the Blessed Virgin was conceived without sin.
And UNLIKE Adam and Eve who were tempted in that perfect world of Eden, in to reject the Holy Will of God and assert their own will, the Blessed Virgin’s will remained an echo of the Holy Will of God.
And what did that mean? Well, it meant that on the day of the conception of her Son, her Will echoed God’s. On the day of His birth, her Will echoed God’s. On the first day of His public ministry, her Will echoed God’s. During every inconvenience of His journey and every misunderstanding of the public, her Will echoed God’s. And in the days of His Passion and Death and in those following His resurrection and ascension into Heaven, her Will echoed God’s.
And that meant that on the Holy Cross, as Christ said, “Father forgive them…” The Blessed Virgin echoed this prayer in her heart. And when Christ said, “Father into your hands I commend My Spirit”, the Blessed Virgin echoed this prayer in her heart.
And this really meant that the Blessed Virgin was born with the birth of her Son and died with Him on the Cross.
Because from her birth until her death and onwards for all of eternity, the Blessed Virgin’s Will remains an echo of the Holy Will of God.
And I have been thinking about that today as I make my new year’s resolutions… For it seems that I must consider the Holy Will of God a little more…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.