Mother

It was the Blessed Virgin who was chosen to crush the head of Satan.  She is not timid or weak.  She is the new Eve.

Byzantine Icon of Panagia Agiosoritissa

My mother is a fierce woman.  She stands at about half my height.  She is a nice and friendly person.  She likes to keep the people around her happy.  The easiest way to torment my mother is to allow yourself to be sad in her company and not allow her to fix the problem for you.  My mother is the sort of person who gives with all her little heart.  She gives in such a way that the people around her often underestimate how important she is.  You see, giving people often give so much that it appears that they are expendable.  In fact, often people try to expend them by “using them up” so to speak.  They take advantage of the giving and in this way, they fail to see the true blessing of the person.

They say that we are what we see.  And by this, I mean that we tend to copy – consciously or subconsciously the example of parenting that we observed during our childhood.  This is what informs our attachment style.  This is what informs our view of what a good or bad mother or father are.  This is one of the reasons why people argue that children are disadvantaged in same-sex couple families, because they are precluded from seeing a mother and a father and either see two mothers or two fathers instead…

And what this really means is that I have learned to be a mother by observing the example of my mother to me, and my children will learn to be parents by observing the example of my husband – their father – and me.

And I have been thinking about that today as I have been thinking about the Blessed Virgin – who is my Spiritual Mother…

“Standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.” (John 19:25-34).

Christ – God Himself – deliberately picked the Blessed Virgin out as my mother from up on the Cross.  When my maternal grandmother first arrived in Australia with her three young children and husband (before having another five surviving children) she had never been away from her village in Lebanon.  She had lived with family – either hers or her husband’s – her entire life.  When she came to Australia, she was completely alone.  And she was alone at a time when there were no internet or even reliable postage and phone lines.  She missed her mother with all her heart…

During those early and lonely years, my maternal grandmother prayed for the intercession of the Blessed Virgin as her mother to look after her.

The Blessed Virgin is no wilting lily.  It was the Blessed Virgin who was chosen to crush the head of Satan.  She is not timid or weak.  She is the new Eve.  She succeeded in resisting the temptation of the Evil One where Eve did not.

And for this she is not only Mother of my God, but my mother too…

And to think that I am the daughter of one such as she is just too amazing for me to even try to comprehend…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.