Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word (Lk 1:38).
(http://www.focolare.org/en/news/2011/03/01/eccomi-sono-la-serva-del-signore-avvenga-di-me-quello-che-hai-detto-lc-138/)
Mary is the person who responded with her own unconditional yes to God: she granted space in herself to God. In this yes, Mary is a Mother that generates: in her the love of God truly made Himself love for man. This fact alone is a scandal. Plato had said that no God mixes with men, and had thus indicated the desolation of the ancient world, which warned the abysmal distance between God and man and thought it to be unbridgeable. It was filled by Mary. In her “behold me”, she became the creatural space where the divine entered into humanity.
It is the particular love of Mary, her love as a woman and as a mother: she does not ask, she gives. She does not pretend; she considers herself in debt. And her beauty is to be background, not to put herself before; thus it is delicate love, respectful, hidden, veiled and at the same time extremely strong, because it is capable of generating. The specificity of generating is the fruit and that of love: the experience to be the response.
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An Experience of Life:
When Frances communicated to us her decision to become a religious sister, she said it to us with words that opened our hearts as parents: “You see, - she told us – I did not seek this; it was not in my plans or even in my dreams. When I realized that perhaps the Lord was calling me to the consecrated life, I tried to push away this thought and to not indulge in it too much. But gradually it appeared to me ever more clearly the will of the Lord in my regard. It was not asked of me to think or to understand, but to correspond with a spirit of receiving and abandonment.” She added: “On my own I asked myself: but how is it possible that the Lord might actually call me, who does not have exceptional talents, who is not better than so many other girls of my age? I discovered with joy that the Lord had fixed His gaze on me even seeing very well, much better than me, the limits, the defects, the weaknesses, my fragility. Thus, I can confide in Him and entrust myself to Him. Today and always He accompanies my steps with His presence, with His support, with His light, with His strength. This certainty gives me a great interior peace.”
These words of Frances helped us to understand that the life of the children, whatever way they decide to take, is always an answer to an initiative of God. We parents are called to be near them always, so that where the Lord will wait for them, they can go with trust and with great interior peace.
(The parents of Frances; Italy)
