Reflections from the Heart – August 29, 2021

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
by Fr. Ivan Olmo

“Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls. Be doers of the word and not hearers only.” Have you spent some time with our sweet Mother Mary? Have you considered inviting Mary into your prayer, into your conversation to have a cup of coffee with you, to share a silent carefree moment or to join you in a good cry? We need Mary. She inspires us to become who we are. She inspires us to enter into wholeness, into blessedness, into holiness by living our lives daily in goodness of heart, in gentleness of spirit, in humble submission to God’s Word, to his Way, to his Will. This truly makes us happy, happier, happiest. Mary shows us through the softness of her words and through the purity of her intentions and through the innocence of her prayer and through the graciousness of her actions how to gently, reverently, freely and joyfully take in the Word of God and properly respond to it without hesitation, reservation or regret. Our sweet Mother Mary is always listening for God. She is always listening to him. She does not simply hear the Word of God as we would, a sound or noise or person speaking, but she listens carefully and attentively for God’s Word and to God’s Word by really listening and hearing what God has to say. Mary rejoices in God’s Word. She waits in prayerful anticipation for the possibility of hearing the sweet whisper of God’s voice calling, inviting, filling, fulfilling his will. Mary freely surrenders all her thoughts, all her feelings, all her desires, all her ambitions, all her attention to God. She graciously bends her will to God’s will. This is the proper disposition of the lowly creature to its Mighty Creator.  This is the proper disposition for all creatures towards their relationship with God, our Father. Saint James tells us to “humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls.” He encourages us to be “quick to hear, slow to speak” and to be “doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.” This is simply the Marian disposition of receptivity and the spirituality of Mary. In truth, without deceiving ourselves, we are to receive the Word made flesh into the core of our being. We are to joyfully accept it and conform our lives to it by “removing from one’s soul whatever is opposed to it, so that it may take root and effect salvation.”