Holy Spirit of God, nurture within me the nature of Jesus, to serve and to submit to you…

Luke 1:39-47

 
Mary of Nazareth is blessed among women because the fruit of her womb, Jesus, the child she bore, brought up and still presents to the world is Christ Jesus, God’s Messiah.  Her child wasn’t just a prophet or a preacher, a healer or a holy man.  Jesus was God, incarnate in human form to redeem us from our sins and show us the way to Father God.  How can we, like Mary, be filled with the Word made flesh? We can, like Mary, nurture the Christ Child within our hearts, minds, souls and bodies; like any pregnant mother, Mary served and submitted to her baby’s growing with in her, no matter how inconvenient or uncomfortable it was.  When Jesus’ foot pushed up into her ribs, like the challenges that of life that slow us down and make us take pause to consider Christ within, Mary stopped and pondered what was happening, gently beholding the discomfort and taking time to wait for the ‘Word’ to shift.  When Jesus’ in utero gymnastics woke her up from sleep, she welcomed his movements in her inner being, as we/I can, when Our Lord jolts us awake with a phrase from scripture or a prickly feeling or phrase in our conscience. And when Mary was dragged down from the fatigue of the last few weeks of carrying Him inside her womb, she took time to rest and nourish herself, in body mind and spirit – just as I sometimes need to rest with/ in Christ Jesus, without frantically ‘getting things done’.  Will I, like Mary have the patience and endurance, the appetite and the gentle faithfulness, to nurture the nature of Christ within me, no matter what kind of service and submission is needed?  Holy Spirit of God, nurture within me the nature/ character of Christ to serve, and to submit to You.
 
The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; … Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure.  (Psalm 16:5,9)
 
Be faithful in small things
because it is them that your strength lies.
Saint Mother Teresa of Kalcutta
 
Soli ad gloriam Dei
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