Quote of the day, 7 October: Anders Arborelius, ocd
The responsiveness of Mary is meant for all of us. The Church, the spotless, immaculate Bride of Christ, is always responding to her Bridegroom. In the Church, and thanks to the example and the prayer of Mary, we, too, can learn to be more responsive to Jesus. In the Church, we share all spiritual riches in common among ourselves, so we can use Mary’s responsive heart when we pray.
That’s just what we do when we pray the Rosary. We look upon Jesus with the eyes of Mary, we love Him with her heart, and we listen to Him with her ears. Prayer becomes so much easier when we try to pray in the company of Mary. Jesus becomes so much more alive when she is at our side.
The response to grace, which we seek to express in our prayer, is demonstrated to us by Our Lady in the mystery of her Annunciation…. The image of the young Mary at the Annunciation reveals so much: God’s will to become one of us through the Incarnation and Mary as the icon of human receptivity and responsiveness to God’s grace, or, put simply, Mary as the icon of prayer. She can help us to become prayer — because prayer is not something that we do, it’s something that we are and become.
Cardinal Anders Arborelius, O.C.D.
Chapter 10, To be responsive like Mary
Arborelius OCD, A. 2020, Carmelite Spirituality: The Way of Carmelite Prayer and Contemplation, EWTN Publishing, Irondale, Alabama.
Featured image: In 2016, bishops from the Holy Land Coordination celebrated Holy Mass with Jordanian clergy and the local community in the majority-Christian town of Fuheis. Many of the faithful have adorned this statue of the Virgin with rosaries. Photo credit: © Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk via Flickr (Some rights reserved).
#CardinalAndersArborelius #contemplation #inspiration #Rosary #VirginMary