Dear Friends in Christ: Jan 1, 07, New Year’s Day

The theme of this feast is usually drowned out by the fact that we are starting a new calendar year. Yet, I would like to wish you a happy new year by reflecting on the title of this feast and the gospel reading [from chapter 2 of Luke’s gospel, describing the shepherds’ visit to the family in Bethlehem] which so fittingly extends the message of Christmas over the eighth day following the birth of the Lord.

“Mary, Mother of God” is the name of this feast, reminding us to think of her as the model of Christian life, a life based on and enlightened by faith. Mary was described by Elizabeth as the model of a believer, when she told her: “Blessed are you because you believed.” In today’s gospel scene – a direct continuation of the gospel of the midnight mass of Christmas – Mary receives the visit of the shepherds and listens to the marvelous story they tell her: how the child born as the Messiah is, in fact, the Lord himself, who brings peace to the world and makes the angels exult and praise God in a grandiose chorus.

If we were told on Christmas day to go to Bethlehem, this feast rather invites us to pattern our lives on the life and person of Mary. At a very early point in Cistercian history this idea of “living a Marial life” pops up, and it remains present across the centuries of Cistercian tradition. A Marial devotion animating our life in Christ is a most important inspiration. It comes to us not only from our Cistercian roots, but also through the events and teachings of the modern church. In addition to the events of Lourdes then of Fatima, several of the popes, especially the last two, insisted that focusing on Mary is an actual and urgent task for the church today.

I see four points in this program. The first idea comes from the gospel reading of this day: “Mary treasured all this in her heart” – all that has happened at Christmas night – pondering every detail in her mind. A Marial program of the devout life means mental prayer, daily meditation: remembering the marvelous deeds of the Lord. Functioning as the living memory of the church, in a continued attitude of remembrance, caring for our recollection of all the great things God has done for us, and most eminently of God’s presence in the world. A world that became oblivious of God’s presence and is often explicit and aggressive about making statements about his absence needs this Marial function of gentle but consistent reminding.

While this remembering and pondering appears more as a passive or at least reflexive function, Mary is also our model of a life spent in praise. The Magnificat – the thanksgiving song she sang when visiting Elizabeth – voices of admiration gratitude and joy in response to the gift of redemption. The joy of Christmas needs constant expression through attitudes of jubilant prayer by which we try to shape our heart to be a recipient of all graces poured upon us by God’s active presence amidst our human existence.

A third function of Mary’s life is revealed at the presentation in the Temple, when Simeon foretell about the sword which will pierce her heart and she begins a new journey of pondering – pondering about the meaning and value of suffering which leads her all the way up to Golgotha and makes her stand under the cross. There, in a new kind of birth Mary experiences a new kind of motherhood, a motherhood that cost her more suffering than the suffering which a mother usually undergoes in natural labor.

And the fourth aspect of Mary as a model for our life is not even a separate aspect but the basic characteristic that penetrates all her action: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me as you say” – obedience to the word of God, an active acceptance of the word she ponders and meditates upon; a readiness allowing the word to impact, affect, transform, take into possession her life, word that appears at the beginning as both obscure and full of challenge, at once puzzling and demanding and yet, when accepted, so liberating, uplifting and fulfilling.

It may not be fashionable or commonly understood and accepted, but I wish you a Marial New Year, a year 2007 which carries you from Bethlehem back to Nazareth to live as Mary did, participate in the hidden life of Jesus; a life filled to the brim with God’s guiding and uplifting presence.

At the beginning of a New Year, let us turn to the Father Almighty with all our needs and petitions

1) That God may lead his Church through the challenges and trials of this year:

That the priests and monks may persevere in their vocations, husbands and wives remain faithful to their vows and families stay united in love, let us pray to the Lord.

2) That our country and the world may experience more peace and cooperation and an improvement in our life’s quality, let us pray to the Lord.

3) That our students and all young people grow in wisdom and grace and respond to God enlightening graces, let us pray to the Lord.

4) For the elderly and the sick, that the world may realize its responsibility toward and improve life for the inform and the aged, let us pray to the Lord.

5) That our school may progress in carrying out its missions and goals and we persevere in our vocation of educating the youth, let us pray to the Lord.

FATHER ALMIGHTY, BLESS OUR LIFE, GUIDE US IN OUR GOAL SETTING, MAKE US DEDICATED TO YOUR WILL AND CARRY IT WITH GENEROSITY. WE ASK THIS THROUGH CHRIST OUR LORD.