We can find no better model of consecration or of a stable identity despite challenge and confusion than the Virgin Mary.
By her life of humble service and constant faithfulness, Mary provides a spendid example of what it means to dedicate one's self entirely to God. As Marianists we find in our response to God an echo of Mary's fiat: "Be it done to me according to your word." Like Mary, we stand receptive and willing before the mystery of God, eager and ready to offer whatever is asked of us. Especially in Mary we find a model for our own service to others.
Truly, this is the meaning of conscrated life: to serve others as Mary did, with an eager and unselfish love; to minister to human suffering in disregard of personal suffering; and to labor tirelessly for the spread of Jesus Christ and His Gospel, both in our own hearts and in the hearts of all men.
This week is National Vocation Awareness Week. Pray for vocations!
"There have always been in the Church many men and women who, prompted by the action of the Holy Spirit, choose to live the Gospel in a radical way, professing the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. This multitude of men and women religious, belonging to innumerable Institutes of contemplative and active life, still plays “the main role in the evangelisation of the world” Benedict XVI
