Mary Can Help Us In Our Mothering: Consecration Retreat Day 18

Welcome to our 33 day Marian Consecration Retreat as we prayerfully anticipate the commencement of the Year of Mercy. Join us as we share the book 33 Days to Morning Glory: A Do-It-Yourself Retreat In Preparation for Marian Consecration by Fr. Michael E. Gaitley, MIC.

Today's Reflection:

Fr. Gaitley presents us with a real solution to many of our day in and day out mothering challenges, more specifically, how we respond to people around us when we’re not feeling particularly warm toward them. As mothers, we are called to serve and perform acts of love, even if we don’t “feel” like it. During such times, it is even more challenging to be compassionate and have a heartfelt response to Christ and what he has done for us. We can grow cold and complacent in our Catholic faith, just like motherhood.

We all have days when we don’t feel like being a mom. It’s what makes us human. An incredible gift of our faith, though, is the Blessed Mother and her desire to bestow upon us the grace to rise above these human tendencies. An essential part of this rising above is the ability to see Christ in everyone we encounter.

Our Lady longs to transform our ordinary human love into extraordinary, Godlike love and enable us to see the value of each person with whom we come in contact, even when we lack the energy or will power to do so. She wants to not only direct us to Christ but also completely transform our hearts through a profound gratitude for what her son did for us on the cross. It is this gratitude and subsequent realization of God’s unfathomable love that enables us to not burn out in our vocation as mothers but be willing and able to serve day in and day out, year in and year out.

If Mother Theresa could spend her life serving the poorest of the poor, we too can be endowed with the same graces necessary to serve our families and those around us. In praying like Mother Teresa did to be lent the Blessed Mother’s heart, we approach Our Lady with the confidence that she can and will extend to us a wellspring of love that will pour out onto our families and beyond. Mary is the key to turning our cold heartedness back into the tenderness that fuels the fire of love in our homes and renews us as mothers.

Finally, the second prayer, “Keep me in your most pure heart” is a reminder that “I may please Jesus through you, in you and with you.” Mother Theresa is actually asking in this prayer to live her life’s mission in Mary’s heart. May we, as mothers, remember to keep our own vocations in the heart of the Blessed Mother so that we can love with the perfect Love of her Immaculate Heart.

To Ponder:

How can the Blessed Mother help me be a better mother?

Let Us Pray:

Dear Blessed Mother, Please help me to be a better mother, by allowing Christ to work within me.

Copyright 2015 Emily Jaminet