+(Intro) On this last Saturday of the month we remember Our Lady, Mary ever virgin. There was fulfilled in her what it is “to live according to the spirit” as St Paul will remind us this morning. So as we begin, let us reflect on where we may fail to live according to the spirit.
(After the gospel) We can live according to the spirit if the Spirit of God dwells within us. As St Paul has reminded us, if Christ is in us, “although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness.”
The Mary we remember this morning was especially graced by God and I have often wondered what it was like for her while pregnant with Christ in her womb. Her blood became one with his and his with hers. And yet, through the celebration that takes place at this altar, we become sharers in the very Body and Blood of our risen Lord, are made one with the Christ she bore in her womb.
During the recent Lay Cistercian retreat one of the great quotes from Thomas Keating was that “the chief act of the will, is not effort but consent.. The work of the will in prayer is real work, but it is chiefly one of receiving. Receiving is the most difficult kind of activity there is. To receive God is the chief work in centering prayer.” And isn’t this where Mary was so wonderfully graced, where she became the fig tree that bore abundant fruit.
Rom 8:1-11; Luke 13:1-9U