“Women of today grasp for so many things that Our Lady embodied in her perfect femininity,” writes Jenna McDonald. (Caravaggio/Flight into Egypt. Wikimedia)
Many of us struggle to connect with Mary. Given that we tend toward offence at the slightest suggestion of gender roles, Mary’s most extolled characteristics surrounding maternity and femininity are especially uncomfortable in polite, modern company.
Because of these road blocks, many of us get intellectually
fetched-up in modern sensibilities and, as a result, miss out on learning from
Mary. Many of us Catholics (women especially) feel a vague sense of duty to
love the Mother of God but some of us aren’t sure we want to hear what she has
to say.
Father Michael Gaitley’s book 33 Days to Morning Glory is a simplified approach
to Marian consecration and has made the devotion accessible to thousands of
Catholics in recent years. Its simplicity is rivalled only by its depth.
In other litany-laden Marian consecration experiences, any
contemplation we happen upon is usually purely by accident. Any A-type
personalities that endeavour to seek a closer connection with Mary find
themselves panicking and floundering their way through dense prayers that
increase dramatically in volume as the consecration unfolds. Over-achievers are
bound to miss the point in the midst of the many prescriptions. It turns out
that “Hurry up and pray” is not the way to authentic consecration; or to a
living, breathing relationship with Mary.
What does Father Michael do differently in his “updated” consecration format? The
older, tried and true consecrations (despite the high drop-out rate) obtain the
same goal. Besides pandering to the most distracted society in history (each
day’s reflections and prayers average two pages in length), Father Michael tells
us why Mary is worthy of our love, honour, and respect instead of assuming we
are already convicted on this point.
In slowly coming to see Mary’s beauty and our need for her maternal love and
care, we find ourselves full of a new-born respect and awe of the person of
Mary instead of dutifully nodding at her function in salvation history.
Many modern Catholic women see her silence as something we need to crouch down to meet. We need to somehow fold ourselves properly to be more quiet, more patient, less opinionated. It is difficult to see or to perceive her as a fully-realized being. She seems somehow stunted; as if she had mysteriously found peace with being less than we know women to be.
Even though we say “Hail, Mary, full of grace,” we still so
often look at her as a mere negation of sin instead of a woman of wholeness who
unbelievably is the chosen spouse of the Holy Spirit (St. Maximilian Kolbe’s
writings on this point are breathtaking).
With the help of those who truly know her (St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Louis de
Montfort et al.), we can see her for who she really is: the one truly “liberated”
woman.
If we are to reclaim femininity from the many pseudo-feminists of today, it
should look like this: not being afraid to embrace the life with which we’ve
been imbued. At any God-given moment that life may manifest itself differently.
Mary did so much more than “grow baby Jesus” in her womb, although of course
that is enough. And it was always enough for many people throughout the ages.
But there is so much more. In these confusing and uncertain times, women are
starving for true examples of feminine strength or in the words of St. John
Paul II, “the feminine genius.”
If we could know the contents of Mary’s heart which were the subject of much pondering, we’d find a vast, rich understanding of all of humanity. She knew, acutely, the struggles of the human heart and particularly how women would feel short-handed by their apparent second-place standing.
The women of today grasp for so many things that Our Lady embodied in her perfect femininity; she did not merely submit to natural law, she shaped natural law in her body. God’s body was shaped and held within the body of a woman. This is sacred ground and it needs to be addressed with only utmost humility. The rightful posture of Our Lady and thus of woman is not “I need to be (fill in the blank)” but it is “I am created to be. Period.”
The wonder and beauty of Our Lady are only limited by the scope of our imagination. I can’t think of what would please our Lord more than our loving Mary. He delights in our meeting his mother. In fact, it was his dying wish that we see her, that we know her. “Behold, thy Mother ...” (Jn 19:27).