Death & Resurrection as Revealed in Nature

JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever!

I have been MIA for some time. My apologies...Life happens and I was unable to post anything, but God was working on my double-time during Lent so the Eastern blessings and joy are now abounding! I had two beautiful aha moments in the midst of Lent and on Good Friday that related to nature but so clearly spoke to my heart about the spiritual journey. 

During Lent, I continued to focus on the dying of myself, my will, my plans, agendas, and strongly held opinions and judgments. I worked on abstaining from commenting about every life event and gaining full[er] custody of my tongue. I was frequently reminded of the reminder on silence given by St. John of the Cross, "What we need most in order to make progress is to be silent before this great God with our appetite and with our tongue, for the language he best hears is silent love. "  AND Whenever anything disagreeable or displeasing happens to you, remember Christ crucified and be silent.

I was meditating on the metamorphosis of the caterpillar that is transformed into a butterfly, and praying that Our Lord would help m e to grow and change into a beautiful soul. I looked up the life cycle of the butterfly just to review this process, and was astonished by what I found. In this scientific description of the caterpillar weaving its cocoon, it reveals that the caterpillar digests itself! While doing so, it releases certain enzymes to dissolve all of the tissues, while certain cells known as imaginal discs survive the process and form the body parts for the newly formed butterfly.


Wow! Here I had been meditating on the Scripture passage from St. John that 'Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it bears no fruit." 



St. Teresa was more intuitively aware of how God helps our hearts to achieve metamorphosis or metanoia than she could have ever guessed. Indeed, just as the caterpillar must digest itself in order to be transformed, we must die to self and be empty to be filled with the fullness of God, 

The other event that happened relating to nature occurred on Good Friday. As my daughter and I were approaching an abortion clinic to pray the Rosary with our Bishop Olmstead, I spied a beautiful vibrant hummingbird on the ground completely still and presumably dead. I lamented this as I love hummingbirds, and have always likened them to the Holy Spirit, the Divine Providence of Our Heavenly Father, and related to a part of my own spiritual mission. I thought about the beauty of Christ being infinite, and yet Him becoming the unblemished Lamb that was slain for me and all of humanity on that day. I was crest fallen and really wanted to take this lovely intact bird home with me to bury it. After the Rosary, we gazed upon this little creature and decided to leave it. The entire weekend, this little hummingbird was with me in my mind. On Easter Monday, I finally decided to look up its symbolism and found an amazing explanation.



I discovered that this tiny bird is a symbol of the Resurrection in Christianity. This is because at night when the temperature drops, the little creature will go into what's known as torpor and become completely still and appear lifeless.  This is to slow down their metabolism and reserve their energy. As the sun begins to shine and they warm up, they pull out of this very deep sleep and seeming death and come to life again!  I pondered this beautiful metaphor of Our Lord's Resurrection and was so grateful that Our Lord was communicating to me the hope and promise of his Resurrection  and victory over apparent death, even on the very day when we were venerating His Passion and Death on the Cross. It brought me back full circle to when I was in the Holy Sepulcher in July, and was completely enveloped in the joy of the Resurrection while standing next to His tomb, and then when praying within it. It was overpowering. I could taste the joy and victory at that moment, and my soul understood better what Jesus had done for us. It was a moment I will never forget. I thank our Triune God not only for the big moments such as praying at Jesus' tomb in Jerusalem, but also the little moments of daily life, like seeing the delicate hummingbird in torpor that remind us of His Divine hand over all of creation, and His triumph over death which is apparent even in our darkened world.   

Léonie Martin, Sister of St. Therese, becomes Servant of God

JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever!

How appropriate that on the Eve of the Feast Day of St. Francis de Sales, that Léonie Martin, who followed his way of Divine Love and the Devout life in everyday life and in all circumstances, along with the Little Way of her sister St. Therese, will be named Servant of God and her cause opened.  In our broken world riddled with so many suffering from abuse and mental illness and instability, her more visible role in the Church is timely indeed. Read below to learn more about this sister of St. Therese, who was said to have perfected and lived out the Little Way amidst her fragility and challenges. 

Opening of the diocesan process for the sainthood of Leonie Martin, Sister of St. Therese, to be announced January 24, 2015 in France, according to reports in French newspapers.
by Maureen O’Riordan for http://leoniemartin.org

On Saturday, January 24, the feast of St. Francis de Sales, Mgr. Jean-Claude Boulanger, bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux, will announce officially the opening of the diocesan process of beatification for Léonie Martin, the sister of St. Therese of Lisieux, according to stories in the French press.  La Manche Libre, Le Pays d'Auge, Normandie Actu, and the French Catholic newspaper La Croix reported the news.  According to these reports, Father Laurent Berthout, the bishop's press officer, said:

“For many years, people have entrusted themselves to the prayers of Léonie Martin, coming to her tomb at the Monastery of the Visitation, where she was a nun from 1899 to 1941. These persons witness to graces they have received through her intercession. Léonie Martin lived a simple, hidden, humble life in the shadow of the cloister. She wanted to live the spirituality of St. Francis de Sales, doing “all through love, nothing through force” in the words of St. Francis. She was blessed by the spiritual discovery of her sister, St. Therese, who taught her to live by Love in the most humble and the most everyday actions. Leonie gave witness by her life to the possibility of living it fully, even through her limitations: character, health, trials.”

The French press reports that Bishop Boulanger will announce the opening of the process when he celebrates Mass tomorrow at the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen.  He will officially confer on Léonie  the title "Servant of God."  The opening of the diocesan process (an inquiry into the life and writings of the candidate for sainthood) is the beginning of a long procedure that, for some candidates, leads ultimately to canonization.  The diocesan process for Therese was opened by an earlier bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux in 1910, and Léonie  testified at it.

See http://tinyurl.com/processleonie  

Finding a Slice of Carmel in the Beauty of Impressionism

JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever!

I was blessed to visit the Kimbell Art Museum in Ft. Worth over Christmas week which was hosting a world-renowned exhibit entitled Faces of Impressionism - Portraits from the Musee d'Orsay. I felt as if I had been transported back to my time in Paris, when such beautiful works of art surrounded me and were a metro stop away, and I could drink in the beauty of such masterpieces at a moment's notice.  The striking beauty that these impressionist and post-impressionist painters created provided a profound sense of awe and peace within me.


Instead of staid portraits and strictly constructed landscapes, the impressionist school sought to capture movement, color, light, and ordinary objects in a less formal way. Such wide brush strokes and painting via plein-air techniques created pieces that captured the mood of its subjects and gave an almost whimsical and relaxed mood to the viewer. Post impressionists took this idea and modified it to use more abstract forms and geographical shapes and symbols to convey beauty and mood of the subject.  Such artists include Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Cezanne. 



I was reminded of some truths among the beauty of these various paintings:

1. Seeing the vibrancy of colors and freedom of movement and subjects in the brush strokes stirred in my soul the sense that God does not work in rigid fashion and tends to color outside the lines. Just when we think that we have things figures out, He surprises us! We know that God's ways are indeed not our ways! 

2. In addition, the liberty with which the artists depicted the various subject matter, whether they be persons, objects, landscapes, or other scenes, reminded me of how much freedom is found in knowing God and allowing Him to shape and mold our lives. When we trust Him, He takes us on an unexpected journey and creates a canvas of interwoven colors and shapes as the final product. The key is to trust Him always, even when we cannot see the end point.

3. Experiencing beauty is pivotal to our spiritual growth, sense of joy, and fulfillment. We need beauty, like we need the air we breathe. It is necessary to seek true beauty wherever we can find it and to take time to savor it. We must let it soak into our very being, into our bones so that we can take this tiny reflection of God's divine nature within us. This gives us hope and fills us with a sense of purpose and that all will be well.  It stokes the fires of meditation and contemplation...the desire to see God or at least commune with Him more intimately.

St. Augustine tells us, "Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.

Let us then celebrate beauty and try to surround ourselves with it whenever we can. This will assist us in pondering on the law of the Lord day and night and getting ever closer to God, who is beauty itself. Amen. 

A Call to Christmas Conversion

JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever!
 
Merry Christmas! We are now in the Holy Octave of Christmas, and have begun to celebrate the arrival of our new-born King.  Amidst this special time of celebration, we continue to abound in opportunities to examine our hearts and seek ever greater renewal to allow Christ's Kingship to reign within. Just a few short days ago, Pope Francis addressed the Curia concerning 15 spiritual ailments that can stifle the Holy Spirit and spiritual growth. He pointed out that many of these interior illnesses and dispositions lead to greater sins of pride, laxity, and lukewarm behaviors and ideas. Among them, he listed excessive activity, gossip, dour personalities, defiance of authority, vanity, and spiritual schizophrenia, to name a few. You can read more about them here: ​​http://www.catholic.org/news/hf/faith/story.php?id=58117
 
I was thinking about two Christmas movie classics that encapsulate the Christmas spirit or lack thereof and can be used as a measuring stick for my own interior dispositions and external actions towards others. Those two movies are A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life.
 
In the classic Charles Dickens tale,
A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge personifies what we do not want to become as Christmas pilgrims on our journey. Scrooge is mean-spirited, miserly, and cares nothing about his family, his employees, or those in need. He only cares about money and ensuring that his worldly possessions and concerns are taken care of at the expense of everyone else. His relationships are lost, and his sense of wonder and joy snuffed out by his pre-occupation with self and earthly concerns that are passing. And instead of sharing the blessings and gifts that he has with others, he hoards them and lords them over others. It is a sad state of affairs as he revisits Christmas Past, and sees the warmth that he enjoyed with family, friends, and a special woman that he loved, and how he lost it due to his narcissistic behavior and lack of care and concern for others. 

He then witnesses Christmas Present and how these same people are lamenting his absence and how he used to be a part of their celebration but has isolated himself to such an extreme that no one cares to be around him. Finally, Christmas Future is revealed and he sees that as his life fades he is increasingly alone and then faces death where his isolation and darkness become a foreshadowing of afterlife in hell.  All has passed and he is left with nothing. Only darkness surrounds him as He has removed God's love and the
love of others from his life.  


It has him shaking in his boots and an 'aha' moment, an epiphany occurs as he realizes the errors of his ways and seeks to remedy them.  He comes to understand in his heart that all things are passing but love for God and one another, and that when one shares of their gifts and bounties one receives back a hundred-fold.

In contrast, A Wonderful Life focuses on the life of George Bailey who is depicted as an affable, caring, and self-sacrificing individual from a very young age. As a boy, he is given the opportunity to save his brother's life when the ice breaks while sledding, and as a result loses his hearing in one ear. He intervenes when the pharmacist is grieving over losing his only son at war, and mistakenly gives a patient the wrong medicine that would potentially kill her; and instead of going off to college and traveling the world as he has always dreamed of, he stays in the small town of Bedford Falls after the death of his father, to honor his legacy and help his community to grow and have opportunities to own their own homes and build better lives.  

Again and again, George puts others ahead of himself.  At  a pivotal crisis, when their funds are accidentally misplaced by Uncle Billy, it appears to him that all of his sacrifice has been for naught.  He prays to God for help on Christmas Eve, but continues to despair and drink, believing that he is worth more dead than alive, and intending on committing suicide. He laments that it would have been better if he had never been born. His Guardian Angel Clarence saves his life, and takes him on a journey as to what life would have been like for his family and the entire community of Bedford Falls if he had never been born. During this transport in time, George sees that his life has deeply touched the lives of many others, saved many lives, and influenced his entire small community of Bedford Falls. He comes to realize that regardless of what happens with the outcome of the missing money, he has lived a wonderful life and has much to live for and look forward to.

In the touching conclusion, we see all the people of the town come to his family's home and contribute the missing funds in order that his bank does not have to declare bankruptcy and George doesn't have to face prison time. We see that his generosity and self sacrifice all these years has come back full circle and those around him love and respect him, and will do anything to help him. It truly is a moving film of how we want to live our lives as Christians and act in selfless love for others. 

These two movies can be used for a Christmas examination of conscience. Five points really stand out for me:
1. Do we listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit and the interior promptings of our Guardian Angels or do we have closed hearts and hearing? Are we open to what God is telling us through other people, the voice of conscience, or do we ignore them? Do we foster listening to God and to others who want to help us through silence and time for prayer, or do we ignore, reject, or run from these voices that seek to help and protect us?

2. Are we affable and approachable or are we joyless and cantankerous like Scrooge? Do others dread seeing us or spending time with us because of our self-centeredness and negativity, or do we spread joy, laughter, and the love of friendship and concern wherever we go?

3. Are we self-sacrificing and seek to serve others, or are we miserly and selfish? Do we always think of the other as Jesus asked of us, or do we place primacy on our own plans to the point of self-adulation and worship?

 
4. Do we seek ways to serve the poor, the infirm and those more unfortunate than ourselves, or do we ignore, or even worse, despise the cries of the poor as Scrooge did before his conversion? In a related way, are we aware of the despair that some feel during the Christmas season due to loss, family division, severe disappointment or other forms of mental distress and illness? Do we seek to bring comfort to those who mourn, and touch the lives of those who contemplate suicide? Do we pray for the least of our brothers and sisters whether they are in spiritual, mental or spiritual poverty? See this examination of conscience for further guidance on fulfilling the Beatitudes in life: See
 https://paxchristiusa1.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/eoc.pdf
 

 5. Are we able to change plans quickly and in peace in order to do what God requires of us in the present moment, as George Bailey did time and again, or de we cling to our agendas and plans to the point of ignoring or rejecting the Divine Will and the needs of others? Do we trust that God is always with us and that His plans are always best for us in a childlike spirit, or do we doubt the love of God, only trust in our own plans, and refuse to surrender to His loving providence?

These are points that we can ponder during this Christmas Octave and as we approach the New Year and the Feast of Mary, Mother of God. It is a time of great joy as well as a time to seek to grow and empty ourselves, as Our Lord did when, "He emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, and being born in the likeness of men." [Ph 2:7] Merry Christmas, everyone!

Our Lady of Expectation - Our Lady of O

JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever!

Dear Ones-
Christmas is now just one week away! Where has the time gone? Hopefully, amidst the many temporal activities and concerns of the season, we have been able to set aside some time for quiet reflection and consideration of what remains most important during this season- the birth of Christ who 'emptied himself taking the form of a slave' in order to redeem us.

As we continue our Advent journey forward, I thought this article written by a professor on this Feast Day of Our Lady of Expectation would be appropriate to meditate on as we draw close to that Star of Wonder, and await the revelation of Our Lord in the flesh...manifested in our hearts.

Here it is as published at http://www.traditioninaction.org/SOD/j207sd_OLExpectation_12-18.html  by the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. 

Expectation of Our Lady - December 18

Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

December 18 begins the last week of Advent, which the Church calls the Week of Expectation. We are only one week away from the Birth of Our Lord, and the Church imagines the jubilation and hope of Our Lady in expectation of her parturition: she was waiting to admire the Blessed Face of the Son she was generating in her womb. Our Lady of the Expectation, in Sabará, Brazil Our Lady had begged God to hasten the coming of the Messiah, God heard her omnipotent prayer, and the Incarnation in fact was anticipated. She was invited to be the Mother of the Word. She accepted, and conceived the Incarnate Word in her womb. In this last week of her gestation, she is waiting with expectation to see the Face of her Son so that she might have a more profound knowledge of His soul and His full personality. She also awaits the salvation of the world that approaches. She sees the hour coming when the glory of God will cease to be offended by the legacy of original sin. The Devil’s reign that dominated for more than 4,000 years is drawing to its end. She senses that the Reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ is near. Only one week is lacking for the birth of the Word that marks the beginning of the end of the reign of the Devil. It was definitely destroyed when Our Lord was immolated on the Cross and the Redemption was consummated. These considerations filled the heart of Our Lady with hope. That is why during this period of waiting she is called Our Lady of the Expectation, Our Lady of the Hope or Our Lady of the O!, since on each of the seven days before Christmas there is an antiphon in the liturgy that the Church attributes to her. All of these antiphons begin with the exclamation – O! – and continue with adapted words of the Old Testament that refer to the birth of Our Lord and His Redemption. These antiphons, called the "Greater Antiphons" or the "O Antiphons," are the following: Antiphon 1: O Wisdom! Thou came forth from the mouth of the Most High and, reaching from beginning to end, Thou ordered all things mightily and sweetly. Come, and teach us the way of prudence. Antiphon 2: O Adonai, Ruler of the House of Israel! Thou appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush and on Mount Sinai gave him Thy law. Come to redeem us with the strength of Thy arm. Antiphon 3: O Root of Jesse! Thou stand as a sign for all peoples; before Thee kings shall keep silence and to Thee all nations shall have recourse. Come, save us, and do not delay. Antiphon 4: O Key of David, Scepter of the House of Israel! Thou doth open and no man closes; Thou doth close and no man opens. Come, and deliver from the chains of prison those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. Antiphon 5: O Rising Dawn, Radiance of the Light eternal and Sun of Justice! Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. Antiphon 6: O King of the Gentile, the Awaited One of all! Thou are the cornerstone that binds two into one. Come, and save man whom Thou fashioned out of clay. Antiphon 7: O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Hope and Salvation of the nations! Come and save us, O Lord our God. The O Antiphons suggest to us some thoughts. When the encyclical Divini Redemptoris of Pius XI against Communism was published in 1937, the Pontiff noted in it that the world was in such a bad state that it was in danger of falling to a state lower than it was before the Redemption. And indeed, we can say that it fell. From 1937 to this date, the catastrophe has happened. The many evils described by Pius XI have only increased since his time. The world redeemed by Jesus Christ is now at a lower state than before His coming. A dawn after the Deluge by Thomas Cole In this situation we long for a restoration so radical that is similar to a redemption. We hope for a renewal of the fruits of Redemption applied to the needs of our times. We have need of the punishment of those who despise Our Lord and have infiltrated into the deepest recesses of His Church. If they could, they would destroy her. We also call for those who can convert to be regenerated and reconciled with Our Lord. We need the Reign of Mary to be implanted. So, for us, in the days that precede Christmas, these antiphons should express an appeal and a plea to the Infant Jesus to hasten a stronger and more triumphant and invincible action to re-implant His Kingdom on earth - with Mary, in Mary and through Mary. We should ask Our Lady to obtain this from her Son. We also should ask her to increase our hope that this will happen. In this way, we will pass this week in expectation of these graces as Our Lady was waiting for the graces of Our Lord’s coming before the feast of Christmas. Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira The Saint of the Day features highlights from the lives of saints based on comments made by the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. Following the example of St. John Bosco who used to make similar talks for the boys of his College, each evening it was Prof. Plinio’s custom to make a short commentary on the lives of the next day’s saint in a meeting for youth in order to encourage them in the practice of virtue and love for the Catholic Church. TIA thought that its readers could profit from these valuable commentaries. The texts of both the biographical data and the comments come from personal notes taken by Atila S. Guimarães from 1964 to 1995. Given the fact that the source is a personal notebook, it is possible that at times the biographic notes transcribed here will not rigorously follow the original text read by Prof. Plinio. The commentaries have also been adapted and translated for TIA’s site.

Spiritual Journey to Bethlehem

JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever!

This Advent seems different to me after having visited the Holy Land this summer. As I contemplate the many rich scenes of Our Lord's Birth, I find myself transported back to the very place where He was born and remember our Saturday visit to Manger Square where we saw the Church & Grotto of the Nativity, the adjoining St. Catherine of Alexandria Church, the Milk Grotto, and Shepherd's Field where the Angel's Chapel marks the place where the angel announced the birth of Christ to the shepherds who were tending their flocks in silence. 

This journey in person was undeniably filled with many graces, but I am acutely aware that my heart continues to wander through the hills and high desert of Israel as I seek spiritual rebirth in my soul to experience Christ's full presence at the crib in Bethlehem in that cave. I am not sure that this profound metanoia will correspond with the arrival of Christmas day fully, as I am acutely aware of various prickly pears, rattlesnakes, and poison berries that abound in my own soul with a variety of temptations and sins rearing their ugly heads, along with a good dose of spiritual dehydration to boot. Now, don't get me wrong. I am not mentioning this to indulge my melancholy. In fact, I view it as a positive sign that the journey of purification within that is so very necessary as a Carmelite is seemingly well underway. 

It was a relief to find a poem by Jessica Powers about this very journey of the soul, which follows the path of darkness so eloquently expressed by our mystic and founding father St. John of the Cross.   Of this journey she states, 

This is a pure Gobi desert, you declare; I see, past sandstorms (of exaggeration)...Pure, desert, you complain, though now you walk who once had shuffled through the arid miles. Sighting a day of flight, I shelve my smiles and share your pilgrim talk.
All true ascesis as a desert lies: hot wind, hot sand, no water, and no way. The ego agonizes through each day, Freedom is when it dies. I coax you onward: soon, first breeze of bliss; soon, sun that scorches cooled to sun that warms. Your youth will dance when shady lanes lock arms with each green oasis. 

 

The good news is that just as the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph could not see what was ahead for them during their journey towards Bethlehem and were forced to trust in the Divine Providence of God, so must we trust Our Father who is with His children, and always makes a path and provides a means to shelter us beneath His wings. He allows the unexpected to surprise and delight us and it is always more perfect that we could ever have imagined it!  The story of Jesus' birth underscores this again and again, with a joyful surprise awaiting all. This completed journey and profound gift of new life as seen in the birth of Baby Jesus, our Savior, can be realized within our very souls on a micro-level if we allow for it.   If we let go, and walk through the Valley of Darkness towards that Grotto of Life Itself, we will be transformed and eventually spy the subtle glimmers of light from our Divine Star, our Divine Guide. 




In The Hidden Christ, Jessica Powers expresses this reality so beautifully as follows:

I sought His stable where He gave His goodness in the guise of bread.Emptiness came to me instead.
filled with my Father's words, I cried "Where have You hid Yourself?" and all The living answered to my call.
I found Him (and the world is wide) dear in His warm ubiquity.Where heart beat, there was Christ for me."
I went back to the Christmas cave, glad with the gain of everywhere. And lo! the blessed Child was there. He multiplied His good and fed in me the multitude.  

 May we continue the journey until it is complete. Amen. 

Purity of Expectation & Hope

JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever!

As we continue our early steps towards the crib in Bethlehem this first week of Advent, we begin to meditate on a sense of expectation. We know what is to come some 3 weeks from now. We might have particular hopes and expectations associated with Christmas, whether they be spiritual or temporal. But we need to be mindful of our expectations which can turn into conditions and a form of perverted hope. In saying that, I am not suggesting that we should have no expectations in any given situation, but we must always monitor our motives. Are they pure? Are we seeking something else that is unspoken and not fair to others or not in keeping with God's plans? Do our expectations cause us to judge others harshly or do our expectations enable us to love more? Do they stifle the subtle movements of the Holy Spirit? These are pivotal questions in this season permeated by the purity of the Infant Jesus in the Immaculate Womb of Our Immaculate Mother who is the Immaculate Conception. This is the season of pure love, and any expectations we have must be rooted in this.

Our Lady is the one to show us the path of pure expectations, as she gave her assent to the Angel Gabriel, not entirely sure of what this plan of bearing the Christ Child would entail. . All she knew was the she identified herself as 'the handmaid of the Lord' and that she accepted that His plans be realized and fulfilled in her as His lowly servant. She did not know the how's or why's of his mysterious plan. She only knew that His loving Divine Providence is perfect and can be trusted. She further knew that she could remain in a trustful silence and had no need of proving her expectations, plans, reasons, etc. to others. She was content to be ensconced in the embrace of His Divine Will. Adrienne von Speyr writes in Handmaid of the Lord that,

 "In saying, 'Be it done to me', she gave her consent not only to the Child but to everything that the expectation will make out of her and everything that will happen after the birth of the Son. 'Be it done to me" means that she puts herself as woman at the disposal of the active, shaping Word of God in her. Thus she is brought to the contemplation of pregnancy and expectation after her personal action has spent itself in the assent - an assent which, again, had itself grown out as fruit from her continual contemplation..."  

"From the moment of her assent, the Mother awaits an already fulfilled promise. The fullness is already in her, the Word of God is growing in her, and her expectation now forms itself according to this growth and grows with it. It is no longer her own expectation which will be fulfilled; it becomes a function of the fulfillment. Through the fulfillment of the promise in her, her expectation comes about: the expectation of the already present Son within her, the mystery of Advent, which the Mother will, like everything else, make over to the Church as a permanent state. This expectation is primarily a spiritual and only secondarily a physical expectation...' [p. 68-69]

We see this purity of intention throughout the entirety of Our Lady's personal Advent during her 9 month pregnancy and beyond. St. Luke's Gospel recounts her going 'in haste' to visit her cousin Elizabeth who has also miraculously conceived a child, as she was thought the be barren and past child-bearing years. Mary seeks to serve her cousin, not to be served. As she approaches, Elizabeth's spirit is transfixed as both she and her son John recognize Mary as Theotokos with the Savior housed in her womb.  In response from the depths of Our Lady's  heart and soul she proclaims the words of the Magnificat. What beauty and unexpected sublimity in this colloquy of pure love and fulfilled expectation. 
   
 

My soul magnifies the Lord And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior;Because He has regarded the lowliness of His handmaid;For behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed;Because He who is mighty has done great things for me,and holy is His name;And His mercy is from generation to generation on those who fear Him.He has shown might with His arm,He has scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.He has put down the mighty from their thrones,and has exalted the lowly.He has filled the hungry with good things,and the rich He has sent away empty.He has given help to Israel, his servant, mindful of His mercy Even as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his posterity forever.

Our Lady's eyes were fixed solely on God, in doing His Will and serving others. By expecting that God's magnanimity would shine forth in all circumstances was she able to free herself from conditional hopes and expectations on others that lead to disappointment and disordered attachments to oneself and one's personal agenda. By remaining ever His handmaid and seeking to serve alongside her Son, she continues to show us how to anticipate the coming of Christ with no false pretense, ulterior motives, or conditional love. This is the purity of anticipation which Our Lord wishes to give us this season. Our Lady is ready to show us how, if we only ask in child-like purity of hope.