546. How did the Virgin Mary pray? (part 1)
(Comp 546) Mary’s prayer was characterized by faith and by the generous offering of
her whole being to God. The Mother of Jesus is also the new Eve, the “Mother of
all the living”. She prays to Jesus for the needs of all people.
“In brief”
(CCC 2622) The prayers of the Virgin Mary, in her Fiat and
Magnificat, are characterized by the generous offering of her whole being in
faith.
To deepen and
explain
(CCC 2617) Mary's prayer is revealed to us at the dawning of
the fullness of time. Before the incarnation of the Son of God, and before the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit, her prayer cooperates in a unique way with the
Father's plan of loving kindness: at the Annunciation, for Christ's conception;
at Pentecost, for the formation of the Church, his Body (Cf. Lk 1:38; Acts
1:14). In the faith of his humble handmaid, the Gift of God found the
acceptance he had awaited from the beginning of time. She whom the Almighty
made "full of grace" responds by offering her whole being:
"Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be [done] to me according to
your word." "Fiat":
this is Christian prayer: to be wholly God's, because he is wholly ours.
Reflection
(CCC 2618) The Gospel reveals to us how Mary prays and
intercedes in faith. At Cana (Cf. Jn 2:1-12). The mother of Jesus asks her son
for the needs of a wedding feast; this is the sign of another feast - that of
the wedding of the Lamb where he gives his body and blood at the request of the
Church, his Bride. It is at the hour of the New Covenant, at the foot of the
cross (Cf. Jn 19:25-27), that Mary is heard as the Woman, the new Eve, the true
"Mother of all the living." [IT CONTINUES]
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