22nd December, Tuesday I. 1 Samuel 1:24-28
II. Luke 1:46-56
Theme: Joyous Praises to the Faithful God
Hanna had begged the Lord for a child, promising that she would offer him back to God if her prayer were answered. The child was born and now she joyfully fulfils her promise; she leaves him there and bequeaths to us her prayer of praise filled gratitude. “my heart rejoices in the Lord, my saviour,” and it is obvious why. Because it is God and God alone who does everything for her. This is all the more true to Mary and her prayer of joyous gratitude.
So we have Hanna and Mary, to Jewish mothers, both blessed by God and both responding to him out of the fullness of their personal experience and tradition. Hannah offers her son back to God, as Mary will do it with Jesus. Mary is the perfect Christian, the single person in all human history who knew how to respond best to God’s word and favour to her. Do we want to know how to pray? Mary shows us how in her being as in her Magnificat. Next to the eucharist and the Our father, Magnificat is the greatest.
We are getting ready for the celebration of the birth of the child, Mary was carrying in her womb the day she gave us this prayer. Has it ever struck you how extraordinary was Mary’s preparation for that birth? We need her example in just being ourselves. Let us make our own pleas to purify us and to renew His life within us.
Bro. John Bosco SMM
II BTH