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Welcome to St Mary's the Virgin
It is one of the feasts of Saint Mary the Virgin tomorrow. Like earthly monarchs who enjoy more than one birthday a year, so the Queen of Heaven has a number of festivals. Patronal festivals (Matronal?) are always a challenge for incumbents; what can one say from the pulpit that the saints of the parish have not heard, possibly many many times before? And of course, the mother of Jesus is hardly a little known, minor personality of the New Testament – her words and deeds, biblical and apocryphal, are well known and oft repeated. Books have been written as well as all the poetry, songs and hymns.
Mary is primarily celebrated (rather like the ‘man from Del Monte’ in the adverts of yesteryear) as the saint who said Yes: the angel arrives and announces; Mary says yes I will. What would have happened if she had said no? – God does always give us that option…
August is one of those months which for various reasons many of us feel is the time to GET THINGS DONE. This can be overwhelming if the list of ‘things’ looks very long – how do we say yes to all that and not reach the Summer’s end either worn out or disappointed, or worse still, both? Mary said yes to one thing, (mother of the Messiah!) from which many others came (nappy changing, sleepless nights, difficult journeys…) What things make your soul magnify the Lord, or your spirit rejoice? Choose one, remembering that Biblically the holy and the worldly are deeply interwoven; Jesus gave very short shrift to those who were too busy devoting their resources to God to care for the humans around them. What would make the presence of God feel larger in your day to day life? - do that and you too will magnify the Lord.
Fr Neil.
