Pondering
“Mary pondered on all these things in he heart” Luke 1
Readings - Genesis 3:9-15, 20, Psalm 98, Luke 1:26-38 and 2:19 Luke 1:26-38
Reflection
Have you ever pondered what Mary was pondering? What did Mary know of the Old Testament prophecies spoken of her child. We receive the classic Christmas cards of an adoring Mary gazing on the face of an angelic baby, being meek and mild, and we sing “no crying he makes!” In my experience every baby cries! As she watched her baby sleep was she thinking about the world being turned upside down with those who are last being first and the first being last. Did she consider this baby a revolutionary as well as a King? Something for us to ponder. Have we adapted God and Jesus to conform to our own mould or are our views as radical as Mary’s. We will read later in this booklet about Mary’s response of lifting the lowly and helping the poor. That is radical. We don’t get Christmas cards with images portraying the hungry being filled, the rich being sent away empty handed.
What did Mary ponder? As she and Joseph took flight as the mighty slaughtered the innocent, and as she gazed at the one who would turn the world upside down. What did she ponder?
When he healed, raised the dead, restored and forgave, when he stumbled to the cross and died—what did she ponder? “Mary pondered all these things in her heart” - will you?
Prayer
Loving God, the angel told the Virgin Mary that she was to be the mother of your Son.
Though Mary was afraid, she responded to your call with joy.
Help me, whom you call to serve you, to share like her in your great work of bringing to our world your love and healing. In Jesus’ name Amen.
Additional Prayer Ideas
We remember those to ill or stressed to ponder.
We pray for those whose energy is sapped by waking each day.
3 comments:
i'm really loving these advent thoughts Jackie!
Elizabeth
To consider that Mary was thinking anything else, now that you mention it, is in keeping with the pretty picture painted by modern religion. I love your thoughts that every mother would have been truly overwhelmed that her king was trying to kill children under two, that her son was begat by the Holy spirit, that in all of the begats in the bible Jesus is never included, and that is why. She had a lot to think about. Pondering would have been intensified with the birth of her earthly children by Joseph. You wonder if Mary told them that Jesus was only half their brother. SO much to consider when you think of the time, culture, and conflicts going on in the Jewish faith during that high political period with Rome.
Thanks king of hearts for your thought provoking comments
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