Ave Maria Meditations
Mary, Mother of God, how wondrous was the birth of your divine Son! To fulfill the prophecy that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, the city of David, God made use of the edict of a pagan emperor. With Joseph, you went up from Galilee into Judea, to Bethlehem, the city of David, because you were of the house and family of David to be enrolled. In your delicate condition, in winter, and without even the necessities of life for yourself or your Child, you obediently traveled to a distant and strange land. You did not question the plans of God, but has to fulfill them for your confidence in God matched your love of Him.
You conceived Him by the Holy Spirit with all purity, and with all purity, you brought Him forth, not in the pains of childbirth, but in the happiness of yearning love. In a poor cave of Bethlehem, the son of God was born miraculously. His human soul and body were substantially and inseparably united to His divine nature in one divine person, being the soul and body of God incarnate. Through this birth, the divine majesty, lost nothing of its splendor, and you became the other of God, and yet remained a virgin.
I can picture you lovingly, embracing your little Son and adoring Him as your God, wrapping Him in swaddling clothes and gently laying Him on the straw in the manger. There were only two spectators to witness the birth of God’s own Son. Only your deep faith could fully appreciate this extreme poverty. The God of infinite power was now a helpless Infant, subject to the suffering of frail mortals. You adored the God whom the heavens could not contain, cribbed and confined in the narrow manger.
Like you, help me to strive with every power within me to love Jesus for His own sake. May that love impress itself on all my thoughts, words, and actions. Like you, let me willingly accept and bear the cross in the spirit of a true follower of my crucified Master.
From the Complete Marian Prayerbook
