Sainthood Sunday: Mary

I am going to attempt something new, which is to profile a different saint that we can learn to imitate by taking part in The Sainthood Project every Sunday. It might give us a model for the coming week, it might give us something to reflect on, perhaps even point out a part of our life that we need to surrender to God. Either way, I hope it helps.

It is pretty obvious that the first saint anyone should refer to or profile is Mary, the Mother of God. There just isn't anyone that comes close. This is for one reason and that is her "yes" or her "Fiat."

You see, Mary held the entire Heavens up as they waited for her response to the question from the angel. Literally thousands of years and generations of formation for the entire human race had gone in to setting up this exact moment. What was it that Mary was going to do?

Give such a response to God, to giver herself so fully to the Holy Spirit that she would bring God down from Heaven to Earth.

We are called to do no less.

We are called to give a yes response to God in our lives in such a way that God comes and dwells within us. So that the Grace of God will be birthed out of us and onto the the entire world. God expects no less.

Can we be addressed as "full of Grace?"

Can we be addressed as "finding favor with God?"

Why not? What are we missing? What is lacking in our conversion to the will of God?

If we are going to make the decision to live the life of a saint then there needs to be that conversion, that Fiat, that "yes" to the will of God. That "yes" to the will of God goes beyond our own plans. It might not fit into the comfortable lives that we have set up for ourselves.

In a world that strives to enter in to some type of comfortable consistency, it would have been incredibly easy for Mary to have married Joseph and brought Christ into the world in a much more comfortable manner. Less controversy. Waited until after the census. They could have avoided the whole trip to Egypt.

A "yes" to God does not work according to our own plans. It does not work according to our own structures. It does not work according to what makes it easy for us in life.

If you are going to give God a yes, think about the ramifications of that. How do we imitate Mary in the coming week?

Say yes to love at all points. Love the unlovable. In the situations in which you feel that God's will is too hard or that God is throwing an unexpected curveball at you, simply respond, "Let it be done to me according to your will."

There was no greater phrase ever uttered by any saint. No purer response to the will of God. It might be the signpost on the gate to Heaven.

Know that you are in my prayers this week as we all make the attempt to imitate the faithfulness of Mary in our own lives by reconverting our lives to Christ. By saying "yes" to God. By letting it be done according to His will.

Desire sainthood enough to say "yes."

How are you going to say "yes" this week in the model of Mary? What do you need prayers for in order to convert more of you life to the will of God?