 December 2011: Like Mary, let us be bearers of the word of life. I am convinced that Mary represents the best model to live the mission that identifies us… contemplating and imitating her, unknown and concealed, but always faithful in her mission to make God known to men, is a more hopeful and effective task.
LIKE MARY, LET US BE BEARERS OF THE WORD OF LIFE.
“May it be done to me according to your word”… (Lk 1,26-38)
At the historic moment of the Annunciation, the promise of the Old Testament becomes history: the Word becomes flesh. What happens in Mary’s heart and flesh is the beginning in time of the mission of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Mary, at the time of the Incarnation, is the first one to hear about the Trinitarian mystery… Yahweh is the Father of the One she accepts to carry in her womb… and the power of the Most High that fecundates her is the Holy Spirit… The confident and free response of Mary opens us to know the intimacy of God: the Trinitarian communion.
The meeting with Mary reveals this mystery about the love of God: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (Jn 3,16)
Before the supreme revelation of love, Mary also responds with love and total availability. She actually does not simply say YES… she adds: “May it be done to me according to your word”. Not because she knows it, rather because she feels great love… She gives such answer because at the call of the Father, she does not look at herself, nor does she measure her strengths… Mary trusts Him… A harmony of desires develops through this loving dialogue leading to a surrender and confidence in the Other that will be incarnated in everyday life. It is the acceptance of an unmarked itinerary where mutual surrender is renewed at every moment and blended with a discernment that is not free of doubts and difficulties.
In Mary, we understand that our entire missionary journey is also a love story… accepting that we are not the ones who must set the ways nor the pace… we rather must accept to “be led”, even along paths that are not always anticipated nor understood… because love always requires dying to self in order to give life…
On the road to prepare for the Jubilee of the Order, as we travel together, the theme for 2012 is: “The Dominican woman and Preaching”. I am convinced that Mary represents the best model to live the mission that identifies us… contemplating and imitating her, unknown and concealed, but always faithful in her mission to make God known to men, is a more hopeful and effective task.
As Dominican women, we share the spiritual maternity of Mary… She was the first missionary, the first announcer of the Gospel of Life… The first disciple who carried the Good News of Jesus to the others… She made him visible; she uncovered him to the Shepherds, the Magi… and many more, in other places…
Today, in this world of ours, we are responsible for displaying the presence of the “Emmanuel”… of the “God among us”… in an original and specific manner.
MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Sr. M. Fabiola Velasquez Maya, OP
International Coordinator of DSI |
Events 
newsletter December 2012-2013
