Together with Mary

So what did we learn from the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe? Perhaps, the fact that millions of people were converted following the appearance of Our Lady was no coincidence.  What if Our Lady is the key to the New Pentecost?

After Jesus had been taken up to heaven the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away.

When they entered the city they went to the upper room where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.
All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

– Seventh Sunday of Easter; Reading 1 ACTS 1:12-14

Remember this picture?

Need I say more?  Mary is like, “hello my spouse, now everyone gets to experience the communion I have with you!”  She is greeting an old friend, while the Apostles are terrified and bewildered.

In all things, Mary is the first pilgrim – she goes before us, showing us the way to Jesus, the Father and eternal life.  So it is fitting that she should experience Pentecost long before anyone else did.

But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?”And the angel said to her in reply, “The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.

– Lk 1:34-35

The Holy Spirit conceived Jesus in Mary, so essentially, she is the Spouse of the Spirit – they are one.  So we can’t have one without the other.  At the first Pentecost, the Apostles needed Mary to intercede for them in the Upper Room, they needed her to help them be open to the coming of the spirit.  She probably helped to prepare them by showing what a life in the Spirit could look like.

When I was first pondering this New Pentecost and Mary’s role in it, reading these two books together is what really opened my eyes to and helped me begin to understand all of this.  I cannot recommend them enough!

 

 

 

“Renew Your wonders in our time, as though for a new Pentecost, and grant that the holy Church, preserving unanimous and continuous prayer, together with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and also under the guidance of St. Peter, may increase the reign of the Divine Savior, the reign of truth and justice, the reign of love and peace. Amen.”

St. Pope John XXIII, Convocation of Vatican II