Friday, March 16, 2012

Wombs of Life: Various Stages of Transition

The "various stages of transition" that the pope speaks of is a really good way of expressing what I have been trying to say about "wombs of life".  This is from the Pope's Wednesday audience catechesis on March 14th 2012

Dear friends, human life passes through various stages of transition, often difficult and demanding, which require mandatory choices, sacrifices. The Mother of Jesus was placed by the Lord at the decisive moments of salvation history and has always been able to respond with full availability, the result of a deep relationship with God developed in assiduous and intense prayer. Between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, the Beloved disciple was entrusted to her, and with him the whole community of disciples (cf. Jn 19:26). Between Ascension and Pentecost, she is with and in the Church in prayer (cf. Acts 1.14). Mother of God and Mother of the Church, Mary exercises this motherhood until the end of history. We entrust to her every passing phase of our personal and ecclesial life, not least that of our final transit. Mary teaches us the necessity of prayer and shows us that only with a constant, intimate bond, full of love with her son can we emerge from "our house", by ourselves, with courage, to reach the ends of the world and proclaim everywhere the Lord Jesus, Saviour of the world.