Meditation for the Assumption 

When Mary was asked to become the Mother of God, she was touched by a moment of fear. For a mere mortal, this was an immense notion. How does one comprehend such a thing? But the Angel reassured her. The work would be accomplished by God, and nothing is impossible for Him.

Immediately Mary offered herself totally for the task of bringing Christ and His redemption into the world.

She laid down no conditions. She made no reservations. Joyously, she said “Yes” to God’s plan with a simple sentence: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done unto me ACCORDING to Thy Word.”

She was aware of her lowliness. But she had no inferiority complex about it. She entrusted herself with generosity and faith to God’s loving Providence and power.

Her humility was her strength and the source of her calmness and joy. Her confidence was not in her own abilities but rather in God’s greatness.

We might do well to try to imitate her when we make our Morning Offering. We can offer ourselves to God each day, to be used by Him in His work of bringing love and redemption to the world.

But unfortunately, we do not have Mary’s generosity and faith. Doubts and fears disturb our serenity. As life unfolds itself, we begin to have second thoughts.

If things don’t go according to OUR plan, we imagine God has no plan.

If we are not successful in OUR efforts, we think God is a failure.

If our lives are ordinary and humdrum, we yearn for something spectacular and dramatic.

We forget that God does not work before television cameras, but in the hearts of men. He is a hidden God and often accomplishes His designs even without the cooperation of the mass media.

Mary realized that God chooses the weakest of things, that out of the most ordinary actions He accomplishes extraordinary results.

She was aware that when we can do very little, that God is doing very much. God seems to delight in humanly impossible situations, because nothing is impossible with God.

If we could only offer ourselves totally to God each day and trust Him completely, we would not be so downcast when something seems to go wrong against us or the Church. Instead, we could wait patiently as Mary did for God’s intervention and know that in our sorrows the God of ALL consolation will surprise us with joy.

He always has the last Word!

-Catholic Quote.

Vol. 81, No. 8

Carving Out Our Success

One of the fallacies common in the thinking of man is that his failure to succeed or to obtain happiness is the result of the circumstances in which his life is cast.

We do not like to think of failure as being a result of our own weakness, faults, or inadequacies. It hurts our pride to admit, even to ourselves, that it is not life, or fate, or to a large extent any of the forces outside of us, but rather our own shortcomings that defeat us.

It is true that man may be handicapped by hereditary or environmental factors over the making of which he had no control. A family background of poverty, lack of education, absence of social standing, prevalence of low ideals and moral standards, place obstacles in the course of development that are difficult to overcome. So, too, is it hard to rise above such personal impediments such as sickness, poor training and education, lack of opportunities, and insufficient money. Financial and social occurrences such as depressions and wars also seriously hinder him.

But the significant thing is that many men overcome these obstructions, and rise to a glorious success and happiness. And it is only reasonable to assume that if some men can do this, then it must be within the power of the human being, as such, to shape the ups and downs of his life to his own ends, and to rise to victory through his difficulties, or in spite of them.

Students have long realized that it is not circumstances or obstacles that defeat a person, but that it is rather how he approached them and reacts to them. If he faces them with an attitude of defeatism, and permits them to control him, his failure is inevitable. If, on the other hand, he meets them with courage, and fortitude, and with the determination to conquer them and to rise above them, he may be confident of success.

In the eternal plan he is intended to be the master of his life. But he must gain mastery through his will to control the circumstances which surround him, regardless of how adverse they may be. Defeat or failure is what happens if he allows these conditions to master him.

No, it is not our fathers, or grandfathers, or great grandfathers and mothers, and their weaknesses and sins that defeat us. It is not our background, or our poverty, or lack of opportunity. It is we, who do it to ourselves! 

-Catholic Quote. Vol. 81, No. 7