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Consecrated to Mary

I have created a special place for Mary in my life. When I was in fourth grade, my mom introduced me to the events of Fatima. When she told me of how Mary appeared to the three small children; Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco, I thought it was the coolest thing ever! I wanted to have that happen to me. To see and hear and talk with Mary. In person. I prayed for it. When I would tell my friends, they thought that was silly all except for one. She and I would talk about what that would have been like. Wouldn’t you be scared? I didn’t think so because it was Mary. Why would anyone be scared of Mary? As I grew older, I wanted, more than anything to be like her. I studied everything I could get my hands on to learn what she was like. I continue to gravitate to books about the apparitions because I simply can’t know enough about Mary. She fascinates me. She amazes me. As I grew and came to better appreciate Scripture and the role of Mary, as well as our faith traditions and rituals that involve Mary, I paid closer attention to how to include her in my life as an advocate and intercessor. Mary knows what it is like to love, to suffer, to feel joy, and to have profound loss. She knows how to abandon oneself completely to God. I want to do that, I want to be completely at His will. She has become my best friend because she has the answers for what needs to be done. Prayer with her is very consoling. She will take my worries, my prayers, my fears, my wonderings, directly to the heart of Jesus. Jesus WILL listen to his mom. Why not go right to her? This is why I have consecrated myself to her and why I have consecrated our school to her.

What does that mean to consecrate yourself to Mary or to Jesus or to God? To be consecrated means to pledge full and complete dependence. We consecrated our school to Mary in October 2016. In doing so, we have said that we will not do anything without it being the Lord's will. When big decisions have to be made, it will be prayed for. When policies are to be written, it will be prayed for. When a direction needs to be taken, it will be prayed for. We will always make an intentional place for Jesus and Mary in our school. This is why our daily prayer ends the way it does, Mary, Mother of God, pray for us. St. Dominic, pray for us.

Sign of Peace

A part of the Mass that may seem very casual and straightforward but is actually an invitation to an incredible moment of forgiveness and healing is the Sign of Peace which is not as easy as we might think. And if we think about it this action is a little odd, I mean we take a pause in the liturgy to give each other a handshake, or if you were me when I was younger a successful sign of peace was when I crushed my siblings hand hard enough they winced in pain.

The reality of what we are doing in this moment though is important and it stems from a passage in the Gospel of Matthew which says, “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.”

The Sign of Peace occurs right before we come forward to the altar and receive Communion. But we cannot receive Communion if we are at odds with someone in the community. You cannot be in Communion with someone you are fighting with, so at the Sign of Peace, before approaching the altar of Communion, we turn to our brother and sister and first make amends with them, we give them peace.

That is no light or easy moment, for two reasons. The first reason is we make peace with the ones we love the most, which can be the people we hurt the most, our own family. We turn to them and in our sign of peace, we are both apologizing for the hurt we have caused them and forgiving the hurt they have caused us. For a handshake, which is just the sign we use for the peace we give, is something you both give and receive. It is a beautiful moment of reconciling so that we may approach the altar without anger, hatred, or hurt in our heart for the person next to us.

The second reason the sign of peace is no light or easy moment is that you are not just giving and receiving peace with your loved ones. You are also giving and receiving peace from the larger community. The person who cut you off, the friend who betrayed you, the boss who yelled at you. At the sign of peace you are also reconciling yourself with those people, forgiving them and asking forgiveness if the roles are reversed, because if you do not, you cannot receive Holy Communion fully, because you cannot be in communion with people you have anger or hatred for.   

With this understanding, the sign of peace at Mass is not a light moment, in fact it is a solemn and grave one, but also a beautiful one. And I can think of no better way to prepare to receive Christ in the Eucharist, than offering each other the sign of peace. 

Just Be

As I was driving to do some volunteer work last Friday afternoon, I had Relevant Radio on. I occasionally listen to this station to unclutter from the noise of typical news/talk radio. It serves as a mini retreat from time to time. My favorite show to catch is with Drew Mariani. While I was listening, a question was posed for consideration: What would it be like at your house if Jesus came to dinner?

This is always a fun one for me to ponder. I have had varying responses based on my state of life. One thing I know for sure, it would be very interesting. Let’s just pretend that the arrival was unannounced/unplanned, He just showed up. This would cause me to have great anxiety. At my core, I am very much like the character of Martha in the gospels. She is the one who, while Jesus is visiting their home, is scurrying about making sure everything is perfect. A surprise visit doesn’t allow for planning, and I would be fretting that not everything is perfect. Knowing myself, I would be instantly aware of every little thing out of place and try to subtly fix it. I would depend on my husband to entertain Jesus until I could get situated; offer a beverage, a bite to eat, what will we do for dinner? Then, it would hit me – I have Jesus in my house!

I would like to think that I’d shift into Mary mode, dutifully listening and hanging on His every word, once I had the chance to dote on our Lord a bit. In being able to focus on the fact that Jesus was in my house, I would not have the faintest idea what we’d talk about since He already knows everything. I would like to think we would simply be our normal selves. I would like to think that would be why He came to visit us – to meet us where we are. This is what we try to do at St. Dominic Catholic School as we welcome every Knight, every day. We all come with so much in our hearts and on our minds that we hope the time spent in these halls are a time to allow children to just be. No pressure. No worry. Just be. We also strive to provide an environment that intentionally provides opportunity to connect with Jesus. No pressure. No worry. Just be.

Thank you for having faith in us. Thank you for having hope and trust in the work we do. Thank you for being partners with us. Thank you for being here.