Daily Devotional for May 31

 

May 31                                                              Luke 1:39-49

            The Feast of the Visitation

From that time on all generations have called Mary blessed
because God entrusted Jesus to the womb and arms of this
woman. She first loved him and nurtured him in her arms.
This woman saw his first smile and enjoyed his infant's laugh.
She taught him to walk and say his early words. She watched
him grow into youth and manhood.

Her woman's anguish saw him to his grave. Her tears watered
the earth as his blood flowed down to Golgotha's hill. She
suffered with her son as no one else but God could suffer
because her own body knew him. Her womb retained his
memory. Her arms recalled her embrace of child and youth
and man. As her son hung dying on a Roman cross, her mind
and body cried out her love. Mary bore his pain in birth and
in death.

If God honored the woman Mary in this way, why have we
so dishonored woman? Why has responsibility for sin been
laid on her when God chose woman to bear God's sinless one?
She transmitted no taint of sin upon him as he lay enveloped
in her womb. There was no sin in bearing him. Her mother's
blood was shed to give him life, a human gift to God.

         O Holy God, Immanuel, you have come to us
    in human form through the woman Mary. You have
  blessed our lives and given us a place in the creation
 of a world where peace, justice, equality, and compas-
   sion will reign. Call us forth once more to participate
     in the new life born into our world in Jesus Christ.
          Together, men and women, joining in your
                creation, we journey into our future
                           in your love. Amen.

 

From The Road to Emmaus - An inclusive devotional Edited by Joseph W. Houle

Emmaus House of Prayer - Washington D.C.198