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Through Mary to Christ
Through you, Mother, we have come to your Son. You conceived him, you carried him, you gave birth to him, you accompanied him throughout his life, in order to bring him to us and to give him to us. And also in order to show us how a man can bear and understand him, how a man can place his life within the life of your Son, so as to receive it from him. In order to convey to us the gift of his infancy, of his years at home with you, the gift of his public life and of the hour of his Passion. At every phase of his life you were so involved that everything his presence conveyed found room in your receptive heart. Yet not for you, but for us. By your Yes, you placed yourself so totally at the disposal of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, that the triune God gave us to the Son right through you. You led us to him, but you were always so much in God, so much within your mission and your own Yes, that your only desire was to act as the conveyor of the gift and not as the original giver. Yet for that very reason your act of conveying also became a gift that came from your humility and that your humility gave us. A gift to us, but also a gift to God. And we would like to ask you today to accept into your Yes all that makes up our lives, not just its joys, but also its sacrifices, the roads we take that we had not reckoned on before. Do this so that we may once again come to your Son through you. So that through you, who knew so well how to carry out the Son’s will, we, too, may now accept anew everything he intends for us in the will of the Father, may now will it anew because it is his will. But also that through you we may will anew, with you, grateful that everything you did occurred entirely within his mission. And when the sacrifice costs more than we thought, when it is harder to bear than we imagined, we want to remember that you did not shrink in fear from any sacrifice, and that you did everything in the joy of your Yes. And we want to ask you to intercede for us with the Father, with your Son, and with the Spirit, so that we may be permitted to live by your strength, to come in reality to the Son through you, and to do in him what you have done for him all along. And when you see your angel, Mother, remember that his appearance assured you of the way. Ask him to surround us with care out of love for you, just as he did for you, to intercede for us just as he interceded for you and, by his appearing, gave you the power to say Yes in faith to everything.
Amen.
With St. Ignatius of Loyola we pray:
(The Suscipe Prayer)
Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding,
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.
You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace,
that is enough for me.
Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory be.
Father, we ask that through the intercession of Adrienne von Speyr those called to live Christian discipleship might do so with ever-greater fidelity. Grant that, day-by-day, your love might burn and your Spirit might blow more intensely within us. In the presence of the Mother of your Son, your angels and saints, and the whole heavenly court, we beg this grace in the name of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.