December 5, 2013

Immaculate Conception Novena


Mary, Mother of the New Evangelization

Day 6

Theme: Mary, Model Catechist



Scripture Passage                                                      Luke 1: 46 - 50
Mary said:* “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;  my spirit rejoices in God my savior.  For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness;  behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed.  The Mighty One has done great things for me,  and holy is his name.  His mercy is from age to age to those who fear him.”

Marian Reading
Who are catechists? They are people who keep the memory of God alive; they keep it alive in themselves and they are able to revive it in others. This is something beautiful: to remember God, like the Virgin Mary, who sees God’s wondrous works in her life but doesn’t think about honor, prestige or wealth; she doesn’t become self-absorbed. Instead, after receiving the message of the angel and conceiving the Son of God, what does she do? She sets out, she goes to assist her elderly kinswoman Elizabeth, who was also pregnant. And the first thing she does upon meeting Elizabeth is to recall God’s work, God’s fidelity, in her own life, in the history of her people, in our history: “My soul magnifies the Lord … For he has looked on the lowliness of his servant … His mercy is from generation to generation” (Lk 1:46, 48, 50). Mary remembers God.
This canticle of Mary also contains the remembrance of her personal history, God’s history with her, her own experience of faith. And this is true too for each one of us and for every Christian: faith contains our own memory of God’s history with us, the memory of our encountering God who always takes the first step, who creates, saves and transforms us. Faith is remembrance of his word which warms our heart, and of his saving work which gives life, purifies us, cares for and nourishes us. A catechist is a Christian who puts this remembrance at the service of proclamation, not to seem important, not to talk about himself or herself, but to talk about God, about his love and his fidelity. To talk about and to pass down all that God has revealed, his teaching in its totality, neither trimming it down nor adding on to it.
The catechist, then, is a Christian who is mindful of God, who is guided by the memory of God in his or her entire life and who is able to awaken that memory in the hearts of others.
(Pope Francis, Homily on Day for Catechists in the Year of Faith, Sunday, 29 September 2013)

Prayers
- an Our Father
- a Hail Mary
- a Glory Be
- the invocation “Mary, Immaculate, Help of Christians, pray for us.”

Image source: catholicfire.blogspot.com

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