Novena In Honor of Maria Bambina Day 2

Day 2: Mary Perfect disciple of Christ

9 Day Reflections in Preparation for the feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary (August 30- September 08,2010)

The Great believer or The first among believer

Basically, the title is a tantamount to one that would read “The Great Believer” Mary was the perfect disciple of Christ because she had faith beyond all telling. Perhaps Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (before becoming Pope Benedict XVI) has put his aspect of our lady best by the following lines,

“Mary is the great believer who humbly offered herself to God as an empty vessel for him to use in his mysterious plan. Without complain she surrendered control in her life; she did not to live according to human calculation but put herself completely at the disposal of God’s mysterious, incomprehensible design.

“All she wanted to be was the handmaid of the Lord, the instrument and servant of the word. Therein lies her true fame: that she remained a believer despite all the darkness and all the inexplicable demands God made her.

“She believed even in the face of certain incomprehensible facts: that she should carry her creator in her womb, that the child growing there should be the Lord, that he who was the source of Israel’s salvation. Should be regarded by his fellow as deranged, that she should brush her aside, first as a twelve-year old and again at the beginning of his public life, that he who was to bring salvation and healing to Israel should be executed by that same Israel.

Today God is still mysterious , indeed he seems to to have a special kind of obscurity in store for each person’s life. But could he never render any life as dark and incomprehensible as he did Mary’s “Blessed are you who have believed ” (Lk. 1:45), even when this faith became a sword that pierced her heart.

This is the real reason for her greatness and her being called blessed: she is the great believer.

Day 2

O Heavenly Maria Bambinella, who like a pure dove was born immaculate and beautiful, true prodigy of the wisdom of God, my soul rejoices in you. Oh do help me to preserve the angelic virtue of purity at the cost of any sacrifice Amen.

Hail Mary….