Fr. Kevin Drew: Mary and the Courage to Cooperate with God’s Mission

Pour forth we beseech thee, O Lord,
Thy grace into our hearts
That we to whom the Incarnation 
Of Christ thy Son, was made known
By the message of an angel
May by His Passion and Cross
Be brought to the glory of His resurrection.

That is the Collect, the Opening Prayer for last Sunday’s Mass, prayed for centuries on the 4^th Sunday of Advent. It is the conclusion of the centuries-old prayer known as the Angelus.

So, the Sunday before Christmas, there is mention of Christ’s Passion and Cross. Isn’t that interesting? As Bishop Sheen liked to remind us: the little baby placed in the wooden manger was born to die on a wooden cross.

The Only “Mary” of the Old Testament

It’s interesting because centuries beforehand baby Moses was placed in a little wooden basket and pushed out into the river. That was done to save him. In a primitive form of population control, or genocide, the Egyptian government had mandated that all Hebrew baby boys be killed. It was Moses’ mother who gave him away in order to save him. And afterward, she gave her daughter, Moses’ sister, an important mission. …

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