Final week of Thirty Days with Mary

In Mary, man (and woman) is married to God.

The male and the female unite in one person

in an interior marriage and the new human is born.

This is the mystery which has to be accomplished in us.

Every man and woman has to undergo this virgin birth,

to be married to God.

                                                      Father Bede Griffiths

This final week of the Thirty Days of Mary

I firstly invite you to enter the stillness;

daily, over and over again.

It is our challenge, our birth right,

our Soul's deepest yearning,

to come face to face with God within :

to see the face of God.

Beyond our physical and psychic being,

we have to discover our spiritual being,

our eternal ground,

and there the mystery of love is fulfilled.

Some may come to this interior marriage

by way of exterior marriage, others

are called by the way of virginity,

but all alike have to experience the virgin birth,

the marriage with God, 

before they can reach maturity.

                        Father Bede Griffiths

Then, secondly I invite you to invite her beauty into

your life.

She is always with us, within us, within everything.

There is nowhere that she is not.

There is no separation between her and yourself.

There is no separation : only rivers

seemingly crossing and intertwining, only

to become One in the stillness.

Beauty is a powerful path to realising Oneness.

Oneness already Is.  No need to look for it

or to hunt it or to try and capture it in a jar

like some fairy dust.

You merely have to become aware of Oneness.

And beauty is one of her many Gates into Oneness.

What is essential is to keep the heart always

open to beauty, for she is beauty - Father Bede Griffiths

Our age is so harsh and brutal;  it is therefor

of great sacred wholiness to create her beauty

everywhere :  a healing space for the torn mind and

heart.  Seeing her beauty awakens the lover of life

within us and her great creativity comes to play

and the poet and artist is born.

So for this final week, set out to create a sacred

environment for yourself, at home and at work.  

It does not have to be complicated - it can be

very simple.  Create a small (or not so small)

altar to the Mother;  find time to walk in nature;

knit a prayer shawl; put a fresh rose next to your bed.

Offer her your first thoughts of the day

and the last thoughts before falling asleep.

Offer her your meal, remembering

'I eat and I am eaten'

Light a stick of incense,

burn rose oil and allow the perfume

to permeate your mind.

Meditate on what brings you into her presence

and make time to regularly undertake those practises.

Make your home a sacred temple to her.

A place where love is shared and given

through the daily tasks of living

and soon the ordinary will become the sacred

and you will see her presence in everyone

and everything

blessings to you

Hettienne

Ave Maria