Lovely Handmaid

"You are the fairest of the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever."

Psalm 45:2

The Blessed Mother of God, Holy Mary is the perfect handmaid of the Lord. She above all women found favor with God. She is filled with grace; she lacks nothing. Her profound humility and complete love for God is who she is. Humility and love. This God Whom no man can look upon and live, chose the Blessed Virgin Mary to be His mother. He chose to condescend from Heaven and become a tiny embryo in the womb of His creature for nine months. He chose her to be His mother who would care for Him, love Him, teach Him and feed Him. Our Lord's humility, in that He chose the most humblest of all His creatures and be so intimately united with her. And this hidden life was what He wanted. And He lived this life for 30 years before He began His public ministry.

The Mother of God is the greatest creature God has ever created. She was preserved from original sin and was a faithful servant of the Lord and thus was chosen to bear the Messiah. Her utter poverty and humility allowed the Holy Spirit to completely inundate her. Without God she would fail to be who she is. Everything about Mary is God's handiwork and so she points only to God. Her yes to the angel Gabriel in the Annunciation was also a yes for our salvation, our life. Without this lovely handmaiden's consent, Jesus would not have become Incarnate and redeem us by His blood. It is all because of Mary's yes. We are forever indebted to her. She is holiness and grace. Every grace that one can obtain flows from the Father through Mary's virginal hands.

If therefore she is filled with grace and all graces flow through her, for one to aspire after purity and modesty it is only possible with Mary and through Mary. How is this obtained? Through prayer, namely the Rosary. In my own faith journey, I owe everything to Mary's intercession in bringing me to the Father. After I had begun a steady devotion to the Rosary was when my darkened mind started to become enlightened. My choice of clothing, my way of life, my conversation, my company, I realized that this all had to change. I found myself being brought back to the altar of God, Holy Mass and brought back to reconciling with the Father in confession. I began to understand my true dignity in being a child of God. No longer did I believe that my worth came from human approval or that I had to "win" the affection of others. I myself, began to become inundated with the Holy Spirit and modesty started to become the heart of my choices.

Mary was a woman of prayer and she is the perfect model of modesty. Young girls nowadays looks to the movie stars to imitate and they believe that one's worth comes from how many likes they receive on an online photo of themselves. Yet Mary was not a movie star, nor did she flaunt her beauty and seek the approval of others. Rather, she was treated with contempt from her neighbors while she was pregnant, refused a room to give birth to the Lord God, and lived a life hidden from the gaze of the world. Yet, the Lord esteemed her above every other creature while she was the most lowliest and the most humble and the most hidden.

This is the call of every woman. Every woman is called to become holy like Mary. Every woman is called to become a woman of prayer. Every woman is called to be a sacred dwelling of the Lord God. Every woman should seek to be the most humble. Every woman is called to live a modest and pure life. Every soul is to be completely filled with the Holy Spirit.

Let us implore the most lovely handmaid, the Blessed Mother, to pray for us, to intercede for us to the Lord our God, that we may live worthy and holy lives as she did. Humility and love.

Mother of Divine Grace, pray for us.