Ralph Waldo Emerson tells the story of a journey through the states in a coach. It was a day in which the clouds were low and heavily charged, and the people in that coach were silent, preoccupied inside, as they went on their journey. Here and there the coach stopped. At one place, a young woman got in carrying her baby in her arms. She was tall and radiant and beautiful. And they continued on their journey. But somehow, something happened. It seemed as if the atmosphere was completely changed. The people were chatting animatedly, one with another, now, all because of the advent of this unknown woman and her child into their lives. We, too, are on a journey, down here in this valley of tears; and there is a woman and her child in our lives, too. But we know who She is – Mary, our life, our sweetness, and our hope. The Vatican Council reminds us that Our Lady must be in our lives under two headings – as our Mother and as our model. She’s your Mother and mine, far more truly than that being on earth whom we call “Mother. “ For if, at this moment, you are alive with God’s own Life, if there is now coursing through your veins and beating next your heart something of the ending life of the Blessed Trinity, if Christ is being formed in you, if there is in you that grace that will one day blossom into glory, it is all because Our Lady said, “Yes “to God when He asked Her if She would be the channel through which she would come and live in you.
From the book: Reflections with Father Leo Clifford O.F.M.
Reality Meets Faith 