Mary Lead Me

When I think about a person who I'd like to try and model my life after, of course the obvious would be Jesus Christ, but my go to gal would have to be Mary, His mother.  Several years ago, she and the Holy Spirit teamed up to get my attention.  It was the year 2000, the Great Jubilee.  Having been a Catholic my whole life but distracted most of the time with the "things of life", I began to search for a deeper balance within myself of body, mind and soul.  I ramped up my exercise to 3 or 4 days a week, took the UD biblical study course that met weekly and decided to get to daily mass at least twice a week. That's when it first happened, the tug at my soul to receive Holy Communion more often and to pray the rosary daily.  I had always enjoyed the quiet “simpleness” of daily mass but had gotten away from it after college and as for the rosary, well, I knew very little about it.  So why now?  Why was I being drawn into this form of prayer that seemed so repetitive and quite frankly, boring.  After all, wasn't the rosary a prayer that little old ladies said or that you said when someone died?  Over the next year, I found myself studying up on the history, mystery and power of the rosary.  I quickly learned that it began with the desire of mankind to connect with our Lord Jesus Christ during their busy work days and that not only were there four simple prayers of the rosary but events or mysteries that are attached to those prayers.  Those repetitive Hail Mary's and Our Fathers did not stand alone but were supposed to pull me out of my busy life and put me in the scene from scripture with Jesus and Mary!  In 15 short minutes of my day, I could immerse myself in the rhythm of the rosary and spend time meditating on Jesus.

 Mary led me there.  That's what she does.  She constantly sets our hearts and feet on the path to eternal life.  She doesn't want one soul lost to this world but every soul united in the next with her Son, Jesus Christ. Perhaps we will never fully understand the connection that Jesus and Mary have to one another, but one thing is for certain, that Mary loves each of us as her own and that it is her deepest desire to help us chart the course for our lives in this world to the next.

Dear Blessed Mother, continue to see to our eternal souls! 

~Cathy N.