On this feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I have Mary on my mind.
I am reminded of my father and the many, many days we prayed the Rosary on the way to school. I remember coming home from school to find his car in the driveway – an oddity for so early in the day – and being told of a death in the family and then sitting in the living room reciting my father’s favorite prayer. I remember praying the Rosary every afternoon at the Grotto at Notre Dame. I remember talking with dad about new Mysteries of the Rosary he wanted to make up because he had run out of prayers. I remember dividing up the decades of the Rosary at dad’s wake among all the siblings and my older brother forgetting the words.
I remember Mary.
So on this day, I offer one of my favorite poems by Ruth Mary Fox, which is based on the alternative Gospel reading for today. May we be more like Mary, carrying Christ on life’s busy, crowded highways.
Into the hillside country Mary went
Carrying Christ.
And all along the road the Christ she carried
Generously bestowed His grace on those she met.
But she had not meant to tell she carried Christ
She was content to hide His love for her.
But about her glowed such joy that into stony hearts
Love flowed
And even to the unborn John, Christ’s love was sent.
Christ, in the sacrament of love each day, dwells in my soul
A little space.
So as I walk life’s crowded highways
Jostling men who seldom think of God
To these, I pray, that I may carry Christ
For it may be
Some may not know of him
Except through me.