Hajja Salesjana - Oct-Dec 2021

6 H AJJA S ALESJANA "lowliness" since with God, "only those who recognise themselves as nothing can receive the all". The Pope said Mary is the “full of grace” due to her humility. We too should look to humility as the starting point in our faith journey, the Pope went on to say, noting that we need to be poor in spirit, which means "in need of God", so that through us the Lord can "accomplish great things". Recalling the poet Dante who referred to the Virgin Mary as “humbler and loftier than any creature”, the Pope said this beautiful reality should bring us to reflect on Mary, "the first to win heaven with her entire being, in soul and body" who lived out her life within the family in the ordinary day-to-day of life, often "in silence...externally, nothing extraordinary". At the same time, he added, "God’s gaze was always upon her, admiring her humility, her availability, the beauty of her heart never stained by sin." "It is a huge message of hope for us", the Pope concluded, noting even in our own ordinary and often difficult lives we can follow the same example. "Mary reminds you today that God calls you too to this glorious destiny," he stressed, and these are not just nice words, but "pure reality" he said, "as living and true as the Madonna assumed into Heaven". In conclusion, he asked everyone to pray that Mary may "accompany us on our journey that leads from Earth to Heaven," striving to live with humility, the secret to our journey. "Humility is the mother of giants. One sees great things from the valley; but only small things from the peak." G. K. Chesterton Photoby BaileyZindel -www.unsplash.com