MARY; HER EARLY YEARS

As we discovered when Mary was born she was totally pleasing to God.  As she became a young child she seemed to have wonderful gift of reasoning beyond her years.   Her parents Joachim and Anne had wanted children but until Mary came they were barren .   They promised God that if they did have a child then the child would be dedicated to His service.    Mary at the age of three was so close to God that she asked  them to allow her to be a Temple Virgin.   They both agreed and took her to the Temple in Jerusalem where girls would work and be schooled in scripture until they were fourteen.   Mary undertook her tasks there with love and dedication and growing closer to the God she loved.

Mary would begin her day in prayer and since there was an expectation growing that the time for the Messiah had arrived, she asked God to let her see the Messiah before she died and would often slip into the Temple at midnight from her cell to ask this request over and over again.  She vowed she would be the handmaid of the chosen virgin.    The work in the Temple would consist  in cleaning  the bloodstained clothes of the priests after sacrifice, sewing clothes and garments and generally keeping things tidy.   She admitted top St Bridget that she did not find things easy and we should not even think she did, she had to push herself to win the graces like all of us have to do.  

At 14 all the girls had to leave the Temple to get married as the  older women there were usually widows.   So Mary returned to Nazareth where despite her wish to remain a virgin she was betrothed to a man called Joseph.  

I had a strange experience when saying the Rosary this morning.   I was thinking during a mystery that I was a big sop who usually cried at moments of love in a film where there was good music in the background.   I have cried often looking at my set.   I told  Mary the I never did this at prayer and could she help me get that depth when praying so that I could delude myself, if nothing else, that my prayers were sincere.    A few minutes afterwards I thought of St Joseph   What a great man he must have been taking on the care of Jesus, the Son of God, and His  Mother.    How could they have managed without him.    I was rewarded - I found myself crying.   But I was engrossed in a real truth, if Mary was created for the part of the Mother, there must have been a very special grace in St Joseph and he too must have been saintly to have been give the role by God. How much love he must have had.      There may have been a hundred young men in Nazareth who would never have been so committed, but Mary was given the one young man who was suited for the part  in every way.    Thank you Mary for giving me those tears and perhaps opening your heart to me.

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