The Capacity to Receive - a reflection

After a hard workout or a long-distance run, we savor our drink even if it is just plain water. Our capacity to receive and desire for water is matched by the depth of our thirst.

Mary’s capacity to receive is expressed in her Magnificat “He looks on His servant in her nothingness; henceforth all ages will call me blessed”. Mary’s emptiness enables her to receive the fullness of God’s love and grace, by which she became the blessed vessel of the Word Incarnate.

The lives of our Mother and the saints reveal that their capacity to receive God’s grace was directly linked to their emptiness and their thirst for Him. God’s grace could therefore do what they would never be able to achieve by themselves, bringing forth the beauty and fruitfulness of Jesus in their lives.

As we enter the fourth week of Advent, the theme of love invites us to consider the “loves” that fill us – those that either enable or hinder God’s love and grace – choosing those that enable His grace to accomplish all that we would never be able to do for ourselves.

Mary, Mother of Christ, pray for us!