Today as I prayed the Angelus, I was struck by the oddity of the opening line: The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary, and she conceived by the Holy Spirit.
It can be so easy for these Biblical images to go through our minds, spill off our tongues, without shocking. It struck me that the day the angel came to Mary was a real day, a day perhaps like the utterly beautiful spring day I enjoy today. This miracle of miracles, the Incarnation, happened. Really. In the life of a human person, Mary.
I was struck by the amazing fact of the miraculous being the foundation of the day-in, day-out living of the Christian life. It all requires a miracle, and it all is a miracle.
And then I heard today's gospel: "...And they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it" (see Mk. 16:15-20).
More miracles, recorded as the normal modus operandi of the Church.
And at the Eucharist, again I was struck! Here is one of Christ's perpetual miracles given to the Church, which (pardon the clunky term) builds from the first miracle that caught my heart today, that of the Incarnation. What a web of grace God constructs! It is His way. God's grace comes to me, and when I respond with my heart and His purposes are fulfilled and his glory shines forth, that affects who-knows-what. And that who-knows-what is taken up into the life of someone else, and the cycle continues. I cannot wait to see the other side of this tapestry in heaven. However, I also want to live faithfully to what I am given now, knowing and trusting that every stitch, meaningless as it may momentarily seem, is filled with purpose by God's grace. I want to be as faithful to every stitch as I can.
The web of grace, the web of miracles is real. I suppose you could say it is another name for the Church. It's as real as this day is real, and true as Mary's and Jesus' days were real.
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