In honour of the first disciple

Mary,

How much did you understand at the Annunciation?

Did you know, could you know of all that was to happen

To the baby you breast-fed & changed nappies?

To the boy who fell over and came to you crying?

To the young man who startled you in the Temple?

To the man who loved as no other,

But whose words of love, truth and justice

Were as bitter gall in the mouths of those

Motivated by fear, fame, power and control?

Well you may have pondered these things in your heart.

What mother would not be cut to pieces

Watching all that happened to her son.

But this was not your only response.

You were a rock to the community that gathered around your son

Before and after his death and resurrection.

Your faith, your courage, your goodness

Was a stunning example to all.

Today is a celebration of the goodness of God,

A goodness, a divinity which we see in each person

Around us when, as the Lasallian maxim says,

We remember we are in the holy presence of God.