December 12, 2024 // Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Luke 1:39-47 (second option)
Reflect on the Word//
It had been a tough six months filled with the usual suspects: financial uncertainty, health issues, vocational duties, fatigue in prayer. Searching for some stability, I clung to my daily Rosary. Soon after, I attended a consoling Marian retreat. Then a friend invited me to a grace-filled Marian study. Mother Mary’s presence soon seemed more tangible in every way, her companionship unmistakable. Even as my difficulties continued, I realized I was far from alone or abandoned. When I cried out in prayer for help, my attentive Mother was on the listening end—immediately responding and leading me to God’s heart.
This is the Blessed Mother’s continual mission—for all of us.
Imagine the Visitation from today’s Gospel: a young Virgin Mary, hastening across the hills, pregnant with divine purpose, overflowing with Jesus’ incarnate joy and love. See her radiant smile, feel her gentle, comforting arms as they wrapped Elizabeth in their ready embrace. How delighted she is to love and serve Elizabeth, remaining at least three months.
Now imagine this same beautiful Mother 1500 years later as Our Lady of Guadalupe, still pregnant with divine purpose, hastening from Heaven to Earth and the Aztec hill of Tepeyac. How tender she is, responding to Saint Juan Diego in his great hour of need. How delighted she is to remain with his people through her miraculous imprint left on his tilma, still visible today.
Consider how she hastens to you in this same way: pregnant with purpose, spilling over with divine love. Wherever you are and whatever is burdening you, she is here and she sees. She cares. She does not delay in meeting you—her most beloved daughter—the moment you cry out. Imagine her eyes alight, her smile soft, her arms gently and capably embracing your weakness. Observe how she is not inconvenienced or exasperated by your need, but attracted to it with all the love in her heart. Feel her patience; experience her delight in remaining with you.
Hear her deep desire within the endless whisper, “Am I not here, who am your mother?” (source), and let her motherly love raise you to His healing Heart.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pray for Us.
Relate to the Lord // Pray the Rosary, a decade of the Rosary, or even one Hail Mary and ask Mary to mother you.
Megan Hjelmstad (“Helm-stead”) is a wife, enthusiastic hockey mom, and Army Veteran living in Denver, CO. After serving fifteen years in the United States Army, Megan now serves the Church as an author, speaker, and women's mentor in her “spare” time. Megan loves to share God’s hope in suffering and is the author of Offer it Up: Discovering the Power and Purpose of Redemptive Suffering. She’s a long-time team member of Blessed is She and a writer and speaker for several other ministries. Megan adores books, sleep, sunshine, and Colorado’s great outdoors almost as much as she adores Jesus in the Eucharist. Learn more at MeganHjelmstad.com.
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