From the book “In the Heart of the World: Thoughts, Stories, & Prayers” by Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta:
When you look at the inner workings of electrical things, you often see small and big wires, new and old, cheap and expensive, all lined up. Until the current passes through them, there will be no light.
That wire is you and me. The current is God. We have the power to let the current pass through us, use us, produce the light of the world. Or we can refuse to be used and allow darkness to spread.
Our Lady was the most wonderful wire. She allowed God to fill her. By her surrender—”Be it done to me according to the word”—she became “full of grace.” Full of grace means full of God. The moment she was filled by this current, by the grace of God, she went in haste to Elizabeth’s house to connect the wire, John, to the current, Jesus. As his mother said, “This child, John, leaped up with joy at your voice.”
Let us ask our Lady to come into our lives also and make the current use us to go round the world—especially in our own communities—so that we can continue connecting the wires of the hearts of men and women with the current of love.
From “Mary – My Mother” by Father Joseph Schryvers:
When [God] communicates His love and kindness to an earthly mother, that mother can permit her children to benefit by that tenderness in a greater or lesser degree. Her free will determines the degree of love she shall expend on each child. She can even close her heart and harden it to prevent the love which is in her from warming other beings. Her children will thus be deprived, through the fault of their mother, of the benefit which God destined for them.
If, on the contrary, the mother understands her duty and wisely develops, in herself, the love and devotion with which God has enriched her, her children will be the beneficiaries of ever-increasing tenderness.
Thus God really, and not only apparently, rules the world and distributes His favors through secondary causes; and those who have the honor of being chosen by God to scatter His kindnesses can, by an act of their free will, cause other creatures to benefit by or to be deprived of the aid which God has destined for them.
Since the most holy Virgin has been constituted our Mother, that is to say, the Mediatrix of all graces, God makes the communication of all the aids which He destines for us depend upon her free will. He does not force her will any more than He forces the earthly mother to play the role of love which He has assigned her.
Certainly, He has given to that divine Virgin a Mother’s Heart, capable of loving all her children; but He does not compel and dictate to her love. He leaves her the initiative of loving. He gives her the liberty of having a special predilection, or a particular vigilance and tenderness, for certain of her children.
And as the Heart of the divine Mother is a human heart, the most perfect human heart after that of Christ, it preserves all the distinguishing qualities, emotions, and sympathies of the human heart. It is responsive to the attentions which her children show her; it permits itself to be softened by prayers and tears, it is moved at the sight of misfortune; it is powerless to resist a mark of affection; it is drawn by simplicity and humility of heart.
And as God allows the Blessed Virgin to love and act freely, He will not thwart her in her work nor in her motherly affections; He will be good toward those she loves and for whom she prays; He will love especially those who are especially devoted to her.
” ‘Behold your Mother!’ (John 19:27) My soul, embrace this advice. Embrace sweet Mary; embrace the Mother of God and her Son Jesus, the most beautiful One among the children of men. Always thank her, for she listens to the prayers of the poor and does not allow to go away uncomforted any of those she sees praying perseveringly before her. This is the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, the mystical branch (Jeremiah 1:11) that was born of royal stock and in turn gave birth to the Divine flowering almond tree: Jesus Christ the King and Savior of all, to Whom we owe honor and glory through the ages.”
–Thomas à Kempis
