PURITY OF INTENTION
Reading
1, First Samuel 1:24-28
Responsorial Psalm, First
Samuel 2:1, 4-5, 6-7, 8
Gospel, Luke 1:46-56
Reading 1, First
Samuel 1:24-28
When
she had weaned him, she took him up with her, as well as a three-year-old bull,
an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and took him into the temple of Yahweh at
Shiloh; the child was very young.
They sacrificed the bull and led the child to
Eli. She said, 'If you please, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who
stood beside you here, praying to Yahweh. This is the child for which I was
praying, and Yahweh has
granted me what I asked of him. Now I make him over to Yahweh for
the whole of his life. He is made over to Yahweh.' They then worshipped Yahweh there.
Responsorial Psalm, First
Samuel 2:1, 4-5, 6-7, 8
Hannah then prayed as follows: My heart
exults in Yahweh, in my God is my strength
lifted up, my mouth derides my foes, for I rejoice in your deliverance.
The bow of the mighty has been broken but
those who were tottering are now braced with strength.
The full fed are hiring themselves out for
bread but the hungry need labour no more; the barren woman bears
sevenfold but the mother of many is left desolate. Yahweh gives death and life,
brings down to Sheol and draws up; Yahweh makes poor and rich, he humbles and
also exalts.
He
raises the poor from the dust, he lifts the needy from the dunghill to give
them a place with princes, to assign them a seat of honour; for to Yahweh belong
the pillars of the earth, on these he has poised the world.
Gospel, Luke 1:46-56
And Mary said: My
soul
proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit
rejoices in God my
Saviour; because he has looked upon the humiliation of his servant. Yes, from
now onwards all generations will call me
blessed, for the Almighty has done great things for me. Holy is his name, and
his faithful love extends age after age to those who fear him.
He has used the power of his arm, he has
routed the arrogant of heart.
He has pulled down princes from their thrones
and raised high the lowly.
He has filled the starving with good things,
sent the rich away empty.
He has come to the help of Israel his
servant, mindful of his faithful love -according to the promise he made to our
ancestors -- of his mercy to Abraham and
to his descendants for ever.
Mary stayed with her some three months and
then went home.
Writer’s reflection
Last
month I found myself with the kind of personal time and space that inspires
reflection and a deepening one’s faith. Reflecting on how best to prepare for
advent I decided to participate in the Marian retreat (’33 Days to Morning Glory’) initiated by Fr Stephen at Newman
House. If I’m honest, till then I had never actively sought to have a
relationship with Mary beyond praying a decade of the rosary a few times a
year. I accepted that Mary played an incredibly significant part in our salvation
through her ‘yes’ to God and Jesus’
giving her to us as our spiritual mother before his death. Yet how she actively transforms our hearts
as a role model and intercessor remained a mystery.
Undoubtedly
the reflection that riveted my heart most was Day 8, reflecting on St
Maximillian Kolbe’s prayer to Mary: “what will become of me?” In a vision of Mary, the saint saw her
holding out to him a white crown and a red crown:
“The white crown of purity came first…[yet]
his purity was not just of the body…[but also] purity of intention. A person practises purity of intention when
he directs his thoughts, words, and actions not to himself or another creature
but to a divine purpose or mission and ultimately to God”
-
33
Days to Morning Glory, page 12
Viewing
Mary’s words in today’s gospel through the lens of ‘purity of intention’ is
incredibly transformative because what once seemed like an exaltation of God’s
work in Mary’s life alone reveals
itself as a both call to purity of
intention and a pathway towards practising this in our own lives. The truth behind
these words doesn’t end in praise for God but gives substance to Mary’s
internal nature: her total reliance and gift of self to God. This
transformation of faith and intention is a gift of the Holy Spirit, but it is
Mary, the spouse of the Holy Spirit, who helps us prepare our hearts for this gift.
Practising
purity of intention is so important because when we strip everything in our
lives down to foundation level - our actions, our hobbies, our work, our words,
our faith – what we are left with is relation: our relation to God, our
relation to self and our relation to others. We are called to build upon each
of these relations with unyielding Love through our thoughts, words and
actions.
Through
meditating with this passage, I have found several features revealed as
pathways to purity of intention when I asked myself “Mary, what will become of me?”
“He has routed the arrogant of heart”. Often,
we confuse arrogance with the pride or purposefulness felt in speaking truth to
ignorance – this is absolutely false. Arrogance is so destructive because it
leads us to falsely believe that we are justified in making others feel small
and belittled, as if we were the creative power behind knowledge. In arrogance
we forget that we too once were ignorant, and that ultimate truth is revealed
from God alone. Instead, humility and compassion are presented as the loving
antidote to leading others into truth. This only comes when we direct our
intention away from being right and
admired because of who we are alone, and toward speaking truth because it is the ultimate source of good for the other
– in short it opens us to receive the gift of wisdom.
If
all we have ultimately are our relations, then we should be asking ourselves:
what is the core belief fundamentally driving my intentions toward my
relationship with God, myself and others?
Mary
tells us in today's Gospel that “his faithful love extends age after age to those who fear
him”. Fear in this
context is synonymous with ‘wonder’ and ‘awe’; Holy fear inspires great love of
God and fills us with a sense of the enormity and greatness of his love above
all else. This above all us –
fundamentally recognising the enormity of how we are loved – is what should be
driving our intentions. When we realise the life altering truth of how God
loves us we should be driven to live out and share the light that our faith
casts in such a way that everything we do can be a force of love.
Mary realised this in such a radical way that
she exclaims “From now onwards all generations will call me
blessed”. This is faithfulness for what is to come rather than what has been, because she understood –
and shows us today – that orientating every aspect of yourself towards purity
of intention is the only way to fully live
as love.
“Love
is the expression of the one who loves, not of the one who is loved. Those who
think they can love only the people they prefer do not love at all. Love
discovers truths about individuals that others cannot see”
―
During
the last days of Advent, I encourage you to simply ponder the question “Mary,
what will become of me?”, meditating over the Magnificat and reflecting over
our understanding of purity of intention. If, like me, you have never explored
your relationship with Mary I encourage you to listen to Fr Stephen’s homily
(below) and consider the 33-day retreat (each reflection takes 15 mins per
day).
Prayer intention:
Mary,
spouse of the Holy Spirit, help us to learn from your example of purity of
intention, to direct our thoughts, actions and words toward what is loving and
good in our relationship with God, ourselves and others. Help us to put aside
pride and arrogance and fill our souls with a desire for God’s will and wisdom
in every aspect of our lives. Amen.
Fr Stephen’s homily: The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception and the true meaning of Consecration to Jesus through Mary, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=untZB3gUqlQ
Writer's Bio: Kirsten Marys Brown
Hey guys - I’m Kirsten! You’ll always catch me with a book to hand (currently I’m reading Brene Brown’s ‘Daring Greatly’ and JPII’s ‘Love and Responsibility’) and a big ol’ smile! I love all things absurd, surreal and everything to do with the brain. I could eat pistachio ice-cream all dang year and I write poetry about mental health and identity (IG @kirsten_marys). I’m an anthropologist and neuroscientist, though when I’m not doing either of those I’m probably watching The Office…
My message? Living life with purity of intention and deep vulnerability means I’m going to get my butt kicked, face pain and disappointment, but I’m also going to experience joy and deep love in my relationships and a sense of worthiness before God. Go read/watch Brene Brown now!
“[Real] doesn’t happen all at once” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”
(The Velveteen Rabbit)
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