MARY AND THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH

by Joseph B.

Last September 7 and 8, Sister Kathleen Coyle, SCC, was our speaker at the EMC. She spoke about Mary and the Mission of the Church. What follows is my personal reflection.

Every person is born for a mission. The moment God breaths life in our being, our journey and mission in life are set. All that is asked of us is to participate faithfully in that mission throughout our life’s journey.

The mission of Mary as an embodiment of God’s love, the Incarnation of Jesus as a cosmic

Sr. Kathleen Coyle

mystery, my own presence here in Euntes community as a PIME Candidate on the process of vocation discernment, the presence of the participants from seven different countries of Asia and the Pacific, and most especially Sr. Kathleen Coyle, SCC as a resource person for two days seminar on Mary and Mission of the Church are all a manifestation of God’s unending love and compassion throughout the whole cosmos.

Meditating and contemplating the spirituality and the theology of Mary as well as the mission of the Church, I realized that spirituality and mission are the totality of a person’s existence as dynamized by the Spirit of Jesus.

For me to live in God’s presence is to pattern my life on Jesus or to be like Christ: a mind through which Christ thinks, a heart through which Christ loves, a voice through which Christ speaks, a hand through which Christ helps, and a life through which Christ lives.

The life of Mary is touched by the Holy Spirit; she is convinced that all grace and mercies were poured out onto her as she dedicated herself to God with all the Divine energy she had received. 

As I reflected on this I became aware that to live in the presence of God is to be happy like Mary. Happiness sprouts from the heart and it comes from personal harmony and from the good relations with others, and from loving and being loved.

For almost a month staying here in the Euntes Community I am very happy that God gives me real happiness as I relate to Him in prayer and as I also relate to the members of the community. The atmosphere of prayer, silence, and the lively presence of God in all our daily tasks as Mary enjoyed in her daily life,  is also my way of how to stay with Christ with inner peace and the spiritual quietness of the heart.

I humbly pray to the Lord will use me to touch the lives of other peoples especially the poor and the marginalized so that their inner goodness would also shed its radiance on the whole human race. The spirituality, theology and exemplary life of the Blessed Mother inspired me to move on and to develop the totality of my being as created in the likeness and image of God. 

To sum up, the spirituality and mission of the church are actually an invitation for me to be integrated and become whole. It is to place priorities in order and help distinguish between the important and urgent things that occupy the moments of my days. Being alive in Christ involves the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Let me end, by commending the Euntes Director, the program coordinator for designing this kind of module that is an indispensable tool for mission and it is really a great help to understand what our own image of Mary is as we journey here on earth for a very particular and special mission.

May I also commend Sr. Kathleen Coyle, SCC a feminine spirit with a lot of divine energy for sharing with us this wonderful perspective on Mary as an embodiment of God’s love.

 May Mother Mary help us to deepen day after day our relationship with Jesus and our participation in the Mission of the Church.