my other mom

First, let me say that I am incredibly jealous of you folks in the Midwest for the ridiculous amounts of snow you are experiencing. We just have stupid "I want to be snow but I'm not quite there and never will be" kind of precipitation that makes you want to shake your fist at the sky and shout, WHYYYYYYYYYYYY?!?!" at Mother Nature. But no, Mother Nature is not the other mom I am referring to in the title of this post.

I am talking about my mom in Heaven.

Today, December 8, is set aside every year by the Church to commemorate the Immaculate Conception of Mary, that is, Mary being conceived in the womb of St. Anne without original sin. This might sound a little weird at first, but if you think about it, it kind of makes sense--Jesus Christ, totally God and totally human, also had to be totally perfect (that's the God part). Now, if Mary had original sin, then Jesus would have inherited it from her, and thus not been perfect...and the whole "fully God, fully human" thing would be a little impossible. So God went to a whole lot of trouble to pick Mary, making sure she was conceived without original sin, and giving her super special graces throughout her life to better know and follow God's will and avoid temptation and sin.

But here's the thing...Mary still could have sinned. God doesn't just take away a person's free will. So Mary could have turned away from God, even for a split second, at any point in her life. But she didn't.

WHAT?! That's freaking MIND-BOGGLING.

And on top of all that awesome perfection...think, just for a moment, how you might feel if, as a fourteen year old girl, you were visited by an angel and told you would bear the Savior of the world.

Honestly. I mean it. Stop reading right now. Close your eyes and put yourself in Mary's place for a moment. How would you feel? How would you react? What would be going through your head?

I can't even imagine what Mary must have been thinking as this scene unfolded. But whatever thoughts and feelings and reactions were happening for Mary in that situation, the fact is that it happened. And even though she was crazy confused about the whole thing ("Seriously? How is this even possible? I'm a virgin!"), she listened to what the angel had to say. She took a precious moment of discernment...and then she said, "Okay."

And in that "yes," Mary became for us a shining example of faith, hope, and love. She became the first disciple of Jesus the moment she affirmed His place in her womb.

For the last thirty-three days, I have been going through the process of St. Louis Marie de Montfort's Total Consecration to Jesus Through Mary. It's kind of intense. LOTS of prayer and reflection on Mary's place in the grand scheme of things, and why she's so important for us. On the thirty-fourth day, the person making the Consecration offers him or herself as a "slave of love" to Jesus through Mary.

If you had asked me a year ago, "Would you ever consider doing the Total Consecration?" I would have said, "No. That's ridiculous and crazy and it puts the focus too much on Mary and not enough on Jesus." But through a long few months of being pushed toward our Blessed Mother by various experiences (my mom's cancer, going to a Life Teen youth ministers' conference, etc), I realized that this Consecration was something God was calling me to do.

Honestly, the process of doing this Consecration has completely changed the lens through which I look at people, situations, and decisions. I often find myself thinking, "What would Mary do?" (Sidenote: I'm not perfect, I'm not implying that I am, and I know that I never will be. The point is to try, and I get that.) But this devotion to Mary isn't some sort of statement that she's God or something like that. It is simply (okay, maybe not so simply) placing myself in Mary's arms so she can carry me to the arms of her Son. As I draw closer to her, meditating on and seeking to understand her heart and her witness, she continually draws me to her Son.

Okay, so I would love to talk about Mary all night, but as it is, I'm really tired, so I'm going to head to bed. But if you have any questions, feel free to call me or Facebook me or even leave me a comment below, and I'll try to get back to you soon.

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you!