Merry ChristMAS! To stay in the spirit of the advent season leading up to Christmas, I’m going to share with you a story I wrote about Mary, the mother of Jesus, for the December issue of VIVA magazine.
For those who don’t know, VIVA is a Dubai-based womens magazine targeting ex-pat British women, hence the celebrity covers and interviews, and focus on fashion. It is much like “Glamour” in the US, and really not something I would buy myself if it wasn’t for the 100+ pages inside the Jordanian version that highlight issues and people pertinent to my world in Amman. Our primary audience in Jordan is different: upper middle class professional Muslim women, and it reaches about 3,000 of them every month.
Someday I’ll get really proficient and be able to upload a photo of the cover, or the scanned in version of the story from the magazine.
the link doesn’t go anywhere. I would like to read your article.
Comment by storbakken — December 12, 2006 @ 3:59 pm
Ahlan, Storbakken! You are my first comment! I think I fixed the link, try again. I’m really new at this, so please bear with me on the learning curve.
Comment by wendywrites — December 12, 2006 @ 4:38 pm
thanks for sharing. Mary is interesting because she is submissive and obedient when it comes to serving the Lord, but she is also somewhat radical when it comes to subverting wicked authority. Christianity Today has a great article in the current issue on the topic of a subversive Mary. Luke 1:46-55 (Mary’s Song) is a powerful song from the mouth of Mary. Thanks again for sharing. And God bless!
Comment by storbakken — December 12, 2006 @ 9:11 pm
Wendy,
Good article on our Blessed Mother. She is such an example of discipleship and trust. I always try to convey this to the kids in school when I am teaching them. May Our Lady guide you and the family to a Blessed Christmas with her Son, Jesus. Happy Belated Anniversary!!! Hello to the kids.
Fr. Mark
Comment by Fr. Mark — December 13, 2006 @ 2:03 am
WOW! What a powerful article about the submission and obedience of Mary. This is a very timely article for our reflection on what it cost Mary to be obedient and submissive and how we can be grateful for her great humility. The article is very well written and it’s content true to the Biblical account. Thank you, Wendy, for your diligence in preparing and writing this clos up account of what Mary’s life might have been like.
GREAT JOB!
Cindy Rosetto
Comment by Cindy Rosetto — December 13, 2006 @ 3:22 am
Fr. Mark…welcome – you are the first of our family to visit! Thank you for your insights and good blessings, and encouragement. My editor ran this piece by our local New Yorker/Irish priest, Father Kevin, and he was also very generous; his approval made the difference of it actually getting printed. Some felt it too controversial a view. He, like Jesus, is a defender of defenseless women: Filipina domestic helpers.
Cindy, as a mentor and respected bible teacher, your affirmation is important to me! I’m basking! And, I am praying for your trip next month
Storbakken, I’m glad you will returned and I hope to visit the CT website for more insight! I LOVED that about Mary, you can tell in her song that yes, she is submitted to God, but she longs for justice even from her perceived ‘powerlessness’. I suppose that is humility in it’s truest sense: power under control.
Comment by wendywrites — December 13, 2006 @ 11:10 am
Beautifully written Wendy with a keen insight into Bible land and customs. I think your words “God’s unconventional plan” sums up why we must walk by faith and not by sight. I find it sad that many denominations have not highly esteemed Mary and her selfless example.
Comment by Sandra — December 13, 2006 @ 7:22 pm
Sandra! WOW! The sister/friend I have known the longest! Thanks for commenting. I think many denominations have not esteemed Mary as a reaction to the over-esteem in others bordering on exaltation of Mary over her son. It seems a part of the human condition to swing to extremes, losing precious things as we do. Have a most blessed Christmas, Sandra!
Comment by wendywrites — December 14, 2006 @ 7:01 am
thank you wendy – i’m awed with tears in reading your story about Mary – challenged and thankful for her example – i too join you in pondering her submission and sacrifice
Comment by jillianjoy — December 14, 2006 @ 4:47 pm
JILL! This is SO your heart, I even thought about you a couple times when I was writing it…I see that level of submission and obedience in you.
Comment by wendywrites — December 14, 2006 @ 6:54 pm
Beautiful take on Mary’s life. I had never before thought about Joseph having relatives in Bethlehem, and yet nowhere to stay! Wow! We just saw the movie “The Nativity” and that, together with your article, have made Mary and Joseph much more “real” to me. Thanks and keep writing!
Comment by Lina — December 15, 2006 @ 8:14 pm
Wendy, what a beautiful article! There were insights that I hadn’t noticed before that make perfect sense now. Mary’s life is one to be learned from and your writing put the “how” into words. Thank you.
Comment by alethea — December 15, 2006 @ 9:20 pm
Lina and Alethea, your good words are dear. It was a good friend of mine ten years ago who got me thinking about this. I just spoke on this topic to a women’s Christmas gathering, and the Arab women hadn’t thought of the cultural ramifications either. God bless you!
Comment by wendywrites — December 16, 2006 @ 5:39 am
Wow Wendy,mabrook.I have been working on my PC and dont have all software ready so I couldn’t open the link,however I bought the magazine yesterday and will be reading the article today.mabrook the blog again:)
Comment by salam — December 16, 2006 @ 8:43 am
Wendy, Your experience and knowledge has blessed me with a deeper understanding of what Mary had to endure. It truly makes the Word so much richer as I read the Christmas story ~ and she being so young for such reverence and submission to the Lord. We believers often consider her so priveleged to be chosen, yet often do not consider what it truly meant. I hope I can consider her obedience to God, doing HIS will, not cosidering her own life and work to imitate it. Thanks Wendy for this example of dying to oneself and how Mary truly lived that life.
Comment by Mary — December 19, 2006 @ 4:33 am
Mary! You got Adobe going! Thanks so much for your contribution. I know this is an issue we both struggle with, being girls of our generation.
Salam, Allah yabarik fiiki! I’m honored to have you as one of the few who live in both my blog worlds! If you get the mag, (and like the piece) do write them a letter…I have many such kind of stories to write, but they need to see the demand for it to risk being spiritual ‘off-season’.
Comment by wendywrites — December 19, 2006 @ 7:25 am
Wendy,
Thank your for your wonderful article about Mary. I asked myself this question, What was it about her that made her so ‘highly favored’ and enabled her to walk in total submission and trust with her God? She not only had to submit under the terms of His birth but also in His death. I love my sons so much that even a case of the sniffles causes me anxiety! (I know, I’m a mother-bear! Totally!) Imagine one of our children facing rejection, beatings and execution? Especially when you know the truth of their being and innocence? How hard it would be!
I often think of Mary in very surreal terms. I picture this willowy woman in total piety, naieve, pure. Now perhaps she was all of these but I believe that she was very much Human also, just like us. She sinned, she had bad days, maybe even was jealous of the girl down the lane who she might have thought prettier than herself. The difference would be what did she do with those feelings. She must have learned how to trust God and walk in submission. She was trained by parents and family members to not listen to her pride and to know what humility is and looks like and how it behaves.
I am a Mom and with two very energetic boys, I’m learning that they learn by careful training and by watching. Mary must have had some pretty Godly parents and family that trained her well and were an example to her.
She also must have spent time with God and dwelling on his word. She must have done well to “hide His word in her heart” when she sat listening in the Temple. I would assume that when she would hear the word it must have touched her deeply and she let it impress itself into her soul. She knew Truth and kept it most important in her life, central, and thought on it often. Our equivalent of reading our Bibles often and really studying it! Just think, we have the written word, she didn’t. There weren’t millions of copies and translations of the OT floating around and women weren’t aloud to read it, let alone touch it! She had no flowered covered daily devotions to turn to, no woman’s daily bible reading. She had her time in the temple and perhaps a few women to ask if she didn’t understand something. Other than that she had to rely on God to help her understand.
What made her ‘highly favored’? I can’t say with a specific chapter and verse where God says specifically why but I believe He lets Mary reveal it in her answer. She was willing to walk humbly with her God. She just believed Him and let Him worry about how it would play itself out. As a woman of this generation, I long to lay down my pride and walk humbly with my Father and Savior. To simply believe Him at His word and not second guess or think through with my own reasoning. Zachariah did and it cost him his speech for quite a long time! I am learning to do this by looking fully into the face of humility. When we look at the definition of humility and contrast how both pride and humility manifest themselves we are confronted and know we must change. You were right Wendy when you said that humility is power under control, there is a Chinese symbol for humility in their language that shows just that. I also know that it is often coupled with Grace which is un-merited favor. May God grow me in both! As it says in Proverbs, may I not lean on my own understanding but only on His as He reveals and when it seems fuzzy or unclear, He is still in control and doesn’t need my help. I sometimes forget that I am not Holy Spirit Jr.!
We are all highly favored as His children through adoption but I believe that when we look beyond our position and into what is required, submission, we please His heart even more.
Thanks for a place to ramble and to learn!
Bethany
Comment by Bethany — December 31, 2006 @ 8:54 pm
Bethany, thanks for the lovely addendum. It brought my heart back to contemplation of her life. You are always welcome to ramble…verbal processers like us just have to get it out!
Comment by wendywrites — January 1, 2007 @ 6:29 pm
Motherhood is not a simple, but unqiue time in life. It changes so many things and the way how you see the world. It is interesting to participate in the experiences of other women.
Cheers
Lisa
Comment by Motherhood & Maternity — May 9, 2007 @ 2:37 pm