The Feast of St. Stephen, Friday, December 26, 2025

Matthew 10, 17-22

Jesus said to his disciples: “Beware of men, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved.”

Even as the churches still echo with hymns to the Baby in the manger, the Feast of St. Stephen rushes upon us.  Though the reason for the date of Stephen’s Feast has to do with the procession of his relics from Palestine to Constantinople in the 5th century, we learn that faith in the One born in Bethlehem carries a price.  

For perhaps ten years after the Resurrection of the Lord, the Jewish Christians and the Jews co-existed in an uneasy peace.  The Christians insisted that they were the true Jews who believed that the Law had been fulfilled by Jesus Christ, and so they continued to meet in synagogues and to worship in the Temple in Jerusalem.  It was not long however before the increase in the number of the Christians and in their confidence led to theological clashes with the Jewish leaders.  This resulted in the stoning of St. Stephen, the most outspoken among the Christian leaders, and following this, persecution of the members of the Church throughout Judea and Galilee.  The words of Jesus in today’s Gospel reading provide us with a glimpse of what that first persecution looked like: “They will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues . . . Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name.”  The Lord did not hide the future from anyone who cared to listen.  He told his disciples on more than one occasion that believing in him would likely cost them their lives.  It is revealing to us of the hold he had on the people of the time that they continued to believe and to follow him and, indeed to die for him.  It is in prayer that we can experience his hold on us today.

The Lord tells us that persecution and loss comes upon believers as a matter of course.  We must expect it and fortify ourselves for it by prayer, fasting, and alms-giving. We do this for him.  As long as he is before our eyes, we will be safe, no matter what happens.  We may be “hated by all” because of his name, but if we “endure to the end”, we will be saved.

The Solemnity of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, December 25, 2025

The Gospel Reading for the Mass at Dawn, Luke 2:15–20

When the angels went away from them to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them.

The evening had begun much like every other evening.  The shepherds, rough fellows in their smelly clothes, had rounded up their flocks into a circle that was easy to watch, and they ate some of their store of bread and drank from their small store of wine.  Weary from the day, they spoke little.  Before it grew too dark, they played simple games.  Two or three of them readied themselves to keep the first watch of the night.  They would stay up and keep an eye out for wolves, thieves, and the small but deadly lions that roamed about at that time.  Each watch went as long as four or five hours and, at if they were lucky, it would be a monotonous shift.  The chill in the air would help them stay awake.

And then came the Angel, shining so brightly that the features of his face could hardly be made out.  His brilliance woke the shepherds who were sleeping, and all shaded their eyes and stood up.  He spoke of a Savior born in nearby Bethlehem, and that the sign of this was a woman who had given birth and laid her Child in a manger.  Then all around them appeared blazing multitudes of angels who sang of God’s glory and of peace to the earth.  And as suddenly as they appeared, they were gone, for God’s heralds do not linger after they convey his message.  Lighting their lamps, some of the shepherds trudged off across the field to see this wondrous Child: “The shepherds said to one another, “Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.”  

“So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger.”  The Greek means something more like, “they went, earnestly desiring”.  “They found” more precisely means that they “discovered through searching”.  It would have proven a long and uncertain trek, especially at night.  The Greek text hints at their difficulties in finding the Child.  But when they found him and his parents, there was no mistaking the truth of the Angel’s words.  “When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child.”  The phrase translated here as “they made known” also means “they knew”, and so the shepherds understood the message of the angel and they told what they had heard to Mary and Joseph.

“All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds.”  The phrase “all who heard” seems to contradict the image most of us have of the Nativity, that only Mary, Joseph, and Jesus were present.  But as we also read that Jesus was born outside the town because “there was no room for them in the inn”, we can suppose that the couple had hunted for a place to stay within the town.  Their plight would have attracted sympathy, and one of the townsfolk may have suggested they take refuge in one of the small caves outside the town walls.  Some of the women of the place may have gone with them, one carrying a jar of water and another ready to act as midwife.  For anyone but Mary and Joseph, this birth was a purely human situation, novel only for the urgent need of the couple.  The arrival of the shepherds changed that.  All present wondered exceedingly at what the shepherds told them.  The newborn Infant appeared no different from any other except, laid in a trough, he seemed a little pathetic.  And yet the shepherds had seen and heard angels speaking of this Child as the Savior.

“And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.”  The word translated here as “kept” means “was keeping safe”, “was keeping in mind”.  The verb is in the imperfect tense, meaning that her action was not limited to this single occasion, but that she pondered through time.  The imperfect tense signifies a continuous action in the past.  Long after the Birth of her Son, she was turning over all these words, as the Greek says, in her mind.  Let us consider, for a moment, what Mary would have known and not known beforehand of this Birth: she knew that her Child was the Son of God; she knew, through the Prophet Micah, that he would be born in Bethlehem.  She did not know that she would give birth in a cave.  She did not know that her Son’s arrival would be announced by angels to shepherds.  What was God doing, allowing his Son to be born in poverty?  Why would he announce this to shepherds?  

“Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them.”  We do not know what became of these shepherds.  We are not told that shepherds were among Christ’s followers.  But when the Lord began to preach and to tell parables, he spoke much of shepherds.  Indeed, he called himself “the Good Shepherd” who would lay down his life for his sheep.  

I hope everyone has a Holy Christmas!  I will remember all who read these reflections in my Mass tomorrow morning!

Wednesday in the Fourth Week of Advent, December 24, 2025

Luke 1, 67-79 

Zechariah his father, filled with the Holy Spirit, prophesied, saying: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; for he has come to his people and set them free. He has raised up for us a mighty Savior, born of the house of his servant David. Through his prophets he promised of old that he would save us from our enemies, from the hands of all who hate us. He promised to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to set us free from the hand of our enemies, free to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life. You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins. In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

The last words Zechariah had said before becoming mute were spoken in the Temple to the Angel Gabriel: “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years” (Luke 1, 18).  His words expressed doubt and even disbelief.  He curled himself into a defensive position before the Angel and prepared himself to make a refusal.  This behavior is remarkable in a priest, a son of Aaron, who meditated on the Law and knew well the stories of miraculous conceptions, and so it was fitting that he be struck deaf and dumb: he had stalled before the word of the Lord and so he should not hear it; and he would not give answer to the message of the Lord and so he should lose his ability to speak.  But Gabriel did not strike him deaf and dumb.  Rather, Zechariah incurred the natural consequences of his actions.

But Zechariah did not go back to his home embittered.  He pondered the last words of the Angel to him: “I am Gabriel, who stand in the presence of God; and I was sent to speak to you, and to bring you this good news. 20 And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things come to pass, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time” (Luke 1, 19-20).  He entered the difficult world of silence in which he struggled to make his slightest needs or thoughts known, and from this experience he realized that he had become a sign.  What had happened to him as a result of his faithlessness had come upon Israel long before.  Since it would not hear the Prophets, it lost its ability to hear.  Since it praised foreign gods, it lost its ability to speak.

Over the months of his silence, he repented.  More than that, he grew eager to fulfill the commandments God had given to him through the Angel.  Over the months he began to understand what his son would mean for Israel.  As he, Zechariah, had become a sign, so his son would be a sign — a sign not of Israel’s lack of faith and of the broken covenant, but a sign of a new dawn, a herald of the new Covenant God would make with man through the Savior he would send.  And after nine months of silence, he was granted the opportunity to act, to repair his disbelief with firm belief in the face of pressure to conform to the old ways.  And after writing, “His name is John” on the wax tablet, and regained his ability to hear and to speak.  And the first words he spoke were the praise of God.  No hesitancy restrains him now, no questions linger.  He speaks of God and his plan for the salvation of his people: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; for he has come to his people and set them free. He has raised up for us a mighty Savior, born of the house of his servant David.”  Before he even speaks of his own son, John, he speaks of the coming Messiah, whom he knew now would be born of the Virgin Mary, his wife’s kinswoman who had departed a few days before.  When he does speak of his son, it is to prophesy of his place in God’s plan: “You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way.”  A proud father, yet he sees all in the context of the Savior, the son of David, and in all of his canticle, he speaks only a line or two of his son, the servant of the Redeemer.

In the baptismal ritual, the priest touches the mouth and the ears of the Child whom he has baptized and says, “May the Lord open your ears and your lips that you may hear his word and proclaim his praise.”  May we use our own ears and lips for the purpose for which God gave them to us, in listening intently to the word of God and uttering his praise.

December 22 in the Fourth Week of Advent, 2025

Luke 1, 57-66

When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her, and they rejoiced with her. When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child, they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother said in reply, “No. He will be called John.” But they answered her, “There is no one among your relatives who has this name.” So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called. He asked for a tablet and wrote, “John is his name,” and all were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed, and he spoke blessing God. Then fear came upon all their neighbors, and all these matters were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea. All who heard these things took them to heart, saying, “What, then, will this child be? For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.”

The Virgin Mary departed from her relative Elizabeth’s town after staying with her for three months, departing probably soon after Elizabeth gave birth. It is possible that Joseph arrived to help her make the trip.  Losing the company of Mary and her unborn Child would have been hard for Elizabeth, but now Elizabeth had her own child to take care of..

It is not clear if Elizabeth had made her pregnancy known to her friends and neighbors after the Virgin Mary came to her.  Mary herself learned of it only through the revelation of the Angel Gabriel.  Yet it is hard to imagine that Zechariah’s fellow priests did not ask about her or that the servants had not talked to other servants.  The pregnancy might have been hidden for the first six months, especially since no one would have suspected it, but probably not for the last three.  Mary’s arrival might have been put down by observers as due to some infirmity Elizabeth was suffering (she was already an older woman), but by the time she gave birth, the whole town must have known, and surely the people there would have heard the labor cries.  

At the end of those cries, there was a baby.  Like all new babies, a sign of innocence and hope, but this one more than any other that had yet been born.  The mysterious circumstances around his conception, both Zechariah’s loss of hearing and speech in the Temple as well as the age of the parents, hung over it.  In addition, Elizabeth’s behavior after the conception aroused curiosity and concern.  The signs of some heavenly action seemed everywhere, but no one could say definitely what they meant.  The mystery and the strange behavior came to a head when Elizabeth insisted that the child be named John at the time of his circumcision, against the wishes of her well-meaning relatives.  Zechariah made this decision firm by writing on a clay tablet that the child’s name was John.  The crowd was astounded because, deaf and mute, Zechariah should not have been able to understand what everyone was arguing over.  His action silenced the crowd, and with that he began to speak for the first time in nine months.  Inspired by the Holy Spirit, with deep emotion, he explained what it all meant.

“What, then, will this child be? For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.”  Zechariah told the people assembled for John’s circumcision that his son would “be called the prophet of the Most High, for [he] will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins” (Luke 1, 76).  No father had ever spoken of his newborn son in this way.  He would “go before the Lord” to “prepare” his way invoking Malachi 3, 1; and that he would do this by preaching repentance, invoking Malachi 3, 24.  The people understood these verses very specifically as pertaining to the arrival of the Prophet Elijah, who would precede the Messiah.  But the fact that, all the signs aside, the birth seemed very much like any other birth in the obscure little town town where they lived.  When Elijah did come, he would come down from heaven, just as the Messiah would.  This was their thinking, though nothing in the Scriptures told them this.  And so, while they still wondered about what had happened, they went on with their lives.

We, to whom Christ has come in baptism and to whom he continues to come st Holy Mass, must not live as though this had not happened and was continuing to happen, but through virtuous lives we should proclaim that the Lord came, continues to come, and will come again.

Monday, December 22, 2015 in the Fourth Week of Advent

Luke 1, 46-56

Mary said: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior. for he has looked upon his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, and has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children for ever.”  Mary remained with Elizabeth about three months and then returned to her home.

The Blessed Virgin Mary learned of the pregnancy, already advanced, of her relative Elizabeth from the Angel Gabriel during the course of the Annunciation.  Gabriel mentions it as an example of how “no word shall be impossible with God” (Luke 1, 37). It is curious that he chooses to speak of Elizabeth’s pregnancy — great as it is — rather than some great event of the past as proof of God’s omnipotence. For instance, Gabriel could have spoken of the parting of the Red Sea, or of how God created the heavens and the earth. But he does not do this. Instead, he tells her of Elizabeth.

Nor did necessity press the Virgin into going into the hill country of Judea, outside Jerusalem. As the wife of a priest, many friends and relatives would have presumably flocked to her side to assist her.  And Mary had just received this unprecedented news of her own, that she, a Virgin, would conceive the Son of God by the Holy Spirit. But she who saw herself as the lowly handmaid of the Lord — who sat at her Master’s feet awaiting the slightest gesture of his hand to indicate some service for her — got up and proceeded “in haste” to her relative. The merest hint of some work her Master decided upon sent her into motion.

She undertook her journey to the house of Zechariah not as a burden to be borne but as a welcome opportunity to demonstrate her love for the Lord God, proving the truth of what St. Paul would write decades later: “The virgin thinks on the things of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 7, 34). This is the same Handmaid who quietly assists with the wedding feast at Cana, preferring the company of the servants than of the other guests.

“Mary remained with Elizabeth about three months and then returned to her home.” Since the Evangelist does not tell us, we can speculate as to whether Mary left before or after the birth of Elizabeth’s child. We should understand that Mary did have responsibilities back in Nazareth, first and foremost her own wedding feast, when Joseph would lead her to his house as his wife. But this need not preclude Mary from being present for the birth. In fact, one ancient writer says that she acted as the midwife, though this certainly did mot happen. We can surmise that she did stay for this happy event, and then practically unnoticed, she slipped back to her hometown, her work completed.

The Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 22, 2025

Matthew 1, 18–24

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.” When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.

“Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man.”  St. Matthew, writing for the first generation of Jewish Christians, emphasizes righteousness in his Gospel, the essential attribute of God which humans could share in through following the Law of Moses.  For this reason, he shows the righteousness of the Lord’s parents.  He does not merely state that Joseph and Mary were righteous, but shows it in their words and actions.  In doing this, Matthew shows himself to be a reliable source since he does not wince at mentioning difficult situations but admits them freely, then presents Joseph and Mary as navigating through them in the way righteous people should.  

Here, he shows that Mary and Joseph are betrothed: he has formally gone to the house of her parents and asked for her hand, she has consented to be his wife, and the parents have signaled their approval.  She is to remain with her parents until Joseph can arrange the reception at his house to which he will lead her.  Weeks or months may pass first.  But then Matthew tells us that before Joseph can do this, she “was found with child through the Holy Spirit”.  That is, accounting for the Hebrew idiom Matthew undoubtedly used, Joseph found that she had conceived by the Holy Spirit.  How did he find this out?  Not through an angel, for an angel comes to him after he has learned this to guide him.  As the Fathers tell us, Mary told him, for only Mary could have known that she was with child “through the Holy Spirit”.  Joseph, then, as a righteous man must decide for himself what course he is to take in this unprecedented situation.  If he were not a righteous man and had not believed Mary, he would have denounced her.  

It is precisely because of his determination to act righteously that he has to decide what his place is.  Right away he rules out exposing her to “shame”, as the lectionary has it, though the Greek actually means “publicly announcing her secret”.  If her miraculous pregnancy was meant to be publicized, it would be the work of the angels, not of a carpenter.  Thinking over what Mary has told him, he cannot think of a role for him in her life and in the life of her Child.  Gabriel had said nothing to Mary about living with Joseph as his wife.  He concludes that he is supposed to simply walk away, thoroughly unworthy as he knows himself to be part of the life of the Virgin Mary and of the Son of God who would be born of her.  The matter of “divorce”, as the lectionary has it, does not come up for him.  The Greek, in fact, means “separation”.  There is no need of a divorce anyway, as she has not come to live with him.  

Through his prayers for divine assistance and his absolute determination to act righteously, God sent an angel (very possibly Gabriel) to point out to Joseph the most righteous course of action: to take the Virgin into his home as his wife.  He had not considered the lowliness with which the Son of God would come into the world and live in it.  According to the Pharisees, the arrival of the Messiah would be accompanied by great pomp and circumstance.  That the Son of God would live in the house of a carpenter in a remote town in Galilee required greater faith from him than that Mary, whom he knew to be holy, had conceived by the Holy Spirit.  

“When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.”  As a righteous man, he obeyed at once the command of the Lord as relayed to him by the angel.  Perhaps the reception was ready, perhaps not.  But God must be obeyed.  This obedience is the key to righteousness.  It marks the Incarnation itself in which the Son obeyed the Father in leaving his glory behind in heaven to walk the harsh roads of earth.  It marks the ready consent of the Virgin Mary to God’s plan for her to be both Virgin and Mother.  It marks the ready consent of Joseph, once he learned of God’s will, to throw away the plan he had made in good conscience and to humbly take his place as the foster father of God’s Son.  

Joseph never ceased to live righteously, and it awed him to look on his Lord growing up in his home and to know that Almighty God wanted him to be there with him.

December 20 in the Third Week of Advent, 2025

Luke 1, 26-38

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”   But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.”  Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

All the essential doctrines concerning the Virgin Mary are found in these verses of the Gospel of St. Luke: her Immaculate Conception, her perpetual virginity, and her divine motherhood.  From these flow all that we understand about her, as her Assumption is the logical consequence of her Immaculate Conception.

“Hail, full of grace!”  The traditional translation follows the Vulgate translation of the Greek, which is oddly insufficient.  The Latin rendering was not that of Jerome, who corrected but did not create the much earlier Old Latin translation.  At any rate, the Greek participle the Latin translates means, rather, “You who have been graced [from the beginning]”.  The Greek perfect passive participle gives the meaning of an action completed in the past which has an effect in the present.  The Virgin Mary was perfected in grace at the beginning of her life, at the instant of her conception.  “Grace”, of course, is the divine life which God shares with us.  To be completed by grace means to be filled with God’s life, to be most holy.  This means that she was born without the effects of original sin and possessed in inner harmony of her emotions, intellect, and will that we cannot imagine.  We would be as the blind and her as the only one who could see, by comparison.

“The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin.”  This tells us that Mary was a Virgin at the time that she became with child by the Holy Spirit.  We might expect this since the translation also tells us that she was “betrothed” but not yet living with Joseph, but legally she was married to him and need not have been.  The information Luke gives us here is crucial to our understanding what to do with her statement, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” The verb tense is present, and in the Greek language, this means the present progressive: “since I am having no relations with man [ever].”  She intended, at the time of Gabriel’s visit, to maintain the virginity she had possessed from birth.  The fact that she intended to remain a Virgin even after marriage — in sharp contradiction to human custom — is also shown by her not accepting that the Child would be born in the normal course of her life with Joseph.  Her question to Gabriel makes sense only if she has no intention of forsaking her virginity.

As to the manner of the Child’s conception: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.”  The Greek actually says that the Holy Spirit would “approach” her and the power of the Most High would “envelop” her, as in an embrace.  The conception will be of a miraculous nature, with God himself as the Father of this Child.  Gabriel adds, “Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.”  This is a Hebrew idiom meaning, “He will be the Son of God.”  “To be called something” is “to be that thing”.  This is a very different understanding than that which we have in the West, just as a person’s name is their character or identity, along with their ancestry.  Thus, the significance of the name the Child will have: “You shall name him Jesus.”  That is, God saves.  Clearly, this demonstrates that the Virgin Mary is the Mother of God, for the Son of God has no human Father, and so must be fully divine, taking his flesh from his human Mother.  And that Mary truly is his Mother and not merely a vessel through which the Son of God passed (which was an early heresy), the angel tells her that she is to name the Child — an action only the true mother could perform, with her husband, the child’s father.

All three of these teachings about Mary fly in the face of human experience, let alone the Jewish culture of her time.  They burst through human expectations and the limitations of the natural world, for “nothing will be impossible for God”.  You and I, poor frail mortals, are granted by the mercy of Almighty God the destiny of standing with the angelic hosts in heaven for all eternity beholding him.  This can be ours if we imitate what we can of the virtues of the Blessed Virgin, profit by her intercession, and believe with all our hearts that God can do this for us.