{"id":8885,"date":"2014-02-17T17:11:49","date_gmt":"2014-02-17T22:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=8885"},"modified":"2014-02-17T17:11:49","modified_gmt":"2014-02-17T22:11:49","slug":"sharing-marys-love-pope-francis-bookclub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/02\/sharing-marys-love-pope-francis-bookclub.html","title":{"rendered":"Sharing Mary’s Love [Pope Francis Bookclub]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In 2014, I\u2019m reading and blogging through Pope Francis\/Cardinal Bergoglio\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>Open Mind, Faithful Heart: Reflections on Following Jesus<\/a>. \u00a0Every Monday, I\u2019ll be writing about the next meditation in the book, so you\u2019re welcome to\u00a0peruse them all<\/a>\u00a0and\/or read along.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At the beginning of the chapter \u201cNurtured by the Church\u201d Cardinal Bergoglio draws out parallels between the Church and Mary, the Mother of God.<\/p>\n

Mary brings us forth and cares for us, and the Church does also. \u00a0Mary helps us grom, and the Church does also. \u00a0And at the hour of death, the priest bids us farewell in the name of the Church and leaves us in the arms of Mary. \u00a0She is \u201ca woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars\u201d (Apoc 12:1). \u00a0That is the Church and that is the modest Virgin that our faithful people venerate. \u00a0That is why in speaking of the Church we need to feel the same devotion as we feel for the Virgin Mary.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I love this kind of approach to teaching, theological or otherwise. \u00a0By contrasting two ideas, I often find that I learn them both better, since looking for similarities and differences makes my understanding of each more concrete. \u00a0I like sometimes, to pose myself the question of \u201cWhat would happen if I treated Friend X the way I treat Friend Y?\u201d and think about whether I\u2019m ill-serving one or both of them, or if there\u2019s a joy I could be sharing that I\u2019m currently neglecting. \u00a0Contrasting loves and affections helps me deepen them, since it gets me out of ruts and complacencies.<\/p>\n

One of the prayers I make a lot is to share in Mary\u2019s love for whichever particular person I\u2019m currently having a difficult time with. \u00a0I know this person\u00a0is<\/em> loved; I\u2019m just missing out on that sensibility at the moment. \u00a0Starting from the certainty that there is a love I\u00a0could<\/em>\u00a0share in helps my try to find my way toward the sentiment. \u00a0And, if I\u2019m still stuck, I can think about the love that Mary has for me, or that I have for her, or even the one I\u2019d\u00a0like<\/em> to have for her and see if there\u2019s any part of it I can extend to mend my poor relationship with the person I currently dislike or feel indifferent toward.<\/p>\n

Thus, I really liked one passage at the end of this chapter, where Cardinal Bergoglio is illustrating what our love for the Church should look like:<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve already talked about the responsibility we have to be sons and daughters of the Church and at the same time to create Church. \u00a0Our love for the Church should lead us to make manifest to the world her holiness, her loving fruitfulness, and her discipline, all of which flow from her being totally Christ\u2019s.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What he writes about the Church can again be translated back to how we love Mary, and I want to do more to translate it to how I love (or, aspire to love) other people.<\/p>\n

When I interact with others, there\u2019s plenty I don\u2019t love, at first blush, but, since everyone I meet is called to the vocation of sainthood, there\u2019s always holiness and grace present. \u00a0If I can\u2019t spot it, it\u2019s a defect in my sight, not in the person I\u2019m looking at. \u00a0So, it should always be possible for me to rejoice in and make manifest to the world someone else\u2019s holiness and love. \u00a0The parts that I can\u2019t recognize and embrace aren\u2019t necessarily my concern. \u00a0But there\u2019s always a thread, if not a torrent of fruitful love that I can see and celebrate.<\/p>\n

To be honest, I usually start out much more reserved\/indifferent to acquaintances than average, so it tends to be a pleasant surprise when I actually get to know someone well enough to the point where there\u2019s something I actively treasure about them, that I\u2019m eager to share with others. \u00a0The plodding progress towards that joy is on my end; the source is on theirs.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2014, I\u2019m reading and blogging through Pope Francis\/Cardinal Bergoglio\u2019s\u00a0Open Mind, Faithful Heart: Reflections on Following Jesus. \u00a0Every Monday, I\u2019ll be writing about the next meditation in the book, so you\u2019re welcome to\u00a0peruse them all\u00a0and\/or read along. At the beginning of the chapter \u201cNurtured by the Church\u201d Cardinal Bergoglio draws out parallels between the Church […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":8888,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[227],"class_list":["post-8885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parsing-catholicism","tag-pope-francis-bookclub"],"yoast_head":"\nSharing Mary's Love [Pope Francis Bookclub]<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In 2014, I\u2019m reading and blogging through Pope Francis\/Cardinal Bergoglio\u2019s\u00a0Open Mind, Faithful Heart: Reflections on Following Jesus. \u00a0Every Monday, I\u2019ll\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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