 So I'm going to be talking a lot about Mary. Does anyone here love Mary? Yeah, all right. Well, we're gonna get to know Mary a little better through this process of walking with her in the Gospel of Luke and I'm gonna be drawing a lot from I don't know How many of you are familiar with the book I wrote on this topic called walking with Mary a Biblical journey from Nazareth to the cross So I'm gonna be drawing a lot from from this work, which you know a lot of my life has been spent on studying the biblical passages about our lady writing about our lady My doctoral dissertation was on the Blessed Virgin Mary on Mary's Queen ship a biblical understanding of her as Queen mother And then I found myself writing books on the rosary and apologetics about Mary explaining Mary and doctrine Mary and devotion But over the course of the last maybe five years or so as I started really reading a number of writings from Joseph Rothsinger Pope Benedict and John Paul the second I Became drawn toward seeing in the scriptures a lot more about what I call the human Mary the human Mary How many of you know the human Mary? You know, we all know the Mary of doctrine pretty well, right the immaculate conception The she's the mother of God. She's assumed into heaven. She's the perpetual virgin ever virgin woman So we think about the Mary of doctrine and we know the Mary of our statues that we have in our various churches Or the Mary of stained glass windows and we sing songs about Mary Salve Regina Hale Holy Queen immaculate Mary, but how many of you know the human Mary? The human Mary that what was Mary going through step by step throughout her life What was going on inside? How many of you know and understand what st. John Paul the second called Mary's interior Journey of faith her interior pilgrimage of faith What I do in the book is I identify nine key steps So nine key steps of faith that Mary took in her life And you could break that down with other numbers and maybe cover other scenes But I focused on nine key steps of faith that we can see in Mary's life from sacred scripture And that's what I want to look at with all of you this afternoon. So can we start with a prayer? Think it'd be good to say a Hail Mary with the talk on Mary So in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Amen, Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus Holy Mary mother of God Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death Amen in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit Men so whenever I talk about Mary's humanist Mary's journey of faith in scripture I always love to tell a story about my daughter Josephine Some of you may have heard me tell the story before it's a story I think all of you can relate to have you ever seen a child take their first steps Have you ever witnessed that when a baby takes their first step? Little Josephine she's she's five now and very bubbly and energetic, but when she was just about one She was on a retreat with me and my family and a whole bunch of our students at the Augustine Institute And all of the professors we begin our school year going up into the Rocky Mountains and we do a retreat We have a big cabin. We Pray together we sing around the fire. We do we give her we give testimonies It's a great fellowship, you know for the beginning of the year and the families come along so they can participate in this and little Josephine You know she had been thinking about the walking thing a number of times where she do you ever see a baby? They'll crawl to a chair like this and they kind of like stand up You know hold themselves up or they crawl over to a coffee table and they try to stand You just hold themselves. You know talking about that's what Josephine She had done that many times and she did it that afternoon We were in the lodge and in the middle of this big cabin here all the students were sitting in a circle And there was a chair in the middle and little Josephine saw it so she crawled up to the chair And she stood up and she was all proud and she was all excited and all the students Started cheering her on because they wanted to see her take her first step. So they started cheering Josephine Josephine and I was over here saying come on baby. You could do it take those first steps You know and then she'd go like this, you know, she'd let go with one hand think about it No, I don't know I think I want to hold on to the security of the chair and she'd look again. Oh, maybe no I don't know if I want to do that. Well, eventually she let go with one hand again, but she had done many times But then she did something she had never done before She let go with a second hand and She was now standing on her own Two feet and she was just glowing with pride and excitement and everyone's really cheering her on now Josephine Josephine go come on come on baby, but then you know what happened all of a sudden her legs started to go like this And instead of excitement her face quickly turned to horror and She desperately went backwards to cling to the security of the chair and she looked over at me is that to say Hey dad, what are you trying to make me do? But eventually she got her footing again She felt comfortable and she let go with one hand and she let go with a second hand But this time when her legs got a little wobbly instead of going backwards toward the security of the chair Little Josephine fell forward one two three Into my arms and she took her first steps But then she crawled right back to that chair stood up and said again One two three four and she crawled back as you said again one two three four five And we played that game for like an hour that afternoon We played that game for several weeks back at home, and you know what? Eventually walking became Josephine's primary mode of transportation But that whole idea of a little child stepping out into the unknown taking that first step That's that could be scary, and it's not just for little children. It's also true for us adult children of God Whoever sense the Lord standing out here like this trust me You can do it Take this step. I know you've never done this before. I know you've never Experiences before I know you've never endured this kind of difficulty before but trust me You know this is the way God works, you know this from all your study of Scripture, right? Whenever God calls someone he tells them to just you know sit down and relax because life's just gonna be very comfortable and easy, right? That's not what God does. He's always calling us on to take that next step forward in trust and surrender So that he can change us and mold us and draw us closer to himself and then use us To share his love with others more effectively in the world, right? Remember the story of Abraham, of course Abraham is called to go to a distant land where he doesn't know anybody He's leaving his family behind. He's gonna go off to this distant land of Canaan We know the story of Moses remember Moses there at the burning bush We often think wow what an amazing event that was he got to talk to God and then he got to become the leader of Israel, I mean that's better than a political party's national convention. I mean he just became the leader of Israel is not amazing And but if you think about it remember did Moses really want that job? Remember he tries every trick in the book to get out of it. I'm not eloquent. I can't speak well. They're not gonna believe me I'm not a leader and God encourages him and calls him to take this step of faith Joshua was called to lead the people into the promised land whether these these large armies ready to pounce upon the Israelites Josh was called David's called to go become king. He's the youngest of all those the brothers in this family He doesn't have much leader experience. He was just a shepherd boy and God calls him forth He does this with the saints beyond the Bible Whether it's someone like Saint Ignatius of Loyola or whether it's a modern saint like Saint Mother Teresa about to be Saint Mother Teresa Who was very happy serving as a the the middle-class? as a teacher there in Calcutta and then one day God called her to leave all that behind To leave her beloved Loretto sisters behind that she had been a part of for many years and to go out Under the streets and live the life of the poorest of the poor and Like Moses she says I'm not worthy choose someone else. I don't want to live that Indian life. I can't do this I'm too. I'm too attached to my own comfort. She was scared. She was nervous and God called her What's God calling you to do in your life? Maybe you're not called to go start over the disorder Your spouse will kill you if you do that Maybe you're not called you know to go move to some distant city But maybe it's a small calling maybe God's just kind of knocking on the door of your heart and saying I want you to trust me a little more in a certain area Or maybe you know, maybe it's your finances. Maybe he's saying I want you to you know, it's the year of mercy I want you to give more to the poor You're very comfortable But there are a lot of people that don't know how they're gonna get by day to day Can you be more sacrificial in your giving not comfort giving but sacrificial giving maybe that's what God's calling you to do Or maybe there's someone in your life that you just have not forgiven This person really hurt you and you're not overlooking the hurt But you're going beyond it and you're gonna say I forgive you to this person Maybe there's just some behavior you have that you know You're you're looking at something or you're doing something you shouldn't be doing and you know I shouldn't do this and maybe God's calling you to change Maybe God's calling you to step up and play a more of a leadership role in your parish Maybe you've never led a small group Bible study before and maybe but your sense that maybe God's asking me do I don't know what's going on, but we all have these moments in life and they're pretty regular where It's just God's inviting us to take that next step The same is true with the Blessed Virgin Mary You know, Mary She was given unique graces like no one else Singular privileges. She is the immaculata Full of grace But we can't forget that even though she was given those Utterly unique gifts. She still was human and she experienced many human things So for example, she experienced the joys of friendship with her kinswoman elizabeth She couldn't wait to share this good news with her dear kinswoman She experienced the joys of parenthood being a mother She experienced the blessings of walking in God's ways This is this is a Mary I can relate to When I look at Mary the immaculate one. So I go, wow, she never sinned and I sin many times every day Or she's gonna, you know, she went up to heaven right away after she died And I'm you know, I'm gonna be down in the ground for you until the end of time I just I sometimes we can we can put Mary on this pedestal In such a way that it she's she's almost just so far removed We admire her from afar, but we could we can mistakenly think Well, whatever happened in her life doesn't relate to me Oh, no, it does You know because Mary also she had to go through difficulties like we do She had challenges where it wasn't clear what was happening Where she had to discern What is the Lord doing right now? Why is the Lord allowing this to happen? What is the Lord asking of me? She had moments of great sorrow Moments of uncertainty Moments of darkness. There's even a line in Luke's gospel chapter 2. We'll look at later that says that Mary did not understand Now granted she probably understood more than anyone else because of the graces she received and the special Revelation she got but yet She still had to walk by faith And not by sight And there were sometimes where she's walking in such darkness The only thing she could do is to keep and ponder all these things in her heart As I started reading more from st. John Paul II and pope Benedict on their writings about Mary It was really opening up not just the Mary of doctrine and the Mary of devotion But the human Mary in this interior journey of faith And as I said, I think we could see in scripture nine key moments Where the Lord is inviting Mary to take another step of faith inviting her to trust more To surrender more to give more To love more and to follow him ever more closely And these nine steps of faith we can see in scripture Can really inspire us on our own walk with the Lord now We're going to focus on luke's gospel because that's the theme for today And so we're not going to go through all those nine steps But I want to walk through a number of them that we see in luke and in luke's gospel One of the things we get to get to get to consider is the very first Uh first presentation of mary's great faith in the bible at least So who could tell me what where do we see mary's great faith first in sacred scripture? At the annunciation, okay, and where in the annunciation? What did mary do at the annunciation? She said yes, she gave her fiat. Did you all agree with that? So that's where we see mary's first Raise your hands if you if you agree Okay, you're all wrong But I would have said that too before 2008 2009 until I read something from pope benedict that made me realize Oh, there's actually something earlier in scripture That's a crucial moment. Don't get me wrong. We're going to talk about that one too her fiat But there was something even earlier in scripture That bears witness to mary's incredible faith It comes in the annunciation scene, but not at the end not with her be a done to me according to your will It comes at the very beginning Let's take a look at the beginning of the annunciation scene if you open up your bible as you could turn to luke's gospel chapter 1 Verses 26 through 28 And in those in those verses we're going to read a couple facts about who mary was What she was going through what her life was like Admittedly the bible doesn't tell us a lot about mary in her early years What was the pre annunciation mary like? What was her life like before that fateful day when the angel gabriel came to her? Well, as you start it says in luke chapter 1 verses 26 and 27 In the sixth month the angel gabriel was sent from god to a city of galilee named nazareth To a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was joseph of the house of david and the virgin's name was mary There's not a lot of detail here But if you want to get a little window into what was mary's life like before the angel came It's these these are the two key verses you need to consider. Let's milk them for all their worth What did we learn? I think we can learn three or four things from here first of all It tells us that gabriel goes to a city of galilee named nazareth Nazareth now nazareth. I think you know was just a an insignificant village In the first century. It's not famous for anything. It's not known for anything There's no great expectation about nazareth. In fact The the the point that jesus is raised in nazareth will cause him trouble when he's older Remember what nathaniel says can anything good come out of nazareth? I mean it kind of had a bad reputation large Gentile population up in the region of galilee. So What what what's nazareth? What could come out of nazareth? Can you think of small Insignificant towns or cities that you know, you would just never guess anything amazing would come from if you think about the new Evangelization all it's going to come from new york city, you know the big apple or maybe hollywood and and los angeles, but stupidville, ohio I taught i went to school here and it's amazing my friends and i've been talking about Just all of the graduates who have gone out and they're assuming these leadership positions and parishes and diocese and all these amazing movements What this university has done to help raise up a generation of leaders is absolutely astounding So don't always judge things by their appearance from the outside Can anything good come out of stupidville? Indeed a lot of good has come out of stupidville Can anything good come out of nazareth? You wouldn't have expected it but The lord and savior jesus christ came from there. So mary lives in nowhere nazareth. That's first point we can get Second thing she's betrothed now. What's betrothal? What does that mean? What does that tell us? A lot of americans we think that that means that mary was engaged We think that means mary was engaged to joseph. That's how we translate it sometimes in our own heads But that's not that's not quite accurate. That's not as precise And there was a two-stage marriage process And the first step of marriage is betrothal So when I when I teach in the in the university setting, I'll I'll ask the students, okay True or false mary was engaged to joseph before gabriel came True or false All right, I'm sorry. Let me let me give you the question again. I gave a bad question. Sorry mary was married to joseph before gabriel came true or false Oh, we see you're all mixed the answer is actually true She's married right now Betrothal is the first step of marriage. It's when bride and groom come together. They exchange vows They it's a public event. There is a lifelong covenant now established between The man and the woman in this case between mary and joseph. They are legally married right now Now they haven't reached the second stage of marriage the second stage of marriage over here would be when They come together under the same roof They live together and that's when a marriage would be consummated. So are mary and joseph married? Yes Are they living together? No If they were just an ordinary jewish couple would they have had sexual relations, you know, not yet because that would happen later Now with in their case, it's a unique thing. So that's we talk about the later But right now I want you to just to know she's legally married right now to joseph. She's just living with an and joachim at this point She's not under the same roof as joseph But I think what's most significant about this point of her betrothal is that she is someone who would have been very young Many jewish girls would have been betrothed around the age of 13 13 maybe 14 years old So picture very very likely mary is a very young girl by our standards at this moment living in nowhere nazareth betrothed to joseph and the last point which is probably the most significant is that The one she's betrothed to is of the house of david He's of the house of david now. You all know what that means Like the david that's that's the famous family. That's the royal family david was given a great promise that his dynasty would last forever and of his kingdom there would be no end And and so there's this great hope for a future son of david to restore the davidic dynasty to rebuild the kingdom And extend it to the ends of the earth So the fact that mary's betrothed not just to any ordinary family, but the royal family of david Would would for us as readers be pretty exciting We'd be wondering wow I wonder if maybe this is going to be the family from which the great king will come the messiah So that's just a little bit of background But when it comes to mary's first step of faith we see it next Because in luke 128 the angel comes and appears to mary and says these words hail full of grace The lord is with you Now how does mary respond? How does mary's response? How would you describe it? What's going on inside of mary? So What emotion do you think was going on inside of mary? What does the bible tell us? Angel comes says those words. How does mary feel? She's like cool an angel What what's the emotion the bible describes her having? She was greatly troubled right that's what it says on luke 129 She was greatly troubled. What does the angel have to say to her do not be afraid do not be afraid So mary is greatly troubled inside. She's experiencing some fear and trepidation What's going on here? Why was mary so troubled? I always used to think it was because she saw an angel Right if you're in the middle of the day and you're doing you know dishes in the kitchen Obviously you turn around and there's an archangel there. I'd be freaking out too. I would that would be really freaky Wow, look at that here. We've got an angel. Oh my goodness. I would be greatly troubled greatly troubled now mary Is greatly troubled, but if you read the text carefully in luke 129 Is she greatly troubled over the sight of the angel? It says she's greatly troubled at the saying now I want you to consider Something earlier the the previous scene gabriel visited Six months ago another person. Do you remember who that was? Zechariah john the baptist dad And when the angel appears look at what it says in luke 112 luke 112 and zechariah was troubled When he saw him and fear fell upon him So he goes into the temple He goes into the holy place and he sees the angel the lord standing to the side of the altar of incense And zechariah was troubled when he saw him So zechariah sees an angel and is troubled But in luke 129 we read that mary is not troubled about the sight of the angel She's more troubled by What the angel said And she considers in her mind what sort of greeting this might be now what's so troubling about these words Is that really troubling if I say to all you will lord be with you? What do you say? Right because you know the new mass translation did mary know the new mass translation Did she know the old one? She didn't know the old one either right because I hadn't been instituted yet But for a good pious jewish woman an ordinary jewish woman What would those words the lord be with you? What would those words have meant to her? Those words are used over and over in the bible when god is calling someone On a certain mission. We've already talked about some of those great heroes in salvation history Who had a great calling like moses at the burning bush What does god say to him over and over again? I will be with you moses. I will be with you When joshua had to go lead the people into the promised land. What did god say be courageous joshua? Why because I will be with you I'll be with you to help you to do what you can't do on your own Gideon heard those words in judges chapter 6 verse 12 when he's called to go fight off the midianites Gideon has no military experience. He's not a soldier. He's not a leader and he's wondering How can I do this and the angel says the lord will be with you David heard those words at the beginning of his dynasty the prophets heard those words when they were called on their prophetic ministry So now put yourself in Mary's shoes Here you are in the middle of your day and all of a sudden an angel appears to you And the first thing the angel says to you is the lord is with you. What are you thinking? Uh-oh, that's right. Uh-oh In other words That's that's biblical code for you're going to be called to something daunting Where you're going to be stretched like never before and you're going to have to rely on god like never before And so mary knows something big is about to be asked of her. She doesn't know what it is yet But she knows this is something that's going to be very challenging And so natural response. She's greatly troubled And here's the practical point I want to give for all of you You know, there's times in our lives where we sense god may be calling us to do something To make a change to be more generous To love more to serve more to sacrifice more to give more of our time You know, whatever the issue might be You know, so god's over here and he may be inviting us to take that next step forward And when when you sense that is there a part of you that goes uh-oh Is there a part of you that kind of dreads it? Is there a part of you that's scared? Is there a part of you that's greatly troubled? Yeah, that's natural That's natural So on one hand Be encouraged Don't don't beat yourself up if you notice, you know, I wish I was just more, you know Easily generous and just easily did god's will I'm a little greatly troubled about this and uh, but no mary mary experienced that as well Jesus experiences himself. He's the divine son of god So these two Wonderful people you've got the blessed virgin mary the immaculata who never sinned Who's full of grace and jesus the divine son of god jesus the night before he dies is sweating like drops of blood coming out and And he's it's intense lord if it be possible let this cup pass He's feeling the weight of what's going to happen the next day. It's intense That's natural But here's the key. Here's the challenge to us Did mary or jesus allowed There what was you know, they're they're knowing of what was going to happen or in mary's case You know her being greatly troubled. Did she allow her emotions to control her? Did she allow her fear to control her? No, is it natural to have fear? Yeah, that's natural in fact st. Thomas Aquinas says it's not virtuous to have no fear You know those t-shirts some kids wear no fear. That's actually not virtuous As a husband, I should fear death as a just a human being I should fear death But especially as a husband and a father of eight children, you know, I just don't go. Oh, I might die Okay, no big deal. No, I there should be a part of me. This is I'm not going to put myself in harm's way and risk Without, you know, this is some good reason to Because I should I shouldn't just have no fear because my life matters. God has a plan for me here under So it's actually not virtuous to have no fear at all, but we don't want to be enslaved by our fears The blessed virgin Mary Experienced in herself. She was greatly troubled. She knows something big is about to be asked of her But you know what she does? Here's the key She Considered in her mind what sort of greeting that might be so if you mark up your bibles, you can circle that word Considered or underlined it. I'm going to tell you about it or you can make a note And if you're just taking notes, but the word considered here In greek is the word From which we get the word dialogue in english And this particular word pope benedict mentions Describes an intense Extended reflection that triggers faith. So there's this intense inner reflection going on And listen to what pope benedict says about this. He says mary Enters into an interior dialogue with the word So there's this Deep reflection. She's talking to god. She knows that god is asking something of her. She doesn't know what it is But she's going to she's going to remain in conversation and dialogue with god about this lord What is it that you're asking of me? Are you wanting me to do this? How can I respond? Well, she's talking to god about it Benedict goes on to say she carries on an inner dialogue with the word that has been given her She speaks to it and lets it speak to her So mary has an open heart. That's the first step of faith. I want to highlight here She knows something big is about to be asked of her. She's a little nervous about it, but she's open to god about it She's truly open and she's saying lord Might you be asking this of me? Lord, how do you want me to respond? Lord? How can I serve you? She's talking to god about it? You know what many of us do when we sense You know god, I think god wants me to go tell my wife. Sorry For you know something I said this morning and instead of having this open conversation with god Oh lord, did I not treat bath? Well, maybe I should go say sorry. You know what? Sometimes I sadly do something to go Well, no, no, but she said it first Or you know if it was she hadn't done this I I get defensive I put up a wall and I'm not talking to god about it I'm just talking in my own head trying to justify my own action Do you ever do that? You know or I sense maybe maybe god wants me You know to make a change in my life and I'm like, whoa, hold on I don't want to make a change and so do you ever do this, you know, we say god Whatever you want god, but but not this this this or this Whatever you want except these 27 and a half things We put a parameter around god's will in our life. So we're not really talking to god about it Or he says maybe god wants us to serve in maybe some new way We're a little nervous about it But instead of talking to the lord about it We just kind of have this interior dialogue in our own head and ourselves convincing ourselves why surely he's not asking me this If you ever sense that that that knock on your heart from the lord And you're not certain that god's asking you to do something, you know, but but but you sense he might be What do you lose from going to the chapel and talking to him about it? What do you lose by even when you're driving home from work just turning off the radio and saying lord This has been on my heart. I'm wondering are you wanting me to do that? What do you lose by doing that to god? That's what mary did she carried on in a dialogue with god We tend to cut off the conversation because we're so scared We allow our fear of what god may be calling us to do to control us Mary rose above that and remained in dialogue with god. She considered in her mind What sort of greeting this might be that's our first point to consider mary had an open heart Now let's go to the next step of mary's walk with the lord in the gospel of luke and that comes at the end The annunciation scene it's her fiat But let's let's think about what what what goes on from from from the first step She hears the lord is with you so she knows something big is about to be asked of her Now the angel will download the mission to her He's gonna download to her. This is what you're called to do. You're gonna have a child You're gonna have a child how many moms here in the audience any moms out there Do you remember when you first found out you were expecting? Do you remember that do you probably remember where you were? You know you can picture that moment. It's an it's amazing a moment right there So just imagine you're mary and let's say the story just ended here the angel says you're gonna have a baby That's pretty exciting in itself and we as readers would go wow, that's cool She's gonna have a baby, but it gets better the angel goes on to say and this child This child will be great He will be the son of the most high And of his kingdom there will be no end. He will sit on the throne of his father jacob forever He uses all these language that comes directly from second Samuel chapter seven Second Samuel seven all many biblical scholars commenting on the angels words in verses 31 through 33 Have a little chart where you can just map out what the angel gabriel says and then what god said to david That david will have a son david's son will be great He will be a son of like a son of god son of the most high He will sit on the throne of his father jacob forever of his kingdom. There will be my end It's almost like direct correspondence here. Basically. What's gabriel saying second Samuel seven coming to fulfillment in your womb mary And so mary's learning that she's not just going to have any ordinary child But she's going to have the long-awaited king the fulfillment of all prophecy The long-expected messiah Is going to come into her womb Wow, that's incredible if the story ended there We've got really one of the best stories in all the bible already, right But then it gets even better the angel goes on and say oh by the way Guess what you're not going to have this child through ordinary natural relations You're going to conceive by the power of the holy spirit. Whoa There's never been a conception like that before and then to top it all off The angel comes says oh and one more thing your your child He's the holy son of god Now some of us might have kids who think they're god But mary's being told that Her god her creator is going to become a little baby inside her What a profound mystery that is Think about all of that the lord be with you. You're going to have a baby Your baby is the messiah the fulfillment of prophecy You're going to conceive by the holy spirit as a virgin and you are going to have the holy son of god Whoa, that's a lot to take in in one short conversation with an angel If that were me i'd probably faint But what does mary do? mary gives her great fiat let's unpack this a little bit here so the angel says Let it be done unto me No, i'm sorry mary says behold I am the handmaiden of the lord be it done unto me according to thy word and luke 138 First of all, let's talk about the language Handmaiden some people translate it servant I want you to know that that language that's used there Uh for handmaiden you could translate its slave Now people tend not to do that because they don't like that word slave But I want you just to know that it's the same word that you'll see when st Paul describes i'm a slave of jesus christ. It's the same language here So mary describes herself as a slave Now I was once giving a presentation to deacons In the diocese of lansing michigan. I think it was and I remember there was one really good It was an amazing retreat and there was one A really good deacon who loved the scriptures love the lord But when I was teaching this he interrupted my teaching just stood up and he just said excuse me excuse me dr I just have to say I'm I'm not comfortable with that language of slavery. I don't I don't I don't think we should be slaves We should just love god freely and we were not supposed to be slaves I don't like that word and I had to say well It's not my word. It's god's word. It's in scripture, right? But but but I said it was a really good question though What does mary mean when she describes herself as a handmaiden or a servant or even a slave? Don't think of this as like a slave under some oppressive regime. It's not like that Think of mary more as a slave like a lover She's so in love with god. She can't help but serve him Now let's I want to come back to the deacons question You know in our modern american understanding of freedom You know, we pride ourselves in freedom. I want to be free. I want to be free from anyone telling me what to do I want to be free to do whatever I want with my life and choose to do what I want for myself It's my life. Don't tell them don't let others tell you what to do. It's my life I'm gonna do what I want with it and we think that we're free When we can just do whatever we want. I don't want the church telling me what to do I don't want the government telling me what to do. I want my parents telling me what to do It's my life and we think we're free when we live that kind of modern american freedom But the reality is mary shows us what true freedom is really all about You see If I'm always doing what I want when I want where I want how often I want Am I really free? If I'm always doing what I want all the time Am I really free? You know what happens if I'm doing what I want all the time I mean just imagine being married to someone like that Am I free? No, I'm a slave I'm a slave to my own comfort. I'll be a slave to my own preferences a slave to my own interests I'm not going to be free To make a sacrifice and serve others and give the best of myself to my wife to my kids to my friends because I'm always Habitually doing what I want all the time That's the tragedy of the way we we talk about freedom in our country the biblical understanding of freedom The classical catholic understanding of freedom is so much bigger. It's not about doing whatever I want all the time True freedom is found when I develop the habits the good habits the virtues Then enable me to make a gift of my life to god and to others In other words, I'm not a slave to my fallen selfish desires But I actually am able to resist my selfish temptation selfish desires and use my life To serve something bigger than just me And that's what we see in mary You see the blessed virgin mary She's someone who is so in love with god That she wants to just use her life not for her own purposes, but for his And so when she sees that this is what's on god's heart that god wants her to be the mother of the messiah God wants the messiah brought into the world at this time to bring salvation to the world She sees this and like a lover. She just says That's what my my beloved wants that I wanted to You never see two two young people fall in love So there's a there's a couple we've known for a while. They've been dating now. They're engaged They're starting to plan their wedding and they're in denver this summer and we've been spending a lot of time with them And this young couple and they always have to be together Always want to be together like do you ever see a young couple like that? You know, they just have to be together They're always, you know, you know going out together hanging out together, you know, like do you ever look at them and go? Oh, how pathetic they're just slaves They just always have to be together No, it's they're they're impelled by love That's why they want to be together and that's what's going on here with mary mary calls herself the servant of the lord The slave of the lord not out of not because she's you know like being oppressed, but it's more out of love She just loves god so much And this is what we see in all the saints She just wants to use her life for god's purposes and not her own. I think that challenges all of us Do you use your life to serve Your own purposes or gods? I mean, we could be good catholics orthodox catholics believe the right things go to church on sunday But still carve out all this space for just this is just what I want and god can't touch these things Mary wasn't like that. Mary gave everything She says behold i'm the servant of the lord the the handmaid of the lord the slave of the lord And then she said be a done unto me according to thy word That expression be a done unto me the greek word genoito here Describes not just like again passive submission. Sometimes we could think mary was there at the enunciation and she says Yes, sir I submit be a done unto me according to your word We could think it was like that but that's not what the word means the word implies an active embrace of god's will It's as if she's longing to do this again like a lover. This is what all the saints do You know, there are many christians that seek god for what god can do for them Mary and all the saints look at god and they want to they they seek out and run to run after god's desires What what does god want for their life? And and like a lover that's what she's doing. She she actively joyfully does god's will So are you someone that just does god's will or do you do it with great joy and great love? All right, so that's the second step of faith. So first step we looked at she has an open heart She's open to god's will but then the second step Is that she allows god to act? She's a servant of the lord She allows god to act. She uses her life not for her own purposes. It's one thing to be open That's the first step of being a christian disciple You're you're seeking god's will for your life But it's another thing to actually allow god to act. Have you ever said one of those prayers like this? You ever said here god, whatever you want, you know your will be done. Do you ever do that? That's dangerous. Be careful Because god may call you on that He did that with mother trisa, you know and he called mother trisa to serve the poorest of the poor He challenged her. He says, you know mother you've always been saying do with me whatever you will Now let me so he called mother on her prayer and he'll do the same thing with us Mary wasn't just open She Had a servant's heart not just an open heart. She wanted to actually allow god to act in her life Now i want to move forward a little bit I want to turn to the visitation scene and in the visitation scene just briefly There's one key characteristic i like to bring out in the visitation and it comes When we see mary. She's coming out to meet She she's going up to elizabeth and ian karim anyone been to the holy land by the way You've been up to ian karim. You've been where the visitation took place. Isn't that just absolutely beautiful? It's one of my favorite places It's just i feel like i'm in colorado or something when i when i go to ian karim because it's just beautiful Mountain you got all these beautiful green trees. It's just just spectacular But you picture mary going up this hill and then elizabeth coming out And meeting mary now the bible tells us that mary greeted elizabeth First and that's what we would expect the younger greeting the elder that was what you would do to honor the elder But what's astonishing Is the way elizabeth responds The words elizabeth uses next are just amazing elizabeth says to her, you know Why is it granted to me that the mother of my lord should come unto me? So this is the great mother of the lord which is biblical Expression for the queen mother the mother of the king Who do you call my lord in the bible my lord the king and for elizabeth to call mary Mother of my lord tells us that mary with or elizabeth knows that mary's pregnant Knows that mary's pregnant not with any ordinary child But with the great messiah and he calls she calls her Mother of my lord mother of the king In other words, you're the great queen mother because as you all know The ancient israeli kings Had the mother serve as the queen read scott han's book on that if you want to learn more But back to back to elizabeth elizabeth goes on to also say and bless it are thou among women and bless it Is the fruit of thy womb So you are blessed among all women. You're the great queen. You're the mother of my lord She's just getting all this great praise. How does mary respond? How does mary respond does she come back and say thanks elizabeth? You know i've been working really hard at this and that's how i've gotten to this great role and Really proud of my efforts and no no mary breaks out in praise of god She says my soul magnifies the lord my spirit rejoices in god my savior For he has regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden in other words She's directing all of this attention to god Because she knows it's god is the one who's doing these great things in her He has regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden for behold henceforth all generations will call me blessed. She acknowledges yes I am in this unique role as the mother of the messiah and all generations will call me blessed for this But it's not because of me. Why are they going to call me blessed verse 49? Because he who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name In other words, she doesn't shy away from the amazing things taking place in her womb in her life her mission But she recognizes it's all from god So what we see exhibited here in the magnificat and if you ever pray evening prayer and you pray this prayer regularly Think of mary's humility here mary is someone who is completely convinced of her own Nothingness she's completely convinced of her own littleness And and I think it's because of that humility in mary that god can do great things in her So these these are my words reflecting on the magnificat. I say mary recognizes the truth of the human condition She understands how small she really is She knows that on her own she's nothing and that she's completely dependent on the lord So, you know all of us if I give you a quiz I'm going to talk about this later tonight in the in the general session, but if I gave you a quiz And said, okay, how many of you think you need god? You'd all say yes. I think I need god, right? There's one thing to kind of understand that on a quiz, you know get it right on a catechism test Even to say the words but the whole other thing. Do you live your life that way? Like at the core of your being are you utterly convinced Of how little you are how small you are how you can How little you can really do Do you remember what jesus says in the gospel of john jesus says without me you can do Only 50 percent Is that what jesus says Without me you can do nothing. Are you convinced of that? Is that the way you approach your work? You just run into work and do your work or do you turn to god many times throughout your day at work Jesus help me help me to do this well. Help me to do this for you I don't care if you're working in a parish or you're working in some business office or some doctor's office Do we look at our work and just entrust it totally to god or you know the way we live our married life Jesus I need your help to be a better husband. Jesus help me. I don't know how to parent through the teen years I don't know how to parent through the tween years. Jesus help me Do we do are we utterly convinced of how much we need him? Because when we go running off on our own, he'll let us just go run off on our own and It's not going to go that great But mary exhibits christ teaching that the humble will be exalted Only when we are convinced like mary was of how little we can really do on our own and how utterly dependent We are on god can the lord begin to act in magnificent ways in us and through us So the fourth step of mary's faith life. I see it the We see here. I'm sorry third step is and in the visitation. It's her humility. We see her great humility So she's open to god's will step one She allows god to act. She's a servant of the lord. She wants to use her life not for her own purposes, but for gods And then she approaches all this Humbly recognizing she needs god's help. She can't do this all on her own Now i'm going to come to A fourth step and this is a very important one here comes at the nativity This is one many people overlook But john paul a second once wrote something that really completely changed the way I look at mary at the nativity You know when you look at mary at the nativity, how do you picture her? You get a little christmas card? What does she look like what are her hands doing? She's got the you know Here's the little manger in her hands like this right You know or maybe they're like this right you see mary there and that's beautiful It shows her ardent devotion to the newborn child It's a beautiful image and it does depict something of what happened on that first christmas night But there was a lot more that happened And a lot of it was very very dramatic Indeed traumatic Think about what mary was going through here She is in the middle of her last trimester Up in nazareth when all of a sudden soldiers from rom come marching in and announce a great census and joseph has to pick up and move And and she's gonna have to go follow him all the way down to bethlehem Now Ladies that mom's here. How would you like to move in your last trimester? Does that sound exciting? That's not really something thrilling something you look forward to so this would have been hard And then mary has to pick up and she goes and she's not going a nice air conditioned bus Like you do when you go on a holy land pilgrimage, you know, she's she's gonna have to go walking or on a donkey She's gonna travel down this four-day journey and then when she gets there What happens when she gets to bethlehem? How was she treated? Does the bethlehem chamber of commerce come out safe? It's the blessed virgin mary. We welcome you here, you know No There's no welcoming. There's no recognition. In fact, she's treated very poorly, right? She has to give birth to jesus in conditions of great poverty humility And indeed rejection Rejection this is the this is the son of god So nine months ago mary was told by the angel gabriel. This is the holy son of god the great messiah king And he's being treated like this. Where are all the jewish leaders? How come they're not coming out here welcoming him? She has to give birth to jesus and put him in a manger a feeding trough for the animals John paul the second said that mary couldn't give jesus even the basics of what any ordinary mother would want to give her child And yet mary knows That this child Is the son of god How painful this would have been for mary And you could picture this would have been very perplexing. She's probably wondering, you know, nine months ago gabriel told me This isn't what i was picturing This isn't what i thought would happen. Why is this happening lord? Do you ever have moments in your life where you're wondering? What's going on here? I've been following you. I've been faithful. Why? Why did this happen? Do you ever have the moments like that or do you ever have moments where you feel like you're not being treated well? You feel like you're not being treated well You're not appreciated You're not, you know, recognized and you know, you how does mary respond? in this moment Do we see mary complaining? That you say hey, don't you know i'm the queen mother Did you see her doing that? Do you see her whining? Do you see you're getting upset? You know what many of us do when things don't go well In our lives, you know, it could be a variety of things You know, it could be you know, maybe we had a certain plan for our lives and it didn't work out Maybe there's some big trouble at work or there's a new boss that's come in and it's just really Stressing my life out right now or or maybe it's some financial woe like what happened in 2008 You know, maybe you know when many of us are 401ks become 201ks, you know, so maybe that's been really stressful or maybe it's you know, some something going on with one of our kids And it causes us great grief Or maybe it's a health matter With someone we love or something going on in myself Maybe we've even lost someone over the last year or two and we just feel our life has been turned upside down And we wonder where is god? Lord, where are you? Why did this happen? Mary Was perplexed And wondering what is going on here? And what was her response, you know, what would we do sometimes When we experience these things We you know, some of us we can get really just discouraged and down hardened Can't we we can become like e ore in Winnie the Pooh His life is always so bad and all these bad things always happen to me And I always have to complain about my troubles. You ever meet people like that? That's one way we respond To the crosses that come in life, you know, another thing people do is they can get bitter They just get bitter and hardened and angry at other people blaming other people for their problems And we know that's not helpful Another thing some of us try to do some of us especially for kind of more like type A personalities We just want to fix all the problems and rearrange everything and get everything just like it was before Like my daughter Josephine wanted to go backwards to the security of the chair But what we want to do is be like Mary who when her legs get a little wobbly here Things are not working out the way she was expected. This isn't what she was thinking would happen She doesn't go backwards, but she looks at this as an opportunity to go forward What's the one response we get from Mary? It comes in Luke chapter 2 verse 19. They're at the nativity What does she say it says that Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart What does that expression mean to keep into ponder this expression is used many times in the bible to describe somebody that experiences A mysterious event or some type of mysterious revelation Whether it's jacob hearing about joseph's dreams or the nebuchadnezzar Hearing about certain visions daniel having certain visions. They they keep these things Meaning they're they're mulling it over They're they're wanting to understand. What's the meaning here? What is what does this mean for my life? I like to think of it like this to keep into ponder. It's as if mary's saying to the lord Lord, what are you trying to teach me? What are you trying to show me? You see we should all have the confidence that no matter what's happening on the outside of our lives God can always bring out some good on the inside and he always wants to bring out some good on the inside So I might not be able to control my financial portfolio. What's happening at work? What's going on with my boss? What's going on with my kids? What's going on in my marriage? I may be able to control all these things I might not be able to control what's going on in this person's situation or their health or this moral challenge There's things out here. I I might not be able to control and that it's causing me stress It's causing me grief causing me sorrow And I might not be able to change all that But I should have the confidence that whatever is happening out here. God wants to bring something good in here So when we face those crosses in our lives, we need to be like mary keeping ponder ask jesus jesus. What are you trying to teach me? What are you trying to show me? You know often just want to fix the problem, but first the attitude is okay. You allowed this to happen So maybe there's a important spiritual lesson an opportunity for me to grow here. Maybe you you want me to grow in trust Maybe, you know, you're allowing me to experience this this Disappointment or things not going well because you know, maybe I've always done well I've always succeeded everything's always gone well for me and now I'm experiencing a little bit of failure and that's hard And it's hard for me jesus But you're probably helping me to grow in humility now. There's an opportunity to grow in humility Or maybe it's to grow in patience Maybe maybe god's just simply wanting me to experience a bit of suffering So that I can be more compassionate on others who have greater sufferings than I do Whatever is happening on the outside. We should always have the confidence god wants to bring something good out here So let's keep and ponder those things in our heart. That's what mary did You know what mary discovered? I I'm sure you know, I'm sure mary As she kept and pondered this came to see what luke's gospel highlights for us Why did the son of god enter the world this way? You know, when you read the story of the nativity in luke's gospel You know, we have we have only one verse About the actual birth of jesus. Did you know that? There's only one verse it's luke chapter two verse seven We'll hear all these other things about heron and a census and we'll hear about Angels appearing out on a shepherd's fields and shepherds coming angels singing all these other things going on But the actual birth of jesus one little verse Chapter two verse seven in luke's gospel says And mary gave birth to her firstborn son wrapped him in swallowing clothes and laid him in a manger That's it. Is that funny? I mean of all the things we could have learned about what was going on on that first christmas night All we learned is that mary wrapped the baby in swallowing clothes and laid him in a manger I mean that's interesting, but there's a lot of other things i'd like to know about like how's joseph feeling How was mary feeling? Was the baby crying? What's going on? You know, did joseph cut the cord? Do you ever wonder that? I mean there's all these things that we but all we learned is the baby was wrapped in Swallowing clothes and laid in a manger Why does luke tell us those two things of all the things he could have told us? It's because if you read later in the gospel you will find That those two verbs wrapped and laid Are used back to back only one other time in the entirety of luke's gospel It's used back to back here at the nativity and then if you go to chapter 23 verse 53 you'll see those words again When they are there at good friday, they take jesus's body down and what did they do with the body? They wrapped the body in linen garments and laid him in a tomb wrapped and laid Now when biblical authors put two key words together like this, they're often trying to make a point What's the point luke is making here? He's trying to make a connection between the nativity and the crucifixion Between that first christmas night and good friday the way jesus entered this world foreshadows how he's going to leave this world So the holy son of god the great messiah king enters this world with poverty humility rejection To foreshadow how he's going to establish his kingdom He is indeed the great king of kings But his kingdom is not of worldly glory. It's going to be made manifest through his death on the cross Poverty humility rejection John paul II Beautifully and brilliantly notes That it's here at the nativity that mary gets the first real share In the suffering of her son Many of us I think would have said oh, maybe it was the flight to egypt or maybe it was when simian talks about the sword But jpg says no right here. It's fascinating Now I get to talk about mary all the time But with all of you I'm giving you a little extra stuff because you guys go deeper in the scriptures I'm going to share something I don't share the average like parish event or something when I go out and speak on mary but If you look at chapter 2 verse 7, what does the text say? it says mary wrapped the babe mary gave birth to her firstborn son wrapped him in swallowing clothes and laid him in a manger For there was no room for them in the inn Now when you read that line, there's no room for them in the inn. Who do you think the them is? I always thought it was mary and joseph right But read that sentence carefully is joseph's name even mentioned Who are the two people mentioned in that verse? mary gave birth to her firstborn son mary and the son mary wrapped the baby in swallowing clothes and laid him in the manger because there was no room for them in the inn Who's the them? mary and jesus So in other words luke is deliberately drawing a connection between mary and her son jesus here at this point of suffering Rejection poverty humility and st. John paul II brings us out that that that what luke is trying to show us Is mary it's it's underscoring mary's participation in the suffering of her son already It's a beautiful little point for them Is really mary and jesus now it's interesting There's a method of scholar that also kind of made this connection. This is fascinating as well But i want to turn we only have a little bit of time and i want to leave you with a little bit of time for questions Answer as well. Can i do one more point with you though? Can we go 40 days later to the presentation? I think we should at least get there so let's go to A next step of faith the fifth step of faith At the presentation simian and the sword, you know the story mary 40 days later She goes up for this ritual and to present the firstborn son and for her own ritual purification And as she's going up the steps A complete stranger comes up to her and i want you just to picture the scene. She doesn't know this old man She's never met him before and all of a sudden the stranger comes up and takes the baby out of her arms Which is just imagine how dramatic that is I'd be like, what are you doing? Yeah, but but but but then this this this man says And now at last your servant can go in peace according to your word as he's talking to god from my eyes have seen Your revelation a light of revelation to the gentiles and glory for your people is real So he's praising god For finally being able to lay eyes on the messiah because as you know simian was given This extraordinary revelation that he wouldn't die until he saw the messiah and now on this day He's holding the messiah in his arms. So now we can say it last year's servant could go in peace So that's the first prophecy. So it's it's this would be great words of confirmation for mary that indeed Yes, this is the child fulfilling all prophecy, but then He all of a sudden directs the next prophecy specifically to mary and says to mary This child is destined for the rise and fall of many in israel He shall be a sign that is contradicted and a sword will pierce your soul also What do these words mean? these stark ominous words pierced mary indeed that day Let's let's break them down first of all rise and fall of many in israel This describes how there are going to be many people that are going to be raised up in christ's kingdom The poor the Gentiles the sinners all the outcasts are going to be raised up in christ kingdom Whereas many of the the wealthy and the jewish leaders of jesus's day They're going to reject christ and they're going to be cast down There's going to be great turmoil surrounding your son's ministry simian's telling mary And then this child will be a sign that is contradicted A sign that is contradicted now that this word this language for a sign contradiction Is the word in greek antilego which which is it means to speak against But it's used in luke's gospel consistently not just to describe You know saying bad things about someone like some bullying on a playground or something No, it's more describing luke uses it to describe the jewish leaders Gathering together to conspire against jesus to plot his death Every time in luke's gospel you see this word used it's always used to describe the jewish leaders Gathering together to plot against jesus So imagine mary hearing these words And then To top it all off the angel uses the image of a sword A sword will pierce your soul also Now the image of a sword can bring to mind war bloodshed death And of course we know it's pointing forward to the sword that will pierce jesus on good friday And mary will undergo a spiritual crucifixion if you will on that day That sword that pierces christ will pierce mary's own soul also So these are intense words And to kind of make it come to light just imagine if at the local hospital here in In stewbenville, there's a young mom in the maternity ward and she's there holding her baby and all of a sudden Some strange prophet figure comes in takes the baby out of our arms and says this child's destined for all these great things To renew america all this way, but then all of a sudden then he says but he's going to be hated People are going to oppose him. There's going to be great turmoil surrounding his ministry People are going to speak against him and plot his death And one day he'll be killed And a spiritual bullet will pierce your soul also Could you imagine Hearing those kinds of words That would be so hard if that were me, you know what I would do I would say okay. I'm taking this baby. We're moving to montana You know, we're going to dig a big bunker. We're going to hide because I might have hold on to my child You know protect my child, but that's not what mary does You know some beautiful things we could think about here At the end with with this oracle about mary and the sword first of all It's interesting this language of a sword will pierce your soul In the septuagint in the old testament we find these same two words soul and sword Right side by side in the famous psalm 22 Psalm 22 we're the psalmist If you remember the psalm 22 is the one my god my god, why have you abandoned me? It's a foreshadowing of the it's a righteous man suffering to the brink where he's wondering where is god But he told he trusts himself to god And trust that god's going to vindicate him and rescue him And it foreshadows the cross Because it goes on in psalm 22 to describe how this man says my hands and my feet have been pierced And that my garments have been divided and for my raiment they cast lots And so it's a prophecy about what's going to happen to the ultimate righteous man Jesus Christ who dies on good friday But in the midst of the psalm psalm 22 verse 20 the The persecuted man says deliver my soul from the sword And so I think what we're seeing here is this is certainly a Up foreshadowing of jesus's death on the cross and when we read that a sword is going to pierce mary's soul It's highlighting her own participation and that's suffering that her son will go through But what I think is most fascinating is this in luke's gospel The only other time we read about a person's soul There's only one other time in all of luke's gospel that we read about a person's soul Who's person who is it? This is fascinating. You know, there's other times where jesus uses the same word for soul But he talks about it in a generic sense like you have to save your soul Or he talks about um, you shall love the lord your god with all your soul but In luke's gospel, there's only one Individual person whose soul is mentioned and it's mary mary's Soul is the only person who we learned something about their soul In luke's gospel and we learned about it twice. When's the other occasion? Do you remember? The one other time we hear about mary's sword. We've already looked at this passage The magnificat right the magnificat luke 146. What does mary say my soul? Magnifies the lord So to magnify to make great mary desires to make god great in her soul How does she do this? Do you desire to make god great in your soul? Do you want god to reflect you want god to be reflected in your soul? If you do, what do you need to do? Look at mary. I think here's one spiritual connection We could make is that mary in the magnificat wants to make god great in her soul And then that's the first time we read about her soul. My soul magnifies the lord How does she make god great in her soul? What's the second time we learn about soul? Simeon in the sword Mary wants to make god great in her soul. How is she gonna do it? Through sharing in the sword Through participating in her son's own suffering Here's my closing little Exertation for all of you practical point here Is it you know on good friday? Jesus was very alone There were a few people that stood by him on good friday There were many people that followed him during his public ministry when they saw his amazing teaching Wow, this man teaches with authority and they saw all of his signs and wonders and says wow This is amazing. We've never seen anything like this in all of israel. All the crowds are all excited But on good friday, he was very alone Mother Teresa used to reflect on this point about how alone how alone Jesus was That on on this day he looked out for someone to comfort him And he found no one And there was a little holy card that showed jesus at that moment when pilot says eche homo Here's the man and and then there was a scripture verse from the old testament I looked for someone to come for me and found no one. You know, mother Teresa used to do she used to She had hundreds and hundreds of these holy cards and she would write the words be the one and hand them out to all of her sisters I looked for someone to come for me, but I found no one be the one. She said Be the one she said people follow jesus for what he can do for them The very few people are willing to be with jesus in his own suffering on good friday And she wrote to her sisters about how You know, she said be the one be the one to be with jesus Mary was there at the cross But if you get close to jesus if you get close to jesus on good friday, you know, what's gonna happen The nails are gonna hurt you mother Teresa says if you want to kiss jesus on good friday the thorns Are gonna cut into you Do you love jesus And mother Teresa said when we share in suffering suffering is simply the kiss of jesus But if we allow jesus to kiss us, it's gonna hurt if we get close to the suffering jesus on good friday And so Mary Was someone who exhibited this point that mother Teresa was was writing about That she wanted to be the one and indeed she was there as we know with her son on good friday So even though she had full knowledge now from simian of where this is going She probably was putting pieces together from the prophecies and everything else But now it's explicit your son is going to be hated Opposed plotted against and will be killed and a sword will pierce your soul also If mary doesn't run away from that she doesn't go backwards She moves forwards with full knowledge of where this is all going to go Imagine the burden of that prophecy for the next 30 years that mary's gonna carry and then watching the public ministry Again knowing it's all gonna lead ultimately to his death, but she still said yes Now there's so much more i'd like to cover, but i'm gonna take time for just maybe two quick two or three quick questions here So we have a microphone if we want to go Maybe um, do you want them to come up or are you going to go to them? Okay, if you can come on up right here And while we're doing while the people are coming up for the questions Can i just mention to you a couple things so everything we i've been sharing with you is from this book here Walking with mary, and i know they have these in the bookstore So it walks through all nine steps not just in luke's gospel, but gets into john as well How many of you are familiar with the video study that uh that we have out on mary? And there's a bible study we have on on mary with ascension press we filmed in the holy land And so we got to film right at calvary We got to film right along the sea of galley all the places related to mary einkam Where my favorite points was to be able to film right where the enunciation took place Most people you get you just you just see all the enunciation took place through that gate over there But i heard there was an italian abbot That was in charge of the basilica and i i speak a little italian, and i thought i also know how italians can be with rules Cousy cousy says i'm just gonna ask him can we go in there and i talked to him and sure enough He said oh well, it's not structurally sound, but maybe just for five minutes We go in he let us stay for 20 It was amazing We are in the little i mean this is the actual walls where mary lived and the enunciation took place It was just utterly amazing So if you want to just not just do a bible study but have like a visual pilgrimage and be able to show You know children and all this is these are all the sites of the holy land check out that study It's called mary a biblical walk with the blessed mother you can get it through ascension press So those are the two resources related to our talk