Mary in the Life of Religious (6)

Evangelical Counsels: Obedience

The Blessed Virgin Mary embodies in herself the religious' life of obedience. At the Annunciation and at the foot of the Cross, she showed herself as a perfect model of obedience because she offered her will completely to the plan of God. "Be it done to me according to your word" (Lk 1:38). Mary is presented to us as the first to accept Christ and his gospel by her obedience to God's plan. [17] Religious too offer the full dedication of their own wills as a sacrifice of themselves to God. Like Mary, who uttered her fiat wholeheartedly to God, religious are also one with her in becoming united more permanently and securely with God's saving will (PC 14). It is in Mary's spiritual attitude of obedience to God's saving plan, that religious can model themselves after.

Endnotes:

[17] Malaviaratchi, Initiation into Religious Life, p. 173.

Contemplation and Action

Mary stands as an example to religious in how they are to achieve harmony and to integrate between contemplation and action.  Mary shows how she had integrated this by being a virgin in prayer (MC 18) and at the same time fully attentive to the needs of others like Elizabeth, the couple at Cana, and the disciples praying in the Cenacle. Religious dedicated to the active service of the Church and experiencing the tension between the call to communion with God and the demands of their ministry have in Mary a beautiful model to imitate. [18] Furthermore, in their prayer, the religious are to learn from the Word of God and are to meditate on it everyday (cf. PC 6; DV 25). This is an existential need that arises from a prayerful and contemplative attitude. Here again the outstanding model is Mary who "remembered these things and thought deeply about them" (Lk 2:19) and "treasured all these things in her heart" (Lk 2:51). Mary is a virgin in prayer; the fruits of her contemplation are translated into action as well as in service.  Religious too are men and women of prayer who translate their experience of God into a particular apostolate/activity. They have Mary as someone whom they can imitate in achieving a balance between contemplation and action.

Endnotes:
[18] De Candido, Vita Consacrata, p. 1482-1512.