Blessings this 4th Week of Advent
“And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord
should come to me?” Luke 1:43
Mary, Mother of God, Witness to Christian Hospitality. The word “hospitality” has within it our familiar term hospital. Christian hospitality is about the acceptance, embracing, and healing which we all need. It is about the welcoming we give to all other people, without demands, reservations, or stipulations; it is sharing the utter gift of salvation we have all experienced in full and unreserved measure from God in Jesus…Mary, in Luke’s Gospel, relies upon the Gift of the Holy Spirit, Courage or Fortitude, and sets out to visit and respond to the needs of her kinswoman Elizabeth. When we welcome heartily and serve fully the stranger, the orphaned, the exiled, the immigrant, and those whom society treats as outcasts, then truly we join with Mary in singing our own Canticle of Praise: My whole being glorifies my God my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. — Edward Francis Gabriele