MI Canada: My Love for the Immaculata
by Alfredo Alonso, mi.
Some years ago one evening, when I was riding the bus on the
busy streets of Toronto after work, I spotted a beautiful statue
of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in the window of a second-hand
store.
I got off the bus at the next stop to check it out, and there
she was! All her paint was peeling like an old onion, but the
beauty of the sculpture was still there.
Immediately I found myself praying in front of that window. Somehow
she said to me in prayer,"restore me." I responded,
"How? I'm not an artist and besides it may cost me a fortune,"
I thought to myself. At that time, I was in school and working
part-time in the evenings.
The following days I couldn't stop thinking of that inner inspiration
to "restore her." I went back to the store and bought
the statue. I was so happy.
Mary's Role in Us
Meditating on this for so many years, especially after my consecration
to her, I understood how Our Lady wants to "restore"
us, so she can be herself in us for the whole purpose of receiving
and giving Christ to the world through us. I know she has helped
me throughout my life to follow Christ. Finding her statue was
a small sign to
remind me of my consecration.
She wants us not only to follow her example of true discipleship
and to imitate her virtues, but even more she wants us to be
her possession and property. She wants us to be "hers"-the
handmaid of the Lord, the Spouse of the Holy Spirit. She wants
us to be saints and she uses many means to remind us of that.
The business of this world, its temptations, and our own weaknesses
have tarnished her image in us. All these things, plus our disappointments
and preoccupations, are powerful things the devil uses against
us to take our sight from the face of Christ, to rob our peace,
the peace that only Christ can give us. That's why we need Our
Lady in our life, to teach us like a mother teaches her children
to crush the head of the serpent in our own lives and to live
with hope.
Holiness is what makes our souls beautiful, and Our Lady can
do so by becoming "hers" through prayer, and love for
God and others. This is what St. Maximilian did during his life,
by allowing him to be her possession and property, so he could
give "birth" to Christ to the world.
"I Am Totally Yours"
I asked her "to guide my hand to repair your image in me
as I repair your statue." Slowly after gently taking off
the old paint, her beauty was revealed. Then I began to add the
colors, the tones for her skin, and the colors of her mantle.
When I got to the hair and was painting the colors with the brush,
it felt like as if I was combing her hair to the point of experiencing
a different kind of way of prayer "through the colors."
As I worked on her statue, my love for her grew even more. Then
I remembered what St. Maximilian said in one of his writings,
"Do not be afraid to love the Immaculata with all your heart,"
and "the more someone belongs to the Immaculata, the more
freely and openly can he draw near to the wounds of Our Savior,
to the Holy Eucharist, to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to God our
Father."
Let us be totally possessed by her, so we can do the will of
God, which is her own will. If you are consecrated to the Immaculata,
follow St. Maximilian's example of love for the Immaculata without
reserve, not only because she is the Mother of God, but because
at the foot of the Cross she also became our Mother.
(c) Copyright 1998-2004 The Militia
of the Immaculata. All rights reserved.
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