Blessed Among Women

Starting the new year off with a resolution is an age old tradition. However, many families are establishing a new tradition that focuses not on what is wrong with us but on the many blessings that we already enjoy that come to us from the hand of God.

This new tradition involves taking time every day to write down a blessing each member of the family experienced on a small piece of paper and to put it in a jar. It could be that they received an answer to a prayer or that the weather was especially beautiful that day. Usually families do this around supper time when they are already sharing time together or they might take time to do it before going to bed at night. Then, on New Year’s Eve, they will sit down together, open the jar and read some of the blessings they had written down. Families who practice this tradition find that it helps them to be more aware of God’s presence and action in their home. Rather than focus on what is lacking, they are able to celebrate all that has been given to them by their Heavenly Father.

This is a simple resolution that all of us can practice. Even if we were to take time to do it only a few days out of the week, by the end of the year we would have a jar filled with reminders of all the blessings we have received. Not only that, it will train us to keep our eye out for God’s work in our lives.

When we use the word, “blessing”, we mean a gift that comes to us from the hand of God. It can be as sublime as the birth of a child or as common as a smile from a friend. We recognize a blessing to be a reflection of our Heavenly Father’s love for us. Sometimes the blessing is the result of our prayers or our efforts to put God at the center of our hearts. Most times, however, blessings are undeserved tokens of divine love and favor calling us to recognize how dependent we are on God.

Today’s first reading from the book of Numbers contains one of the oldest blessings every recorded. It is a prayer which God Himself taught to Moses which Aaron, the high priest, was to use to bless the people of Israel. It uses the beautiful line, “The Lord let his face shine upon you...” Another way of saying this would be, “May God smile upon you.” It is a magnificent image for us to reflect on this day and throughout the year. Our Heavenly Father is smiling down upon us. He loves us and wants us to thrive in every way. As we become more attentive to the blessings He showers upon us daily, that benevolent face of God will making a deeper and more lasting impression in our souls.

Mary, whose motherhood we celebrate today, was particularly aware of the many blessings God had bestowed upon her. In fact, we call her the “Blessed Virgin Mary” because she prophesied to her cousin Elizabeth that “...all generations will call me blessed.” She made it a habit to reflect on the mysteries that were taking place right before her eyes. In today’s gospel from Saint Luke, we read, “And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.” The Blessed Virgin Mary lived with a deep sense of God’s blessings in her life. She was quick to notice them and to bring them to prayer. Her innermost spirit pulsated with a lively sense of God’s presence. More than anyone else, she knew that God’s face was shining down upon her.

Mary is the model for us. If we find it hard to believe that God is smiling down on us, then we can turn to her and ask her teach us how to see Him as a loving Father. If our lives seem more full of burdens then blessings, we can turn to her and ask her for help in opening our eyes to God’s presence and action in the world. If we do not know how to meditate and contemplate, we can turn to her and ask her to show us how to ponder the mysteries of God in our heart. She is a loving and gentle mother who can teach us to approach God not out of fear but out of love. She knows how powerful our Heavenly Father’s tender care for us is and she wants nothing else than to share it with us.

As this new year begins, let us resolve to focus on the blessings God showers upon us by taking time every day, as Mary did, to ponder all that our Heavenly Father has done for us. This Christmas season reminds us that the first of these blessings is faith in Jesus who was born to save us. Once we come to believe that God sent His only Son to die for us so that we might have eternal life, we begin to see our existence as a magnificent gift. Even our burdens and trials can be seen as blessings because they help us to discover virtues we never thought we had and because they teach us to rely more and more on the strength that God provides. All things work for our good because God’s face is shining down upon us.