Sit With Mary (A Meditation)

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Are you feeling overwhelmed? Is there anything you fear – something you’re afraid won’t happen or might happen? What’s making you weary? Worried? Heartbroken? Are you grieving from feeling alone and isolated? Sit with Mary.

In this meditation, I will guide you through a series of images through which you can connect to the Blessed Mother and receive her help. You will visit with her and receive God’s Grace from her as a tremendous help in your trials.

I know this works because I have done it. For example, during the night when I have awakened and been unable to fall back asleep, I asked Mama Mary to cradle me in her arms and help me get back to sleep. And then I imagined her cradling the baby Jesus, sitting in a small home in Egypt where the Holy Family lived during their exile. She was cooing her baby to sleep, smiling at him, beaming for joy at the miracle God had done to bring this tiny future Messiah into the world.

I prayed the “Hail Mary” and asked her to hold me like she was holding him. The next thing I knew, it was morning and time to wake up.

So I invite you to “Sit With Mary” in this meditation:

Sit with Mary as the angel Gabriel surprises her, appearing to her and speaking to her in a little room in a little house in Nazareth. Connect yourself to this scene. Are you worried about something because it has taken you by surprise? What do you think God is telling you to do about it? Look at Mary. She told the angel, “Let it be done to me according to God’s will.” Ask Mary for the grace to hear God’s will, know that it’s God’s will, and trust in God’s will even if it doesn’t make sense yet.

Hail Mary….

Sit with Mary as she hears the news that Joseph wants to divorce her because she is pregnant. She doesn’t try to straighten out his thinking. She doesn’t plead with him. She turns to God and places the situation into his hands. Do you have someone in your life who has wrong ideas about you? Repent of the times when you tried too hard to change their minds about you. Then place those people and those situations into God’s hands. Ask Mary for the grace to relax, trusting that God will take care of it in his perfect way and his perfect time.

Hail Mary…

Sit with Mary on the donkey as she and Joseph head for Bethlehem. Her pregnancy has reached full term and she is extremely uncomfortable. They finally arrive in the busy city and cannot find a place to stay, let alone a private place to give birth to Jesus. How is she handling it? She is praying, trusting God that the timing of the birth will be perfect, trusting also that God will provide the place for it. What is extremely uncomfortable in your life? What worries you because things are not falling properly into place? Ask Mary for the grace of trusting in God’s providence.

Hail Mary…

Sit with Mary when she hears the news from her beloved Joseph that they must protect the baby and hurry away – not to home but to another country where they have no family and no friends and the language and customs are different. Joseph has no job waiting for him there, and they don’t know where they will live. They are going totally into the unknown. Mary doesn’t argue. She doesn’t hesitate. She freely follows Joseph, once again placing all of her trust in God. What insecurities and uncertainties are worrying you? Ask Mary for the grace of correct discernment about God’s directions and for the grace of fully trusting God as you step forward into the unknown.

Hail Mary…

Sit with Mary as she pauses to rest while she and Joseph are searching for their missing 12-year-old son. All of the usual motherly thoughts flood her as she talks to Joseph about where they might look for him next. As anxious as she feels, she prays and once again places her trust in God. Joseph prays with her and then they get up and head for the temple where they will find Jesus. Who or what is missing from your life, causing you grief? What are you responsible for that has slipped away from you? Ask Mary for the grace to find what God wants you to find.

Hail Mary…

Sit with Mary as she watches her grown-up Son teach beautiful, holy truths to crowds of people and some of them are heckling him. She wants all of them to know who Jesus really is and to embrace what he teaches. She prays for them to truly be able to hear what he speaks, but they seem so close-minded. They even show hatred towards Jesus. To whom have you tried to share the truth of God’s kingdom but they have hated you for it? Who has rejected you because of your faith? Whose eternal souls are you worried about? Ask Mary to share with them the grace of being able to recognize the truth as something they want to embrace. And ask Mary for the grace of the infilling of the Holy Spirit to give you the right words to speak to them when they are ready to hear it.

Hail Mary…

Sit with Mary at the foot of the cross as the tortured body of Jesus bleeds out. Her motherly heart is pierced with the deepest of sorrows as she watches him suffer so horrendously. A friend tries to comfort her and move her away from the terrible scene but she refuses to leave his side. Her love for him and her knowledge of how much he loves you and everyone throughout the world is an integral participation in his Messianic mission. Nothing will pull her away from that. Ask Mary for the grace of seeing God turn all of your sufferings into resurrections with redemptive significance for others.

Hail Mary…

Sit with Mary as the Holy Spirit descends with power onto all of the disciples who have been waiting prayerfully in the upper room after the Ascension of Jesus. Mary, who was already full of the Holy Spirit, rejoices greatly as she witnesses the new body of Christ come alive in the disciples. Ask Mary for the grace of being filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit. Ask Mary for the grace to say yes to wherever Jesus leads you in your new life with the Holy Spirit.

Hail Mary…

There are many more scenes from Mary’s life that you can use your imagination to visualize. She who was fully human, though without sin, recognizes and understands the human struggles you have. She has tremendous compassion for you. For every worry you have, every fear, every heartbreak, there is a place where you can sit with Mary and ask for the graces you need to get through it and to grow through it. She is delighted that you come and spend this time with her. More than that, she is delighted to share with you graces from the fullness of grace with which God endowed her.