627. December 10, Our Lady of Loreto

Meditations no. 554 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

A pious tradition tells us that the holy house at Nazareth is preserved in Loreto. It conveys to us the Blessed Virgin’s ordinary life.

The shrine of our Lady of Loreto holds a priceless relic: the small house that according to an ancient tradition was our Lady’s home in Nazareth. Over the centuries, millions of pilgrims have gone to pray at the site where the most important event in history took place: the Incarnation of the Son of God in holy Mary’s virginal womb.

Our founder often went to Loreto as a pilgrim. On one occasion, on August 15th, 1951, he went to beseech our Lady’s protection during some especially difficult moments in the life of the Work. There, for the first time, he made the consecration of Opus Dei to the most sweet heart of Mary.

He often spoke to us of the Mass he celebrated that day, with the holy house filled with people who had come to honour the Blessed Virgin, and of how moved he was by their devotion. He added: I was also moved by the words written on the reredos above the altar in that holy house, which tradition-confirmed by archaeology-assures us is the place where Jesus, Mary and Joseph lived: Hic Verbum caro factum est. How I would like to go back to Loreto! I go there now in my imagination to place myself in a little corner in that holy house, and to pray and contemplate that phrase, Hic Verbum caro factum est, because Jesus who took on our flesh, and who is perfectus Deus, must move our hearts.

Today, the feast of our Lady of Loreto, we too place ourselves in the home at Nazareth, in order to contemplate the life of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. We witness their chores and prayers, and listen to their family conversations and dealings with their neighbours.

The first conversation recorded in the Gospel is the one Mary holds with Gabriel, God’s messenger. We can easily imagine the scene and hear once again the simple and charming dialogue. We focus our attention now on one aspect in particular. Despite the Archangel’s extraordinary message that she is to be the Mother of God, Mary’s outward life does not change. We can’t forget, our Father writes, that Mary spent nearly every day of her life just like millions of other women who look after their family, bring up their children and take care of the house.

The weeks, seasons and years go by in Nazareth with apparent monotony. Each day brings with it its own toil, like that of the previous day or the following one. There are trips to the village well to draw fresh water. The wheat has to be ground and the oven readied for the week’s bread. Meals have to be prepared for Jesus and Joseph, the house cleaned, clothes repaired. … Mary sanctifies the ordinary everyday things-what some people wrongly regard as unimportant and insignificant: everyday work, looking after those closest to you, visits to friends and relatives. What a blessed ordinariness, that can be so full of love of God!

We must be apostolic in our everyday life.

Then one day Joseph dies, the head of the family in the holy house at Nazareth. God wanted to reward him for his faithful life, now that Jesus had grown up and was able to look after our Lady and support her. How Mary must have cried, and Jesus as well! So many years sharing joys and sorrows, above all joys! And in the quiet peace of that home, our Lady continues her daily tasks. She cooks and washes up, sews, prepares the bread-dough, makes trips to the well for water, watches over Jesus’ rest, while doing everything with greater love each day. When Christ reaches the age of thirty and sets out for the Jordan, our Lady continues her daily tasks. But her motherly heart watches eagerly for her Son’s return from his intense apostolic journeys, hoping to help him rest for a while and to look after his needs.

Such was holy Mary’s life in Nazareth. Her heart overflows with love and refinement, but she passes unnoticed among her relatives and neighbours. She is like the dew, which brings freshness and colour to the fields, but does not draw attention to itself. Then one day, outwardly like any other, she went to heaven where her Son awaited her. She died of love, with the same naturalness with which she lived.

For that’s what explains Mary’s life-her love. A complete love, so complete that she forgets herself and is happy just to be there where God wants her, fulfilling with care what God wants her to do. That is why even her slightest action is never routine or vain but, rather, full of meaning. Mary, our mother, is for us both an example and a way. We have to try to be like her, in the ordinary circumstances in which God wants us to live.

Our everyday life is the setting for our apostolic action, which enriches our work and our family and social relationships. Apostolate is co-natural for us, not something added on to, external to our secular activity. We sanctify others by the practice of our profession, through our ordinary life among our equals, through our friendships, through our professional and social relationships.

If we act in this way, we give those around us the example of a simple and normal life which is consistent, even though it has all the limitations and defects which are part and parcel of the human condition. And when they see that we live the same life as they do, they will ask us: Why are you so happy? How do you manage to overcome selfishness and comfort-seeking? Who has taught you to understand others, to live well and to spend yourself in the service of others? Then we must disclose to them the divine secret of Christian existence. We must speak to them about God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, Mary. The time has come for us to use our poor words to communicate the depth of God’s love which grace has poured into our souls.

In his Gospel St John has recorded a wonderful phrase of our Lady. At the wedding of Cana she turned to the waiters and said: ‘Do whatever he tells you (Jn 2: 5).’ That’s what it’s all about-getting people to face Jesus and ask him: ‘Lord, what do you want me to do?’ (Acts 9: 6).

When motivated by love for God, our ordinary life takes on extraordinary effectiveness.

The Christian apostolate-and I’m talking about an ordinary Christian living as just one more man or woman among equals-is a great work of teaching. Through real, personal, loyal friendship, you create in others a hunger for God and you help them to discover new horizons-naturally, simply. With the example of your faith lived to the full, with a loving word which is full of the force of divine truth.

Thus our ordinary, everyday life acquires immense value and effectiveness. Don’t forget, my children, our Father wrote, that what is extraordinary for us is ordinary for God, author of the laws that rule the physical world and the world of the spirit.

For the sun to pause for a day in its path is no greater miracle than the constant one that the stars follow the established course of their orbits. God’s extraordinary providence is no more intrinsically wonderful than what we call his ordinary providence.

By means of our ordinary professional work, by the testimony of our life as ordinary Christians, Christ wants to bring the redemption to all souls without exception. We are called by divine vocation to convert our ordinary life into something divinely extraordinary. We do so when in union with the triumphant and victorious moments of Jesus’ death upon the cross, we strive to make a reality of those words of his: et ego, si exaltatus fuero a terra, omnia traham ad meipsum (Jn 12: 32); and I when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself.

United to Christ by prayer and mortification in our daily work and in the countless human circumstances of our simple life as ordinary Christians, we will bring about this marvellous reality. We will place all things at the feet of our Lord, who is raised upon the Cross, where he has allowed himself to be nailed out of his immense love for the world and all mankind.

Thus, in a simple way, by working out of love for God in our profession or job, the same one in which he has sought us out, we will place Christ at the summit and in the heart of all human activities. For no honest human activity lies outside the scope of our apostolate, which makes manifest Christ’s redeeming love.

If we draw close to holy Mary and strive to imitate her, God will give us the grace we need to teach others the priceless value of everyday life. It is there that God wants to manifest to souls his love and lead them along paths of sanctity and apostolate. Many conversions, many decisions to give oneself to the service of God have been preceded by an encounter with Mary. Our Lady has encouraged us to look for God, to desire to change, to lead a new life. And so the ‘Do whatever he tells you’ has turned into real self-giving, into a Christian vocation, which from then on enlightens all our personal life.