479 MARY'S FIAT

YOUCAT Lesson 479,

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

479  How can we learn from the way in which Mary prayed?

To learn from Mary how to pray means to join in her prayer: “Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).  Prayer is ultimately self-giving in response to God’s love.  If we say Yes as Mary did, God has the opportunity to lead his life in our life.  [2617-2618, 2622, 2674] 84-85, 117

The Blessed Virgin Mary’s Visitation to Elizabeth by Mariotto Albertinelli. …..479

“Where  faith in the Mother of God declines, so does faith in the Son of God and in the Father.”  Ludwig Feuerbach, (1804-1872), atheist philosopher

“Call on Mary with devotion, and she will not leave your needs unattended, since she is merciful, indeed, the Mother of Mercy.”  St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)

[2617-2618, 2622, 2674]

The prayer of the Virgin Mary

2617 Mary's prayer is revealed to us at the dawning of the fullness of time. Before the incarnation of the Son of God, and before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, her prayer cooperates in a unique way with the Father's plan of loving kindness: at the Annunciation, for Christ's conception; at Pentecost, for the formation of the Church, his Body.( Compare Luke 1:38; Acts of the Apostles 1:14.)⁸⁸ In the faith of his humble handmaid, the Gift of God found the acceptance he had awaited from the beginning of time. She whom the Almighty made "full of grace" responds by offering her whole being: "Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be [done] to me according to your word." "Fiat": this is Christian prayer: to be wholly God's, because he is wholly ours. –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

2618 The Gospel reveals to us how Mary prays and intercedes in faith. At Cana,( Compare John 2:1-12.)⁸⁹ the mother of Jesus asks her son for the needs of a wedding feast; this is the sign of another feast - that of the wedding of the Lamb where he gives his body and blood at the request of the Church, his Bride. It is at the hour of the New Covenant, at the foot of the cross,( Compare John 19:25-27.)⁹⁰ that Mary is heard as the Woman, the new Eve, the true "Mother of all the living." –CCC

In communion with the holy Mother of God

2674 Mary gave her consent in faith at the Annunciation and maintained it without hesitation at the foot of the Cross. Ever since, her motherhood has extended to the brothers and sisters of her Son "who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties."( Lumen Gentium 62.)²⁸ Jesus, the only mediator, is the way of our prayer; Mary, his mother and ours, is wholly transparent to him: she "shows the way" (hodigitria), and is herself "the Sign" of the way, according to the traditional iconography of East and West. __CCC

IN BRIEF

2622 The prayers of the Virgin Mary, in her Fiat and Magnificat, are characterized by the generous offering of her whole being in faith.