Giving our All

4th Joyful mystery

In our society giving our all can be overwhelming. Studying the max in college and loosing nights of sleep. Having a successful - attractive - intelligent - funny and unique social media account. Appearing nice to family or nice enough. Pleasing our own ideas of career and what to give up for that or how to present ourselves for that. Sometimes giving our all can be great and brings out the best in us such as virtues of being industrious, generous and practicing patience with self and others. Other times the thought of what we must be and can't be in comparison with others is downright depressing.
Yikes....no wiggle room here

The quotes online about giving 100% are endless. The magazines devoted to self-improvement monetize on it. But what is really all the hullaballu of giving our best to life all about? Isn't it all going to end one day anyway? Then what? So how should we give our best on earth. Let's see what Mary did. I really love this Mother of ours!

One thing the Virgin Mary did which can be both practical and spiritual is teaching us how to give our all. In the fourth Joyful Mystery she goes to the temple with Joseph and tiny baby Jesus to consecrate Him to God in the Temple as was religious observation for all first-born sons. In this moment of giving Jesus as a sacrifice back to God Mary teaches us something very important on how to give our all, how to give our best, how to give our worst nightmares. Giving Jesus was firstly an act of obedience to God in the face of something unknown. She was also offering the best of her life: her baby Son whom she knew would be the Savior of humanity offering us redemption. In that moment Mary was told of the pain she would face by the prophet Simon that a "A sword shall pierce through thy own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." - (Luke 2:35) I wonder if I would still have offered my son?

This seemingly simple moment of Mary and Joseph with Baby Jesus teaches us so much about how to live each day and how to face true opportunities in live vs. self-imposed opportunities that bring to nothing. Mary shows us that in the moment of the offering at church we are to bring to the altar the things we care the most about as well as our struggles and nightmares and really truly give them to God and entrust them to His will. Prayer is powerful and does practical things in this world! Prayer is more than meditation or mindfulness. Prayer to the one who created us is a relationship that establishes our desire to have faith, desire to have hope and desire to live with love. Having the desire to have faith, hope and love can bring us closer to the heart of Christ who walked in love for us as He wishes for us to walk during our time in this life. And yet, we want to give this world our all in so many opportunities that can be actually negative for our souls. Opportunities of greed, lust, impatience, indulgence in our own desires that don't speak to the purity of faith, hope and love.

Seeing "Giving our all" through the example of Mary puts our efforts in a different perspective. Rather than "giving our all" to ourselves or to have others happy with us, wouldn't live be easier if we eliminated ourselves from the equation and self-centered desires and stress and just gave our all ( joys and sorrows) directly to Christ and asked Him in return to help us live with faith, hope and love rather than the burdens of our desires. That makes life so much simpler and eliminates needless effort for others, shopping, anxiety to please people who don't like you anyway, etc.

Help us Mary to be more like you and be a Mother to us in our time of weakness.


Comforter of the afflicted, pray for us.

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