The Annunciation: Our Union with Mary Modeled by Blessed Conchita Cabrera

As the common Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Annunciation on March 25, we’re liturgically led to ponder the reward, magnificence, and mission of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Her sure to God’s plan for the Incarnation was intimately private to Mary and infinitely common to the Church.

Mary deigned to obtain the message of the Angel. She contemplated with out totally comprehending the invitation. She gracefully responded, “Behold, I’m the handmaid of the Lord. May or not it’s finished to me in response to your phrase (Luke 1:38).” These phrases welled up from the depths of her soul steeped within the contemplation of God’s Word. She meditated on the Jewish scriptures. She believed and prayed for God’s intervention for the promised Messiah. While God appeared with favor on Mary’s lowliness, she appeared solely at Him who was calling her to come up to mission.

Mary’s function in salvation historical past is to bodily beginning Jesus Christ into the world. And till the tip of time, Mary has the maternal mission of spiritually birthing Christ in souls. She and the Holy Spirit are the one two artisans who can beginning Jesus in souls in response to Servant of God Archbishop Luis Martinez.

In researching for my guide on the life and spirituality of Blessed Conchita Cabrera, an extraordinary spouse and mom who developed into one of many Church’s the foremost mystics, I found her Marian character. Blessed Conchita can assist us to maneuver from devotion to Mary to imitation of Mary. This is a crucial improvement for our religious maturity and development in advantage.

Bl. Conchita and her household

Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa wrote,

To say that Mary is the mirror of the Church means in sensible phrases that after having first thought of a phrase, an perspective, or an occasion within the Madonna’s life, we then ask ourselves what this implies for the Church and every considered one of us. What ought to we do to apply what the Holy Spirit wished to speak to us by Mary? The greatest reply we can provide is not devotion to Mary, however imitation of Mary.

In apply, how will we transfer from devotion to imitation of Mary? Devotion consists of our prayers, consecration, affection, and gratitude for Mary — all crucial. Imitation consists of give up to God’s will and initiatives. Imitation signifies that the Marian virtues turn out to be embodied in us. Growth in advantage requires self-discipline and asceticism (sacrifices). Imitation of Mary is a name to take part in Mary’s mission –beginning Jesus on the earth, carry Jesus inside, and convey Him to others.

Jesus spoke to Blessed Conchita concerning souls who love Mary:

In My religious life . . . in souls, My Mother was by no means separated from Me, that’s, the imitation of each of our lives should be simultaneous on earth. The souls who love her most and who’re most like her, are the souls who’re most completely like Me. You should imitate her within the apply of the virtues. Observe the virtues she practices in her solitude, within the final stage of her life, her outlook, and her soul wholly turned towards heaven, and her self-effacement glorifying Me on earth. Through her passionate love, aspiring for paradise, she merited graces from heaven for the new child Church (SD 41, 63; February 18, 1917).

Imitation of Mary signifies that our hearts will generally expertise the painful piercing that opens and empties us for transformation into Jesus. Imitation of Mary is a difficult path that produces the better fruit. Ideally, we apply devotion to and imitation of Mary. Why? Our discipleship is nothing lower than the imitation of Christ Jesus. Mary fashions this extra completely than all of the saints mixed. Yet, the saints additionally present a faculty of witnesses to the likelihood, promise and necessity of discipleship that yields the great thing about holiness.

There are three Marian titles that establish Conchita’s Marian character: the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Virgin of the Cross, and the Virgin of Solitude. Each title has traits associated to a selected mission.

The Virgin of Guadalupe appeared because the holy Mother pregnant with Jesus to ship His individuals from the Aztecs’ satanic practices and false faith. Mary appeared on Tepeyac Hill as a humble however highly effective Mother who has authority from the Triune God. She referred to as the individuals to conversion and established a sanctuary of hope and therapeutic. The tilma is her enduring love letter to the Americas. Conchita’s total life was fashioned by Our Lady of Guadalupe. Spiritual warriors for Christ would do properly to review the guide that’s the Virgin of Guadalupe.

The Virgin of the Cross is a faculty of co-redemptive struggling love. All Marian virtues engaged on Calvary. Mary’s fiat was magnified, her sorrow, full. She supplied her beloved Jesus to the Father as Victim and Priest. Mary suffered the inside agonies of the Passion. In the mutual reward of the Son, and the co-redeeming reward of Blessed Mother on Calvary, Heaven opened. Blessed Conchita attained union with the Virgin of the Cross through the center of her life, particularly following her imaginative and prescient of the Cross and the magical incarnation.

The Virgin of Solitude embodies a faculty of contemplative prayer, silence, sacrifice, and supplication. Mary remained after the Ascension to assist the apostles and to beginning the Church by the providing of inside struggling. In solitude, Mary mystically recalled and relived Christ’s life on earth. Conchita was referred to as to dwell Marian solitude in her later years whereby she turned an icon of Love Crucified. The little lady who cherished Our Lady matured into a girl who embodied Mary’s life and skilled Mary’s joyful, sorrowful, and superb mysteries.

Blessed Conchita’s Marian Mysticism and Revelations

In finding out Conchita’s Marian horizon, we study the great thing about Marian mysticism. Jesus spoke to Blessed Conchita about His Mother:

Her Heart is introduced with roses, however beneath is discovered thorns. The roses signify graces for her kids, acquired with nearly infinite sorrows, with tears and with martyrdoms the load of which I alone was able to measuring. It is sort of pure for a mom, and a lot the extra Mary, to maintain for herself the thorns and the sorrows: it’s the roses and the tenderness that she presents to her kids, not the sacrifices (Conchita’s Diary, June 30, 1917).

Another time, Jesus spoke, “I would like you to supply your self as did Mary, together with her very virtues and qualities. Imitate her and mannequin your individual coronary heart on this so lovely a picture.”

Mary: Teacher of the Spiritual Life

Blessed Conchita recalled these phrases of Jesus: “The holiest and most good creature that ever existed was Mary. Do you already know why? Because from the primary on the spot of her being, she corresponded with all of the inspirations of the Holy Spirit. Mary is the most effective teacher of the religious life” (Diary, September 22, 1895).

“Because she corresponded with all of the inspirations of the Holy Spirit.”

What would we be if we corresponded with all of the inspirations of the Holy Spirit? Mary fashions the religious life by her good instance of life within the Spirit. Mary’s docility to the Holy Spirit is her genius.

Conchita’s Prayer to Our Lady:

O most loving and beloved Mother! . . . Tell Jesus what I want, holy Virgin, in order that I’ll purchase what I lack to resemble His household! And how nice it’s! You see that I’m not humble, not affected person, not mortified; that I search for my self-interest in issues giant and small, and dwell clinging to earth with my coronary heart stuffed with degrading inclinations. Tell Him that after I draw close to the marriage of the Lamb in Communion, I lack love, the attractive wine of charity. O my beloved Mother, receive this for me from our Jesus, Grant me this favor, most holy Mother, in order that these round me could consider in Him as in Cana, seeing my vices become virtues. Amen.

Our Prayer: O Mary of the Annunciation, pray for us – that we could imitate your sure to God with out counting the price. Grant that we don’t measure the load of affection, or restrict the Almighty by taking a look at our weak spot, however assist us to gaze upon the Face of Jesus to know that God seems with favor upon our lowliness and calls us to holiness in Him. Thank you, Mary on your fiat to God born of pure love.