{"id":308136,"date":"2021-12-16T03:00:40","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T02:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/living-the-gospel-blessed-is-she-who-believed-lk-145\/"},"modified":"2024-05-15T20:42:56","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T18:42:56","slug":"living-the-gospel-blessed-is-she-who-believed-lk-145","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/living-the-gospel-blessed-is-she-who-believed-lk-145\/","title":{"rendered":"Living the Gospel: \u201cBlessed is she who believed\u201d (Lk 1:45)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mary, after welcoming the power of the Most High, hurried to her kinswoman Elizabeth, her heart full of joy. This is the first missionary action by the Mother of God after she pronounced her \u201cyes\u201d. She goes out towards another person bearing good news. Christmas is a time we too can bring this same good news to the world with a generous heart.<\/em> The puddle<\/strong> We\u2019ve reached a stage in our family where my children seem to have lost any sense of proportion and respect, all in the name of personal freedom. One day I walked out of the house to try to calm down and avoid reacting sharply to them. As I often do, I started reciting the rosary. That got me thinking of Mary. She too was a wife and mother. She had silently pondered everything in her heart, including her pain and sufferings. This prayer and reflection began to break through my negativity, bringing me some peace and the strength to go back home and try to introduce some of that serenity there too. As I was walking back towards the house, I noticed the sky reflected in a puddle. That\u2019s what I felt like: a puddle which can reflect a part of the heavens. And that image was all I needed to find new joy once more. (F.A. \u2013 Albania) Together<\/strong> My husband and I had agreed that he would stay at home after work to be with our son John, who has Downs Syndrome, so that I could attend a regular parish meeting which was really important to me. After a while, however, I noticed that taking it in turns so often to care for our son seemed to be having a negative impact on his behaviour. So one evening I decided to miss the meeting in order to stay in with him. When he realised that the three of us would be staying at home together, his challenging behaviour improved greatly. As I got supper ready, he came to tell me, \u201cI\u2019m sorry I\u2019ve been naughty, Mom. Let\u2019s start again.\u201d He was referring to something he\u2019d done the day before and I knew he meant \u201cLet\u2019s start to love each other again\u201d. I was pleased he was aware of what he\u2019d done wrong. My husband heard his apology too, and family harmony was restored all round. We had a really lovely evening together. When John went to bed that night, we both saw how happy he was. (R.S. \u2013 USA) In hospital<\/strong> I\u2019m a volunteer hospital visitor. One morning I went to greet one of the older patients and asked if he\u2019d like to receive the Eucharist. He shook his head laughing and replied, \u201cIt\u2019s a very long time since I last received Communion\u2026\u201d. Undeterred, I suggested perhaps he\u2019d like to say a few prayers, to which he responded, \u201cYes, OK, but you\u2019ll have to help me, because I\u2019ve forgotten them all!\u201d I started, and he repeated after me, phrase by phrase. When we\u2019d finished, he turned to me with a smile and said, \u201cThat was very moving\u201d. It showed me never to be put off by appearances. We parted company with the warmest of greetings. (Umberto \u2013 Italy) <\/p>\n

Selected by Maria Grazia Berretta<\/em><\/p>\n

(from Il Vangelo del Giorno, Citt\u00e0 Nuova, year VII, n. 4, November-December 2021)<\/em> Foto \u00a9 Joachim Schwind – CSC Audiovisivi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mary, after welcoming the power of the Most High, hurried to her kinswoman Elizabeth, her heart full of joy. This is the first missionary action by the Mother of God after she pronounced her \u201cyes\u201d. She goes out towards another person bearing good news. Christmas is a time we too can bring this same good news to the world with a generous heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-308136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308136\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}