“Can you imagine what Mary was thinking when her husband, Joseph, tells her to ‘get on the donkey’?” Mariel, one of the Co-Directors for the ACTS Women’s retreat I’m directing asked the group of 40 women who were assembled (like sardines) in my living room.
Mariel was ending our first team gathering with a proposal in this time of Advent. To come to know Mary not so much as the untouchable and most glorified woman in history, but one on one, as friends, woman to woman.
She went on to describe Mary, still in her youth, nine months pregnant, and leaving all comforts of home behind and then is told to maneuver her big, unbalanced body on top of an uncomfortable and smelly mule. The journey was long, strenuous, and boring but she persevered as she continued to do for the rest of her life. If any one understands what we are going through in life, it is Mary.
Mariel ended the evening by imploring us to ‘get on your donkey’, take the rest of this Advent journey with Mary as we persevere in our own daily struggles and hardships to welcome in the redeemer of the world.
Gathered in my living room tonight was a collective treasure of wisdom, knowledge and understanding. I am blessed to call them ‘team’ and look forward to receiving the blessings they each have to offer.
Maybe you might not be Catholic or one that ever understood Mary but if there was ever a time to simply come to understand more of who this person was that brought Christ into the world it’s these next few weeks. Give her a different glance this Christmas. Look at her as if she were your best friend and get on that donkey with her.
Blessings
Shannon