Bold Confidence and the Little Way in the Octave of the Annunciation

“I always feel the same bold confidence of becoming a great saint, because I do not count on my merits, having none, but I hope in Him who is Virtue, Holiness Itself. It is He alone who, content with my weak efforts, will raise me up to Him and, covering me with His infinite merits, will make me holy."  - St. Therese, Story of a Soul (Ms A 32 r°)

I just got this lovely quote from Lisieux straight to my inbox. Since I'm making no progress whittling down email, I thought I'd share this with you instead. As I write, the color of the words is red, delightfully matching the dress of Our Lady as the angel Gabriel appears to her above.

Happy Feast of the Annunciation! In the brilliant words of Dr. Warren Carroll:
Truth exists. The Incarnation happened!

I don't know if he put an exclamation point after his famous tagline, his favorite message, but St. Therese and I are sure we want the exclamation point there. After all, what could be better news?

I was thinking yesterday about the Word becoming flesh in Mary's womb, and I had such joy in the thought of how very tiny Jesus was. He told us the night before He died that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and St. Paul assures us that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, so we can bet He was the Way from that first moment in the womb of Mary Immaculate, but what a tiny, what a very Little Way He was!

Our Mother the Church is such a dear and caring teacher that she gives us this feast of the Incarnation in the midst of Lent. Just when it might occur to me to begin meditating on Our Lord's Passion in earnest (or at all!), my Mother gives me a different image . . . Jesus in Mary, Jesus so very small that He is as invisible as He is in the Sacred Host - even more so! 

I had the thrill of seeing Blessed Fra Angelico's Annunciation at the top of the stairs in San Marco in Florence recently, and WOW - what a joy to behold the original in its vivid color (the red on Gabriel's wing sparkles!) and in its full size. I wanted to bring the whole thing home - not all of San Marco (I'm a reasonable girl), just the full fresco of the Annunciation. Here it is in a smaller version:

I'm sorry it's such a little image - I didn't succeed in doing the angelic work of miraculously transporting the original home with me, and even if I had, I think I'd have to bring you to southern California to see it, and that would be complicated. But here is a close up of Gabriel. I was so impressed by his look of hopeful anticipation, but also there is joy, because I think he suspects the answer. "Please, Mary, say yes!"

If you can't think of a reason to smile today, please smile because Mary did say YES!

And now, here we are, 2000 years plus later, and we still get to celebrate this moment of her Yes to the Blessed Trinity which then allowed Jesus' Yes to His Father, and our being the lucky and blessed children with a Savior who has taken on us all our nature. WOW!

And then what? What next?
We all have duties and joys and sorrows tugging on us, and sometimes the joys don't seem to prevail. May I make a suggestion?

Having so lately been awash in beauty in Italy (and thank you to anyone who has ever said a prayer for me - it surely helped bring about the uncountable graces of that trip, which I ask the Holy Spirit of Love to direct right back to your hearts too), I have moments of sadness and fear that all I experienced will disappear.

How silly is that?
It's a good thing God doesn't get impatient with us. He might (if He wasn't so wonderful) start thinking He should stop Therese's showering me with roses, seeing as I'm always plagued with these absurd fears afterward! 

I felt this same silly way after the miraculously perfect wedding of our son and daughter-in-law, and yet I am happy to report that whether or not I remember it, the wedding happened, the marriage is a fact, and though I could never have expected their happily ever after including a trip to Italy that I got to crash, it did!

And so, too, while I may not remember in real time every wondrous detail of Italy and the saints I met and the angels (heavenly and earthly) I encountered, still it did happen and nothing will take that away, not even my pathetic memory.

I surprised one of my doctors a couple days ago when I not only thanked her for encouraging me to go to Italy. but told her the trip was life-changing.

"Life-changing?" she repeated with a shade of a doubt.

Yes!
Though I couldn't explain it to her then, her bemused expression made me wonder later if it was true, and I'm happy to report that yes, life-changing it was . . . because beauty is eternal, and even corrupting material beauty can be restored (I'm thinking of the work done on frescoes, not on faces in my neck of the woods!) . . . Nonetheless, this beauty we experience through our senses merely represents higher beauties and calls our minds and hearts to reflect on them:

The beauty of a maiden interrupted by an angel, for instance, and the very real awed humility, unworthiness, and amazed joy she must have felt at his message, his invitation straight from God . . .

This morning I went for a walk in our suburban neighbor and saw a red winged blackbird sitting in a tree, seeing me before he flew away. I had enough time to realize what he was, and I wondered at his nearness and stillness. 

Yesterday morning I went to a Missa Cantata and heard the most glorious Credo - around the words "et incarnatus est," the organ stopped, and the choir, which had been singing in one voice, broke into polyphony. Tears spring to my eyes just remembering this beauty (which I will, alas, perhaps soon forget) - but that doesn't matter. What is life changing is God's eternal love which won't leave us without beauty for long. We may not hear a Missa Cantata every day (I sure don't!), or often see a red winged blackbird, or glory in the close-up view of a Fra Angelico at the top of the stairs where the saint first painted it . . . but I bet - I'm sure! - the infinite solicitude and unceasing tenderness of this God who became man to die for us to bring us into Eternal Beauty forever will not let us go long without surprising us with another passing beauty, just to remind us He, Eternal Beauty is near. 

I hope and pray that you experience and remember boatloads of beauty, and that when it is present before you, when it is present in your memory, or even when it is long forgotten, it will have changed you by reminding you that God loves you now and forever. 

May the beauty of Our Savior greet you today when you least expect it!

Draw me; we will run!