Advent Reflection: RESTING IN THE WOMB OF MARY WITH BABY JESUS

By Sister Charista Maria

Recently I found myself longing to hold baby Jesus as I was contemplating this Advent/Christmas Season; but in discipline I chose to wait till Christmas Eve to “unwrap” this great gift. And in doing so I immediately found myself turning to Mary and placing my hand on her womb, opening myself to connect with baby Jesus there.

Since then I have found myself uniting with Jesus in the womb of Mary… first from outside; but then, while spending time with Jesus in adoration I found myself imagining that the chapel I was in was Mary’s womb; and I began spending time in the womb with Jesus, opening myself to being still in His presence, resting in the love of a perfect Mother and Father (Mary and our Heavenly Father), as Jesus did… soaking in the truths of my own dignity and identity as a “child of God”.

For this is why Jesus came… to open the gates of Heaven to us, and invite us back into communion with our Heavenly Father. By His Blood we have been redeemed and drawn back into the dignity and identity that we had before the fall, if we but choose to receive.

My prayer this Advent/Christmas Season, is that we will all have the grace to rest with baby Jesus, to become one with Him in opening ourselves to the “marvel [we] were made” the truth of who we were created to be. May we enter deeply into the  graces of this Advent/Christmas Season, that we may come to know the love of God, the love of Mary, in a deeply intimate and profound way.

Our God longs to bond with us as His Children. He wants us to rest in the womb of His love for us, as Jesus did throughout His life here on earth; that we may know the infinite, unconditional love and acceptance of our perfect Heavenly Father.

He wants us also to rest in the womb of Mary’s love for us as Jesus did throughout His earthly life; that we may know the love of a perfect Mother as He did; that we may experience our Heavenly Father’s unconditional love and acceptance for us also through the Maternal Heart of Mary.

Mother and father wounds are the deepest wounds we can have, because our mothers and fathers are the first to reflect and draw us into God’s love. Their ultimate purpose in loving us is meant to incline us toward receptivity to the Love of our Heavenly Father and Mother, that we may know God’s perfect, unconditional love and acceptance of us.

But our parents fall short in life to varying degrees, due to their own wounds, passed down from their own parents, tracing all the way back to Adam and Eve. And so, we can remain depleted, not realizing how deeply, unconditionally and infinitely we are loved.

May this Advent/Christmas Season be a time for all of us to go to the source from which all love and truth flows, by becoming one with Baby Jesus, in opening ourselves to receive and reclaim our true dignity and identity as “children of God. 

As I shared with Sr. Mary Clare my reflection of entering into the womb of Mary with Jesus, she felt drawn to enter in as well and later shared a little taste of her own experience: “I meditated on the utter silence of all Creation as It waited upon Mary's ‘Yes’, when the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that She would conceive and bear a Son and His name shall be Jesus. When Mary gave her ‘Yes’, light entered into her womb and into this world! As I meditated on entering the womb of Mary, I saw a bright light and realized that I was with Jesus, the Light of the World! I then invited Mary to form me as she was forming Jesus, in her womb. In Her womb was Love personified, joy and peace. I found myself resting in this Love, Peace and Joy! I was also aware that Jesus and Mary were asking me and all of us, to make reparation for the darkness in some mother's wombs, caused by the sin of abortion. Too many mother's say ‘No’ to life in their wombs, and their wombs become a place of darkness, void of love, peace and joy."