My Advent Journey with Mary

By Sarah McDonald

Soon after welcoming our first child, I became more deeply connected to Mary, Mother of God, in my own prayer life. So much so, that in my daily prayers, I include, “Mary, Mother of God, pray for us,” in my own personal litany.

When I was pregnant for my second child, that connection grew even more intense for me. Number 2’s birthday is Dec. 27, and that Advent was different because, in my mind, my path and Mary’s path were parallel.
My feelings of excitement mixed with fear and the physical toil of pregnancy were the same Mary may have had in anticipation of Christ’s birth over 2000 years ago.

I am sure Mary handled it all much more beautifully than I did (donkey ride and all), and, no, I am not envisioning myself as equal to our Savior’s mother in anyway, but it was our shared human experience that made my Advent journey more significant.

Isn’t that what we are celebrating at Christmas: the Incarnation of Jesus as both God and Man? It is because Jesus was born of this humble woman that he knows us as humans, all of our worldly struggles. When I think about it, it is hard not to be amazed.

Since that special Advent six years ago, my trust in Mary’s prayers for my family and for me has only grown. I turn to her asking for her intercession daily and have faith that as I love my children and want to do all I can to help them, she will pray for me, her daughter.