A meditation by Chiara Lubich on how we can live the silence of Mary and at the same time speak to evangelize as Jesus did.
So beautiful is our mother in her continuous recollection as shown us by the Gospel: “She treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart” (Lk 2:19). That full silence has a fascination for the soul who loves.
How can it be possible for me to live Mary in her mystical silence when my vocation is to speak in order to evangelize, always out and about, in every kind of place, rich and poor, from cellars to Parliament, from the street to communities of friars and nuns?
Our Mother spoke too. She said Jesus. She gave Jesus. Never has anyone in the world been a greater apostle. Never has anyone had such words as she, who gave and spoke the Word.
Our Mother is truly and deservedly called the Queen of the Apostles.
And she kept silent. She kept silent because the two could not speak at once.
Always the word must rest against a silence, like a painting against a background.
She kept silent because she was a creature. Because nothingness does not speak. But upon that nothingness, Jesus and spoke and said: himself.
God, Creator and All, spoke upon the nothingness of the creature. How then to live Mary, how to give my life like the fragrance of her fascination?
By silencing the creature in me, and upon this silence letting the Spirit of the Lord speak.
In this way I live Mary and I live Jesus. I live Jesus upon Mary. I live Jesus by living Mary.
Chiara Lubich
C. Lubich, “Essential Writings,” New City Press, p. 137-138
