{"id":9619,"date":"2026-05-31T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/?p=9619"},"modified":"2026-05-31T07:22:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T11:22:04","slug":"day-23-marys-heart-makes-room-for-gods-greatness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/consecration-to-the-hearts-of-jesus-mary-and-joseph\/day-23-marys-heart-makes-room-for-gods-greatness\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 23: Mary\u2019s Heart Makes Room for God\u2019s Greatness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

READING 1<\/strong>
Luke 1:39-47<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a city of Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the child leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, \u201cBlessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.\u201d And Mary said, \u201cMy soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

READING 2<\/strong>
From a homily for the Assumption by Pope Benedict XVI, August15 , 2005<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Gospel we heard the Magnificat<\/em>, that great poem inspired by the Holy Spirit that came from Mary\u2019s lips, indeed, from Mary\u2019s heart. This marvellous canticle mirrors the entire soul, the entire personality of Mary. We can say that this hymn of hers is a portrait of Mary, a true icon in which we can see her exactly as she is. I would like to highlight only two points in this great canticle.1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It begins with the word “Magnificat<\/em>“: my soul \u201cmagnifies\u201d the Lord, that is, \u201cproclaims the greatness\u201d of the Lord. Mary wanted God to be great in the world, great in her life and present among us all. She was not afraid that God might be a \u201crival\u201d in our life, that with his greatness he might encroach on our freedom, our vital space. She knew that if God is great, we too are great. Our life is not oppressed but raised and expanded: it is precisely then that it becomes great in the splendour of God. The fact that our first parents thought the contrary was the core of original sin. They feared that if God were too great, he would take something away from their life. They thought that they could set God aside to make room for themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was also the great temptation of the modern age, of the past three or four centuries. More and more people have thought and said: \u201cBut this God does not give us our freedom; with all his commandments, he restricts the space in our lives. So God has to disappear; we want to be autonomous and independent. Without this God we ourselves would be gods and do as we pleased.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was also the view of the Prodigal Son, who did not realize that he was \u201cfree\u201d precisely because he was in his father\u2019s house. He left for distant lands and squandered his estate. In the end, he realized that precisely because he had gone so far away from his father, instead of being free he had become a slave; he understood that only by returning home to his father\u2019s house would he be truly free, in the full beauty of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is how it is in our modern epoch. Previously, it was thought and believed that by setting God aside and being autonomous, following only our own ideas and inclinations, we would truly be free to do whatever we liked without anyone being able to give us orders. But when God disappears, men and women do not become greater; indeed, they lose the divine dignity, their faces lose God\u2019s splendour. In the end, they turn out to be merely products of a blind evolution and, as such, can be used and abused. This is precisely what the experience of our epoch has confirmed for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only if God is great is humankind also great. With Mary, we must begin to understand that this is so. We must not drift away from God but make God present; we must ensure that he is great in our lives. Thus, we too will become divine; all the splendour of the divine dignity will then be ours. Let us apply this to our own lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

REFLECTION<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary celebrated God\u2019s greatness and wanted Him to be magnified further. He is magnified when we give Him our yes. He grows in our hearts and becomes more visible in our lives. He grew so great in Mary that He became flesh in her womb. She opened herself totally to Him, withholding nothing from Him. She did not fear losing anything by making more and more room for Him in her life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recalling Pope Benedict XVI\u2019s words from his inaugural homily, Are we not perhaps all afraid in some way? If we let Christ enter fully into our lives, if we open ourselves totally to him, are we not afraid that He might take something away from us? Are we not perhaps afraid to give up something significant, something unique, something that makes life so beautiful? Do we not then risk ending up diminished and deprived of our freedom? And once again the Pope [John Paul II] said: No! If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed. Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary can help us give this generous response to God as we pray with her that He would be magnified in our own heart and in every heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PRAYERS<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

O Holy Mary by John Henry Newman
Sub tuum praesidium<\/em>
Litany of the Immaculate Heart of Mary or
Litany of Loreto or
at least one decade of the Rosary or
Prayer of Entrustment to the Womb of Mary<\/p>\n\n\n

  1. N.B. the second point is on Day 25. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n

    Copyright \u00a9 2026 by St. Vincent Archabbey<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    READING 1Luke 1:39-47 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a city of Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the child leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"[{\"content\":\"N.B. the second point is on Day 25.\",\"id\":\"2e4b0962-9097-4445-aa51-2792bfef4a4b\"}]","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consecration-to-the-hearts-of-jesus-mary-and-joseph"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7bfMR-2v9","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":477,"url":"https:\/\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/spiritual-practices\/marian-consecration\/day-30-knowledge-of-jesus-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":9619,"position":0},"title":"Day 30 – Knowledge of Jesus Christ","author":"Father Boniface Hicks, O.S.B.","date":"April 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Day 30 - Mary, the Eucharist and the Incarnation A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke: And Mary said to the angel, \u201cHow can this be, since I have no husband?\u201d And the angel said to her, \u201cThe Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marian Consecration"","block_context":{"text":"Marian Consecration","link":"https:\/\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/category\/spiritual-practices\/marian-consecration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/img_2500.jpg?fit=865%2C1015&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/img_2500.jpg?fit=865%2C1015&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/img_2500.jpg?fit=865%2C1015&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/img_2500.jpg?fit=865%2C1015&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":335,"url":"https:\/\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/spiritual-practices\/marian-consecration\/day-21-knowledge-of-mary\/","url_meta":{"origin":9619,"position":1},"title":"Day 21 – Knowledge of Mary","author":"Father Boniface Hicks, O.S.B.","date":"March 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Day 21 - Mary - abandoned to God becomes our Mother A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke: In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marian Consecration"","block_context":{"text":"Marian Consecration","link":"https:\/\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/category\/spiritual-practices\/marian-consecration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Virgin-and-Child-Domenico-Corvi-oil-painting-Edit.jpg?fit=860%2C1062&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Virgin-and-Child-Domenico-Corvi-oil-painting-Edit.jpg?fit=860%2C1062&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Virgin-and-Child-Domenico-Corvi-oil-painting-Edit.jpg?fit=860%2C1062&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Virgin-and-Child-Domenico-Corvi-oil-painting-Edit.jpg?fit=860%2C1062&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6724,"url":"https:\/\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/spiritual-practices\/assumption-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":9619,"position":2},"title":"Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary","author":"monks4christ","date":"August 14, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Beloved Young People and Dear Friends in Christ, Today the Church finds herself, with Mary, on the threshold of the house of Zechariah in Ain\u2013Karim. With new life stirring within her, the Virgin of Nazareth hastened there, immediately after the Fiat\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marian Consecration"","block_context":{"text":"Marian Consecration","link":"https:\/\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/category\/spiritual-practices\/marian-consecration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/aug15.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/aug15.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/aug15.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3724,"url":"https:\/\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/spiritual-reflections\/assumption-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary\/","url_meta":{"origin":9619,"position":3},"title":"Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary","author":"monks4christ","date":"August 14, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Beloved Young People and Dear Friends in Christ, Today the Church finds herself, with Mary, on the threshold of the house of Zechariah in Ain\u2013Karim. 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