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    The Prayer of Mary: Living the Surrendered Life
    The Prayer of Mary: Living the Surrendered Life
    The Prayer of Mary: Living the Surrendered Life
    Ebook168 pages2 hours

    The Prayer of Mary: Living the Surrendered Life

    By Keith Fournier and Lela Gilbert

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    About this ebook

    In this readable, succinct volume, Keith Fournier portrays the young virgin of Nazareth in a fresh light as an antidote to the spiritual ills of the age. The Prayer of Mary presents humility, simplicity, and selfless love as fitting responses to the loving invitation of God, who visits people in their daily lives and invites them into a relationship with Him.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThomas Nelson
    Release dateAug 7, 2005
    ISBN9781418578886
    The Prayer of Mary: Living the Surrendered Life

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      Book preview

      The Prayer of Mary - Keith Fournier

      PART ONE

      The Fiat

      MARY SAID, BEHOLD, I AM THE HANDMAID OF THE LORD. MAY IT BE DONE TO ME ACCORDING TO YOUR WORD. THEN THE ANGEL DEPARTED FROM HER. (LUKE 1:38)

      CHAPTER ONE

      A WAY

      OF HOLINESS

      I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word. (Luke 1:38)

      Iam the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word" (Luke 1:38). Human history was forever changed when Mary spoke those words. They came from a deep spiritual reservoir within the heart of a young Jewish girl who was in love with the God of her fathers—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Mary’s yes to her Lord is called the Fiat, which in Latin means let it be done.

      Mary’s Fiat was spoken from a heart filled with pure love for God. In a biblical context, heart is a word that means much more than the fleshy organ at the center of our chest cavity. It refers to our center, our core, the place where our deepest identity is rooted and from which our fundamental choices in life are made.

      Mary’s words proceeded from her heart, and it was a humble heart. This young woman was not full of herself, not self-protective, not cynical. She was, therefore, able to completely surrender herself in love, to love. Her initial assent to the angel Gabriel’s announcement reveals the very meaning of another biblical word: holy. Holiness is not about being religious or looking pious. It is about being selfless. Mary was holy. Her life shows us how to become holy too.

      In the original languages, the words in holy Scripture that were translated into the English word holy mean set apart or consecrated. They refer to people or things that are totally given over to God and His worship. If we want to be holy, we need to explore the meaning of these words and make them our own. In everyday language, these people or items involved in temple worship were entirely dedicated to God’s service. It is in that sense that we, too, are called to be set apart for the living God. We are to make a place for Him within ourselves and within the world. We are to bear His message through a lifestyle that radiates His love.

      It is only by embracing ideas of being set apart and consecrated that our own personal histories can be truly transformed. This happens through conversion, or metanoia, which means to change. Our hope for change, for becoming holy, is to open our lives to the One who is the source of all goodness and holiness. We are called to respond to His invitation, to say yes to a relationship with Him. This is what Mary’s Fiat is all about. In saying yes to God, as Mary did, we are able to discover the path to conversion, to holiness, to authentic spirituality.

      IN SAYING YES TO GOD, AS MARY DID, WE ARE ABLE TO DISCOVER THE PATH TO CONVERSION, TO HOLINESS, TO AUTHENTIC SPIRITUALITY.

      Our call to embrace the Fiat and to make it ours is not a formula for easy spiritual growth, nor is it the first in a series of steps that lead to solving the problems of life. The Fiat is not the answer to a riddle or the meaning behind some mystery. Bookstores are filled with how-to books. This is not one of them.

      The spiritual life is a path, a way, and it involves a continuing, ongoing walk with the Lord. He has invited each of us into an intimate, personal exchange of love. This kind of intimacy with a living, loving God is the interior meaning of Mary’s Fiat, her Magnificat, and her way of life. When we embrace Mary’s Song and make it our own, we allow the One whom Mary bore in her body to be incarnated in and through us too.

      Each of us can say yes to God. Each of us can respond with our entire being, with a Fiat of surrendered love. When we do so, our positive response marks the beginning of our participation in the very life of the God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We become sons and daughters of the Most High and enter into the life of the living God. In Him, we find our deepest identity, our real selves, through our participation in the One who made us, who redeems us, and who transforms us by His continual grace. Our holiness comes through touching the holy God, through being filled with His life and

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