Categories: uncategorized
Date: 01 February 2008 11:17:34
I read a raaaaaather long testimony about a man's coming to Orthodoxy, with his wife eventually joining him. It was quite a stressful situation for him to want to be in the Orthodox church, while his wife did not. He had gone to a monastery and while there, borrowed a book of prayers to Mary.
By prayer it means asking for Mary to pray for you, in the way you'd ask a friend to pray for you. In Orthodoxy the veil between life and death is quite thin. If we believe in eternal life, then we know the saints who have died are alive on the other side of death. They have new life. They are alive and cheering us on to finish our race.
It was the first time he'd asked for Mary's prayers before, but it felt right to be asking a woman to understand his wife's difficulties and to pray for her.
When he returned from his time away, his wife did agree for the first time to attend church with him for Mother's day. It was a few more years before she joined the Orthodox church.
I remembered this story when I was recently quite worried about my mother's reaction to my choices. I'd spent a day and a half praying about it, with absolutely no peace. I couldn't work out what the right course of action was. I couldn't work out what I was supposed to pray. I couldn't work out where I was wrong, what I needed to change or confess, or say. I felt guilty and dishonest, and I was trying to work out ways to fudge the truth so she wouldn't react badly to me.
Remembering this man's testimony, I decided to ask for Mary's prayers. She was a mother. She would understand surely. I don't know what I said, probably looked down at the ground and mubbled half sentences like, "Help! What am I going to do?" while refusing to make eye contact or say her name, all the time wondering what I was doing.
I felt so much better then. I felt like she was saying, "don't worry, it will be fine. Everything will be worked out." It felt good and right to talk to a woman about a woman, a mother about a mother. I relaxed, stopped worrying, and everything was fine with my mum.
I've spent years being told, believing and probably telling others that people worship Mary, that I don't need to pray to Mary 'cos I can go straight to the boss, and generally considering the woman God chose to raise Jesus to be nothing more than a young girl who happened to have a miraculous pregnancy. At very least, it's quite rude to Jesus to treat his mother that way.