There have been such great changes in our way of thinking about Mary. Whereas in the past we had a lot of devotional practices. Today we are more focussed on a devotion that is expressed by the quality of our lives. We hope that when people see how we live. they will see in us the mark of Mary's life. This is a rich sense of devotion but without some special times of remembering it can become just a notion of our heads rather than a lived reality.
Follow this simple outline for a communal and family prayer using these reflections:
Communicate - Communicate with your family or community in prayer. Set up a space. Advise them ahead of time what you are doing together. Assign before you start what people will read.
Choose -Choose one of the reflection sections to use for the basis of the prayer.
Candle and Bell - Light the candle and ring the bell.
Sign of the Cross - In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Sing - Sing together the Salve Regina, recalling especially how it unites us to all Marists throughout the world, and all those Marists who have gone before us and those who will come after us.
Read - Have someone read the Gospel account of the Annunciation
Sing - Sing a hymn to Mary or recite together the Magnificat as a response.
Read the story - Read the phrase from the Annunciation story that is the focus of the reflection. Ask two or three other people to read one response each.
Sharing images or words - Ask other people gathered to share any words or images that stood out for them in the readings
Read - Have someone read again the Gospel account of the Annunciation.
Sharing connection to life - Ask if any others would like to share their own response to this phrase and how it connects with their life
Read - Have someone read again the Gospel account of the Annunciation.
Respond in prayer - Does the passage call you to respond in prayer? What prayers does this invoke in you?
Psalm - Recite together a Psalm (or any other prayer that you think suitable) that fits with the focus phrase from the Annunciation story
Psalm 139:1-18 O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.
Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night’, even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.
For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed. How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with you.
Hail Mary - Finish by reciting the Hail Mary.
Hail Mary, Full of Grace, The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Song - Bless the Lord
Sign of the Cross - In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Candle and Bell - Light the candle and ring the bell.
