35th Anniversary
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
On this day we are celebrating the Feast of the Mother of God, and this particular icon, the Mother of God, the Joy of All Canada. It is important for us on this day, and on all days especially when we are remembering the Mother of God to understand that she is our example of the Church. She is the example of how a Christian is supposed to live. When the Saviour has said earlier during the time of the Gospel reading that the one who is His Mother or brother or sister or a member of His family is the one who does the will of God or hears the Word of God, and keeps it, He was exactly talking about His Mother.
He is also talking about you and me. If we are going to be Christians, if we are going to be pleasing to the Lord, and if we are going to be hoping to have life in the Kingdom with Him, then our life has to be about hearing the Word of God, and keeping it. That does not mean holding on to it tightly. It means doing something with it. It means doing something about it, living our lives in accordance with the Gospel. It means forming our lives after the love, and the service of our Saviour, forming our lives under the protection of the Mother of God, who is our perfect example.
The Lord calls you and me to be like Him so that we can really become our true selves. We can only be our real selves when we are in harmony with Him, when our lives are completely found in Him, and our lives are completely lived in Him. Then we are our true selves. When we are going some other way, we are a caricature of ourselves. We are a shadow of ourselves. We are distorted, and we are dark. The only way we can be alive and bright is to be in Christ, and to be following the example of the life of the Mother of God.
Brothers and sisters, let us ask the Mother of God to intercede for us, to pray for us, to protect us under her veil, to meet us in her love for her Son, and to encourage us on our path following her Son. May our lives be pleasing to Him, and to her, therefore, and under her protection may our lives become fruitful like hers, strong like hers, joyful like hers, peaceful like hers, and in every way glorifying the all-holy Trinity : the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.