MANRESANS HONOR THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY 

 

 

          Manresans joined the whole Mother Church in celebrating the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary. To honor God’s work in her is in fact a unique way of praising and being grateful for the one great gift that God has conferred to humankind. With this, the faculty, staff and students commemorated this event with special love and contemplation on the special and significant role of the Blessed Mother in the history of human salvation. Varied activities were prepared during that day which made the celebration more meaningful. In the classrooms, the students decorated their own altar and brought fresh flowers for the Blessed mother as they contemplatively did the paraliturgy focusing on her exemplar virtues- her simplicity, obedience and humility.

          Mary explicitly practiced simplicity in her ways without posturing any pretension or ambitious concern to be exalted as what is mirrored in her “Magnificat”, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, My spirit exalts in God my Savior, for He has looked with mercy on my lowliness”… As regards obedience, her total response of “YES” to God’s invitation to become the mother of Jesus, the Son of God attests to it. Trust and faith to the will of God overpowered her nothingness thus she has become great in the eyes of God. Yet despite of this greatness, she remained humble in accepting her mission that to become the servant of God, who will devote her whole life to only Son of God, the incarnated Jesus and also to become our own mother.

 

          Moreover, the deepening of these virtues was done in the afternoon as the administration, faculty and staff had their own paraliturgy. They were made to remember the four dogmas of Mary proclaimed by the Church namely: (1) Mary the Mother of God, (2) The Virginity of Mary, (3) The Immaculate Conception, and (4) The Assumption. For every dogma, they were asked to meditate on and pray for some special intentions particularly that of the Holy Father. The air was filled with an ambiance of true prayer and worship as every one listened with love and respect to the sharers who generously shared their life and faith- they recalled their experiences with their own mothers, their struggles as mothers and connecting all these with their experiences of Mary as to how she has concretely become their own mothers too.