Obedience Of Faith

by The Rosary Team

The fruit of this mystery is obedience to the law of God. This excerpt from a speech given by his excellency Archbishop Raymond Burke in Rome in October 2010 speaks of Mary's obedience to faith. This meditation could perfectly accompany all the Joyful Mysteries but is under this the fourth, because its fruit is obedience...

"The Blessed Virgin Mary lived perfectly the obedience of faith. At the Visitation, Elizabeth, her cousin described Mary's identity as Mother of the Redeemer with the words: 'Blessed is she who believed that the Lord's words to her would be fulfilled' (Lk 1:45). Mary's response to the announcement of the Archangel Gabriel expressed perfectly the disposition of total obedience, which marked her soul: 'I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word' (Lk 1:37-38). Mary's response is the model of our daily response to God's will in our lives, which the Church's Magisterium teaches to us. The last words of our Blessed Mother, recorded in the Gospel, are the summary of her maternal instruction to us. When the wine stewards at the Wedding Feast of Cana approached her, seeking her help, she directed them to the Son of God, her Son, with the counsel: 'Do whatever He tells you' (Jn 2:5). Obeying her maternal counsel, the wine stewards witnessed the first miracle during the public ministry of Jesus.

Faith is, first of all, 'personal adherence of man to God' (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 150). When we believe all that God has revealed to us, we place all our trust in Him, in His Providence. Such trust can be placed in God alone. Faith in God the Father and total trust in His promises is clearly faith in Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son, and in the Holy Spirit Who dwells with us always in the Church (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, nn. 151-152). Our Lord Jesus Christ makes us one with Him in doing all that the Father asks of us by pouring forth into our souls the sevenfold gift of the Holy Spirit; the grace of the Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to know God's will and to do it with courage. The sevenfold gift of the Holy Spirit produces in our souls a sevenfold disposition which may be described as the obedience of faith.

The moral life flows from our faith in God. It is the 'obedience of faith' in action."

-Archbishop Raymond Burke

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