Every year, the General Council of the Shalom Catholic Community gathers in the “Listening” retreat where we listen to the Lord and thus discern His will for the community. Through prophetic inspirations, God instructs, sanctifies, directs and feeds the members of the community on the missionary path.
In the year 2021 the Lord have revealed us an image that impressed us a lot: “The image was that of the Eucharistic Spouse coming out of the Diaconia (shalom headquarters) chapel and forming a great procession behind Him. Behind the Eucharistic Jesus, we could see the Virgin Mary, the All Little One. This image was constantly with us during the Listening Retreat. The Virgin with her mantle covering the whole procession, all those people, a crowd full of joy and praise.”
In this article we want to better explain the meditation and deepening of this image and in a special way the way in which the Virgin appeared to us: The All Little One
The little one who knows the way to heaven
In the image of the procession, Mary goes one step behind the Eucharistic Jesus and the numerous people: celibates, priests, families, young people, children, wounded and healthy people follow her towards the Father. An important detail is that Mary, the All Little One, the smallest, is in front of the whole town. We can ask ourselves: how is it possible that such a small creature, even hidden, is in this place? Wouldn’t she “disappear” in the crowd? Wouldn’t it become imperceptible in the midst of so much movement?
To understand this apparent contradiction we must enter into the evangelical mentality. From the good news ministered to the poor, which lifts the poor from the rubbish heap and makes the poor feel among the nobles (cf. Ps 113,8), which does not worry about tomorrow but trusts entirely in the Father (cf. Mt 6,36), who does not cling to his condition but empties himself (cf. Phil 2,7), who rejoices knowing that the great secrets of the Father have been revealed to the little ones (cf. Lk 10,21).
This procession has a clear and well-defined route: Jesus passes through the world redeeming all humanity and travels towards Heaven, towards the Father and we are with him:
“The Son leaves this world, redeems all humanity and raises it to the Father by introducing all the people who participate in the procession to the four corners of the earth.”
We are taken to the Father, to his Kingdom, to Eternal Life, but to enter the Father’s house, Jesus gives very specific guidelines and is sometimes very emphatic: “Children, how difficult it is to enter the Kingdom of Heaven! easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God” (Mk 10:25). On this arduous path through the narrow gate it is necessary to become poor, because if it is impossible for the rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, God must make us poor and small.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5,3), to the little ones, to the smallest, to children (cf. Mt 19,14) belongs to the kingdom of heaven. To many saints the Lord has revealed this way, that he is able to win their loving hearts. Mary, the All Little and mother of the little ones, walks at the head of this procession, because she par excellence knew, experienced and incarnated this path of littleness, which leads to the Father and gives her possession of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Following her footsteps
Let’s go! Let’s go towards Heaven following in the footsteps of the Little One, who like the dawn signals the coming Day! Like Saint Bernard, we want to invoke Mary’s protection and make good use of her prayer. To do this, it is necessary “not to forget that we must follow in the footsteps of Mary.”
Mary, a young girl from a small village, with a simple life, in her humility attracted the gaze of the Almighty.
Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, speaking of Mary in the mystery of the Incarnation, says: “She remained so small, so hidden before God, in the secret of the Temple, that she attracted upon herself the graces of the Most Holy Trinity. Completely hidden in God , in her happiness as a loved creature, appeased in her limited condition, illuminated by Truth, inflamed by Charity, which is the face of humility, she was looked at by the Father who “bending over this creature so beautiful and so indifferent to his own beauty” made her the mother of His own Son.
The full of grace, the one who found the grace of God, admired by the angels, uniquely loved by God, house of gold, of incalculable honors and praises, but who found herself so perfectly humble that she never had to repress the slightest movement of pride or vanity.
In the Incarnation she said that she was the servant of the Lord and in the Magnificat she gives thanks to the Most High that He looked at her even though her diminutive condition, she worked in a hidden and simple way, in perfect modesty, in submission to the Law.
Mary’s great humility may seem meaningless and devastating to the pride of the degraded children of Eve. How many times do we waste time like the disciples who argue about who is the greatest? We demand and sometimes we even ask for the glories we want, we can even lose the time of our prayer and ask our Mother to choose our place in glory (cf. Mt 20, 20-28). When the Virgin Mary happily chose the last places as soon as she was invited to approach the King, as in the parable of the wedding banquet (Lk 14, 8-9).
The path of humility
May Mary teach us to walk in the footsteps of her humility, choosing the last place, the one where there is no dispute and where the Father secretly gives the reward that does not pass away. “What Mary could not find in herself, she finds in the One who is sovereign wealth.”
Mary, aware of her smallness and poverty, knew how to trust in God, her sovereignty and greatness could not scare her, because she did not keep any worldly glory in her heart, only the Glory of God! That is why an ancient song praises Mary as the one who gives humanity God’s clemency and humanity’s trust in God.
If at the beginning “man preferred himself to God” (cf. Gn 3,1-11), generating the imprint of mistrust and fear of God of original sin, through the path of humility and abasement lived by Christ and followed by Mary, it is possible to assume the freedom to trust, without restrictions, in Someone who is infinitely greater than oneself.
On this path to the Father, Mary comes to our aid as the health of the sick; How many testimonies can we give of the innumerable and providential cures throughout history obtained through her intercession, and not only for the healing of the body, but also to remedy the diseases of the soul. We also invoke her as a refuge for sinners, because she is their most holy mother, who hates sin, but welcomes and exhorts her children to repentance, helps them free themselves from bad habits and reconcile with God, since in her apparitions (Fatima , Lourdes) exhorts the world to the path of conversion.
Mary, the all little one, is also consolation and comfort of the afflicted, for “not only does she console the poor with the example of her poverty and with her help, but she is particularly attentive to our hidden poverty; she understands the secret poverty of our hearts and assists us. The Virgin Mary is also the help of Christians, how many testimonies can we give that a simple and small prayer of Hail Mary can save, a small prayer that fits anywhere, that can come out of any lip and transform any situation”.
Let us pray with Saint Ambrose “That the soul of Mary be in us to glorify the Lord; that the spirit of Mary be in us to rejoice in God our Savior, so that his kingdom may come to us through the fulfillment of his will”.