MARY @ FACEBOOK

Our world is becoming very progressive and developed on account of the technological innovations and extremely compact mechanized equipments. You can perform any possible activity at the click of a button. We religious are active participants of the technologies in this fast paced world. We are heading towards becoming ‘techno savvy’ to make creative use of different communications for our mission. Quite a few of us are on gmail, facebook, orkut, yahoo, etc. The breaking news for all of you is that Mary too is on Facebook.


Yes you got me right. It sounds bizarre, but Mary is also into social networking and blogging. Well, Mary’s got an ID, a password, her wall and her profile, she invites friends and confirms them and a blogspot where people read the stuff and enter in their comments. The only idea we need to keep in mind is that MARY @ FACEBOOK - and that’s her ID - is not so much virtual, but personal. I’d say it’s very, very personal.


You send an invitation to Mary and be sure she will confirm you as a friend. Mary neither refuses nor blocks anyone from being her friend. The angel Gabriel sent an invitation to Mary when he greeted her in God’s name and gave her her vocation. The option was placed before her to accept or not, the call to be a part of God’s mission. She listened to God’s Word and accepted it in faith. She confirmed God’s will and confirmed God as her friend through her yes. She also confirmed John- and therefore the whole of humanity- as her sons and daughters. At the various apparitions Mary confirms as her friends Juan Diego, Bernadette, Lucia, Jacinta and many others.


Once Mary confirms you as her friend she extends to you her help personally. We see her gesture of solidarity when she reaches out to Elisabeth and helps her. Her availability, promptness and affectionate assistance remains a womanly delicacy of all times. Mary’s visit speaks about a charity which seeks out those in need, stays close to them and assists them with zealous care.



The most essential part of MARY @ FACEBOOK is that the face of Jesus is always on the book of Mary. There is necessarily a wall to wall correspondence between Jesus and Mary. There nothing else on Mary’s wall but Jesus, His Word, His Good News and His loving mercy. Mary is present and active in the purpose of giving Jesus to humans or disposing their hearts to receive Him. Her role as helper continues even greater after her Assumption. She writes in bold ‘Do Whatever He Tells You’ – because this alone will bring us eternal joy and eternal happiness. She wouldn’t say this, I believe, until she had already practiced it. But I reiterate the fact that on Mary’s wall, Jesus and only Jesus is the centre of attraction.
Another aspect which is quite logical and cogent is that the face of Mary is found on the book of Jesus. When Jesus was on the cross, He gave all of us Mary as our Mother. “Behold your Mother”, He said. Mary who sees the glorification of Jesus on the cross and His Resurrection is asked to be the intercessor and source of hope for our eternal life. Elisabeth’s exclamation - “Blessed are you among women” - is not so much in Mary’s triumph but more a recognition of the greatness of God in her life. We can be in frequent contact with Jesus if we are linked with Mary.


To this extent, Mary had and has a whole lot of followers on her blog. The first is our Father and Founder, Don Bosco who lived his entire life under the spell of Mary. She was his wise teacher and guide without whom all wisdom is foolishness. All of us are convinced of his comment about Mary – Pray to Mary and you will see what miracles are. The Church whose task is to bring Jesus to all people just like Mary did, is also a follower of Mary. The Church acknowledges Mary’s divine role through the dogmas and prays to Mary as a powerful intercessor. Great saints like St. Augustine, St. Ligouri, St. Montfort, St. Bernard, St. Theresa of Avila and many others imitated Mary and responded to God’s call with great generosity. This was of course, not without the help of Mary and the grace of Jesus. The Litany of Our Lady is a set of comments on Mary’s blog.


Mary gives us the liberty to relate with Jesus personally through her own Facebook account. Her password is a simple four-lined Hail Mary. Difficult to remember. The beauty is that if you forget this password, there are umpteen others by which you can get across to her. This includes short invocatory prayers prayed with the sentiments of a son, like Mary help me, Mother pray for me to Jesus; or silent reading and pondering over verses in the Bible, or actively participating in community prayer moments or personal devotions to Mary. By such passwords in you heart, you will be able to talk very easily to Jesus.


Therefore, dear friends, log on to MARY @ FACEBOOK anytime, anywhere, anyhow! Remember, you do not need any permission to access her because this social networking is free for all. This as I said earlier is not virtual but very personal. No one on earth can ever block us from Mary. Through her, we can be easily mailed to Jesus. Let us log on to MARY @ FACEBOOK, imitate her and our faces will ever remain on the book of Jesus, our Lord.

I kind of liked this and so with the permission of the brother CL. Bosco Carvalho, sdb I am posting it on the blog.