{"id":2587,"date":"2011-03-26T12:40:31","date_gmt":"2011-03-26T11:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/site2020.marieauxiliatrice.eu\/english\/prayer-space\/fiat-a-reflection-for-the-feast-of-the-annunciation\/"},"modified":"2011-03-26T12:40:31","modified_gmt":"2011-03-26T11:40:31","slug":"fiat-a-reflection-for-the-feast-of-the-annunciation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marieauxiliatrice.catholique.fr\/en\/prayer-space\/fiat-a-reflection-for-the-feast-of-the-annunciation\/","title":{"rendered":"Fiat: A Reflection for the Feast of the Annunciation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The pain of letting go<\/p>\n


\n\"chemin.jpg\" [|I leaned against the door and watched him<\/p>\n

striding purposefully down the road <\/p>\n

away from home, away from me.<\/p>\n

Before he turned the corner, he stood<\/p>\n

and waved a last farewell.<\/p>\n

I saw him through a haze of tears<\/p>\n

then turned slowly back into my kitchen. <\/p>\n

The remains of our last meal together <\/p>\n

were still on the table. <\/p>\n

I sat by the fire his hands <\/p>\n

had coaxed into life one last time<\/p>\n

with sure and gentle movements <\/p>\n

\"St_Joseph-Epernay.jpg\"that never failed to bring Joseph<\/p>\n

back to life for me again.<\/p>\n

Joseph from whom our son had learnt<\/p>\n

most all he knew of life and work and of the world<\/p>\n

but most of all about goodness, honesty and integrity.<\/p>\n

Joseph had gone from us these many years.<\/p>\n

I missed him still; his strength and steadfastness<\/p>\n

had always been like solid walls <\/p>\n

keeping me safe from fear and strong<\/p>\n

before the awesomeness of being <\/p>\n

the mother of God’s Son. <\/p>\n

Jesus had done his best to take his place,<\/p>\n

growing to manhood suddenly,<\/p>\n

working all the harder to provide for us.<\/p>\n

And now he too is gone and I am alone<\/p>\n

with only memories, the dying embers<\/p>\n

and the scrubbed table waiting to be cleared.<\/p>\n

Now there was no messenger to ask <\/p>\n

for my consent; none was needed.<\/p>\n

I knew that letting my son go his own way<\/p>\n

responding to the Father’s voice within<\/p>\n

was just another part of that first “yes”,<\/p>\n

and that it would continue thus, <\/p>\n

in joy and pain, in pride and fear<\/p>\n

as I watch him move forward<\/p>\n

towards the fulfilment of a life that can be <\/p>\n

nothing other than total surrender<\/p>\n

to Him from whom he came<\/p>\n

and to whom he will one day return<\/p>\n

\"ombre_croix-cloche.jpg\"And I am lonely for him and fearful too. <\/p>\n

But I must continue to live my “yes”<\/p>\n

and reach out in faith and trust<\/p>\n

to his destiny and mine.<\/p>\n

I must let the fire he kindled die down<\/p>\n

and clear away the traces of our last meal together.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow, I<\/em> will set and light the fire.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow I will eat alone<\/p>\n

and listen to the unaccustomed silence.<\/p>\n

I will wait in readiness for the next sign<\/p>\n

and hold myself open and pray for strength<\/p>\n

to embrace his future and mine,<\/p>\n

accepting it, a gracious gift<\/p>\n

from the Father who claims him<\/p>\n

as his beloved Son.|]<\/p>\n

[\/Mary O’Dea\/]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The pain of letting go<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2579,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prayer-space"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marieauxiliatrice.catholique.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marieauxiliatrice.catholique.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marieauxiliatrice.catholique.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marieauxiliatrice.catholique.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marieauxiliatrice.catholique.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.marieauxiliatrice.catholique.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marieauxiliatrice.catholique.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marieauxiliatrice.catholique.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marieauxiliatrice.catholique.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marieauxiliatrice.catholique.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}