NOTE: The new 2025 Mary journal I spoke about in this episode will be out in a few weeks at Advent. Until then, you can download a free 2024 journal and guide page in the margin to the right.
I mentioned Unleashed in this re-released, vintage podcast from 2017, but the complete resource on LOVE the Word® is How to Pray Like Mary, available in the right margin, in which you’ll learn to approach Scripture and lectio divina with a more open and receptive disposition versus a checklist mentality.
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Pope Francis called Mary the “mother of listening,” because she didn’t just hear God’s word (in our case read, also), she understood how to interpret it in light of her own relationships, circumstances, and habits. Pope Benedict XVI called Mary the “mother of prayer.” She is our model for listening to God by praying with Scripture in a way that incarnates it within us.
Modeled on the Annunciation, LOVE the Word® is lectio divina (sacred reading) without the Latin, a prayer method with Scripture that invites our Blessed Mother to guide us in her own personal “listening” practice: L – listen, O – observe, V – verbalize, E – entrust. We learn to listen to and hear God speak like Mary, from Mary. She teaches us to interpret the word we hear and read through the landscape of our lives.
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LOVE the Word® is a Bible study method based on Mary’s own practice: lectio without the Latin. Get the book based on Sonja’s method in the right margin, How to Pray Like Mary.
L | Listen (Receive the Word via audio or video.)
O | Observe (Connect the passage to your life and recent events.)
And the angel came to her and said, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
We’ll have to speculate here…How would you connect the angel’s visit to the word you received, and to Elizabeth’s pregnancy?
V | Verbalize (Pray about your thoughts and emotions.)
Remembering that He loves you and that you are in His presence, talk to God about the particulars of your O – Observe step. You may want to write your reflections in your LOVE the Word® journal. Or, get a free journal page and guide in the right-hand margin.
E | Entrust (Rest in the Word.)
“May it be done to me according to Your Word” (Luke 1:38).
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What We Discussed | Show Notes
“In an address in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis once compared our ability to hear the voice of God with that of the Blessed Mother and her kinswoman Elizabeth.
‘What gave rise to Mary’s act of going to visit her relative Elizabeth? A word of God’s angel. “Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son . . .” (Lk 1:36). Mary knew how to listen to God. Be careful: it was not merely “hearing” a superficial word, but it was “listening,” that consists of attention, acceptance and availability to God. It was not in the distracted way with which we sometimes face the Lord or others: we hear their words, but we do not really listen. Mary is attentive to God. She listens to God.
‘However Mary also listens to the events, that is, she interprets the events of her life, she is attentive to reality itself and does not stop on the surface but goes to the depths to grasp its meaning. Her kinswoman Elizabeth, who is already elderly, is expecting a child: this is the event. But Mary is attentive to the meaning. She can understand it: “with God nothing will be impossible” (Lk 1:37).
‘This is also true in our life: listening to God who speaks to us, and listening also to daily reality, paying attention to people, to events, because the Lord is at the door of our life and knocks in many ways, he puts signs on our path; he gives us the ability to see them. Mary is the mother of listening, of attentive listening to God and of equally attentive listening to the events of life (emphasis added)’” (Unleashed & How To Pray Like Mary, Sonja Corbitt).
Overview:
Minutes 00:00-12:00 – how to hear God speak; listening to God with LOVE the Word®; what is LOVE the Word®; why should we LOVE the Word®
Minutes 12:01-24:00 – “mother of listening”; the Mary journal; lost files, dead computers, and tornadoes; Pope Francis’ sermon from Unleashed & How To Pray Like Mary; foreign films
Minutes 24:01-36:00 – how to begin; receiving versus information gathering; attention, acceptance and availability
Minutes 36:01-48:00 – Mary & Elizabeth; transparency = holy; L – listen, O – observe, V – verbalize, E – Entrust
Transcript
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