Many of us have lost touch with our identity as children of God. But it is precisely this childhood that Mary wants us to claim. She who offered an immaculate space for God to take on human flesh, wants to offer us also a space where we can be reborn as Jesus was born. With the same heart that she loved Jesus, she wants to love us too. It is a heart that will not make us wonder anxiously whether we are truly loved. It is a heart that has not been marred by the infidelities of the human race and so will never bring wounds to those who seek peace there. Jesus has given her to us so that she could guide us in our search for a second childhood, assist us as we try to shake off our sadness, and open the way to true inner peace.
Henri Nouwen (1932-1996)