Note: On Tuesdays and some Sundays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
Hannah and Mary were divided by centuries… and much more.
Mary was a young girl, pregnant with a child under unusual circumstances shared with her by an angel. Talk about bewildering! Then, the significance of what was happening was reflected in the welcome she 
received from her relative Elizabeth. Hannah, the favored wife of Elkanah, was desperate to have a son, in no small part because of the torment inflicted on her by a sister wife. Hannah prayed so fervently for a son that it was thought she was drunk. The prayer was answered as she had hoped; she gave birth to a son they named Samuel (“Because I asked the Lord for him”), and as soon as he was weaned, left him to be reared at the temple as she had promised.
Despite the differences in their circumstances, the Lord’s generosity and trust in Mary and Hannah both responded in songs of rejoicing. Each was grateful and full of praise… even though both knew their sons ultimately belonged not to them, but to God. And isn’t that the case of the most ordinary of births and rebirths, even today? The child born to the wealthiest or most impoverished family; the teenager struggling with which prestigious college to attempt or how to stop an abusive behavior; the adult who summons up the courage to go to confession after a week or twenty years. We find true joy when we dedicate the lives of those we rear or of ourselves to God—today, tomorrow, and always.
{ 0 comments… add one now }