The Blessed Virgin Mary was a woman of prayer. Her prayerful words are contained in the Gospels. Other mystical writings, such as “The Mystical City of God,” also give a glimpse into the interior and spiritual life of Our Lady. The Nov. 21 memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Temple emphasizes Mary’s youthful and prayerful years in the Temple, where she heard the Old Testament proclaimed and preached and spent time in the presence of God, which prepared her to become the dwelling place of the Most High. Her presentation was an elongated Advent by which, as the Immaculate Virgin, she drew closer to God. Her years in the Temple are akin to the priest’s seminary years, a time of preparation for the task to which God has called us. The interior and prayer life of Mary can now be mirrored in us, as we attempt to pray as she prayed and imitate her life of discipleship.

The fiat of Our Lady, rendered after the announcement of the archangel Gabriel reminds us of our ad sum of ordination day. For Our Lady, she had been chosen for this moment. God spared her of original sin in anticipation of her fiat. Mary’s words, “May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38), exemplify her willingness to allow God’s will to be done in her life.

For Mary, she had a plan for what her life would look like. Vowed to virginity, she was betrothed to Joseph, and the couple had their wishes for the future. The message of the archangel changed everything. She allowed God to interrupt the plans for her life, and, further, she did not know what that yes entirely meant.

Mary’s fiat for the priest is allowing God to interrupt our day or life. It’s following the promptings and movements of God in life, not knowing what will happen, but trusting the plan of God is better than our plan.

Canticles of Our Priesthood

Each evening at vespers, we recite the words of Mary from the Visitation and make her prayer our own. Our lauds, vespers and compline contain canticles that Mary said or witnessed. If Elizabeth was already six months pregnant and Mary remained with her for three months, she witnessed the birth of John the Baptist. She heard the mute Zechariah praise God, and she knew that the mighty Savior was the infant in her womb. When the Holy Family presented Jesus in the Temple, Mary witnessed the Canticle of Simeon. We can enter into the interior life of Our Lady by contemplating how she prayed with those canticles after they were proclaimed. Our Lady was present. What was her interior response?

One of my takeaways from reading my book “The Mystical City of God in a Year” as a podcast was the holy conversations Mary had with people in her life. This was especially true for the three months she spent with Elizabeth. The two conversed and talked about the things of God. Her journeys to Egypt also prompted conversations. She would bring the fruit of those conversations to her prayer afterward. Our priestly life is about holy conversations with the People of God. Like Our Lady, we can pray with those conversations and bring our needs and concerns before God.

Listening to Jesus

The loss of Jesus and the finding of Jesus in the Temple reminds us that Mary listened to her son throughout his life. Mary asks Jesus why he worried them. Jesus responded that he was about his Father’s business. At another point in the public life of Jesus, she would hear Jesus speak about the eschatological family (cf. Mark 3:31-35). Mary is one who truly did hear the word of God and put it into practice. She listened to Jesus. At the close of the account concerning finding Jesus, we are told that Mary keeps or treasures these things in her heart. She listened and continued to return to it in her prayer. At the wedding feast of Cana, Mary instructs the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them to do. Not only did she listen, but now she instructs others to listen, too.

Listening was a part of her interior life; and for the priest, too, we must listen to the voice of Jesus who speaks in the Gospels and the voice of Jesus who speaks interiorly to us in our prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. It is in this silence that Jesus speaks to us. Like Mary, we listen and then sit with the words of Jesus, processing and treasuring them in our priestly heart.

The interior life of Mary was about noticing and then acting. The classic example of this in the Scriptures is the event at Cana. Mary sees a shortage of wine and brings it to the attention of Jesus. She pleads for the couple, that they might be spared embarrassment.

Mary’s apparitions also contain an element of pleading. She tells Adele Brise in Champion, Wisconsin, that she is Queen of Heaven, who prays for the conversion of sinners, and she invites Adele to do the same. Mary pleads for sinners and their conversions. She told the Fatima children to plead for peace by praying the Rosary.

The heart of Mary prays for others and their intentions. The priestly heart knows the sufferings of the people he serves and consequently can lift them up in petitionary prayer.

A Hopeful Mourning

After the crucifixion of Jesus, and his being taken down from the cross and placed in the tomb, Mary waits with the apostles in the upper room. Mary listened to Jesus throughout her entire life and heard him talk about his death and forthcoming resurrection.

In the Discovery+ film “Resurrection,” a powerful scene has Mary telling the apostles to wait three days. She had hope even in her mourning. That hope characterized her interior life and processing of death.

The priest is faced with death when called to administer the anointing of the sick and the apostolic pardon, or through the celebration of the funeral liturgies. The hope of Mary must become the priest’s hope when praying for the dead and consoling the bereaved.

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Hail Holy Queen

Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, / our life, our sweetness and our hope. / To thee do we cry, / poor banished children of Eve. / To thee do we send up our sighs, / mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. / Turn then, most gracious advocate, / thine eyes of mercy toward us, / and after this our exile / show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. / O clement, O loving, / O sweet Virgin Mary.

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After the ascension of Jesus into heaven, Mary was without the bodily presence of Jesus. She, who carried him in her womb and spent 33 years with him, now could only encounter him through the Eucharistic celebrations of the early Church. After the institution of the holy Eucharist, Mary would have gathered with the apostles who continued to celebrate the Last Supper in remembrance of him. One could easily spend time meditating on the very first holy Communion of Our Lady, perhaps from the hand of St. John. What was that moment of communion with Jesus like for her? Her ongoing receptions of holy Communion would bring her union with her son this side of heaven. Part of her interior life was her thanksgiving and complete union with Jesus through the Blessed Sacrament. Through the celebration of the Mass, Mary stands by the priest, just as she stood by Jesus’ cross on Calvary. She is maternally present at the Mass.

A priest can enter into Mary’s union with Jesus through the Eucharist. First by her union with Jesus at the foot of the cross and second by meditating on her reception of the Eucharist. Mary’s example can deepen our priestly (comm)union with Jesus.

Mary Beholds Her Priest Sons

John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus told Mary to behold her son and for John to behold his mother. Jesus entrusted his priest and apostle to the care of Mary, and Mary to his care. Our Lady would have beheld John in a spiritual sense. She looked at John and must have thought, “He is now my son.” She cared about him and was concerned about him.

Mary now beholds us, her priest sons. She looks at each one of us and sees her son in us. She looks at each one of us and sees our needs. She looks at each one of us and pleads to her son on our behalf.

The priest might have no wine, but instead of the metaphoric wine, it might be no hope, no joy or no energy. Mary looks at her priest son and pleads to Jesus, “He has no hope; he is exhausted.” In her pleading, she wants Jesus to dispense grace to the priest through her hands. Where this is despair, he might have hope. Where there is sadness, he might find joy. When he is tired, he might be rejuvenated. Mary’s interior life can speak to the priestly heart and transform one’s ministry when imitated. Her life of prayer models prayer for us and what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

FATHER EDWARD LOONEY is a priest of the Diocese of Green Bay and holds a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the University of St. Mary of the Lake. He is the author of several Marian devotionals including “How They Love Mary” (Sophia Institute Press), and is the president of the Mariological Society of America.