{"id":26178,"date":"2025-12-02T09:53:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T14:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=26178"},"modified":"2025-12-02T10:13:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T15:13:15","slug":"mary-and-the-power-of-yes-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=26178","title":{"rendered":"Mary and the Power of Yes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Francesca Battistelli - Be Born in Me (MARY) (Slideshow With Lyrics) - Music Video\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DQ8P9fdUMso?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Responding to God\u2019s Yes<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>Tuesday, December 2, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Richard Rohr&nbsp;envisions&nbsp;our yeses as&nbsp;a&nbsp;response&nbsp;to God\u2019s first yes to&nbsp;us.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have in Mary\u2019s story what some call the second creation story in the Bible.&nbsp;It\u2019s&nbsp;a creation seemingly \u201cout of nothing.\u201d Mary is the one quite willing to be \u201cnothing.\u201d God&nbsp;doesn\u2019t&nbsp;need worthiness ahead of time; God creates worthiness by the choice itself. As&nbsp;I\u2019ve&nbsp;often said, God&nbsp;doesn\u2019t&nbsp;love us because we are good; we are good because God loves us.&nbsp;It seems God&nbsp;will not come into the world unreceived&nbsp;or&nbsp;uninvited. <strong>God does not come into the world unless we want God<\/strong>. <strong>God offers the Divine Presence, \u201cthe banquet,\u201d but presence itself is a reciprocal concept. God is the eternal \u201cI\u201d&nbsp;waiting&nbsp;for those willing to be a \u201cThou.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s&nbsp;no surprise that Mary became the icon of prayer for so many in Orthodox and Catholic Christianity, and in many religious orders, even though the Bible never once mentions her \u201cpraying.\u201d The closest is that lovely line in Luke: \u201cShe treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart\u201d (Luke 2:19, 51). Why? <strong>Because every time we pray,&nbsp;it\u2019s&nbsp;God in us telling us to pray. We&nbsp;wouldn\u2019t&nbsp;even desire to pray except for God in us.&nbsp;I<\/strong>t\u2019s&nbsp;God in us that loves God, that desires God, that seeks God (see Romans 8:14\u201327).<strong> Every time we choose God on some level, God has in the&nbsp;previous nanosecond just chosen us, and we have somehow allowed ourselves to be chosen\u2014and responded back (John 15:16).&nbsp;194-195<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We&nbsp;don\u2019t&nbsp;know how to say yes by ourselves. We just \u201csecond the motion\u201d!&nbsp;<em>There is a part of&nbsp;us, the&nbsp;Holy Spirit within,&nbsp;that has always said yes to God.&nbsp;<\/em>God first says \u201cyes\u201d inside of us,&nbsp;and we say, \u201cOh yeah,\u201d thinking it comes from us.&nbsp;In other words, <strong>God rewards us for letting God reward us. That<\/strong> <strong>is&nbsp;worth&nbsp;noticing,&nbsp;maybe even&nbsp;for the rest of our lives<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Are we ever&nbsp;completely&nbsp;ready&nbsp;to echo God\u2019s&nbsp;\u201cyes\u201d? Probably not, but I am convinced that the struggle is good and even necessary. Struggle carves out the space within us for deep desire. G<\/strong>od both creates the desire and fulfills it. <strong>Our job is to be the&nbsp;desiring.&nbsp;For God to work in our lives, our&nbsp;<em>fiat<\/em>, like Mary\u2019s \u201cLet it be done unto me, according to your word\u201d (Luke 1:3<\/strong>8), is still essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>We all find ourselves with this surprising ability to love God and to&nbsp;desire&nbsp;love from God, often for no&nbsp;reason in particular. That&nbsp;doesn\u2019t&nbsp;happen every day, truly, but hopefully arises more often as we learn<\/strong> <strong>to trust and rest in life<\/strong>. <strong>Moments of unconditional love&nbsp;sort of slip&nbsp;out of&nbsp;us&nbsp;and no one is more surprised when they happen. <\/strong>But when they do, we always know we are living inside of a Larger Life than our own. <strong>We know, henceforth, that our life is not about us, but we are about God.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>_______________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Jesus Calling: December 2<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I AM the Prince of Peace. As I said to My disciples, I say also to you: Peace be with you. Since I am your constant Companion. My Peace is steadfastly with you. <strong>When you keep your focus on Me, you experience both My Presence and My Peace. Worship Me as King of kings, Lord of lords, and Prince of Peace.<\/strong><br>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;You need My Peace each moment to accomplish My purposes in your life. Sometimes you are tempted to take shortcuts, in order to reach your goal as quickly as possible. But if the shortcut requires turning your back on My peaceful Presence, you must choose the longer route. Walk with Me along paths of Peace, enjoy the journey in My Presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RELATED SCRIPTURE:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Isaiah 9:6 (NLT)<\/strong><br><strong><em>6<\/em>&nbsp;For a child is born to us,<\/strong><br><strong>&nbsp; &nbsp; a son is given to us.<\/strong><br><strong>The government will rest on his shoulders.<\/strong><br><strong>&nbsp; &nbsp; And he will be called:<\/strong><br><strong>Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,<\/strong><br><strong>&nbsp; &nbsp; Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additional insight regarding Isaiah 9:2-6: In a time of great darkness, God promised to send a light who would shine on everyone living in the shadow of death. He is both &#8220;Wonderful Counselor&#8221; and &#8220;Mighty God.&#8221; This message of hope was fulfilled in the birth of Christ and the establishment of his eternal kingdom. He came to deliver all people from their slavery to sin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>John 20:19-21 (NLT)<\/strong><br><strong>Jesus Appears to His Disciples<\/strong><br><strong>19 That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! \u201cPeace be with you,\u201d he said. 20 As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! 21 Again he said, \u201cPeace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Psalm 25:4 (NLT)<\/strong><br>4 Show me the right path, O Lord;<br>&nbsp; &nbsp; point out the road for me to follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Responding to God\u2019s Yes Tuesday, December 2, 2025 Richard Rohr&nbsp;envisions&nbsp;our yeses as&nbsp;a&nbsp;response&nbsp;to God\u2019s first yes to&nbsp;us. We have in Mary\u2019s story what some call the second creation story in the Bible.&nbsp;It\u2019s&nbsp;a creation seemingly \u201cout of nothing.\u201d Mary is the one quite willing to be \u201cnothing.\u201d God&nbsp;doesn\u2019t&nbsp;need worthiness ahead of time; God creates worthiness by the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26178"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26178"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26182,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26178\/revisions\/26182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}