Catholic Radio Dramas

The Whole World Awaits Mary’s Reply

From a Homily in praise of the Virgin Mother by Saint Bernard, abbot (1090-1153)

The Whole World Awaits Mary’s Reply

Narrated by Frank Dugan, Huntington Beach, California

You have heard, O Virgin, that you will conceive and bear a son; you have heard that it will not be by man but by the Holy Spirit. The angel awaits an answer; it is time for him to return to God who sent him. We too are waiting, O Lady, for your word of compassion; the sentence of condemnation weighs heavily upon us.

The price of our salvation is offered to you. We shall be set free at once if you consent. In the eternal Word of God we all came to be, and behold, we die. In your brief response we are to be remade in order to be recalled to life.

Tearful Adam with his sorrowing family begs this of you, O loving Virgin, in their exile from Paradise. Abraham begs it, David begs it. All the other holy patriarchs, your ancestors, ask it of you, as they dwell in the country of the shadow of death. This is what the whole earth waits for, prostrate at your feet. It is right in doing so, for on your word depends comfort for the wretched, ransom for the captive, freedom for the condemned, indeed, salvation for all the sons of Adam, the whole of your race.

Answer quickly, O Virgin. Reply in haste to the angel, or rather through the angel to the Lord. Answer with a word, receive the Word of God. Speak your own word, conceive the divine Word. Breathe a passing word, embrace the eternal Word.

Why do you delay, why are you afraid? Believe, give praise, and receive. Let humility be bold, let modesty be confident. This is no time for virginal simplicity to forget prudence. In this matter alone, O prudent Virgin, do not fear to be presumptuous. Though modest silence is pleasing, dutiful speech is now more necessary. Open your heart to faith, O blessed Virgin, your lips to praise, your womb to the Creator. See, the desired of all nations is at your door, knocking to enter. If he should pass by because of your delay, in sorrow you would begin to seek him afresh, the One whom your soul loves. Arise, hasten, open. Arise in faith, hasten in devotion, open in praise and thanksgiving. Behold, the handmaid of the Lord, she says, be it done to me according to your word.

Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of Readings

Saint Bernard was born in 1090 near Dijon in France to devout parents of the highest nobility of Burgundy. After a religious upbringing, he joined the Cistercians in 1111 and later was chosen abbot of the monastery of Clairvaux. There he directed his companions in the practice of virtue by his own good example. Because of various schisms which had arisen in the Church, Bernard traveled throughout Europe restoring peace and unity. He wrote numerous theological and spiritual works.

He had a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and it was said of him that no one spoke more sublimely of the Queen of Heaven. He developed close friendships with contemporaries and even popes. The passing of Pope Eugenius was one whom he considered his greatest friend and consoler. Bernard died n 1153 at the age of sixty-thee, after forty years spent in the cloister.

Bernard founded one hundred and sixty-three monasteries in different parts of Europe; at his death they numbered three hundred and forty-three. He was the first Cistercian monk placed on the calendar of saints and was canonized by Pope Alexander III in 1174 and Pope Pius VIII declared him a Doctor of the Church.