Mary Comes As We Need
In 2018 & 2019 I flew over 200,000 miles. I highly recommend NOT doing this, by the way.
From parish missions to diocesan youth conferences to teacher trainings to five trips abroad, I found myself jet setting more than I probably needed to be, off and on planes like it was literally my job.
I’m grateful that’s no longer our weekly reality. Just an occasional flight these days…
But during all that travel, I developed a bit of a habit of saying a quick “Hail, Mary” when I was walking down the jetbridge. “Keep us in the air, Momma…” was the heart of the prayer. So far, it’s worked.
I was asking for Mary’s intercession so much, I ended up writing a litany to the Blessed Mother. A “traveler’s litany” of sorts.
It wasn’t until last year that I learned my prayer to “Our Lady of the Jetbridge” would actually go nicely alongside a devotion to Our Lady of Loreto, the patroness of aviators and pilots. And while I’m certainly no pilot, I am spending time on the planes, so, loving her checks out…
The feast of Our Lady of Loreto comes wedged between The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, two very well known devotions to Mary. Our Lady of Loreto sort of gets sidelined.
But this feast is less to “a person” (or version of Mary appearing) and more to a place - specifically, Mary’s own house. The Basilica of Our Lady of Loreto is a gorgeous church in Italy where the home where Mary was born and where the Angel Gabriel appeared to her is kept. A building inside a building, where countless pilgrims go to pray for Mary’s intercession.
The story goes that angels brought the house through the sky to this town in Italy, though the more likely explanation is that an Italian family, the “Angelini” family, brought the house by boat. Either way, the legend of “the flying house of Mary” stuck, and now the town of Loreto, and Our Lady of Loreto, is the patroness of frequent flyers and the pilots who fly those planes.
Our Lady relates to us in the ways we need - how we can understand her, approach her, feel close to her… She, like Her Son, makes herself available to us, whether appearing as an indigenous woman in Mexico or someone we turn to while getting onto an airplane. Mary wants to grow close to us, so we can grow close to Her Son.
Our Lady of Loreto, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of the Jetbridge, pray for us…
Here’s a beautiful statute of Our Lady of Loreto that I have on my desk.
The Friday Five
Buying
Christmas Gift season is upon us, which means I’m in full “what do I give the teachers?!” mode. Look no further than Elizabeth Nava’s Hot Chocolate Recipe (and her awesome goodies on her Etsy shop).
Reading
Pope Benedict XVI’s Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives is my go-to Advent season spiritual read. Well worth the buy to add to your library.
Watching
HBO’s “The Newsroom” begins with a five minute tirade from the main character, Will McAvoy, about why America isn’t the greatest nation on earth anymore. I’m re-watching the show because it’s not only timely, but also sort of like a time capsule. Warning: lots of language. It’s an “after the kids are asleep” kind of show.
Listening To
Friend of the show, Matt Maher, has the best Christmas album you could hope for, because it also has Advent music. And, an accompanying kid’s book. Grab a copy here.
Learning About
There are a lot of words in 2021 that we’re probably mispronouncing. Here’s the definitive list to make you feel very “not hip.”