Children take after their parents; their parents' example teaches them how to be human.   The same thing goes for our spiritual life.
   In today's Second Reading, St Paul reminds us that through God's grace we have all become brothers and sisters of Christ and, therefore, children of God. This is what happened at baptism. At that moment we were born again, supernaturally; God infused his divine DNA into our souls. The spiritual life consists of the gradual spread and development of that DNA, until each one of us becomes a mature, wise, and fruitful follower of Jesus Christ.
   Today's Solemnity reminds us that if we have become Christ's spiritual brothers and sisters, we have also become spiritual children of Mary. She was his mother in the flesh, and she is our mother in grace. Just as we learn from our natural mothers how to be good human beings, so we learn from Mary how to become mature Christians. She is the living school where we learn every virtue that leads to happiness and holiness.
In today's Gospel she teaches us one of the most important virtues of all: wisdom. St Luke tells us how Mary responded to the wonderful things that God was doing in and around her: "Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart." Just as Mary's womb was open to receiving God's living Word at the moment of Christ's Incarnation, so her heart was constantly open to receiving God's ongoing words and messages as he continued to speak through the events of her life.
   This capacity and habit of reflecting in our heart on God's action in our lives is both a sign and a source of wisdom. We can never become mature, courageous, and joyful followers of Christ unless we develop it.
   St Bernard of Clairvaux was once traveling with a poor, uneducated farmer, who noticed that the abbot kept his eyes cast downward. When the farmer asked why the saint wasn't looking at the beautiful countryside, Bernard explained that he wanted to avoid distractions while praying.
   In response, the farmer boasted, "I'm never distracted when I pray." The saint objected, "I don't believe it. Now let me make a deal with you. If you can say the Our Father without one distraction, I'll give you this mule I'm riding. But if you don't succeed, you must come with me and be a monk."
   The farmer agreed and began praying aloud confidently, "Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name..." Then, after pausing for moment, he asked St Bernard, "Does that include the saddle and the bridle, too?"
   I think we can all relate to that. If we find ourselves fighting distractions when we try to pray, imagine what our interior chamber looks like when we're not trying to pray! Yet, unless we learn to keep our hearts open and clear, like the inside of a violin, we will never be able to grow up, spiritually speaking; we may have a good time being distracted by the glitter and noise of a consumer society, but we won't be growing in wisdom; and God's grace will never be able produce the music that our lives were meant to produce.
   Mary knows that it is hard to keep the clutter out of our hearts. We tend to get distracted by life's hustle and bustle, by the shiny things of the world, even though they aren't the most important things. She knows we need help learning how to reflect deeply on God's action in our lives, and she has given us that help.
   She has given us a tool for developing our interior life that has a 100% success rate. Everyone who has used this tool has come closer to God and grown in wisdom, courage, and joy. This tool was given by Mary in a vision to St Dominic in the thirteenth century. Since then it has been used successfully by illiterate peasants and cultured queens, popes and bishops, mothers and widows, sailors and soldiers. All of us know about it, but not enough of us use it. It's called the Rosary.
   The Rosary is a key letting us into Mary's heart, where we can sit with her, as if we were having a cup of tea together in her parlor, just the two of us. We sit and talk things over, letting Christ's light shine on the dark, cold corners of our mind and heart, and letting his grace heal and strengthen all that is wounded and weak in our lives and in the world.
   Our culture has a tradition of making a New Year's Resolution. Why not make the resolution to spend this year learning from our spiritual mother how to let God put order, peace, and wisdom into our lives, by "keeping all these things and reflecting on them in our hearts" through the Rosary. If we take even that small step closer to Christ, he will surely take a giant leap closer to us.