Spirituality: “Pregnant with God” by Margaret Silf

Mary did what any of us might have done in her circumstances. She sought our solitude to think over all that was happening to her. She looked for a safe place where she would be welcomed and received, where she would be listened to as she told her amazing story. She went to find a friend who would be alongside her, as she processed the events that had placed her in this seemingly blessed and supremely vulnerable position. Mary set out to a nearby hill town, to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who was six months’ pregnant, even though everyone had thought she was far too old to bear children. The very young Mary sought out the older, wiser Elizabeth. Their time together has a message for us, as we seek to come to terms with what it means to be “pregnant with God.”

Reflect: Do you have an “Elizabeth” in your life – a friend, a soul-friend, whom you trust completely to understand who you really are and to listen to your story and see the deeper meanings in it? If so, you might like to spend a little time with that person. Tell him/her what you are doing, and how you are feeling about it. Share with him/her that moment when you first felt the touch of God’s love in your life, and the unique way in which God came upon you, overshadowed you, and asked you to let your life become a home in which his Son might come to birth. When Elizabeth sees her cousin Mary, pregnant with Jesus, her own unborn child, who will become John the Baptist, moves in her womb, as if to greet the unborn child in Mary. This is, perhaps, a reflection of what happens when two “soul-friends” meet. When we greet each other as fellow “Kingdom travelers,” the still unborn Christ growing in each of us gives a little leap of joy in recognition of the still unborn Christ growing in the other. You might like to notice and share this moment of recognition with your “Elizabeth,” and celebrate it in some special way that is meaningful to you both.

Source: Margaret Silf, Wayfaring: A Gospel Journey in Everyday Life, pp. 89-90, slightly adapted.