Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 479 – Part II.

YOUCAT Question n. 479 – Part II. What can we learn from the way in which Mary prayed?

(Youcat answer - repeated) To learn from Mary how to pray means to join in her prayer: “Let it be to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38). Prayer is ultimately self-giving in response to God’s love. If we say Yes as Mary did, God has the opportunity to lead his life in our life.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2618) The Gospel reveals to us how Mary prays and intercedes in faith. At Cana (Cf. Jn 2:1-12). The mother of Jesus asks her son for the needs of a wedding feast; this is the sign of another feast - that of the wedding of the Lamb where he gives his body and blood at the request of the Church, his Bride. It is at the hour of the New Covenant, at the foot of the cross (Cf. Jn 19:25-27), that Mary is heard as the Woman, the new Eve, the true "Mother of all the living." 

  Reflecting and meditating 

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2674) Mary gave her consent in faith at the Annunciation and maintained it without hesitation at the foot of the Cross. Ever since, her motherhood has extended to the brothers and sisters of her Son "who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties" (LG 62). Jesus, the only mediator, is the way of our prayer; Mary, his mother and ours, is wholly transparent to him: she "shows the way" (hodigitria), and is herself "the Sign" of the way, according to the traditional iconography of East and West. 

(The next question is:  What are the words of the “Hail Mary”?)