Surprising as it may seem, lots of ordinary people can and do have rich, meditative prayer lives. The truth is, you don’t need great intelligence or special education to be contemplative. We all have the equipment. We only need the desire.

History is full of average people who entertained extraordinary spiritual thoughts. In fact, the New Testament starts off with an account of a contemplative housewife! We don’t know much for certain about Mary, the mother of Jesus, but we do know that she meditated. Luke’s Gospel tells us three times that she was told something amazing by God, first through the angel Gabriel, second by the shepherds on their visit to the manger, and third directly by her young son, Jesus.

After each of these messages, we are told that she pondered or reflected upon the words in her heart.

Mary is really quite a revolutionary figure. The usual portrayals don’t seem to fit the few facts that we have. The various images of the ideal woman applied to her have included the virginal, maternal, Christianized earth goddess and the supremely submissive female.

Empowered by spiritual life

What we do know is that she was young and female. This made her place in the Jewish society in which she lived one of relative powerlessness. Yet she has a spiritual life that empowers her to accept that God would send an angel to speak to her.

She has no trouble with the reality of the situation. She questions where it is appropriate and then, in a truly revolutionary act on the part of a human, accepts this totally improbable proposition of an angel!

Then she meditates on what it all might mean. The ordinary, contemplative housewife from the village of Nazareth doesn’t demand to know all the answers up front. She is courageous enough to ponder and reflect upon it in her heart.

Changing history

Mary’s acceptance of the challenge of the Word of God ushers in the Christian era. She very quietly changes history because she believes and takes up her part in the kingdom. Most of the drama happens inside her soul, inside her mind, and of course, inside her small human body. She becomes pregnant with Jesus, full of grace, full of promise, and full of ponderings surely.

We, like Mary, have the opportunity to act in a totally revolutionary way when we ponder the Word of God. We can step out in faith and believe that the world can be changed by our faith too. In a quiet way, by trying to add to the good each day, we can make perhaps a far greater difference than we think. It is impossible to perceive what can come of a good action. When prompted by the Spirit, even when the outcome seems improbable, it is an act of outrageous courage to say yes.