Womb for the Lord

To the left, we see the Blessed Mother as she visits her cousin Elizabeth.


To the right, we see a church dedicated to the Blessed Mother, of which pilgrims visit quite frequently.


In both, we see the dwelling place of the Lord. How beautiful to see the church as having a "pregnant belly," so to say. For under the dome is the location of the place of consecration, a place reserved for the Incarnation of the Lord, a place where bread and wine become the Body and Blood of the Lord.

Similarly, we see that in the Blessed Mother, a very visible pregnant belly exists. This womb also holds the place of the Incarnation of the Lord, a place that has been sanctified for the Lord, by His own work.

In both places we can actually see the dwelling place of the Lord. It becomes a living reality. The Word became Incarnate, and He still becomes Incarnate within the Church building every day. Far more does He exist in a perfect way in the consecration than He does simply in our mind and through our relationship to Him. Through the consecration and reception of the Most Blessed Sacrament, we participate in a bodily and spiritual way in an amazing reality that transcends space and time and brings us into communion with He who is. This is a true sense of the communion of persons - when God humbles Himself to bring man to that of the divine. The gift of self is present within the Church and within the womb of Mary.

Advent is quickly approaching. What better way to prepare for Christmas than through meditating on Jesus in the womb of Mary, and what better place to do it than in a church in front of the Blessed Sacrament.