Hope Carried to Others - Mary’s Song of Hope

Before I sat down to write this post, I went on a house-wide hunt for my three sons’ birth certificates. As is often the case with me and important documents, I temporarily placed them somewhere secure a while ago and then promptly forgot where!

When I’m at my best, I laugh off my tendency to misplace important things like this. I know in my heart I’ll eventually find what I have lost. I (almost) always have. But when I’m at my worst, I berate myself for being so absent-minded over and over again until I finally locate what is missing.

I think I am safe in saying that 2025 has not been an overall pleasant year for many of us. And this general unpleasantness combined with the day-to-day responsibilities of being a mom… it can lead to me being at my worst from time to time. This evening in particular, I was battling the deluge of paperwork that suddenly overwhelmed my inbox: medical open enrollment, annual financial aid forms, and a new batch of educational testing paperwork for my boys. Each of these had tight deadlines and multiple requests for documentation that left me scrambling to find everything I needed in time.

At my lowest point this evening, I was cursing to myself as I reached up to the top shelf of one of our closets to get down a box of random papers I keep meaning to sort through. As I was pulling the heavy and unwieldy box down off the shelf, I felt something strike me on the head and then loudly crash onto the floor behind me. The sound of glass shattering stopped me short. I let the box drop out of my hands onto the floor and turned to see what had just narrowly missed my head. A light blue picture frame lay surrounded by shards of glass and right in the middle of the mess, the faces of three smiling babies stared up at me dressed in their Christmas best. Struck by the contrast of their beauty in the mess, I put my head in my hands and started to cry.

Seeing that photo reminded me that motherhood is this beautiful gift that can simultaneously break you apart and put you right back together again.

When Mary met Elizabeth, both blessed with these impossible and unique pregnancies, they each praised God with their words for these unexpected gifts growing inside of them. It strikes me that the world was just as broken then as it is today. 2,000 years ago, people were fleeing their homelands from danger, dying from what would one day be preventable diseases, struggling under powerful rulers, and fighting to keep their children safe. Even Mary would soon have to leave her homeland in the dark of night to protect her baby, and when that baby became a grown man, she would have to stand by his cross, unable to protect him from excruciating pain. Still in the midst of all that brokenness, Mary had faith that ultimately goodness and light would prevail, and she passionately declared that faith with her song.

She knew that the son growing inside of her, and the one inside of Elizabeth, were both miracles that could not be explained. She trusted in the message of the angel and placed her unwavering faith in a God who had before, and would again, “disperse the arrogant of mind and heart” (Luke 1:51), “throw down the rulers from their thrones” (Luke 1:52), feed the hungry, and be merciful.

Her song reminds me that what is broken is temporary. The glass shards can be swept away. Even the mini-tantrums I tend to throw at my worst moments come to an end. The light always returns to shine on what remains: the lasting joy captured in the smiles of those Christmas-clad babies, the love of the “Mighty One” who has done great things for me (Luke 1:49), and the hope of what is to come.

Going Deeper

• Reflect on each line of the Magnificat with this Examen of the Hope Contained in the Song of Mary.

• Consider what it is like to take Mary off her pedestal and stand next to her instead. Read more here.

• Spend more time in prayer with Mary this season with Mary, You Show Me the Way by Becky Eldredge.

Photo by Gretchen Crowder

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Gretchen Crowder

Gretchen Crowder has served as a campus minister and Ignatian educator for the Jesuit Dallas community for the last fifteen years and counting. She is also a freelance writer and speaker. She has a B.S. in mathematics and a M.Ed. from the University of Notre Dame as well as an M.T.S. from the University of Dallas. She resides in Dallas, TX with her husband, three boys, and an ever-growing number of pets.