NOTES for Luk 1:38

As one wise person said: "If the Angel had not departed from the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph would have been left without soup." This rule also governs our life, giving it the necessary balance between the spiritual and the earthly. One cannot remain in the presence of angels all one's life. God reveals Himself to us in eternity, but this eternity breaks into our world for seconds, minutes, perhaps hours. Then we return to our "soup," and the main problem becomes preserving what was revealed. Keeping words in one's heart, as the Virgin Mary did, is not a very simple matter. Daily prayer, daily reading of Scripture, and church life all require separate effort when there are no angels or mystical illuminations, when there is only "soup." But it is precisely such a life, when the Word is not choked by thorns and everyday life does not swallow what has been stored in the heart, that allows fruit to be brought forth a hundred times more than what was sown (Matt. 13:1-23).