A good number of years ago, when our first child was born, I can recall we were very attentive to every sound the baby made. After a few months of living with and caring for our new family member, we became better at interpreting the variety of sounds our little one would share with us. Comfort, discomfort, hunger, tiredness, all these had their subtle differences. Of course, sometimes, we had no idea. Babies teach families a lot.
When our children were older, tone of voice could be a sign that something was impacting them. It wasn’t just the words, but how the words sounded.
We may have said at one time or another, “You don’t sound like yourself,” or “You sound great!” When people get to know us well, it seems they develop a sense of our “self-consistent” sound.
The sound of our voice and the content of our words are in large measure how we are known. Our interior life and our voice seem to be closely connected. When something is heartfelt, we are the message. Our words are full of meaning.
The Rosary prayer invites us to hear the sound of the loving words of God.
“Hail Mary, full of grace ...”
The angel gives voice to God’s words. In the Hail Mary, we reflect on the angel’s greeting. We invite the words into our heart and let them change us. We become ever more open to how God operates in our own and our families’ lives.
Luke’s gospel tells us that Mary pondered the angel’s greeting (Luke 1:28-29). We also ponder God’s greeting of love to Mary of Nazareth, and with her as our model, God’s gracious words for all of us. When we pray the Rosary as a family, in the prayerful voices of each family member, we hear again and again how God speaks His love to us.
We enter into the loving, life-changing potential of God’s favor and blessing – the gracious gift of Himself to us.
Like the angel in the Gospel story, in a way, we too are sent from God. Our service, our sense of justice, our witness to God’s love, all these are how we greet the world. We pray that our words be signs of God’s Kingdom.
How do you greet the world? How is your family a sign of God’s Kingdom?