Psalm 122
Isaiah 56:6-8
Ephesians 4:1-7,11-13
Matthew 9:35-38 
My “yes” to motherhood was the day of my son’s birth, 17 years ago this spring. He was born with a congenital heart defect and rushed across state lines to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.  At the time I didn’t know, nor could I fully comprehend, how far this love would take me.
Sacrificial love.
It’s what God’s own Mother so freely gave in her fiat to the Angel Gabriel. Such grace and courage, a love so strong it pierces her heart, and not only hers, but the heart of her Divine Son pierced by the Roman soldier while He lay dying on the cross, out of which flowed blood and water from his side. The blood of divine life, the water of the mortal, a merciful commingling in anticipation of our eternal life in Heaven.
I couldn’t help but marvel that my young son as an infant bore the same side scar as our Lord, the result of the atrial balloon septostomy he sustained while just hours old, giving him the oxygenated blood that he needed in anticipation of the arterial switch operation he would later undergo at just three days old.
My life of faith hit the ground running that day. My own mother ran to the hospital chapel seeking answers, and what she found was the faith reading from Matthew 8:5-13 about the Roman Centurion deeply concerned for the life of his servant. Jesus was amazed at what He found, saying to those around him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.” It was this faith that healed the Centurion’s servant, much as my own heals my son.
Mary’s “yes” to God. Our own “yes” to faith in the one true God, the source and summit of everything good in our lives.

– Alicia Grimaldi