E te Whaea Tapu, Hine nui o te Ao Katoa,
te ūkaipō,
te ahi ka,
te puna oranga.
Manaaki mai, whakatau mai, whakamahana ai.
He kākano o tōu one.
Awhinatia mai, kia tupu ai.
Mary, Holy One, woman of light and peace for the whole world,
we acknowledge you as our nurturer, our hearth, our wellspring.
Raise our dignity, ground us, warm our hearts.
As seeds in your soil, assist us to grow.
In celebrating the feast of the Assumption we are always honouring Mary’s humble origins. We are remembering a woman of the small village of Nazareth. We acknowledge her as a homemaker and gardener. She knew a full participation in the life-sustaining rhythms of seed saving, tending, and regenerating the place she loved and depended on. Caring for her home and family involved a presence to soil, fertility and fruitfulness. She knew what was required for the seeds of life to flourish in her own heart and home. She engaged with seasons and preserving, with husbandry and nutrition. Mary’s life was close to family and land. The well-being of soil, produce and people was an intimacy learnt over generations. Mary encourages us to reconnect, to find our place in our own backyards and neighbourhoods. She invites us to develop hearts of tenderness for where we live and for the wholeness of life. Her values challenge the damage our industrial world inflicts. She is our help and guardian as we come to know our place and draw down our harms. Mary has been raised on high and assumed into a place of Queenship because she proved herself in the microcosm of the small and the local. She has a place of importance now because she fashioned such a place in her Nazareth beginnings. We look to Mary today seeking inspiration for a world renewed in a spirit like hers.
Mā te Whaea Tapu koutou e tiaki, e manaaki, e arahi.
Peter Healy sm
Te Whānau Pukekaraka