How should we picture Mary's daily life?

"Blessed are you Lord who created me according to your will."

Such was the berakah that all the daughters of Israel repeated every morning as soon as they rose. We know that men recited three different blessings. In the blessing she addressed to God, Mary fully accepted her status as a woman.

Now, in the East, the woman had a rank lower than that of the man. There is no trace of claim or resignation in this prayer, because God created man and woman in his image. Every morning women recalled the word of God contained in the first page of the Bible, in the hymn to the Creator God who gave unparalleled dignity to both man and woman created on the sixth day:

"You have made them a little less than angels, crowning them with glory and honor," exclaimed the author of Psalm 8.

Mary had plenty of time to go to the synagogue to listen to the Word of God. Indeed, every woman had the right to go to the synagogue in the first century of our era. The introduction of matronage reserved for women in synagogues came later, and only dates from the 4^th century.

Mary was trained in prayer at the synagogue

The synagogues, especially village synagogues, were simple rectangular rooms in the center of which the scroll of the law which contained the Word of God had a place of honor. This same scroll served as a reading book for boys during the day, as most villages could not afford to buy other reading materials.

By going to the synagogue (after spending her childhood at the Temple!), Mary often had the opportunity to listen to Scripture, because beside being the place of prayer, it was also where one could meditate on the word of God. "Shema Israel": Listen Israel, the book of Deuteronomy repeated.

In Hebrew the verb "Shema" means "to listen" and "to obey." The rabbis taught that it was by obeying the law that one understood it. In other words, only experimental knowledge is authentic.

At the synagogue Mary heard the reading of the Servant's Poems which recalled that Israel's mission was to be the servant of God who brings light to the world. That's why she accepted to be the servant of the Lord. Through her the compassion of the Creator was passed to all generations.

At the synagogue it was easy for Mary to memorize the poems and rhythmic prayers of the Bible, especially the Psalms. The prayer of Anne, mother of Samuel, who offered a summary of the history of salvation together with a summary of God's pedagogy, was particularly pleasing to her, being a woman's prayer. Moreover, her own mother bore the same beautiful name of Anne, "the graceful."

When she visited Elizabeth, the prayer of thanksgiving that spontaneously sprang from her mind in the Magnificat is clearly inspired by the Psalms and Anne’s Canticle. Finally, at the synagogue, Mary learned that the Jews refused to name God by his name, but only evoked his attributes. In the Magnificat she designates God as the Mighty and the Holy. God is Mighty and Holy.

Judaism experienced by the Virgin Mary

He is the God of justice who inspires religious fear in his people, and also the God of mercy who extends his compassion to all generations. Was not the fear of God the beginning of wisdom? Judaism is not primarily an orthodoxy, but also an orthopraxy. The tree is recognizable by its fruits. It is in its actions that the true thoughts of his heart are revealed.

Judaism has always insisted on the accomplishment of works of charity. The synagogal version of the Bible in Genesis 35:9, when it refers to the death of Deborah whom Jacob buried at Bethel, adds a prayer that enumerates the works of mercy that every Jew is bound to observe:

"Everlasting God ... you have taught us to bless the betrothed and his betrothed since the time of Adam and his companion; you have taught us even more to visit the sick since the time of our father Abraham, the righteous, when you appeared to him in the plain of the vision while he was still suffering from his circumcision; you also taught us to comfort those who mourn, since the time of our father Jacob, the righteous: "Death overtook Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, and Rachel died near him during his journey. He seated himself with shouts and wept, uttering loud cries of distress, but you, in your merciful kindness, appeared to him and blessed him, blessed him with the blessings of those who weep and you consoled him."

Three works of mercy are enumerated: blessing of the bridegroom and the bride, visiting the sick, and comforting those who cry.

Among the works of mercy is the visit of the sick. We can place in this context the visit of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth who was pregnant. But there is more. In the Magnificat that she sings, Mary mentions Israel:

"He helped his servant Israel, remembering his mercy."

Mary knew the biblical page of Genesis relating Jacob's crossing the ford of the river Yabboq. While returning to the land he had left as a fugitive, Jacob is attacked by a mysterious being who finally reveals himself as God himself. In this struggle Jacob has his hip dislocated and receives a new name:

"Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you fought with God as with men and you have conquered."

The meaning of the fight with the angel, for Israel, at the time of the Virgin

By its solemn tone this text is much more than mere information. It is a profession of faith, an illustration of what the Jewish people consider to be the origin and the goal of its history, the struggle with God or the struggle for the victory of God. "You are blessed among women!" Elizabeth's cry echoed that of Deborah celebrating Yael who had killed the enemy of Israel (Judges 5).

Mary knew that the initiative of the fight belongs to God; it is he who is the assailant and the outcome of the struggle is at once the victory of man over God and his defeat by him. Israel is the stake of a struggle. He cannot escape God. He is both crushed and blessed.

From this struggle Jacob goes out with the hip dislodged, but also with a blessing that is a power of life. Jacob's encounter with God allows him to meet his brother Esau. Mary concluded that sacredness is always joined with the earthly and that piety is accompanied by ethics.

Mary had learned that at the origin of Israel there is an election. Israel is a people with whom God had entered into a special relationship, so that through them he would fulfill his work, which is the salvation of the world.

At the origin of this election is the free love of God. To love means to choose. Faith sought and lived as the normal form of existence is the answer to the divine election. The path of faith first leads one who is called to isolation and solitude, and the giving up of all assurances leads to suffering. Abraham had learned it at a great cost to himself.

Yet suffering is nothing but the hand of God over Israel. Israel's wounded hip joint makes its march into the world unsteady and has earned him contempt and hatred, but it is a march towards the light. Mary repeated in her prayer of Psalm 147:

"He has done this for no other nation; they do not know his laws."

In the midst of the pagan world, Mary professed with all Israel the faith in the unique God.

And yet, Rome had imposed its culture on Palestine. Its empire extended to the eastern end of the Mediterranean shores. Subjected to the authority of Rome, Israel preserved the memory of its history.

This memory, recorded in the Bible and passed on through oral tradition, gave it a very clear awareness of its destiny and the strength to resist all forms of oppression. Each year, the Easter liturgy kept alive this sense of freedom that nothing could hinder. "Next year, in Jerusalem."

Amid the pagan world - Joseph possibly worked on the rebuilding of Sephoris alongside the Romans - Mary professed with all Israel the faith in the only God "who made heaven and earth." She adored him not only as a creative power, but also as the Merciful One who personally intervened in the course of history to choose a people to himself.