Kristi

“And Mary and the Church both, like You, labor for the world. Mary's labor figures, reveals, and clarifies the Church's own labor. The Church, like Mary labors to bear divine presence into the world. The Church, like Mary, participates in Your new creation and hearkens to Your first. In the figure of Mary, creation, church, and pregnancy all entwine as images of one another. A pregnant woman's body, the Church expectant, and You, the womb of creation, all come together in the image of pregnancy.”
― Natalie Carnes, Motherhood: A Confession

“Our healing will not come in a divine grace that reunites us, bringing you back into my womb for us to live by one wholly integrated will. My grace is to wait, to love you through the detours your life takes, even if you travel far from me; to be present to you in hope and prayer; and to bring you near Love by reflecting love to you. I can help birth your will into freedom and goodness chiefly by being reborn into such freedom and goodness myself.”
― Natalie Carnes, Motherhood: A Confession

“If one movement of mercy is in hoping for its own diminishment, another must be toward its own expansion. The way of charity that the child calls us to--that you call me to--is a way that constantly magnifies, not because your needs multiply but because you call me to be open to the needs of others.”
― Natalie Carnes, Motherhood: A Confession

“As the human body is a microcosmos, the pregnant women's body is a microgenesis. Readings of Your incarnation in Mary's body often suggest this, even if they do not claim it outright. Mary's body is presented as a new creation. Mary's words "let it be done to me" (fiat mihi in the longtime language of the Church) echo Your words at creation "let there me light" (fiat lux). The Spirit hovering over the waters of the deep, formless and empty, hovers over the waters of Mary's womb, once again bringing life into a dark void.”
― Natalie Carnes, Motherhood: A Confession