After the angel Gabriel made his announcement to Mary, the young girl responded, "Let it happen to me as you have said." I like to think that as a young mother teaching her son to pray, she taught him to say to God, "Let it be as you will." As a man Jesus taught us to say "Thy will be done." In the garden the night before he died Jesus himself prayed, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, let your will be done, not mine." (Luke:22:42)
While I am lying in bed in the morning, reluctant to get up, I pray a version of the Angelus. I have a statue of Mary on the wall beside my bed. As I pray Mary's response to the angel, I stop and ask her to teach me, as she taught her son, to mean it when I pray to God, ."Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, let your will, not mine, be done."
It occurs to me as I pray that the French "si vous plait," (if it pleases you,) comes closer to what I mean than our English "please."
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