Being pregnant with God

On a trip to Peru I encountered for the first time an image of a pregnant Mary. It was a simple plaster sculpture, painted a bit corny, but it caught my attention. Perhaps because this image, of Mary in her feminine earthiness, reminded me of the many pregnant women whom I was allowed to accompany in my work at the Konradshof. 

Mary was pregnant in a unique manner, she gave birth to the Son of God.
But doesn’t this „being pregnant with God" also apply to us? 

Angelus Silesius writes:
"I must be pregnant with God his spirit must float above me".

Even if we are women or men who have not carried out child,
we are metaphorically pregnant with what God has entrusted to us.

We have gifts and missions, abilities and talents still hidden within us. It takes time and silence for them to develop and to mature. We need patience and trust for the process of carrying them out and to let them become mature in silence.
In this sense, Mary shows us a vocation of our humanity: to be pregnant with the Divine and when the time is right to bring it into the world.

In every pregnancy God's Spirit is at work as another reality. This does not only apply to Mary at her time, this also applies to our "being Mary". We are also being accompanied in our pregnancy and in our giving birth and we are not alone. Perhaps we will also encounter angels who tell us: "Do not be afraid".

In this way, Mary can show us that in our humanity we are allowed to participate in God's mission of creation.
Our creativity can bring the Divine into the world.

Sr. Dorothea Köhler