I tried to be a listening servant while saying the Rosary today. During the Fifth Glorious Mystery, the Crowning of Mary, Queen of Heaven, I was thinking about Mary and how she leads us to Jesus. It reminded me of the icons of her and the Infant Jesus, where she is pointing towards him. These images of her are known as the hodogetria, meaning "One who shows the way." Mary shows us the way to Jesus.
The image of rivers running to the sea came to mind to describe how Mary and the Communion of Saints help bring us to Jesus. They are a multitude of rivers, rushing to the Jesus, who is the sea. Mary is perhaps like the Amazon, or the Mississippi: a great river into which many other rivers, the saints, meet to join together in their journey to the sea. Those of us on earth are like boats, which sail upon their guiding waters so we can put out to sea in our heavenly home with Jesus.
We do not worship Mary and the saints; instead, their earthly lives serve as examples to us of how to live, and through their prayers they intercede with us to help us live the lives God has called us to live. Mary and the saints show us the way to Jesus.
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