Fiat Voluntas Tua (#1)

On her tiptoes, Maria Pluta reached up and plopped the floral wreath onto the statue's polished ceramic head. Airy Marian tunes echoed from the mouths of her mother and brothers, standing behind her. After crowning the motionless statue, she returned to stand beside her three-year-old brother Joseph. She looked to her mother, who was just then finishing singing Salve Regina with one-year-old Elisha getting antsy on her hip - squealing along, clapping two pudgy hands together as he did so. 

Six-year-old Maria joined in with Joseph as Mother began to pray the Hail Mary. Then, with a reverent cross as an example for her children, she released a squirming Elisha to the creaking wooden floorboards of their Wisconsin home. 

"See how happy Mary is?" Mother asked her children, still hanging around the family's altar, bedecked in peacock blue for the month of May. "You have made our mother so happy with your prayers."

Elisha let out a high pitched squeal and tore across the room, followed closely by Joseph, eager to take part in whatever his little brother was doing. 

"Would you like to come help me ice the cake, Maria?" Mother asked, noticing that Maria was still hovering near the altar. 

"Okay!" Maria exclaimed, her face lighting up with a smile as she raced into the kitchen. Her mother's blueberry bundt cake, which had been extracted from the oven about an hour before their ceremony, sat waiting on the counter beside a bowl of soupy white glaze. Blueberries, their color leaking out from their time in the oven, colored the cake's ridge a pleasant indigo. Grabbing a spatula from one of the many crocks scattered about the countertop, she dipped it into the bowl of glaze and watched it drip back to its container. Licking the spatula, she handed it to her mother, who was carefully sliding the cake from the tray it had been sitting on to their best cake stand. 

"Thank you, Maria," Mother said, taking the spatula from her eldest daughter's hands. "You did a wonderful job crowning Mary today. You made your patroness very, very happy."

"Patroness?" Maria asked curiously. 

"Yes," Mother said, dipping the spatula into the bowl. "With the name Maria, your patroness is our Blessed Mother - particularly Our Lady of Czestochowa. That's why you have her icon in your bedroom."

Maria thought about the icon in her bedroom. It was a tiny thing, somber in color, positioned over her dresser. She had often rubbed her hand across the burnished golden halos arcing over the heads of Mary and the Child Jesus. On the same image, she had traced her fingers across the two long slits running down Mary's darkened face. She had always assumed it had been dropped, but not long ago, her father had picked her up and told her the story of Our Lady of Czestochowa - how thieves had tried to steal it but could not, so they slashed it twice and ran away. Now, every icon of the Virgin of Czestochowa bore those two slashes. 

"When we named you, we asked Our Lady to protect you in a special way, and she has," Mother explained. "She has given you the grace to replicate her fiat, her yes, every day."

"Her yes?" Maria questioned, accepting the spatula from her mother and beginning to replicate the drizzling motions. 

"When the Angel Gabriel came to Mary in Nazareth, she could have said no to being the Mother of G'D. But instead of being saying no, Mary obeyed and trusted in His plan. I see you trusting G'D every day when you are obedient to me and Father and even to your siblings," Mother explained. "You see, Maria, Mary is your special example for how to be a saint, and so if you continue to learn about her and pray for her help, she will bless you and help you to say yes to G'D, as she did."

The cake, perfectly drizzled and looking as much like a crown as a bundt cake could, sat finished on the shining cake stand. Maria looked at it with happiness - she loved being with her mother, and she loved to make G'D happy. If doing what Mary did would make G'D happy, then she would do it for Him. 

Her mother carried the cake into the dining room, with Maria trailing afterwards. Her mind was filled with ideas of saying yes, just like Mary had...and she knew she had her patroness to guide her in making G'D happy!

"Mary said, 'Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to Your word.'

- Luke 1:38