I wonder how Mary felt after Jesus’ birth. She held God within her, knew His movements intimately, only to surrender Him to a cold, uncertain and unwelcoming world. Her willingness to be filled with the Holy Spirit was equally a willingness to be emptied of God’s Son — a foreshadowing of Christ’s own emptying so eloquently described by Paul in his letter to the Philippians. Mary held the riches of the universe within her, and labored hard to surrender them to us. The gift that Mary holds for us, that we await so eagerly this Advent season, is not one of riches, but the gift of utter poverty.