Who I am: Meeting Mary I suddenly knew myself
I came to a place where I said, “I don’t know what it means to be a man.” And it was there, as a Protestant, that I had a sense that Jesus was asking me to go to His mother. And so I made a very careful prayer, “Mary, if you are there, then I want to know what you are all about.” All I can say is this: It was like an instant flash, and suddenly I experienced the full presence of Mary, as woman and as mother. I came to see that truly God had not made a mistake, that I was called to fully enter into manhood. If I didn’t have that openness, that invitation to step towards the person of Mary and to honor her as Jesus honored His father and mother, then I wonder what my life would have looked like today. – James
Originally printed in IMPRINT Magazine Spring 2023.
