How Did Mary Pray at the Wedding at Cana?

How did the Blessed Virgin pray to her Son at the wedding at Cana in Galilee?

She said, “They have no wine” (Jn 2:3).

The Gospel doesn’t tell us what she asked Jesus to do. Actually, the Gospel rather neatly implies that she didn’t ask him to do anything. Nothing specific. No specific requests. No ideas on what the world needs. She simply and directly related the situation. She put herself in the presence of Jesus and told him, as he must already have known in both his divinity and in his blessed humanity, what the situation was. In this, she showed that it concerned her, and that she trusted Jesus.

Then she made sure both she and everyone else had done everything possible to prepare themselves for her Son’s decision: “Do whatever he tells you,” she said to the servants (Jn 2:5).

That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less.

Isn’t this a “method” of prayer? And, I dare say, isn’t it a very contemplative “method” of prayer?

• Jesus, this is what is happening.
• Jesus, I am ready.
• Jesus, with your divine help, I will take each opportunity to be ready; please come to my assistance for the sake of my neighbours.

We are allowed to ask for something specific; the Gospel is clear about that. But if we trust and just lay it in God’s hands, like Mary at Cana, that is prayer, too.

What does this have to do with everyday life?

• I can’t always imagine going to the tabernacle and telling Jesus what he needs to do. Some days, it’s just inconceivable to me. How could I tell him? He is God. God knows what he permits. I don’t. There is a certain silence this entails on our part.
• But I can very much imagine going to the tabernacle and telling Jesus how the world is, talking to him simply and directly about the way things are, what problems there are, what someone’s life appears to be like and what is hurting their heart and body; telling him what I know; resting in him, being present with him, becoming ready; and going out to make sure everything is prepared for whatever decision Jesus makes. That sounds like prayer! Prayer that suffers with our neighbours and contemplates Jesus; prayer like Mary’s.

I think we can practise prayer the way that Mary did at Cana. It seems fitting (เหมาะสม) for anywhere and everywhere. But isn’t it especially fitting for silent, contemplative prayer before the very Humanity of Jesus? Simply and directly say, without a loss of confidence and without deviating our heart from Jesus, “They have no wine.”