In his story of Jesus' earliest days Luke tells us that Mary didn't fully understand what was happening to her. In the Gospel of the Dawn Mass Mary is pictured as "pondering all these things in her heart". At the end of the second chapter she is still keeping much in her heart - the angel's words; the shepherds' excited message, Simeon's and Anna's mysterious predictions and Jesus' cryptic words in the temple. What is happening seems to contradict reality. Messengers from heaven do not normally come to speak to simple village girls; tough men from the hills rarely speak of salvation to the crowds. Babies are seldom reverently welcomed to holy places by obviously holy old people. Twelve year old boys do not speak in veiled language of God's plans for them. In "all these things" Mary maintains a profound silence. Nothing disturbed the depths of her contemplation. She waits patently for the light necessary for the next step. Step by step she moves to the side of her Son on the cross and then to be beside Him in glory. When puzzled by what is happening, when thrown off balance by the inexplicable in our lives a similar profound silence may be our best preparation for the next step to take.