DAY 3 — MOUNTAIN

The People Who Rise: When Ordinary Lives Become Holy Ground

… And at the center of this ascent is Mary.

She is not floating above her circumstances.
She is not shielded from exhaustion, fear, or uncertainty.
But she carries something inside her that the census, the journey, and the “no room” cannot crush.

She carries on, pondering — stitching revelation into resilience.

Every whisper of God, every movement of the child, every word from angels and relatives and shepherds — she gathers it, holds it, turns it over in her heart until it becomes strength.

Her pondering is not passive. It is her power. She draws the line.

That line now anchors her ascent.
It gives her agency, depth, and dignity — the kind of interior fortitude that makes her the first theologian of the incarnation.