A happy and beautiful Mother’s Day to all our moms. You are a blessing to us all and we pray that God will continue to bless you in your vocation. It is so appropriate that we celebrate our mothers in May as this is the month dedicated to our Blessed Mother, The Virgin Mary. In sacred art, we frequently see a tenderness, a sweetness, a fairness, a comeliness, depicted in Mary. Obviously, there are no photographs of Mariam of Nazareth, but people of “every generation” know her and recognize her. She is our beautiful and blessed mother.
Before dying on the cross, Jesus told St. John, the youngest of the apostles, “Behold your mother!” In his moment of agony, Jesus was aware of his mother’s pain. Jesus thinks not just of himself but of his own mother and of his disciples. What love this son has for his mother! How can we be a true follower of Jesus and not behold Mary, whom he loved so deeply, as our mother?
While most people think of Mary in connection to the birth of Jesus, there is so much more to her and to her discipleship. She was his mother and he was her Savior! In a wonderful way, Mary is the very first Christian as she accepted and believed in Jesus before any other human being. Likewise, Mary is the very first evangelist as she carried “The Word of God made flesh” to others – to St. Joseph, to Sts. Anne and Joachim, to Sts. Elizabeth, Zechariah, and John the Baptist; to the shepherds, the Magi, Sts. Simeon and Anna, and to the whole world! Mary continues to bring her son to us and communicate his love – Lourdes, Fatima, Guadalupe, LaSalette, Gietrzwald, Pontmain, Knock, Rue du Bac, Namur, Cuapa, Akita, Zaragoza, La Vang, Kibeho, Walsingham, Medjugorje.
There is a Latin phrase, Ad Jesum per Mariam (To Jesus through Mary). This represents the spirituality of a 17th century French priest, St. Louis De Montfort. Some have perhaps misconstrued this phrase and, admittedly the language St. Louis de Monfort used in the 17th century is a bit awkward for many today, but the authentic understanding of this phrase and this spirituality is quite fitting, necessary and beneficial for us today. As God the Father chose to bring Jesus to us through the instrumentality of the Blessed Virgin Mary, so we can rightly approach Jesus through Mary as well. In so doing, we do not put Jesus in an inferior position. We do not in any way elevate Mary above God, but in beholding Mary as our spiritual mother given to us by Jesus himself, we rely on her and seek her motherly assistance in growing closer to Jesus.
As the selfless mother that she is, Mary never simply draws souls to herself. Mary, with a mother’s love, always brings us to Jesus and Jesus to us. She always helps us to follow him with greater devotion and greater love. Not by coincidence, the very last recorded words of Mary in the entire Bible are, “Do whatever he tells you!” (Jn 2:5). To love Mary is to love her son! To be a follower of Jesus is to do whatever he tells us and Jesus does tell us to behold Mary as our Mother!
If it is not part of your regular prayer life to pray the rosary, try it! If you seldom or never pray to our Blessed Mother, begin by coming once a month (or even weekly) to our Novena on Wednesday evenings. If all you know is the Hail Mary, try praying the Regina Caeli (Queen of Heaven) or Salve Regina (Hail Holy Queen) or the Memorare (Remember, O Gracious Virgin). These are beautiful prayers and can and will deepen your devotion to Mary and Jesus.