As Catholics, we traditionally celebrate two months each year that are connected to Mary. In October we celebrate the month of the rosary, the great and traditional prayer to Mary. Each October 7, we celebrate the powerful intercession of Mary in 1571 at the Battle of Lepanto when the Christian world prayed the rosary for the deliverance of Europe from the Ottoman invasion.

The month of May each year is especially dedicated to Mary as the Mother of God, and as our mother.

That practice can be traced back as far as the 13th century. Later it was associated in a special way with the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits.

The special tradition of the crowning of a statute of Mary as the Queen of Heaven is a popular devotion among our young people and in our schools.
Devotion to Mary has a long history in our Christian and Catholic faith. Tradition has it that St. John cared for Mary in Ephesus.

Throughout the centuries, Mary has been one of the most depicted figures in art, especially in paintings and the magnificent stained glass windows of churches of Europe and even here in our own country.

Like so many elements of faith in our secularized society, devotion and respect for Mary has had its ups and downs. In the years immediately following the Second Vatican Council, some proposed the need to reduce and even eliminate devotion to Mary, as if it were a distraction from or even a competition with Jesus her son. Since then, the Church’s faith and the very meaning of Mary as our mother have overcome such a misguided approach.

As a result, recent decades have witnessed within the Church that healthy and widespread love for Mary that understands her role as drawing us, her children, to her Divine Son.

This month of May, then, is a fitting moment to remind ourselves of the reason Mary is so important to the Church and to each of us.

Of course Mary is honored because she was the earthly and biological mother of Christ. The deep and natural bonds between mother and son alone would move us to venerate her memory.

But God’s plan for Mary was far greater. She could have simply given birth to Jesus and then receded into the background. Instead, Mary took on a new and greater role in the plan of redemption.

Though born as one of us and from among us, Mary was unique. By God’s love, she broke the chain of the original sin inherited by each of us from the disastrous decision of Adam and Eve.

God applied to Mary, in advance, the graces and forgiveness of Jesus’ death on the cross. As a result she was sinless in her birth and throughout each choice she made during her life. She is the new Eve who cooperated with the new beginning of God’s plan to save each of us.

Mary’s sinlessness made her worthy to carry the Son of God for nine months and then to relate to Him most intimately. But from that beginning, our faith learns even more from her.

Throughout the Gospel we see the humility of Mary. She wears gently her motherly relation to Jesus. At most, she asks to see Him, or quietly asks why He gave pain to her heart and that of Joseph.

More prominently, we hear her telling servants at a wedding (and each of us), “Do whatever He tells you.” (Jn 2:5). We are with Mary when she hears that because she is close to Jesus, “and you yourself a sword will pierce” (Lk 2:35).

That prophecy comes to fulfilment as Mary stands with just a few faithful others at the foot of her Son’s cross. She is humanly helpless. But in spirit she joins in His sacrifice to His Father. And at that moment, we are entrusted to her as our mother by Jesus.

The joys of family and motherhood, the humility of a servant, the goodness of doing God’s will completely, and the deep and intimate knowledge of suffering — these are the lessons that our Catholic faith draws from Mary.

But most especially, Mary is a model because she is one of us. She stands as a reminder that what she did to follow Christ can be done by all. Don’t let May slip away without renewing your love and devotion for Mary, our mother!