The month of May has, in the Catholic Church’s tradition, been especially associated with Mary.

We honor her as the Queen of Heaven and as our mother each month and every day, of course. But in May we make a special effort to remember and highlight Mary.

Extra rosaries are often recited in her honor this month. The May crowning is a traditional and annual means of reverencing the high honor given to Mary by Christ.

It is particularly helpful to our spiritual life to venerate Mary by recalling the joyful elements of her motherhood over the human race.

We willingly reflect upon the fact that we have been entrusted to her, through the Apostle John, at the foot of Jesus’ cross. “Behold your mother” was said to us as well as to the Beloved Apostle.

As mother, Mary has a role of unity among her children. The first unity, of course, is unity of all her children with her Divine Son.

Mary has a specific role in the plan of salvation. As the new Eve, the sinless one, Mary never wavered in following Jesus. Never for a moment was she separated by sin.

Now, she prays and intercedes for us that our faults, our sins, our worldly outlooks, might be cleansed and purified so that we might be brought to eternal union with Christ.

As Pope Francis said, early in his pontificate, to try to be one with Jesus without His Church would be unthinkable. This means that Mary’s role in seeking our unity with Jesus means bringing about our union with the Church as well.

The unity among believers, established by Jesus on the Rock of Peter, the first pope, is entrusted to the prayers of Mary as Mother of the Church.

Mary herself lived the fullness of the life of an earthly mother. She was probably joyful with Jesus and Joseph. But at the same time her life was filled with the mother’s concerns and sacrifices.

We can imagine the worry as she fled into Egypt ahead of Herod’s soldiers seeking to kill the baby Jesus. We know of her anguish with Joseph as for three days she sought the lost Jesus.

And of course she stood at the foot of the cross. The tradition of faith even suggests that Mary received the body of Jesus, taken down from the cross. She is the Sorrowful Mother as well as the Queen of Heaven.

This year, we mark a particular and mysterious element of Mary’s care for the world as mother.

On May 13, 1917, near the end of the First World War, Mary appeared at Fatima in Portugal. She was seen by three young children, Lucia dos Santos, then aged 10, and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto. The apparitions continued monthly until they concluded on Oct. 13 of that same year.

The message of Mary, conveyed through the three young people was one for the modern world. It was a reminder that sin exists and that it has deadly consequences for individuals and for the world. Mary told the young visionaries to pray for the conversion of sinners.

Even more, she said that sin would lead to errors, war and suffering spread throughout the world. Mary’s message was given at the end of World War I but the suffering resumed not long after with the Second World War. As we read today about Syria and Venezuela, that suffering continues.

As secularism spreads, seeking to build societies and a world based in science and excluding God, do we not see the consequences? The advance of earthly knowledge promises increased happiness, and more participation in wealth and consumption. But instead, we see a world and individuals who are less happy, morally uncertain, and fearful of trusting others and of making commitments such as to marriage and family.

The message of Mary at Fatima is 100 years old this year. But it remains, from our mother, the cure for what ails us. Faith, repentance and a renewed commitment to Jesus Christ. That kind of message never grows old.