May the Month for Mary!

Lay Director (Each month, one of our Lay Directors will write an article.)

I look at this month as Mary’s month because it is devoted to Mary, Queen of Heaven. We celebrate Our Lady of Fatima on May 13 th , Our Lady, Help of Christians on May 24 th , and the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary on May 31 st . Mother’s Day is observed on the second Sunday, a day to celebrate all mothers, whether they are raising or have raised children, or have provided maternal love to others.

We all need maternal love! Mary was given to all of us as our mother by Jesus at the time of His crucifixion, and consequently we are all her children. I am learning to ask for her intercession and guidance. I have a friend who has a goal to become more like Mary as described in the hymn, “Hail Mary, Gentle Woman”: “Blessed they with peaceful spirits, blessed they with gentle hearts”. A wonderful goal! I’m working on this, too. The rosary is a beautiful way to connect with Our Lord as we reflect on His life through the mysteries and His mother who encourages us to pray this devotion. Pope John Paul II told us in his Apostolic letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, & quote; "With the Rosary, the Christian people sit at the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love. Through the Rosary the faithful receive abundant grace, as though from the very hands of the Mother of the Redeemer.”

May is also a time of hope. Farmers are planting fields; home gardeners are sowing seeds too. Such hope for the harvest to come! Mary also had great hope in the promise of God for the new direction for her life. It’s not as if Mary knew all that was to come.

Hardly! As I was reading the Scripture for the Annunciation, it seems even more fantastic and impossible the more that the Angel Gabriel tells her. We know Mary’s reply, from Luke 1:38, “Mary said, ‘Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.’” Mary is further affirmed in her role to help her to continue in that hope.

From Luke 1:45, Elizabeth speaks to Mary, “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”

We are all called to listen to Our Lord, to help to further the Kingdom of God. Sometimes we are called to “do”. Sometimes it’s the support and affirmation that we give to others who are being called to “do”. It’s all important; it’s all necessary.

De Colores!

Kathy Otermat