May; the month for Mary

>>>Great article on May the month of Mary. Spend some time this month pondering with the Blessed Virgin, the great gift of her son Jesus Christ. Always remember, everything Mary points us to Him who is our Savior.




The Apostolate for the Faith

MAY: The Month of MARY

Once more we come to the MONTH OF MARY, the month of springtime when all nature comes to life and the countryside is a blaze of colour. It has always been, for most of us, the time when we looked forward to the May processions in honour of the Mother of Christ when we sang of bringing the rarest and fairest of flowers to crown our blessed Mother, Queen of the Angels and Queen of the May. Yes, it was Mary’s month when our hearts were filled with joy and everybody had its own shrine to our Lady at which we gathered for the family rosary; and we gathered flowers to bring to school where there was a shrine in each classroom. Sadly we have to say that such devotion now is rarely seen; and the children know little or nothing about their heavenly Mother.

Devotion is not a mere matter of sentiment. Devotion to Mary is a Reverential and loving imitation of our heavenly Queen and Mother. It contains three elements: Veneration, Affection and Service.

Since the Blessed Virgin is the most perfect and most exalted of all purely created beings including the Angels, we can easily see her special claims to our reverence. First, her sinlessness. While every one born into this world was infected with the baneful consequences of Adam's sin of pride and disobedience – original sin – Mary, in view of the merits of her future Son, the divine Redeemer, was preserved from contracting this hereditary stain. Being the Woman destined to crush the power of Satan, she was conceived Immaculate. She was, at the same time, totally exempt from concupiscence and never for a moment swerved in the least from the Will of her Creator.

Secondly, She was full of Grace. St Thomas says, “A creature receives so much the more Grace as it is more closely united to God.” Never was man or angel admitted to so close a union with God as Mary enjoyed from the first moment of her existence, for she was destined to become the Mother of the Incarnate Word. Now Grace is not measured by quantity but by intensity. And this fullness of Grace was accompanied by a proportionate infusion of the virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity; Prudence, Justice, humility and fortitude as well as a most copious outpouring of the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Thirdly, she possesses a still more powerful title to our Reverence namely her inconceivable dignity of Mother of God. God alone knows the true greatness of Mary, His Mother, because He alone knows His own infinite Greatness. The fact that she is the Mother of God is the foundation of her marvellous holiness, of her absolute freedom from sin and her perfect fullness of Grace. Hail then, Virgin Immaculate, Mary, Full of Grace, Mother of our Creator and Redeemer!