Who’s Your Mother?: Celebrating Mary's Month
By Emma Restuccia,
Editor’s Note: Though this piece was originally written for May, consider making Marian devotion a part of your summer plans. You might spend time with Mary under a particular title or consider consecrating yourself (or renewing your consecration) to her.
“Am I not here who am your mother?”- Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego
The month of May gives the Church the opportunity to reflect on this question. May, traditionally honored as the month of Mary as Mother, Queen, and Virgin, invites the faithful to embrace Mary through one of her many devotions and titles. This season also provides the chance to meditate on the beauty of adopting and fostering a Marian devotion.
A Brief History of Mary’s Month
May became known as Mary’s month over the centuries of Church life, and its origin traces back even earlier. During the months of growth and newness, the ancient Greeks and Romans celebrated Artemis and Flora, goddesses of fertility and springtime. The Church, in turn, adapted these customs throughout the 13th, 16th, and 17th centuries. The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that in the 18th century, a Jesuit tradition arose in Rome to consecrate May to Mary, and from there, the custom spread throughout the Roman Catholic Church.
In 1965, Pope Pius VI addressed Marian devotions of this month in his encyclical Mense Maio (Month of May). “This is the month during which Christians, in their churches and their homes, offer the Virgin Mother more fervent and loving acts of homage and veneration; and it is the month in which a greater abundance of God's merciful gifts comes down to us from our Mother's throne,” the pontiff wrote. “We are delighted and consoled by this pious custom associated with the month of May, which pays honor to the Blessed Virgin and brings such rich benefits to the Christian people.” May, therefore, was a month to offer “more frequent and fervent prayers” to Mary on behalf of the human race, especially in times of grave crises.
Cultivating a Personal Marian Devotion
In this month, the faithful can look at Mary from a broader point of view, in the full range of her many titles and roles, rather than in just one specific feast. Through Church life, countless Marian devotions have arisen through apparitions, artistic images, dogmatic or descriptive titles, or based on cultures or places. Nearly every calendar month boasts a Marian feast day, commemorating either an event in Mary’s life or one of her many titles.
Marian devotions like reciting the Holy Rosary, meditating on the Seven Sorrows of Mary, and wearing the Brown Scapular, originated and grew through the centuries. Many countries also honor the Madonna through their unique heritages and cultural viewpoints—such as Our Lady of China, Our Lady of Częstochowa, Our Lady of La Vang (Vietnam), and Our Lady La Salette (France)—many of which are also venerated through famous icons and images.
Other devotions to Mary stem from the 26 Church-approved Marian apparitions from across the globe. These apparitions have been either Vatican-approved or bishop-approved, and countless other reports of apparitions from throughout the centuries exist, some of which the Church is still investigating.
Vatican-approved apparitions include some of the most famous appearances of the Virgin Mary: Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Lourdes, and Our Lady of Guadalupe, which have stories that are well-known and loved. Other approved apparitions, like Our Lady of Knock, Our Lady of Happy Meetings, and Our Lady of Siluva are lesser-known, yet still greatly influential in the life of Christians.
Here are some ways to develop a connection to Mary, specifically through a particular devotion, during her month.
Learn
Educate yourself about the many titles of Mary. Some are dogmatic titles—like Mary as the Immaculate Conception or Mother of God. Other devotional titles—such as Ark of the Covenant, Mirror of Justice, Mystical Rose, or Queen of Families—invoke the many holy qualities, positions, and powers Mary possesses as Mother, Queen, and Virgin. The Litany of Loreto, composed in the Middle Ages and added to by popes throughout history, is a magnificent list of Mary’s many titles and names and a rich prayer of meditation.
Delving into Church history in different cultures, through art or world politics, reveals how Mary is constantly reaching out to her children and calling them to conversion. Mary seems to appear throughout history in times of strife, or in answer to current or impending events. Her words, actions, and appearances in her different apparitions still speak to us here and now.
Meditate
Meditate on Mary in the Scriptures, art, music, and Catholic tradition. What aspects of Mary’s life appeal to you? How do her biblical presence and words resonate? Choose a particular Marian image or icon on which to reflect. Your choice in images and icons range from the oldest depictions from the 2nd and 3rd centuries to more modern paintings and apparition images like Our Lady of Guadalupe, imprinted on St. Juan Diego’s tilma, as well as 21st century works like Sister Grace Remington’s “Mary and Eve” drawing.
Are you drawn to a particular culture, or does your own heritage or cultural upbringing lend to a distinct devotion to Mary? Does your specific circumstances or vocation in life draw you to Mary in a certain way? Whether single, married, a student, a teacher, sick, healthy, discouraged, thriving, travelling, lost, old, or young, Mary can relate to the span of human experiences. In whatever place we find ourselves in life, Mary is surely there and willing to lend a motherly shoulder to cry on or her mantle in which to take refuge.
Consecrate
A daily consecration to Mary is a simple place to begin. Pray that Mary may reveal herself to you through whatever specific devotion, title, or image she sees fit. As a Mother, she offers her children innumerable and ageless ways to come to her. Her total outpouring of self at the Annunciation lives on. “Only after the Last Judgement will Mary get any rest,” Marian devotee St. John Vianney said. “From now until then, she is much too busy with her children.”
As the faithful honor Mary this May by deepening relationships with her or seeking to connect in new ways, let us remember what Our Lady of Guadalupe said to Juan Diego: “Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the fold of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms?... Is there anything else you need?”
So, who is your Mother?
