7th Sunday after Pentecost Thought About Mary Our Mother

While May maintains its traditional place as the month dedicated to Mary, she remains our Mother all year round. We all know that devotion to her should be a natural (and supernatural) component of our daily lives. 

Mary has many titles. These titles are meant to both honor her and to represent a certain "aspect" of her personality and her standing in the supernatural world - that most real world that sometimes can seem distant, even almost illusory (God forbid!) But sometimes these titles can, in a sense, push us away from Mary as our Mother. 

Just as we all love and honor our own natural mother, so too should we love and honor our Mother Mary. It's not merely formal connection, it's personal.

If we have not approached Mary specifically as Mother, here's something to encourage us to do so. It comes from Father Edward Leen. From time to time, we bring Father's writing to these posts. On the spectrum of simple to complex, Father's posts sometimes take a bit more attention to get the full benefit of their message. But the effort is well worth it.

Since it's Sunday, we can surely take the little bit of extra time involved in truly understanding and absorbing Father Leen's message to us. He will bring us side by side with Mary as Mother of Jesus in all its particulars. We will be able to envision her as the true Mother of Jesus, giving birth to Him, raising Him in Nazareth. 

With this we can envision her as our Mother. It's especially poignant for those of us whose own mother's have long left this earth. We might see Mary our Mother as Mother of us and of our own mother. If our mother's are now in Heaven, they will be, in some sense, side by side with Mary. But we too can be side by side with our Mother Mary here and now.

Thank you, Father Leen, for this rich, moving passage about Mary our Mother. 

“Our Blessed Lady is really a Mother. Now you all know what that word ‘mother’ means. Every letter of that word spells loyalty, sacrifice and love. All the dearest associations of life cling to it. The word brings up a vision of her who brought us into the world, who cared for us and nourished us. It tells of days of anxious watching and loving care. A mother’s love is the most perfect reflection of the love of God Himself. It is the most gentle, the most tender, the most compassionate affection on earth. A mother’s heart is a divine creation. No one but God could have thought of motherhood. None but God could have given us mothers. So wonderful a creation is motherhood that God Himself determined to have a Mother. When He decided to send His Divine Son upon earth to save us, a Mother was chosen to minister to His needs. And Mary was this Mother. Of all mothers she is the tenderest, the most understanding, the gentlest, the most full of sympathy and compassion, the most motherly, and Mary was all this for her beloved Son. When she smiled on Him at Bethlehem her smile was a perfect mother’s smile; when she clasped her Child to her heart at Nazareth it was the perfect embrace of a Mother; when she stood beneath His Cross on Calvary her sacrifice was the perfect consummation of her motherly love. The relation of a mother and son, always sacred, reaches its summit in the highest perfection that can be conceived when Mary is Mother and Jesus is Son. The love of a mother is unlike all other love and the crown of the love of mothers is the love of Mary the Mother of Jesus. 

“When you think of it, was it not a tremendous privilege for Our Lady to be the Mother of Jesus! For thirty years she lived side by side with Him. She alone of all the human race enjoyed with Him for all those thirty years that intimacy and familiarity which exist between a mother and a son. During those years she exercised all the functions and fulfilled all the duties of a mother. She was the witness of His smallest actions, she piously laid up each one of His words in her heart, she knew intimately each one of the sentiments which animated Him. And to His Mother Jesus paid a perfect tribute of submission, respect and love. Never was Mother so loved, never was Son so loving. Now it was in this close association with her Son that Mary learned to love mankind. It was with Jesus that she prepared to be the Mother of Men. For, besides being the Mother of Jesus, Mary is our Mother.” (Fr. Edward Leen, C.S.Sp.)

 

Happy 7th Sunday after Pentecost !