Today is the last day of the Month of May. The Month of May is also called the Month of Mary, because it is spring, and from spring comes new life, and the spring of all life is the God, Jesus Christ, who sprung forth from her womb. Also, today, if it wasn't the Thursday in the Octave of Pentecost, would be the Feast of the Queenship of Blessed Virgin Mary. Thus, it wouldn't be appropriate if I didn't write about my beloved Mother and Queen of Heaven at least once this month. Yes, it's still May by five hours over here.
To all my protestant buddies who are reading this, yes you, I think you should foster a devotion for Our Lady too. Now, before you take our the pitchforks and torches and accuse me of the idolatry, I should probably explain to you what a devotion is. A devotion is where one particularly reflects and meditates upon an aspects of the faith, for example, say you can have a devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus or to the Child Jesus. When the devotion is to a person, like a Saint, or your guardian angel, then you would add praying and talking to particular Saint or angel as well. Now, read this about what it means in Catholicism to pray to someone or something. Got that? This is dulia prayer, not latria prayer. Through these devotions, with the help of these spiritual guids, we cannot help but be led closer to God. So, who best of all to have a devotion to, then to Our Blessed Mother, Mary?
Also, I think you'd be interested to know that Martin Luther, John Calvin and Thomas Cranmer all loved our Lady very much. To deny her any honour at all is essentially to deny Christianity.
And for all my dear Catholics brethren who haven't thought of picking up a Marian devotion, or haven't started, here are five reasons to start.
1. She is the Mother of God.
I suppose, that is obvious enough. Though, some might say, what's the big deal, God could have chosen anyone to be His mother. Well, you see, the thing is, He could have, but He didn't. To dwell on that idea is rather redundant speculation, since history has unfolded in such a manner, the Blessed Virgin Mary was chosen to be the Mother of God by God, to which she humbly accepted. If God had theoretically chosen someone else, say, the Blessed Virgin Beatrice, well then, we still be having this same conversation now, except with Beatrice instead of Mary. It's like vehement atheists or secularist who argue that it is possible to create a moral society without religion, except due to history, all morality in all societies stems from some form of religion, and thus everyone in society is influenced by the morality of religion in some way or another. It's rather redundant speculation, because, no matter what, one cannot undo the knots of the past. What God has willed, He has willed.
In light of that fact, consider that Mother Mary is about the most special and unique person in the whole of creation. Throughout all ages, she is the only human who has and will ever house God in her womb. Moreover, Christ chose to take her flesh for His humanity. She was essentially, the first tabernacle, literally, bringing Christ into the world. And, I have written about how foetal cells cross the placenta and stay in the Mother's body for the rest of their lives before, so if you think about it, she remained his tabernacle for the rest of her life, always nearby, even at the foot of His cross. For this alone, we must give her the greatest respect. YOU have Jesus Christ and all of your life as it is today because she said yes.
'My soul doth magnify the Lord.
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid;
for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
Because he that is mighty,
hath done great things to me;
and holy is his name.' - Lk 1:46
These words in the gospel today ring true, and there are at least 1.3 billion people who called her 'Blessed', and for the last two thousand years, you can imagine the number who have done so.
Think about that.
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