Month of Our Lady
For centuries, the Church has set aside the month of May to honour Our Lady – not just a day in May but the entire month. This tradition dates back to the thirteenth century when the Church Christianised the secular feasts which took place at that time. In recent times, honouring Our Lady in May has been recommended by all the popes. So we should try to increase our love of her during this month by contemplating her beauty, her goodness and her purity so as she can inspire us to grow in holiness. Remember, all graces come to us through Mary. Pope St Pius X put it like this:
“But Mary as St Bernard fittingly remarks is the ‘channel’ or, even, the neck, through which the body is joined to the head, and likewise through which the head exerts its power and strength on the body. For she is the neck of our Head, by which all spiritual gifts are communicated to His Mystical Body.”
In other words, it is God’s will that all good things come to us through her hands. She is the “Mediatrix of all Graces”. When Our Lady appeared to St Catherine Labouré in Paris in 1830, Sister Catherine saw a vision of Mary standing upon the earth, with rays of lights beaming from within a picture frame she had. The picture began to rotate, revealing twelve stars (Apocalypse 12: 1), the letter M, and the Sacred Heart of JESUS and Immaculate Heart of Mary. Catherine wondered why not all the rays of light were shining or directed towards the earth. Our Lady responded, “Those are the graces for which people forget to ask.”
Here are a few suggestions to help increase your devotion to Our Lady this month. Obtain a statue or picture of Our Lady for your home (if you don’t already have one) and put some flowers in front of it. Or make a little altar with her statue or picture and some candles and pray in front it as a family. Make a novena to her. Try extra hard to say the daily Rosary, especially in the family. Be enrolled in the Miraculous Medal and/or the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel – anyone interested just ask me. You don’t even need to be Catholic to be enrolled! Or perhaps you could read a book about her such as “The Secret of the Rosary” by St Louis de Montfort or “The Glories of Mary” by St Alphonsus Liguori. These spiritual classics are sure to inspire you. Or you might read a book about the apparitions at La Salette, Lourdes, Fatima, Akita, or in Paris to St Catherine Labouré. You could make a pilgrimage to Walsingham or to Aylesford in Kent where she gave the Brown Scapular to St Simon Stock in 1251.
Mary is not some ideal to be reverenced from afar. She is our Mother and she is very near to us, loving us with a motherly love. Just as a child afraid of the dark runs to safety in his mother’s arms, let us run to Mary in times of danger and temptation, and pray the prayer she taught to St Catherine Labouré and told her to have imprinted on the Miraculous Medal: “O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” If we have confidence in her she will surely guide us safely to Heaven where we will be face to face with her Son and Saviour of the world, our Lord JESUS Christ.
Fr Paul Gillham, IC
Click here to view/download the complete newsletter 5 May 2024
Click here to view/download the Letter for Safeguarding Sunday 2024
Click here to view/download the Liturgy for the Sixth Sunday of Easter
