Mary is the perfect companion for Lent, and Lent is a perfect time to
deepen our love, knowledge and veneration of the Mother of God.
At the wedding feast of Cana, Mary told the servers: “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). In a similar way, Mary directs us all to be faithful to Christ, her divine Son. If we wish to draw closer to Christ during Lent, there is no better way than by entrusting ourselves to Mary, our spiritual mother.
In his great work, “True Devotion to Mary” St. Louis de Montfort (1673–1716) teaches that the entire purpose of devotion to Mary is to provide “a smooth but certain way of reaching Jesus Christ” (No. 62). He says that devotion to Mary “is a way of reaching Jesus perfectly, loving him tenderly, and serving him faithfully”.
For St. Louis, “the more one is consecrated to Mary, the more one is consecrated to Jesus,” and consecration to Mary “is the perfect renewal of the vows and promises of holy baptism"'. If Lent is a season when we recall our own baptism , devotion to Mary is one of the best ways to do this.
Lent is a perfect time to renew our devotion to Mary as our spiritual mother who cares for us in the midst of challenges and difficulties.
Because Lent is a time to turn away from sin, it is also an ideal time to recognize the gift that Our Lord himself gave us, giving us his own mother as our mother while he was dying on the cross (Jn 19:25–27). Pope St. John Paul II recognized that Jesus gave Mary as mother not only to the beloved disciple but to all of the faithful. Mary’s spiritual motherhood is the basis for the “Marian dimension” of the life of each of the disciples of Christ.
Lent is a time to deepen our prayer life, and Mary provides the best example of prayer in her canticle, known as the Magnificat (Lk 1: 46–55). This canticle expresses the attitudes of praise, gratitude and humility that are at the heart of all authentic prayer to God.
In the Gospel of Luke, Simeon told Mary that her heart would be pierced so that “the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed” (Lk 2:35). This prophecy was fulfilled during Christ’s passion when Mary stood beneath the cross witnessing her Son’s crucifixion (Jn 19:25–27).
Vatican II tells us that Mary “faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross, where she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, grieving exceedingly with her only begotten Son, uniting herself with a maternal heart with His sacrifice, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this Victim which she herself had brought forth” (Lumen Gentium, No. 58).
Because Lent points to Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil, Mary as Our Lady of Sorrows assumes particular importance. But even under the cross, Mary remains a teacher and a model. She shows how all of the faithful, like her, can unite their sufferings to the passion of Christ for the redemption of the world.
Credits : Our Sunday Visitor
At the wedding feast of Cana, Mary told the servers: “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). In a similar way, Mary directs us all to be faithful to Christ, her divine Son. If we wish to draw closer to Christ during Lent, there is no better way than by entrusting ourselves to Mary, our spiritual mother.
In his great work, “True Devotion to Mary” St. Louis de Montfort (1673–1716) teaches that the entire purpose of devotion to Mary is to provide “a smooth but certain way of reaching Jesus Christ” (No. 62). He says that devotion to Mary “is a way of reaching Jesus perfectly, loving him tenderly, and serving him faithfully”.
For St. Louis, “the more one is consecrated to Mary, the more one is consecrated to Jesus,” and consecration to Mary “is the perfect renewal of the vows and promises of holy baptism"'. If Lent is a season when we recall our own baptism , devotion to Mary is one of the best ways to do this.
Lent is a perfect time to renew our devotion to Mary as our spiritual mother who cares for us in the midst of challenges and difficulties.
Because Lent is a time to turn away from sin, it is also an ideal time to recognize the gift that Our Lord himself gave us, giving us his own mother as our mother while he was dying on the cross (Jn 19:25–27). Pope St. John Paul II recognized that Jesus gave Mary as mother not only to the beloved disciple but to all of the faithful. Mary’s spiritual motherhood is the basis for the “Marian dimension” of the life of each of the disciples of Christ.
Lent is a time to deepen our prayer life, and Mary provides the best example of prayer in her canticle, known as the Magnificat (Lk 1: 46–55). This canticle expresses the attitudes of praise, gratitude and humility that are at the heart of all authentic prayer to God.
In the Gospel of Luke, Simeon told Mary that her heart would be pierced so that “the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed” (Lk 2:35). This prophecy was fulfilled during Christ’s passion when Mary stood beneath the cross witnessing her Son’s crucifixion (Jn 19:25–27).
Vatican II tells us that Mary “faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross, where she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, grieving exceedingly with her only begotten Son, uniting herself with a maternal heart with His sacrifice, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this Victim which she herself had brought forth” (Lumen Gentium, No. 58).
Because Lent points to Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil, Mary as Our Lady of Sorrows assumes particular importance. But even under the cross, Mary remains a teacher and a model. She shows how all of the faithful, like her, can unite their sufferings to the passion of Christ for the redemption of the world.
Credits : Our Sunday Visitor
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