MARIAN DEVOTION

Traveling around the local area, one can hardly walk down the streets of a town or drive out a country lane without passing many home shrines dedicated to Mary. These familiar sights testify to the deep roots of Marian devotion in the hearts of people who have personally experienced her motherly help and care. The summer months abound with occasions to celebrate Mary’s place of honor in the Church. May crownings with festive flowers celebrate the “Queenship” of Mary in heaven. May 31 is the feast of the Visitation. June gives rise to the great feasts of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. July 16 is particular cause for celebration for our community as we honor Our Lady of Mount Carmel. And finally, the universal Church proclaims August 15 to be a holy day of rejoicing in Mary’s Assumption into heaven. Throughout the world, Christians gather on that day to share in the Eucharistic presence of the same risen Lord whom Mary now worships face to face.

The early Church recognized Mary as one highly favored by God, blessed among all women, chosen in all her lowliness to be the handmaid of the Lord, Mother of the Messiah and dwelling place of the Word made flesh. Ancient writings call her “Saint Mary,” positioning her among that blessed communion of men and women who, like her, have faithfully fulfilled the will of God in their lives. Yet Christians knew that God’s will for Mary’s life was unique to human history and central to salvation history, for her fiat caused her to become the Virgin Mother of Jesus, the Son of God. The first official title attributed to Mary by the Church was Theotokos, “God-bearer.”
To be devoted to someone is to be sincere, even zealous, in giving oneself over to another’s influence. The Church is indeed devoted to Mary. May crownings, rosary rallies, novenas, litanies, Churches named in her honor (Saint Mary Major in Rome, the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., the many diocesan parishes which bear her name), and innumerable religious communities founded in imitation of her gospel virtues are all attempts to express that devotion.

While “June Bride” is perhaps a cliché’, summer weddings are very popular. Catholics are familiar with the customary ritual of ending the marriage ceremony by dedicating the newly wed couple to Mary. Where could young lovers begin to learn better the true nature of perfect charity than at the feet of this wise woman whose life was fashioned by an intimate relationship of love with the Father, the Son and the Spirit. From Mary, one learns that love is hard work involving daily effort, daily commitment. To live for another inevitably demands personal sacrifice. Yet from Mary one also learns that when work and sacrifice are rooted in love, such surrender is cause for unfathomable happiness. Her magnificat of praise, found in Luke’s gospel, is a canticle of sheer joy, a song of gladness at being chosen to help create the Incarnate Love of God. It is this same joy which is mirrored again and again in the sacrificial love which draws husband and wife to lay down their lives for one another.

Throughout the ages, Mary’s prayers and guidance have been invoked by those who seek to imitate her dedication to the will of God and her fidelity to the Word of God. She has been called by many names: Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Lourdes and Our Lady of Fatima. In Loretto, Pennsylvania stands a lovely monument to Our Lady of the Alleghenies, a tribute to Mary by the local people who claim to have felt her presence, not through dramatic apparitions but in the quiet assurance of believing hearts. It is not presumptuous to think of Mary as particularly concerned about the welfare of each neighborhood and parish as she becomes, in a sense, Our Lady of Ebensburg, Our Lady of Altoona, Our Lady of Johnstown.

Whatever honorary titles may yet to be added to her litany of praise, this woman of faith is certainly the Comforter of the Afflicted, a Refuge for Sinners and our Blessed Mother. Mary remains close to her children for she knows our human condition. She challenges us to be of great service to God and to others while at the same time she sympathizes with our tendency toward weakness and limitation. It is here, in the ordinariness of daily living, that she instructs us in a simple but extraordinary wisdom, to magnify the greatness of the Lord, to let Him look with mercy on our littleness, and to let Him in His goodness do great things in us.

Sr. Margie McGuire, CCW