Offer Her special gifts during the month

 

 

Let us ask ourselves today in our prayer what resolutions we have and how we are carrying them out in treating Our Blessed Mother Mary throughout this month in which traditionally Christians honor Our Lady most especially.

The dedication to Our Lady in the month of May was born out of love, which always sought new ways to express itself, and out of reaction against the pagan customs that existed in many places in the "month of flowers." Among the Cantigas de Santa María del Rey sabio there is one that begins with the words: "¡Bienvenido mayo!...". In it, Alfonso X already exalts the return of May because it invites us to pray with more honor to Mary, so that she may deliver us from evil and fill us with good things.

In our days, we Christians, who want to be always very close to her, offer her special gifts during the month: pilgrimages, visits to a church dedicated to her, small sacrifices in her honor, offering of study or work well done, the most attentive recitation of the Holy Rosary.... "In a spontaneous, natural way, there arises in us the desire to treat the Mother of God, who is also our Mother. To treat her as one treats a living person: because death has not triumphed over her, but she is in body and soul with God the Father, with her Son, with the Holy Spirit (...).


"How does a normal son or daughter behave with his or her mother? In a thousand ways, but always with affection and trust. With an affection that will flow in each case through determined channels, born of life itself, which are never something cold, but rather endearing customs of home, small daily details, which the son needs to have with his mother and which the mother misses if the son ever forgets them: a kiss or a caress when leaving or returning home, a small gift, a few expressive words.

"In our relations with Our Heavenly Mother there are also those norms of filial piety, which are the channel of our habitual behavior with her. Many Christians make their own the ancient custom of the scapular; or they have acquired the habit of greeting - words are not necessary, the thought is enough - the images of Mary that are in every Christian home or that adorn the streets of so many cities; or they live that marvelous prayer which is the Holy Rosary, in which the soul never tires of saying the same things, as lovers never tire of saying the same things when they love each other, and in which they learn to relive the central moments of the Lord's life; or they are accustomed to dedicate one day of the week (Saturday) to Our Lady (...), offering her the Rosary and the Rosary of the Lord, and to pray it to her. ...), offering her some small delicacy and meditating more especially on her maternity".


Hablar con Dios