Pope Francis has encouraged us to “dedicate anew” the month of May to the Blessed Mother. In fact, he has asked that we engage in what he has called “a prayer marathon” with the theme “Prayer to God went up incessantly from the whole Church.”
As the Mother of God, she who lived amid many challenges, Mary can be a model for all of us who go through struggles, including simply having “a lot of work to do.” Mary’s response to the Angel’s message, for example, is what gives us the confidence that no matter our status in life or how busy we are, we are all called to be servants of God. Obviously, we have an everyday responsibility to respond to God’s call to faithfulness. Through Mary’s intercession, may we faithfully imitate her “yes” to God.
Join us on Friday for the Holy Cross School Mass (11am, the livestream link is above). At the end of Mass today, we will use the Fifth Glorious Mystery, The Coronation of Mary (as Queen of Heaven and Earth), as an inspiration and we will crown the school’s statue of Our Lady.
Alongside crowning an image of Mary, that Fifth Glorious Mystery can be used in several different ways in reflection and prayer. This decade of the Rosary can be used to pray for ten different countries in need of peace, or it could be used to pray for ten different regions of our nation or the world in need of peace.
The Fifth Mystery could also be used to pray to the Queen of Families for ten people in your family, ten people that are your friends, ten people in a friend’s family, or ten people you work with and their families. It could be used to pray for ten people in the parish (or a prayer group) and their families. It could be used to pray for ten people who may have hurt you or for someone you have lost at some point, either recently or in the past. All of these possibilities are ways to pray that Mary will guide us and others to find the love and peace of her Son.
The Blessed Virgin Mary was taken into Heaven, body and soul, and then crowned as Queen in order to “all the better intercede for us,” her children. There are many people in our nation and our world today who feel hopeless or powerless. All of the prayers of the Rosary, not just the Fifth Glorious Mystery, are prime moments for us to turn to the Blessed Mother for help, for hope, and for inner peace. “Hail Mary, full of grace….”
