Monitor May 2024 We Celebrate: Month of Mary

First Holy Communion students in St. Catharine School, Spring Lake, stand before the newly crowned statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary May 1. Mike Ehrmann photo

Queen of Heaven, Rejoice!

The month of May belongs to Mary, and students and Catholic faithful across the Diocese were not bashful about showing their love for the Blessed Mother. With flower crowns and special prayers, these photos shared with The Monitor and on social media capture just a few of the celebrations that will continue throughout the month.

Dressed in First Communion attire, students in St. Catharine School, Spring Lake, present flowers during a May 1 crowning ceremony on the grounds of their parish church. Mike Ehrmann photo

Donovan Catholic High School, Toms River, held a May Crowning of the Blessed Mother May 2. Shown crowning the statue is Class of 2024 valedictorian Isabella Chiaravallo. Facebook photo

To see more around the Diocese May crowning photos go to TrentonMonitor.com >Photo Galleries

Mary,full of Grace

BY CARL OLSON  OSV News

“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” They are simple words, but full of mystery and meaning, telling us so much about God’s loving plan of salvation for mankind –and Mary’s singular place in that plan.

In keeping with that singular place, the angel’s address to her is also unique. “The angel greeted Mary with a new address, which I could not find anywhere else in Scripture,” wrote the great third-century theologian Origen. “This greeting was reserved for Mary alone.”

To be full of grace is to be favored; even more, it is to be filled with the actual life and holiness of God. To be holy is to be set apart; the call to holiness, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, is summarized in Jesus’ words: “Be per-

fect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (No. 2013; Mt 5:48).

Mary’s holiness comes from the same source – the Triune God – as the holiness that fills all who are baptized and are in a state of grace. But Mary’s relationship with the Triune God is unique, as Luke makes evident in his

 “Do whatever he tells you.”

description of Gabriel’s appearance: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” (Lk 1:35).

Mary possessed perfect faith, itself a gift from God, and so cooperated

perfectly with the three Divine Persons: overshadowed by God the Father, anointed by the Holy Spirit and filled by the Son. Because she was chosen by God to bear the one in whom the “whole fullness of deity” would dwell (CCC No. 484), Mary is rightly called the mother of God.

She is also the mother of the Church. Faithful and holy, she was chosen so others can also be chosen and made holy, transformed by her son into the sons and daughters of God and joined to the Body of Christ.

This incredible truth is due to her

perfect union with her son: “Mary’s role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it” (CCC No. 964).

Mary, the mother of God, is also the first disciple of her son, the incarnate Word, to whom she always points: “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). She, for her part, pondered and contemplated all she saw and heard: “And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart” (Lk 2:19).

Her perfect obedience, as the early Church fathers often noted, demonstrated that she was the new Eve, whose

obedience and gift of self overturned the sin and rebellion of the first Eve. And Jesus is the new Adam, who comes to give everlasting, supernatural life and heal the mortal wound inflicted by the sin of the first Adam (cf. 1 Cor 15:45).

Mary continues to quietly beckon all of humanity to gaze upon and worship the Christ child. Jesus waits with merciful kindness for mankind to recognize him as Lord and Savior. However, he doesn’t just wait for us – he comes to us. He reveals himself to us. But this coming and revelation each await completion, both in our individual lives and in the

life of the world. Again, it is the example of Mary, assumed into heaven, which demonstrates that the end is not so far off.

Our lives, in the light of eternity, are quite brief. But what we do with them has eternal consequences. Mary’s words of humility and faith provide guidance as we approach the birth of Christ and consider his eventual return in glory: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38).

Carl E. Olson is editor of Catholic World Report and Ignatius Insight.

An image of the Immaculate Conception depicting a crowned Mary is seen in the Chapel of the Choir in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican May 30, 2023. CNS photo/Lola Gomez

Not sure about Marian apparitions?

Take a closer look this May

BY GRETCHEN R. CROWE  OSV News

Seven years ago this May, the Church celebrated the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of Mary to three shepherd children at Fatima. To commemorate the event, Pope Francis visited Portugal, as did thousands upon thousands of pilgrims. It was a time of great rejoicing and a time of remembering, especially Mary’s urgent plea to the children to pray the Rosary for peace in the world and for “an end to the war.” But Mary’s apparitions in Fatima, of course, form just one apparition event among many.

 Mary ... continues to come to us in humility and love.

Earlier this year, in February, the Church marked 166 years since Mary appeared to St. Bernadette near a stream in Lourdes, France. It’s been 165 years since she appeared in Champion, Wisconsin; 493 since Tepeyac Hill; 91 years since Belgium – and the list goes on. And though Catholics are not required to believe in these apparitions, the Church has found many worthy of official approval. For me, to believe that Mary, our queen of heaven and earth and our mother, continues to come to us in humility and love, calling us to conversion and into a deeper relationship with her son is quite moving. And it makes sense, for it is

Pope Francis prays in front of a statue of Our Lady of Fátima before beginning his celebration of the closing Mass for World Youth Day at Tejo Park in Lisbon, Portugal, Aug. 6, 2023. CNS photo/Vatican Media

what she has always done.

In her descriptive and eminently readable book “Those Who Saw Her: Apparitions of Mary” (OSV, $19.95), now in its fourth edition, Catherine Odell describes how Marian apparitions “have always had something to do with her heart and the world’s needs.” Odell’s highly researched text places you at the setting of each apparition, describing the “main characters” and giving context

and even dialogue. She shows that what Mary brings, in her apparitions, is “part of the larger plan of her Son, who gave and continues to give salvation.”

It was to this text that I turned when visiting two Marian apparition sites earlier this year – the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in southern France and the Shrine of the Miraculous Medal on Rue de Bac in Paris. Reading the

MARIAN APPARITIONS

Continued

accounts of the events and being in those two locations reminded me that Mary comes among us to inspire the hearts of believers then and now. She wants us to be active disciples of her son and, in so doing, to change the world.

As Odell writes:“It is not just individual hearts and spirits that are the goal of her conversion efforts. The Virgin is interested in the revitalization of communities and of the Church.”

What does that mean for us, then? How can we respond to Our Lady’s call? As we enter into this Marian month of May, perhaps we could spend some time not only praying the Rosary, singing Marian hymns or crowning images of Our Lady – all very worthwhile activities – but reading about and reflecting on Mary’s appearances here on earth. What did she tell us? Who did she talk to? How should we be responding? How can we be keeping her message, and that of her Son, alive in our hearts, homes and communities?

Odell’s text is a great place to start, and it contains a helpful bibliography for further reading. It would be perfect for book club or other small group reading Very practically, we could also take note of Marian apparition days on the calendar and commemorate them with a novena or another prayer We could read up on the Miraculous Medal, or even start wearing one. Maybe we could even plan a pilgrimage –either in person, or of the armchair variety – to an apparition site. Here in the U.S., we have an

approved apparition site in Champion, Wisconsin, that is quite beautiful.

Approaching these apparitions with open hearts, as well as with prudence – we should be most attentive to those apparitions the church has approved – could reap great rewards. As Odell writes, “With all apparitions, there is a tension between authority and prophecy (the Church and apparitions) that must work itself out again and again. The tension will continue, but there is little need to be concerned that it will damage the Church, theologians assure us. Mary has assured us that she is indeed Mother of the Church. It is safe – and even necessary – to believe that she will always be near. And when the time is right and the needs of the world warrant it, she will be close enough for some eyes to see and many hearts to know.”

Gretchen

R. Crowe is the editor-in-chief of OSV News.

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