May, a month devoted to Mary

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This statue of the Blessed Mother is at St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church in Park City.

Since the 13th century, the Catholic Church has designated the month of May, which always falls between Easter and Pentecost, to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary.

“The Church’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship,” the Catechism of the Catholic Church states. “The Church rightly honors the Blessed Virgin with special devotion. From the most ancient times the Blessed Virgin has been honored with the title of ‘Mother of God,’ to whose protection the faithful fly in all their dangers and needs.”

The devotion to Mary differs from the adoration given to the three Persons of the Trinity, “and greatly fosters this adoration,” the Catechism notes, adding, “Mary’s role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it.” 

Since the early days, Church leaders have honored the mother of Jesus Christ. In the second century, St. Irenaeus of Lyons wrote extensively about the Virgin Mary and her role in the salvation of mankind. Since then, many popes have venerated Our Lady; most recently, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI constantly referenced her in their encyclicals, as does Pope Francis, who prays at the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome before and after his travels abroad. 

The feast of the Queenship of Mary, now celebrated each year on Aug. 22, previously was celebrated on May 31. It was instituted by Pope Pius XII in his 1954 encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam (Queenship of Mary in Heaven), “so that all may recognize more clearly and venerate more devoutly the merciful and maternal sway of the mother of God,” he wrote. “We are convinced that this feast will help to preserve, strengthen and prolong that peace among nations which daily is almost destroyed by recurring crises. Is she not a rainbow in the clouds reaching towards God, the pledge of a covenant of peace?”

Last year, Pope Francis consecrated Russia and Ukraine to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and recently asked Catholics to annually renew their consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. “Let us not tire of entrusting the cause of peace to the Queen of Peace,” he said. “Therefore, I would like to invite each believer and community, especially prayer groups, to renew every March 25 the act of consecration to Our Lady, so that she, who is Mother, may guard us all in unity and peace.”

Perhaps the most well-known devotion in honor of Our Lady is the rosary; this is “among the finest and most praiseworthy traditions of Christian contemplation,” Pope John Paul II wrote in his encyclical Rosarium Virginis Mariae. “With the rosary, the Christian people sits at the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love. Through the rosary the faithful receive abundant grace, as though from the very hands of the mother of the Redeemer.”

This month the Church also celebrates the May 13 feast of Our Lady of Fatima. Pope John Paul II credited the Blessed Virgin of Fatima with saving his life after he was shot on her feast day in 1981. He also had a love for Our Lady of Czestochowa, an image of the Virgin Mother which, legend says, was painted by Luke the Evangelist on a tabletop which was built by Jesus.

“If we wish to rediscover in all its richness the profound relationship between the Church and the Eucharist, we cannot neglect Mary, Mother and model of the Church,” he wrote in his encyclical Ecclesia De Eucharistia. “Mary can guide us towards this most holy sacrament, because she herself has a profound relationship with it. … Mary is a woman of the Eucharist in her whole life. The Church, which looks to Mary as a model, is also called to imitate her in her relationship with this most holy mystery. … Mary, throughout her life at Christ’s side and not only on Calvary, made her own the sacrificial dimension of the Eucharist.”

On May 31, the Church also celebrates the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to her cousin Elizabeth shortly after the Annunciation. The Gospel of St. Luke relates that upon hearing Mary’s greeting, the baby in Elizabeth’s womb – John the Baptist – leapt for joy and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 

In honor of the Blessed Mother, many Catholic parishes, communities and schools crown a statue of Mary during May; this tradition goes back to the Middle Ages.

“Mary has been an incredibly important aspect of the Church, certainly in the manner of prayer of the Church,” said Father Christopher Gray, pastor at St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Park City. “Mary helps us hold in our heart the meaning of the Eucharist,” the real existence of God in the Eucharist. “Mary, who is always so good at caring for details – such as at the wedding feast of Cana; Mary, who was so attentive to the details of particular circumstances and particular times, is truly exemplary as we are in a time of revival and especially in the context of being able to follow the Lord and hold onto him and promote that gift of himself which is the Eucharist.”

“The beauty of the Marian devotions is one that humanizes us,” Fr. Gray added. “Mary is very accessible, very sensible about the world in which she lives, so when we think of Mary or meditate with Mary or pray to Mary, we’re doing so in a manner of love and connection and relationship. It is so needed in a world that is about artificial love and contrived connection and fake relationship. The relationship we have with Mary through prayer is intimate and loving and motherly in every possible way versus the kind of relationship that we build from a social media reality.”