Mary

All Christians should honor the Blessed Virgin Mary because God Himself has an infinite love for her. We must strive to show the same love, respect and submission that Christ Himself showed the Blessed Virgin Mary while He was here on earth.

Included in the reasons to show love for our Lady are the perfection with which God created her, the service and honor that she constantly shows God, and the infinite blessings that we receive through her powerful intercession.

There are many easy ways to honor Mary. We can do so simply by our thoughts. We have only to consider her perfect virtues and constant cooperation with the grace of God. We may also honor Mary by what we say. For example, we can encourage others to love her and to pray the rosary. Finally, we can honor Mary by our actions. We can offer everything we do in and through her, especially our charitable works.

The best way to honor the Blessed Virgin is through the imitation of her virtues, especially her perfect obedience to the will of God, her purity and her hatred for sin. Although we fall short of this ideal, we nevertheless are still children of Mary. We must pray to Mary for true repentance for our many sins and past transgressions and the grace to be more faithful in the future. Listen to the words of the dogmatic constitution on the Church of the Second Vatican Council:

Mary, because she has entered intimately into the history of salvation, in a certain sense gathers up in her own person the great truths of the faith and awakens their resonance when she is the object of preaching and veneration; she summons the faithful to her Son, to His sacrifice and to the Father’s love. In seeking to further the glory of Christ, the Church becomes more and more like Mary, its exalted type, as it continues its progress in faith, hope and charity, seeking and fulfilling the divine will in all things.

So also in its apostolic task the Church rightly looks to the one who bore Christ, Christ who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin in order that He might also be born and grow in the hearts of the faithful. In her whole life this virgin mother showed herself as an example of that motherly love that must animate all who share in the apostolic mission of the Church for the regeneration of mankind. (Lumen gentium, nn. 63-65)

Mary, Mother of God pray for us!

Sincerely in Christ

Fr. Jeffery Fasching