St. Stephen Catholic Church

May is the month of Mary,

I would like to share with you some thoughts on the devotion we have to Mary the Mother of Jesus:

The ultimate purpose of devotion to the Blessed Virgin is to glorify God and to lead Christians to commit themselves to a life, which is in absolute conformity with His will. (Marialis Cultus, #39)

Mary was chosen by God to be the Mother of the Son of God.  This was the greatest gift given to Mary.  There is no point in asking what Mary did to deserve this; she did nothing to deserve it because it was a gift.  Nobody deserves gifts!  This choice of God is not the reward for dedicated work on the part of Mary, it is the result of God’s freedom to choose whom he wants. Just like he chose you and I to serve Him.

Mary received many talents for her vocation, so do each one of us.  The difference between Mary and us is not that she is chosen and we are not rather that she fully responded to being chosen while we remain halfhearted about responding.

Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. (Eph 1:4)

Like Mary we face God’s choice of us, like her we are challenged to say Yes.  God has chosen each and every one of us and from a devotion to Mary we can learn how to put our freedom at his service, rather than serving our selfishness.

A true devotion to the Mary makes us open to the presence of God in our daily lives and despite our fears and doubts, we can to the best of our ability with the grace of God continue to carry out God’s will for us, realizing that our faith must always continue to grow in our daily lives and our “yes” needs to be renewed each day in prayer.  

God Bless, Fr. Dermot