An impulse for the month of May
The month of May in the Catholic Church, at least in the northern hemisphere, is traditionally dedicated to the Blessed Mother. In temperate climates, it is a month when new life blossoms all around us and springtime explodes in its splendor and beauty. Parishes, groups, families, and individuals often present the Blessed Mother a crown of flowers during the month of May, acknowledging her as the Queen of All Creation and its most beautiful flower.
It is a month when our hearts should be newly kindled with love for Mary!
She is first of all our Mother. Her task as our Mother is to give life to us – to awaken the life of grace in our souls, to preserve it and cultivate it. Father Kentenich says:
Since God has given us Mary as Mother, as Mother in the truest sense of the word, he also wants us to love her genuinely in that capacity. … Since she is truly our Mother, that is, the Mother of divine life within us, then in genuine motherhood she has a threefold task concerning us: She co-generates or co-merits this divine life for us beneath the cross; she nourishes it constantly … through her mediation of graces; and she must form us into perfect reflections of Christ until we are one with him in every situation. … She is and will always be our Mother Thrice Admirable! (JK, Mary our Mother and Educator, p. 44)
As Mother of the divine life in us, it is also her task to guide us to discover God’s will for our lives – the vocation that he has planned for us. Father Kentenich says:
‘We need the Blessed Mother.’ That is what the youth … say – our young men and women. ‘Without the Mother Thrice Admirable it will be impossible to guard the lily of our purity and keep it without stain; it will be impossible to keep ourselves chaste so that we can enter matrimony with an undefiled heart, impossible to prepare ourselves for the battles of single life, or – if God so will it – to choose a priestly or religious vocation. (JK, Mary our Mother and Educator, p. 18)
Mary is also our Queen. She has queenly power over our hearts! She reigns over us and guards us. Moreover, she has a great influence on the heart of God as his Mother – and so faithfully presents our requests and needs to him at his throne.
Shouldn’t we then entrust the question of our life’s vocation to her?
Father Kentenich often encouraged us in times of great need to crown the Blessed Mother – as a sign that we acknowledge her queenly power and trust that she will be victorious. Some young women in various countries of the world have even chosen to give the Blessed Mother a crown with the petition that she show them clearly their life’s vocation and prepare their hearts for it. What a beautiful sign of surrender!
And finally, Mary is also our model of genuine womanhood.
She shows us what it means to be a true woman in a time when the image of womanhood has become totally distorted.
She is the model of a genuine wife and mother,
a genuine single woman, and
a genuine consecrated woman – in short, s
he stands before us as the model of all womanly vocations.
During this month of May, let us walk with Mary, our Mother and Queen, and our model of genuine womanhood, continuing to let her guide us in the search for our vocation.