Mary

One of the best gifts my mother has ever given me is allowing me to have another mother. Now before you start conjecturing strange theories about my family tree, hear me out first. My mom, you see, has instilled in me a faith that believes that I am loved by God and that I am precious in the eyes of His mother. And so like my mother and my grandmother before her, I claim Mary as my mother too. And what a wonderful mother She has been to me!

In this day and age, it is quite easy for Mary’s detractors to state their false claims against the Mother of God, and quite easy for people like me to take the assault in the interest of being politically-correct. But then, I realized that there is only so much political correctness that I can take. After all, I have to protect my own. And so I wish to state my claim as well. I am a Catholic. And I am proud of my faith. And I am most proud to call Mary my mother. If She is good enough for Jesus, She’s good enough for me.  

My journey with Mary began when I was in my mother’s womb. Or so my mother tells me. Daily, she said her prayers to Mama Mary and asked Her to take care of me. And when I was born, my mother gave me one of Mary’s names, Our Lady of Lourdes. And after that, well it was easy to get to know Her in my grandmother’s house where we first lived. My grandmother had been enrolled in the village practice of inviting the statue of the Lady of the Rosary to our house and my cousins and uncles and aunts would all gather together to say the rosary. And well, I guess you could say our closeness just blossomed, helped in great part by my mother’s own devotion to Her of course.

I wasn’t a perfect daughter though. She knows all too well, how I can take things for granted and how disobedient I can sometimes be. But She is always there, always willing to take me back into Her arms.

It is so easy to fall in love with Mary, to get to know Her many names, to listen to Her repeated messages calling for repentance, and to be inspired by Her humble example. I don’t know what all the fuss is about when people say Mary takes away from God’s glory. Nothing could be farther from the truth. And I doubt those who are truly devoted to Her have ever believed that either. Those whose lives She touched have always known that She has no greater joy than bringing others to Her Son. St. Louis de Montfort says that there are many ways to Jesus but that those who have taken Mary’s way have found it to be much easier. I don’t know about you, but I’m having a hard enough time being holy as I am and I need all the help I can get. And Mama Mary is that help.

But She is more than that. She is my constant companion and my listener. My role model and my guide. My queen, my adviser and my teacher. And more importantly, She is the Mother of my Lord. How can anyone go wrong in loving someone whom God has created to be His own mother and asking Her to pray for me? Under Mary’s watchful eye and under Her constant care, my love for Her Son has grown by leaps and bounds. And though I know there is much more I need to do, much more I need to give, She will be there to help me through and to hold my hand every step of the way, like any good mother would. Mama Mary is after all, and even my mother would agree with me on this, the best mother.