5 Ways to Celebrate Mother Mary on Mother's Day
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The last wedding I attended was deeply inspiring.
From the choir loft in the church at a Catholic wedding, a skilled vocalist sang the Ave Maria. The bride and groom carried roses from their seats to the statue of Mary to their right. While they bowed their heads in prayer in front of the statue—as many newlyweds do at the end of a wedding Mass—many of their guests dabbed their eyes with tissues. We just can't help but be moved by this tradition.
It moves us because deep down, we all know who the tradition honors: our mother. But we don't just honor her at weddings. At Christmas, we remember how she held our newborn Savior. On Good Friday, we remember how she held Him after He died. And by the end of every single rosary we pray, we have hailed her 53 times. But as Mother's Day approaches, do we include her?
On Mother's Day, most of us will shower our earthly moms with praise. Others, whose moms are absent, may grieve a loss. But all of us have another mother—the one who never fails us, who is ever-present to us, who only modeled virtue for us, whose prayers for us protect us: Mary. And she's worth celebrating. Here are 5 ways how.
1. Immerse yourself in her story.
Unmarried and barely a teen, Mary was scared when the angel Gabriel showed up and said—and I'll paraphrase—"You're pregnant." I'd be scared, too. But she handled it like a pro, as shown in Luke 1:26-38. She also appears in other passages of scripture, including when she visits Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-56), when she gives birth to Jesus (Luke 2:1-21), when she can't find Jesus (Luke 2:41-52), at the wedding feast at Cana (John 2:1-12), and at the foot of her Son's cross (John 19:25-27). Celebrate Mary by reading these and other stories about her life.
2. Imagine her perspective.
As you pore over stories about Mary, pray through them by putting yourself in her shoes. Don't just read about what she did at the wedding feast at Cana. Celebrate her by imagining her perspective of it.
If you are standing where Mary stood at the wedding feast, what do you see? What do you feel when you tell Jesus there's no more wine? What changes in you when He makes eye contact with you? When you look at the Lord like His mother does, He can show you parts of His heart (and parts of your own) that you haven't seen before.
3. Impart her wisdom on others.
As you read about Mary's life, you'll notice her virtue. You'll notice her courage. You'll notice her love for God and her Son. When you share what you notice with others, you celebrate her.
So pay attention to what strikes a chord in you while you read. Then, tweet or text or Insta or Facebook or Snap it. Preach it if you need to on TikTok. Take the tools you usually use to connect with the people you love and use them to connect them to Mary—and to her Son.
4. Immortalize her.
What most draws you to Mary? What is she good at that you'd like to be better at? What do you admire in her most? Let it inspire you to celebrate her by creating art. Paint or draw an image of her while you meditate on her life. Write a poem about her or a letter to her or a letter about her to her Son. Use somebody else's Mary art as your mobile or desktop wallpaper, at least for the rest of the month, and let it remind you of what you've learned from her.
5. Imitate her.
Mary, our mother, was brave to cooperate so fully with God. "Let it be to me according to your word," she said. Mary's trust in God is so deep that she didn't even ask for details before she agreed to do what He wanted her to do. She magnified the Lord. She pointed people toward Him (and still does). She rejoiced in God. She acknowledged the great things He did for her. She persistently sought her Son out, even when she couldn't see Him. We can celebrate her by doing that, too.
And if we keep doing these things after Mother's Day, we'll be honoring Mary in the best possible way—by consistently creating opportunities for her to do what she's always wanted to do: lead us closer to her Son.
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