Let’s grow in our Marian devotion

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

IT’S May again, and we are reminded to turn our mind and heart to the most beautiful, blessed, divinely honored woman in the whole universe, none other than our Our Lady, “Mater Dei et mater nostra,” the Mother of God and our mother.

Let’s see to it that our devotion to her grows. And if it is practically dormant if not dead, then let’s stir it up to life again. She is important to us. In fact, she is indispensable to us. She cannot be treated as an optional feature in our spiritual life, nor something decorative or appendical only.

While she is not God and, therefore, not to be accorded with the worship that is only due to God (latria), she rightly deserves to be given the highest form of veneration (hyperdulia) among all the saints who are already with God in heaven.

She never competes nor undermines our relationship with God. If anything, all she does is to bring us to God and to help us fulfill the will of God. Thus, in that episode of the wedding at Cana where she noticed that the hosts were running out of wine, she told the servants, “Do whatever he (Christ) tells you.” (Jn 2,5)

She is a mother to us. In fact, she fulfills the perfection of motherhood because she conceived the Son of God in her womb, thereby making herself, in a mysterious sense, the mother of God (Mater Dei), since Jesus is not only man, but is, first of all, God.

And since Christ is the “prototype” of the redeemed humanity, she, being the mother of Christ, can rightly be called the mother of all humanity that has been redeemed by Christ.

That is why before Christ died, he gave his mother to us through the Apostle John when he said, “Woman, behold your son.” And to John, he said, “Behold your mother.” Like John, we should bring our Lady to the home of our heart. We would stand to benefit tremendously from such gesture.

If Eve was the first woman and thus the mother of all humanity who fell into sin with her, Mary is the second Eve who begot all of us by begetting the very son of God, “the way, the truth and the life” for us, the savior of all humanity.

And as mother, she really takes care of us the way she took care of Christ. She will always be with us, ever solicitous of our needs, always ready to help and intercede on our behalf. As mother, she will always understand us, and will be quick to help us fix whatever mess we make in our life. Most importantly, she is focused in helping us achieve our ultimate goal—our salvation.

These are basic truths about Our Lady that should never be missing in our mind and heart. On the contrary, they should always be made to be felt more deeply so as to give the pertinent impulses and motivations to our thoughts, words and deeds.

Let us develop the habit, even the instinct, of bringing Our Lady wherever we are. To be with her is to be with Christ, to be sure. For this, let us soften our heart to welcome and accommodate her, and develop an intimate mother-and-child relationship with her. With her we can never outgrow our condition as a little child who always needs his mother.

Let’s develop a certain fondness for her by availing of some human means that are used for this purpose. These can be developing the habit of looking affectionately at her pictures, saying something nice to her, saying the rosary and explore the different mysteries of Christ’s life with her, etc.

And even if we are in this stay-home order, we can still do some pilgrimages to Marian shrines by doing it online. Love and devotion will always find a way.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com