My Dear Parish,
Last week we crowned Mother Mary at noon, with the beautiful children in their first Holy Communion regalia joining in the procession. This weekend, we shall honor Mary at all the Masses. And for the month, Mary holds pride of place. If you please, bring flower arrangements for Mary during the month. What a splendid outpouring of affection for Mary that would be! For she truly is our Mother.
Mary is our Mother, our model and our lady. She holds the highest honor of mankind, which is why it is so powerful to seek out her intercession. Mary’s intercession is both potent and sweet. I love the words of the Memorare:
Remember, O most compassionate Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help, or sought your intercession was left unaided.
Inspired by this confidence, I/we fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my/our mother; to you do I/we come, before you I/we stand, sinful and sorrowful.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my/our petitions, but in your mercy hear and answer me/us. Amen!
This weekend we also honor all our mothers and mother figures in our lives. The Memorare is one of the favorite prayers of my late Grandma Babe. Some of us grandkids would come to her with a problem, and she would write out in longhand on a piece of paper, this prayer like a doctor writing out a prescription. She would say: entrust your worries to Mother Mary. Whenever I pray the Memorare, I think of Gram.
My mother, Colleen, taught me the “Hail Mary,” very early on I guess, since I just have a few brief memories of practicing it. These are words I have always known. “Rote” prayers often, however, are not my favorite. We Catholics have an immense treasury of rich composed prayers. And the way I see it, those are like tools in the toolbox of spiritual life. We need tools in the toolbox, and we need to know how to use them, but ultimately only using them builds our spiritual abodes. And just like with all tools, we often must be creative in how we use them. By contrast, when something in our life needs attention - and we reach into our toolbox to discover no tools or that we have forgotten how to use them - we can find ourselves in a rough place. That is why it is so important to hand on some of the rich treasury of Catholic prayers to our little ones, even teens. Namely, for parents, grandparents, and godparents to be dedicated to teaching our young people “their prayers.”
These prayers: Sign of the Cross, Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, Act of Contrition, and Angel of God are the basics. Just a hammer, screwdriver, wrench, and saw might be the basics in any toolbox. From there we build and grow. Remember that prayer is simply “the raising of the mind and heart to God,” which takes no words or formulae. But it is often helpful to begin in some structured way. As creatures of habit, it is good to prime the pump!
So, this month, I would invite you to pray just one decade of the Rosary as a family unit, each day. That is the Sign of the Cross, Our Father, 10 Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be. You can pray with your spouse on a walk, with your kids or grandbabies in the car, after dinner or before bed or even before school in the morning. It takes about 3 minutes. You can name specific intentions, people, or things on your heart, and collectively lift them up into the care of our spiritual Mother. If this is already part of your daily routine, consider the Memorare, that beautiful and powerful prayer of Grandma Babe that has become part of my spiritual toolbox.
In Jesus and Mary,
Fr. Joel
