The month of Mary

The church needs a new visitation from Mary

La visitación: Maria sale al encuentro con Isabel Visitation: Mary sets out to meet Elizabeth Eine neue Heimsuchung: Maria macht sich auf den Weg zu Elisabeth
Bendita tu eres... Blessed are thou... Du bist gebenedeit… Fotos: POS Fischer © 2006

ROME, Father Alberto Eronti. Each year the European Church celebrates the "Month of Mary" during May. It is an old tradition that, in spite of being deeply rooted, it is weakening little by little. At least that is what I have observed in Rome and other places in Italy. During the last afternoons I have visited some Roman churches with the intention of participating in the celebration of the month dedicated to the Blessed Mother. From what I have observed very little is being done and I was surprised at the small number of faithful and the age of those in attendance: the majority are absolutely the elderly. Meditating about this, I remembered a conference that I heard in Germany during the ‘80’s. The speaker at the conference spoke about the Church in Russia; he said that "…the elderly, the children, and the Icons were the ones that maintained the faith of the people within the interior of their home." Yes, the most common experience when we go to a church or when we participate in the Sunday Mass is that the majority of participants are the middle aged and elderly.

During the communist experience the older Russians kept the faith and they transmitted it more to their grandchildren than to their children, sometimes risking their lives. The elders of today, keep the faith, but are they able to transmit it? It is not enough to keep it, the life of faith plays out in transmitting it, be it by the testimony of life or by words. Today, the word "neo-paganism" very often appears in the texts of Catholic writers. The pagan is not only someone who does not believe in the God revealed by Jesus Christ; rather, in fact, he is practically seduced and conditioned in his life by many "gods". Because the "pagan" believes, but he believes in the "gods" he worships.

The Great Missionary

The aforementioned has confronted me with a fundamental intuition of our Founder: Mary! She is the one who Saint Vincent Pallotti called "the great missionary, the one who works miracles." Father Kentenich gave great importance to the month of May, "May, he would say, should be the month of the greatest graces for all the Family and the Church." A month of graces! Why? For the simple reason of repeating what did the original church, " placing Mary at the center and to persevere in prayer."

For the Father and Founder, Mary was and is the proposal for the Church and the new shores. The new Church should be, according to his thinking, intensely Marian in order to be intensely Christian. May, for this reason, is the right month to place Mary in the center and with her and like her to live the Church as the new "Garden of God." This Garden that makes us circle with Mary and like Mary around Christ and with him around the Father. Could there be a better description of the "new man" for the Church? The month of Mary reminds us and renews the essence of our life as baptized people, covenant partners of the Trinity and of Mary.

Mary, the answer to the challenges of the present Church

In the Journeys of October of 1947, Father said: "She would attract human ties with bonds of love. The Blessed Mother has given us her bonds of love and in the coming days she wants to give us: her Mother eyes, her Mother hands and her Mother heart." These words are not just a mere expression of desires, these words come from the heart, from our Father’s experience, that is how he lived Mary and he proposed that we also live in the same manner, with the aim of responding to the challenges of the present time of the Church and the world.

In a letter of August 1954, Father wrote: Finally, do not forget, that the Blessed Mother did not choose Schoenstatt as a place for her special work of education and leadership in just any time, rather she did it consciously and in a very accentuated manner in 1914, that is to say, as I have already stressed already on several occasions, it was at the time the last catastrophic downfall of the old world was starting and with the perspective of forming a new world order".

"This is of great importance. Generally said, it is about the same idea that since Pius XI, all the Popes have recalled: that Leo XIII converted into the main thrust of his pontificate; that Pius XII manifested time and time again and who, according my own affirmation, it was what motivated him to make the official consecration of the world to Mary. It is about the last decisions in such a decisive time of all of humanity as there has never been another (…). The clash of the powers…such as their acting through individualism and liberalism and ultimately in collectivism – that is so strong that it can only be surpassed by a measure of overflowing of grace. And this should be given to us, it can be given to us and it will be given to us… through the total giving of self to Mary."

A month to renew ourselves in the love of Mary

As we can see, the month of Mary is not only four weeks of a greater Marian devotion, it is also a time to renew ourselves in the love of she whom God chose and destined to be the Mother and Collaborator of Christ, the Mother and Educator of the Church. It is a month to renew the tasks as covenant partners of Mary in order to help her accomplish her mission. She can only be fully for the Church what Jesus wanted her to be, if she has at her disposal instruments of love in her hands. The Church needs a powerful injection of life in the Spirit, Mary is in the midst of her children imploring this grace so that the Church can accomplish her mission of being the soul of the world, evangelizer of the people.

Mary and the theme of the World Congress of Movements and new Communities

The month of Mary ends with the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Mother, with the commemoration of the 31^st of May 1949, with the start of the World Congress of Movements and New Communities and the Encounter of all of them with the Pope. The motto of the last two events, as we have already said, is: "The beauty of being Christians, and the joy of communicating it." Mary of the Visitation is the first one to experience the beauty of being "Christian", of being filled by Christ; and she is also the first one to communicate it and she does it with so much joy in the Magnificat.

Neither the World Congress nor the Encounter of the Movements and New Communities with the Pope are mere formalities. "Something has to happen" in the realm of grace and in the hope for the Spirit. But no one "knows" like Mary what is going to happen, because she is the only one who fully "knows" the fullness of the "Power and Strength of the One on High." It is the Power and Strength of pure Love. It is a difficult time in the history of the world, we do what the Church has always done: to look at the horizon with Mary so that with Her and like Her, she will carry out a new and marvelous Visitation. For us, it is about increasing the Schoenstatt Rosary Campaign, empowering the Home Shrines and proving all our love for her with our everyday sanctity, of being a burning fire for Christ. Like flaming swords we want to spread throughout the world, like a sea of flames that glow for the glory of the Blessed Trinity. Amen."

Let us make good use of these 31 days of May to prove our love for Mary!

Translation: Celina M Garza, Harlingen, TX, USA /Christi Jentz, Milwaukee, USA