An inward pilgrimage with Mary

In May, our thoughts and prayers turn to Mary. It’s a time when Catholics around the world typically engage in pilgrimages, processions, hymns and devotions in honor of Our Blessed Lady, our spiritual Mother.

May 2020 is different. Due to the pandemic, public devotions to Mary will not take place. How we’ll miss these shared expressions of our love for Mary. Perhaps, though, I could suggest that we make an “inward” pilgrimage to the Blessed Virgin Mary, a pilgrimage of the heart. This is one way we can draw near to the Blessed Mother to ask for her help in times of crisis. Allow me to offer a few points for thought and prayer as a point of departure for your inner pilgrimage in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

First, let’s begin with the rosary. The rosary itself is like a pilgrimage in which our Blessed Mother leads us through the mysteries of her Son, Jesus. It’s as if she takes us by the hand and accompanies us through the places and events in Jesus’ life by which we were saved – his birth and childhood, his passion and death, his resurrection and exaltation. As we make this pilgrimage with Mary, we experience her loving protection. Will she, who gave us the Redeemer, “the high priest who is able to sympathize with us in our weakness” (cf. Heb 4:15), not also draw close in our time of need and intercede for us with her own Son?

Second, as Mary accompanies us, let us allow her to show us what it truly means to follow Christ: to believe in him; to trust him, to love him, especially in these days when we are being put to the test. For the Church has always recognized Mary as the Lord’s first and best disciple. Even before Jesus was born, Mary lived in the spirit of the Beatitudes: she, who was poor, lowly and pure of heart, was fashioned by the Holy Spirit as the tabernacle of the Divine Savior. As the events in the life of Christ unfolded, Mary carefully retained them in her heart and pondered their meaning. Jesus’ words, “Blessed are they who hear the Word of God and keep it” (Lk 11:28) apply preeminently to Mary. Walking with our Blessed Mother we learn how to pray, how to open our heart to Jesus, how to trust in his promises, and how to bear him witness by a life of goodness and charity.

Third, our pilgrimage with Mary brings us along the Way of the Cross, to the summit of Calvary. We walk with Mary as Jesus undergoes his passion and death. With Mary, we stand beneath the Cross. For, indeed, suffering was always part of Mary’s vocation. She must have known that the day of her Son’s death would come. After all, Simeon predicted that “a sword of sorrow would pierce her heart” (cf. Lk 2:35). Mary who loved her Son beyond all telling, suffered with Christ as no one else. In her sinless heart, she accepted her share in the sufferings of Christ with complete freedom and trust in God and his promises. She has so much to teach us as we struggle with the suffering brought about by this pandemic. Instead of lamenting what this crisis seems to have stolen from us, might we instead make it a part of what we are to offer God?

Our pilgrimage with Mary leads us to the tomb of Jesus where we share Mary’s inexpressible joy in the glory of the resurrection; it brings us to the Upper Room where Mary received the Holy Spirit along with the Apostles; and it takes us to the earliest celebrations of the Eucharist. Mary accompanies us, walking before us and with us, as with the grace of the Holy Spirit, we profess unwavering hope in her Risen Son. For, as St. Paul wrote, “If we have died with him, we shall also live with him; if we persevere, we shall also reign with him” (2 Tm 2:11-12). May we indeed persevere, in this and in every time of trial, so that one day we may reign with Christ in the presence of Mary Our Queen.

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