7 Things We Can Learn from Mary

For people in the Western Hemisphere, May is one of the most beautiful months of the year. Delicate flowers in vibrant pinks, majestic purples and luminous yellows thrive in the late spring sunshine. It’s no surprise that it’s also known by the Catholic Church as the month of Mary. It’s a time when special devotions, prayers, sacrifices and pilgrimages are made in her honor to praise the Holy Trinity and offer thanksgiving and petitions for God’s graces given by her Son through her.

But any month is a good month to meditate on the mysteries of our faith. And although May is an especially good time, every month is a good month to grow as Christians and draw closer to Jesus by learning from Mary. By meditating on holy mysteries, we can learn many things from Blessed Mother. Here are seven of them.

How to Trust God Completely

Although Mary was born without the stain of original sin, she still had free will. But even when life became difficult and later when she watched her innocent Son being crucified, she never stopped trusting God. She held on to her faith. Although there are different mysteries we could meditate on to learn this skill, one of them would be the mystery of the Annunciation.

When God sent the archangel Gabriel to announce to Mary that she would be the mother of Our Savior, she was an engaged teenage virgin from a devout family. Knowing the harsh ridicule she could endure from her community and knowing the unimaginable responsibility being offered to her, she could have turned from God. She could have told the angel that she was too scared to accept such a task. But her reaction was to trust in God completely. And that trust brought Jesus into the world to save us. In Luke 1:26-38, Mary said “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.”

How to be Humble

After she learns from the angel that her cousin, Elisabeth, is pregnant, she humbly goes to Elisabeth’s home to help her prepare for the birth. As soon as Mary greets her cousin, Elisabeth’s baby, John the Baptist, leaps in her womb, and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In Luke 1:39-56, she says to Mary “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.”

Although Mary could have exalted herself for being so holy that she was chosen, among all women, to be the mother of God, she immediately praised God, instead, and gave all the glory to Him. In the same passage, she says “My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name. And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.”

How to be Kind

There is no doubt of Mary’s eternal kindness and her maternal love for everyone saved by her Son. And while there are various mysteries we could meditate on, two particular ones stand out. The first, naturally, is the Visitation. Even though she was pregnant with the Son of God, she spent almost three months helping her cousin Elizabeth.

The second is the mystery of the wedding at Cana. She encouraged Jesus to perform His first miracle. And it was a miracle that brought dignity to the bride and groom and to their families. If the wedding guests knew that the host didn’t have enough wine, the host might have been disgraced. She also showed Jesus that she believed in Him and told the servants to follow His orders. Bringing her Son glory by asking Him to preserve the people’s dignity, she was kind not only kind to the people who needed the wine that Jesus manifested through jugs of water, but also to all of us who ask her to intercede for us.

How to Love Jesus

There is no person who loves Jesus more than His mother. She believed in Him from the miraculous moment He was conceived. She held Him so close that He was lulled by her heartbeat. She became a refugee to protect Him. And she pondered everything He is and His greatness in her own heart. If we meditate on every holy mystery with her inextinguishable love for Jesus in mind, we will learn how to love Jesus more deeply.

Although we can meditate on Mary and these holy mysteries in many ways, St. John Paul II suggested praying the Rosary. In his document “Rosarium Virginis Mariae,” he wrote “With the Rosary, the Christian people sits at the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love. Through the Rosary the faithful receive abundant grace, as though from the very hands of the Mother of the Redeemer.”