May 17, 2014 8:30am

We are in the middle of May, the month in our tradition in honor of Mary.

This morning, we have our parish Legion of Mary members present here at Mass.

So, I thought a few words about Mary would be a good idea.

We all know that we venerate Mary under many titles: Mother of God, Our Lady, The Blessed Mother, among others.

We venerate her but we do not worship her.

Our worship is reserved for God: for the Father, for Jesus the Son, and for the Holy Spirit.

As we say at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer: “Through him, and with him, and in him, O God, Almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, for ever and ever.”

Those words, maybe more than any others, express our worship of God in the celebration of the Eucharist.

So, we do not worship Mary, but we do ask for Mary’s help as a patron.

A patron is someone who does something for us.

In this case, Mary prays for us.

Mary’s entire life was in service to God and us.

So we believe that now she is praying to God for us.

And besides being our patron Mary is also our companion.

Mary was once Mary of Nazareth, a poor, insignificant woman in an insignificant village.

Mary knows what it means to live on the edge.

She knows what it means to deal with surprises, with the totally unexpected.

She knows what suffering is and she also knows what joy is.

In a word, Mary was human.

So the next time we pray the rosary or a Marian prayer like the Angelus or Regina Coeli, let’s remember that it unites us not only with Our Lady enthroned in heaven but also with Mary of Nazareth.

Our prayer calls upon Mary as our patron, and also as our companion who has journeyed this path before us and now does it with us.