Ave Maria! Today is the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary. I never tire of contemplating her name. The Holy Name of Mary is powerful and makes demons tremble. Her name makes the clouds of fear and doubt dissipate so that the Divine rays of the Sun of Justice, Jesus Christ, her Son, may shine so brightly in our hearts. The many times I called upon the name of Mary, I was filled with so much peace and joy. Anyone who cries out  “Mary” will never be forsaken. You don’t even have to add, “help me,” or “pray for me,” but just “Mary” because she knows and loves each of her children personally, anticipating every need.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is totally transformed into Christ and completely conformed to him. In a real sense, when one sees Mary, one sees Jesus. Mary only wants what Jesus wants. And Jesus wants us to call upon Mary; he gave her to us to be our own mother in the order of grace. When we ask her to pray for us, her prayers are completely dependent on her Son, the One Mediator between God and man. Every Christian’s prayer rests on Christ – – when we pray for someone, it is Christ who prays for that person because Christ lives in us. In the case of Mary, she can truly say with all of her being that she no longer lives but Christ lives in her. And indeed he does, to such an preeminent and perfect degree.

We should strive to be Mary and learn from her. To imitate her virtues. At any given moment, we can ask, “What would Mary do? How would she imitate Jesus in this particular situation?” On her part, she helps us to imitate her as she imitates Jesus perfectly. Incidentally, if St. Paul could say, “be imitators of me as I imitate Christ,” how much more can the Holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of God say it? Through the graces received through her hands, Mary helps us to as she loves – – and no one loves Jesus as she loves him. A good practice is to to take that passage in 1st Corinthians 13, “love is kind,” and replace “love” with “Mary,” so to know how to imitate her in loving. This is how we ought to contemplate the Holy Name of Mary:

Mary is patient, Mary is kind.

Mary is not jealous, Mary is not pompous,

Mary is not inflated, Mary is not rude,

Mary does not seek Her own interests,

Mary is not quick-tempered, Mary does not brood over injury,

Mary does not rejoice over wrongdoing

Mary rejoices with the truth.

Mary bears all things, Mary believes all things,

Mary hopes all things, Mary endures all things.

What is joy to think of Mary and call upon her name!

Thanks be to God our loving Father that he has been so generous and merciful to us to give us so wonderful a mother!