It is the month of May. For Catholics, we have a special privilege of having this whole month dedicated to our Blessed Mother! Yes, that’s right – the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, is our mother too. God has given her to us in a special way and has shown us clearly through many examples in history, ancient and modern, how much He wishes for us to honor her as our own mother. Let’s look at some examples from the Bible which show Mary’s love for her children on earth.

Before Jesus’ public ministry had yet begun, Mary and Jesus went to a wedding feast in Cana. Everything seems to have been going fine, until the wine ran out. Mary noticed this, and her mother’s heart surely reached out to the guests and newlyweds, for she told her Son, “They have no wine” (John 2:3). Jesus responds, “Woman, what is that to me and to thee? My hour is not yet come” (John 2:4). Doesn’t seem like Jesus is ready to perform this, His first miracle in His ministry. But Mary trusts wholly in her Son’s love. Instead of giving up on her request, she tells the waiters, “Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye” (John 2:5). We all know what happened next; Jesus told the waiters to draw water, then He changed it into wine. Mary was determined that the wedding party be taken care of, and Jesus listened to His mother’s request. She showed us at the wedding feast at Cana that she loves us as her children and will always intercede for us until our prayers are answered.

Perhaps the greatest example of Mary’s spiritual motherhood is from the passion of Christ as described in John 19:26. Christ was dying on the cross. John stood with Mary near the cross, and Jesus saw them and addressed Mary saying, “Woman, behold thy son.” Then to John He said, “Behold thy mother.” Jesus was not just giving His mother to John, but to all of us. John was a figure of the Church in this circumstance, which means that through John, Christ gave His holy mother to us. What a precious gift!

Whatever a mother can do for a child, Mary will do for us. By His words on the cross, Jesus told us to see her as our mother and has shown us through the miracle at Cana that He will answer our petitions if we give them to her, trusting her as a little child trusts blindly in his parents. The Catechism of the Council of Trent tells us, “We, therefore, exiled children of Eve… should constantly beseech the Mother of mercy… she is most desirous to assist us by her prayers…” She has not only been given to us as our help, she wants to come to our aid! She longs with all her heart that we will come closer to Jesus through her. Since God has given us the gift of His mother, let us love her and ask her to bring us closer to Him, remembering that as long as we trust Mary and do whatever her Son tells us, we can be certain that God will hear us.

Mary Mother of God and of the Faithful, pray for us!

Works Cited

The Catechism of the Council of Trent. TAN Books and Publishers, Inc. Rockford, Ill. 1982.

Douay-Rheims Holy Bible. The Douay Bible House, New York, 1941. Loreto Publications, 2007.

This article was re-published by Oremus Press (May 2021) with the permission of the author.