Allison Ramirez
May is the month in the church calendar dedicated to our Mother Mary. This month of warmth and new growth is fitting for Our Lady, who desires to shower each of us with her mantle of warmth and help us to grow closer to her son along our journey of faith.
In the words of St. Louis de Montfort, "We never give more honor to Jesus than when we honor his Mother, and we honor her simply and solely to honor him all the more perfectly. We go to her only as a way leading to the goal we seek – Jesus, her Son."
Catholics honor and revere Mary not for her own merits, for her role as the most perfect example of what it means to love and follow Jesus to the full in this life. In Mary’s own words from her Magnificat in Luke 1:48, “For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.” In the Old Testament, the Israelite Kings gave the title of Queen not to their wife (because they often had many), but instead, to the King’s own mother, as he could only have one. Thus Jesus, as the ultimate king, would desire his mother to be honored with that same level of dignity.
The Church holds four dogmas (church teachings held as true) regarding Mary. The first is that Mary was born of original sin, the second that she remained ever-virgin throughout her life, the third that she does fittingly hold the title Mother of God, and fourth, that she was assumed body and soul into heaven at the end of her life. All four of these dogmas of Mary are rooted in centuries of rich history as well as scriptural evidence and traditional significance in the teachings of the early church fathers. If you have questions about any of these church teachings regarding Mary and her role in the faith through the Rosary or otherwise, I invite you to read articles 963-975 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church or to check out one of the Marian studies on Formed.