Our devotion to Mary and our Marian devotions.
The month of May is the Marian month par excellence, rich with feasts dedicated to Our Blessed Mother. It is a time when there are frequent pilgrimages to shrines and there is a deep desire to pray to Our Lady in a special way. It is also the month which brings the blossoming of flowers in the fullness of springtime which, like the Rosary beads, burst forth with devotion, praise, pilgrimage and prayer. In this month dedicated to Mary, each of us weaves a more profound bond as we turn our gaze to the one who God has chosen to be our heavenly Mother. We recognise in Her the perfect woman and perfect disciple who gives us the secret to understanding the ways of the world that surround us. Mary is God’s chosen one, who was totally open to Her Creator, and who trusted what she was asked to do even though she did not understand the entirety of God’s plan for her. Therefore, it is to her, Most Holy Mary, Virgin of Revelation, that we Missionaries turn our gaze because we recognise that she is the model to which we must align our consecrated life. She is the very icon of our charism.
Mary is our teacher and guide to help us to follow Christ. She is intimately united to her Son and therefore associated with his redemptive sacrifice. Through God’s will, Our Lady is the Mother of all humanity. We are all aware of Christ’s call to spread the Gospel and so we entrust our journey and apostolate to Mary so she can guide our steps as we, just like her, fulfil the mission revealed to us. The heart of our missionary life takes its inspiration from the Virgin of Revelation who appeared at the Three Fountains. Our Lady wore a green mantle, was stepping forward as if about to depart and she was holding the Sacred Scripture to her breast as she made the heartfelt appeal to be, "Missionaries of the Word of Truth". She invites each of us to cherish and meditate on the Word of God and, following her example, to think and talk with the Word of God, to make this grow in our hearts such that they are conformed ever more to the thoughts and words of God.
The Gospel tells us that, after the archangel Gabriel’s announcement and the start of her pregnancy, Mary immediately sets off to the home of her elderly cousin in a mountainous region in a city of Judea (Lk 1:39). Her cousin, Elizabeth, was about to give birth to a child. Therefore, Mary is the "first missionary" as she takes Jesus on His "first mission" by carrying Him in her womb through the streets of Judea. In a certain sense, we too imitate Our Blessed Mother when we take Christ to others on our Missions and apostolic works. For now, it is Mary who leads her Son. As an adult He will always be "on the road" and will not even have a place to lay His head (cf. Mt 8:20 and Lk 9:58). It is helpful to remember that the evangelist Luke adds some details of Mary's journey in his Gospel text. He tells us that she walks ‘with haste’ because, moved by the Holy Spirit, she wanted to reach her destination without getting distracted. It is not anxiety that drove Our Lady’s haste but urgency to serve the Kingdom and the missionary desire to announce the fulfilment of God’s promises. This ardent love for the proclamation of the Word also drives us Missionaries as we follow Our Lady’s example, to bring the Good News to the world. We want everyone to come to the knowledge and love of God and to have special devotion to the Three White Loves: the Eucharist, the Immaculate Conception and the Pope, the “Sweet Christ on earth”. This mission makes the sound of Our Lady’s fiat reverberate in our hearts at every moment, “Behold the Handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me in accordance with His Word.”
We, the Missionaries of Divine Revelation, find the strength for the apostolate in the contemplation of the mystery of Christ. We are certain that only those who have contemplated this mystery in prayer can communicate it to others with conviction. It is based on the classic expression of, "Contemplata aliis tradere: to give to others the fruit of [our] contemplation.”
Our devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary prompts us to meditate on the life of Christ and to contemplate it in the recitation of the Holy Rosary. Once more, the sweet words of the Virgin of Revelation remind us: Never stop saying the Holy Rosary. The Rosary, an ancient devotion, is a treasure that contains her love. Mary takes us in her arms, mystery by mystery, and accompanies us through the life of Jesus. That way, the marvellous events in the life of her Son may remain imprinted in our hearts and call us to live the same way. Through the Holy Rosary, Our Lady makes us retrace the whole Gospel by pondering it in our hearts. This is the reason why we Missionaries always pray the Holy Rosary. We need to learn from Mary how to contemplate those mysteries. During the Rosary, Our Lady teaches us Christ’s life so that we may conform ourselves to her Son. The infancy of Jesus teaches us humility. As we contemplate His Wisdom, we learn to read the events of our lives too. Looking at His sorrow teaches us how to carry our cross. We turn to her knowing full well that where there is Mary, we find Jesus too!
Mary Mother of the Church, Virgin of Revelation, pray for us.