The month of May is traditionally dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary
and this is a special time of year for our seminary community as we look
to Mary as our patron. Above the chapel door there is a beautiful
wooden statue of Maria Lactans, or the nursing Madonna, which carries
the inscription, “show yourself to be our mother.”
For many of us, devotion to Mary has played (and continues to play) a
significant part in our conversion story and our call to discernment and
formation for the priesthood. Perhaps through a pilgrimage to a Marian
shrine, the prayer of the Rosary or the Marian devotion in our home
parish. Indeed, there have been many priests, bishops, and popes who
have recommended themselves and their ministry to Mary’s care. Many
of us will be familiar with the story of Pope St John Paul II, which stands
out in a particular way. His motto, Totus tuus (totally yours), draws upon
the work of Louis Marie de Montfort’s work, True Devotion to the Blessed
Virgin Mary, a consecration which he had lived out for many years.
Famously, he credits Mary’s intercession for sparing his life when four
bullets from a would-be assassin struck him while he was blessing
pilgrims in St Peter’s Square on May 13 th 1981, the Feast Day of Our
Lady of Fatima. A year to the day later, the pope placed one of those
bullets in Mary’s crown at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, Portugal.
At the foot of the cross there is the beloved apostle, John and Mary, the
mother of Jesus. Jesus speaks to Mary, “This is your son” and to John
he says, “This is your mother.” Through John, Jesus entrusts every
human being to his mother Mary, and this is especially true of his priests,
who Jesus wishes to have a very close relationship with Mary.
Following the death of Jesus, we read in the Gospel that St John “took
her [Mary] into his home.” Pope Benedict reflects upon this saying that
the original Greek has a far deeper, richer meaning: we could say “he [St
John] took Mary into his inner life, his inner being, into the depths of his
being.” So, as priests we are particularly called to welcome Mary into the
whole space of our interior life, to introduce her into the dynamism of our
entire existence, including our apostolic work.
Mary becomes a guardian of the priest’s dignity and vocation and draws
out of the priest a celibate agape to help him become a husband to the
Church and a spiritual father – a strong father, even in his weakness.
The priest gives himself to the Church in her suffering and need – and in
turn his life is shaped by hers. In this life of love, Mary helps the priest to
be a humble, obedient, and chaste minister who is able to witness to
pastoral charity through his complete self-giving.
During this month of May, we ask Mary, Mother of priests, to pray for our
seminary community.
