This really is the month for Mothers!

The month of May has always been a special month! We celebrate our mothers and the Queen of all mothers, the Blessed Virgin Mary! But for my family it is an extra special month because my mothers birthday is this month as well! Actually, today is her birthday! I would like to wish my mother a very happy birthday! I love her very much and can't thank her enough for loving me, supporting me, and for giving birth to me! Without her love I would not be alive or the man that I am today. So thank you mom! I love you!

Speaking of a mothers choice, Mary, Queen of all mothers and parents, made a choice that was very hard, and that choice was to love God with her full being and then to birth, care for, mother, and love the Son of Man, our Lord, Jesus Christ. It was through her "YES" that we came to know Christ and to be saved by his great act of love.

One devotion to the Blessed Mother that I hold dear to my heart (literally) is wearing a scapular of our Lady of Mount Carmel. The scapular is a special devotion to our Blessed Mother that forms a special relationship between the person wearing the scapular and the Blessed Mother.

The earliest form of the Scapular promise states simply that wearers of the brown scapular, the Carmelite habit, will be saved. In the first place this meant Carmelite religious who remained faithful to their vocation. Later the small Brown Scapular became popular with the laity as a sacramental.

The nature of the spiritual help associated with the Brown Scapular came to be described in greater detail and specificity. A traditional formulation of the Scapular Promise is "Take this Scapular. Whosoever dies wearing it shall not suffer eternal fire. It shall be a sign of salvation, a protection in danger and pledge of peace."

As we continue this month celebrating all our moms let us continue to pray to THE MOM, the mother of our Lord, the Queen of all children, asking for her intercession and protection.

Hail Holy Queen!

Since May is the month dedicated to our Blessed Mother I think it is appropriate to give a short reflection on the Blessed Mother and her importance in my own life.

Honestly, it wasn't until recently that I started having a strong devotion to our Blessed Mother. I viewed praying a rosary as a punishment or chore that I never wanted to do unless I had to. I had respect for the Blessed Mother but I don't feel I ever loved her as I do now. Actually, I just started growing in my love for the Blessed Mother this past January when I began a devotion to Mary by St. Louis de Montfort. His book is called True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin. St. Louis, along with countless other Saints, tells us that the only way to truly know Christ is by understanding and praying with our Blessed Mother. Praying St. Louis' devotion has certainly helped me understand and love our Blessed Mother and I feel that my relationship to Christ has grown immensely because of my new love for Mary.

I would strongly encourage you to begin a devotion to our Holy Mother. Mary is our Lady of Perpetual Help and Queen of All Saints! There is no prayer Mary's intercession won't help with. Remember, it was Mary's "YES" to fulfill God's will in her life that we even have Christ! Mary is the Immaculate Conception! Mary has been saying "YES" to God since her conception! We can all learn from our Blessed Mother!

Other devotions to Mary, Queen of the Universe:

The Rosary!
These promises were given by Our Lady in an apparition to St. Dominic and Alan de la Roche for anyone who says the rosary...

1. Whoever recites the rosary shall receive singular graces.
2. I promise special protection and graces to those who recite the rosary.
3. The rosary will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.
4. The rosary will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of people from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things.
5. The souls of those who recite the rosary shall not perish.
6. Those who recite the rosary devoutly shall never be conquered by misfortune.
   
7. Those who have a true devotion to the rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church.
8. Those who are faithful in the recitation of the rosary shall have, during their life and at their death, the light of God and the plenitude of his graces; at the moment of death, they shall participate in the merits of the saints in paradise.
9. I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the rosary.
10. The faithful children of the rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in heaven.
    
11. You shall obtain all that you ask of me by recitation of the rosary.
12. All those who propagate the holy rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.
    
13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of their death.
14. All who recite the rosary are my children, and brothers and sisters of my only Son, Jesus Christ.
15. Devotion to my rosary is a sign of predestination.
    

I will be posting different prayers and devotions to our Blessed Mother throughout the month.

It is my prayer today that Mary, Queen of Martyrs, intercedes for us all and that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.