Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home. (Jn. 19:27)

As the month of May draws to an end, it seems fitting to highlight the fact we celebrated this month as a Marian month. We honored the memory of the Blessed mother remembering and celebrating her apparition in Fatima, Portugal to three young children. On this Friday, the last in the month of May, the third of the seven last words of Jesus comes to mind namely: Woman, Behold your son…Behold your mother.” The last part of this verse is what I would like to focus on namely that from that moment, the disciple took Mary home. And so as we end the month of May during which we have or ought to have meditated on Mary and heeded to her invitation to pray the rosary daily, we are called upon to take Mary home. 

There is the temptation to relax now since we are done with the month of May and to look forward to the next Marian month, possibly October. We must remember Mary’s words to the children at Fatima: Pray the rosary daily. Remember if you took Mary home with you like John did, then remember to pray the rosary daily. 

It is fitting to remember that Mary appeared to the three shepherd children from May to October. One devotion that has grown from Fatima apparitions is that of the first five Saturdays of the month where we are encouraged to go for confession, attend mass and receive Holy Communion and meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary. What is preventing you from taking up this devotion every first Saturday of the month? From June to October we have five months and so commit to these exercises on every first Saturday of the month. 

During this month of May we celebrated the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary as Mother of the Church. On January 1 every year we celebrate the solemnity of Mary,the Mother of God. In 2018, Pope Francis introduced the feast of Mary, Mother of the Church to be celebrated the Monday after Pentecost Sunday. It is a movable feast. This year's feast took place on Monday May 25. One thing that struck me on this day was the Preface for the Mass which had the title Mary, Model and Mother of the Church. Mary is a model of what it means to be Church. She is a model of what it means to be a disciple. When one takes Mary home then we learn from her how to be a disciple and how to be Church. Mary teaches us how to pray the rosary.

As St Pope John Paul II taught us in the Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae - Rosary of the Virgin Mary when we pray the rosary we are contemplating the face with Mary. In praying the rosary we are “remembering Christ with Mary (n.13), “learning Christ from Mary”(n. 14), “Being confirmed to Christ with Mary” (n.15), “Praying to Christ with Mary” (n.16) and “Proclaiming Christ with Mary,” (n.17). We must never lose sight of the fact that it is never just about Mary. It is always about Christ, her Son. Where Christ is there is Mary and where Mary is leads us to Christ. 

When we bring Mary to our home, we benefit from her memory of her Son. As Luke the evangelist notes: She kept all these things, pondering them in her heart (Lk 2:14, cf 2:51). When we bring Mary home, we invariably drink from the fount of her memory. When we grow in our devotion to Mary as mother of the Church we learn and grow in our understanding of the Church as mother. 

The next time someone challenges you that you are worshipping Mary, point them to the fact that God chose to come to this world through her. God found her worthy to be the vessel through which to come to the world. What is more, this Son of God committed His mother to us: Behold your mother and committed us to her: Behold your son. And in Acts of the Apostles 1:14 - All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and his brothers.