Today is the last Sunday in May, the Month of Our Lady. This month, our children crowned the statues of Mary four times (!), 190 teens received the Sacrament of Confirmation, and 220 children received their First Holy Communion. Besides that, John Paul II, after whom our large classroom building is named, was declared “Blessed” by the current Pope. Finally, I was privileged to give an 8-day retreat to 24 Missionaries of Charity in Peru on the Blessed Mother. Let us give thanks for such a beautiful May! I hope we all learned how to pray the rosary a little better this month!

   I wish to share with you a thought on Our Lady that I use in my retreats to the Sisters. In the first chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel, we read about the first two joyful mysteries of the holy rosary: the Annunciation and the Visitation. We don’t often think much about what actually happened as we speed through these mysteries on our fingers. But when the Angel Gabriel came to Mary, and she said “Fiat”—“Let it be done to me as you have said,” she declared herself completely open to God’s will. She consecrated herself to God’s will. And it was at that moment that she made her First Holy Communion. The Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ came into her; she “conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit.” The Body of Christ began to grow inside of her, and she became the world’s first tabernacle, holding the Body of Christ inside her. (What does this mean for those who are considering an abortion? How can we help them “keep” the gift of the child safe inside of them?)

   Do you know what Our Lady did next (she didn’t have an abortion, thanks be to God)? Next, the very next verse in Luke’s gospel, she “arose in haste and traveled to her cousin Elizabeth.” What Our Lady did next was to become, not just a tabernacle, but a monstrance. She embarked on the first Eucharistic Procession in history. She bore the Holy Eucharist, the Body of Christ, all the way in sacred procession from Nazareth to Jerusalem, a journey of three days. She became the world’s first missionary, bringing the love of God, the Body of His Only-Begotten Son, to her cousin, who needed her help.

   Mary was the first to bring the Body of Christ, the Love of God, to another. She did it in haste, in obedience to God. But she is not the last to bring Christ to another. Each of us holds the Body of Christ in our hearts after receiving Holy Communion. It is our greatest joy to imitate Our Lady, to bring this Christ to others by our tenderness and kindness.