ALL YOURS: I AM ALL YOURS, MARY!

The month of May is dedicated to celebrating motherhood. This is fitting considering the month of May also celebrates the Blessed Virgin Mary. A beautiful Marian custom this month is to make a pilgrimage to an image or statue of Our Lady.

Lowveld National Botanical Gardens, Mbombela (Nelspruit)

As a family, Cassandra and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary on the 11th of May. We took a family break to the tranquil Mpumalanga with Noah and Leo. We decided to make our pilgrimage, which involves praying the rosary's glorious, joyful, and sorrowful mysteries on our trip to Hazyview.

The problem is that finding grottos, images, or a church open throughout the day is slim in South Africa. We took a chance to drive past a parish in Mbombela, but the doors were closed, and we found no image. The 400 km-plus journey can be tiring for little ones, and we decided to visit the Botanical Gardens for a leg stretch. Noah and Leo were able to play outdoors. On walking back to the car, Cassandra spotted a sign in the botanical garden with an image of The Immaculate Heart of Mary. The board explained that "ladybugs" received their name after Our Lady. The occasion was quite unique as we searched for an image and gave up, and then we found it without needing to search.

This same experience got me thinking that Mary is the model for all Mothers. Like any mother, she always watches out for our needs and waits, ready to welcome us into her dear embrace. Pope St John Paul II wrote that we should all encounter the words that Joseph of Nazareth once heard: "Do not be afraid to take Mary to yourself" (Matthew 1:20), and he explains what those words mean "… we should do everything to recognise the gift Mary is to us … you ought even to do everything to recognise that gift, to show her how unique a treasure she is." (A Meditation on Givenness)

In all woman shines the glimmer of the beauty of Our Lady, woman created as a gift to man. The man has to recognise this gift in a woman and never use the gift for their own selfish purposes. As men, we are called to see that physical beauty fades but what truly lasts the test of time is spiritual beauty. We can't stop at the surface and see a woman as only physical beauty. At the same time, spiritual beauty manifested from within a woman will shine through in her physical beauty. The most perfect example of this is in Our Lady. Hence ladybugs, with their unique colours and beauty, were named after the Queen of Heaven.

In those moments: we feel weighed down by life, darkness crowds out the light, when our hearts grow angry and cold, or when we are set ablaze with the lust of the flesh or pride of life. These triggers awaken the genuine desire to repeat from the depth of our heart and soul, Totus Tuus. St John Paul II discovered this beautiful aspiration: Totus Tuus "All Yours: I am all yours, Mary." These simple words are a prayer to remain pure, hiding nothing from God and the world. It is a prayer to see purely, a desire to not listen but hear with understanding, and to reason objectively without allowing our human judgments to get in the way.

Totus Tuus seeks to abandon ourselves in the heart of the Mother of God. She who retained her purity and immaculately bore Our Lord, Jesus Christ. When we grow to know, see, and understand Mary as the true gift God has provided us all. It leads us to enter into recognising in every person we encounter the gift they are to us, and we may thank God for the gift of that person.

The Weeping Madonna, Sudwala Caves (Mpumalanga)

In a previous blog, I mentioned the idea that Mary did not protest or oppose Our Lord's crucifixion. She understood that he was redeeming humanity of their sin. Although I think Mary, in her purity, may have also seen the gift of those individual persons. I find this a struggle to always be aware of recognising this gift in others. A passing thought about someone I have never met or an assumption that I know someone's intentions is the greatest obstacle to seeing the gift of a person.

Mary never condemned the Jew spitting at the feet of Jesus or the Roman soldier whipping her son continuously. Perhaps, she saw the Jew as a future Christian who would make apostles of all nations through his deep remorse fostered an understanding of how Our Lord died for our sin. Maybe, she saw how the most hardened soldier would one day convert and call himself a Christian. Seeing others as a gift does not mean that we foresee someone's path but that we see the goodness in every soul; otherwise, how could we all be created in God's image and likeness?!

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