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Happy Mother’s Day to all……..May 10, 2026

To all: Mothers: Grandmothers, God Mothers, Foster Mothers.  Mothers through Adoption, Blended Family Mothers, Sisters, Aunts, Fathers who serve the dual role of Mother and Father, Consecrated Religious Women and Men who exude the love of the Blessed Mother in all that they do and those they encounter, and woman who are preparing to give birth.

As we set aside this day to celebrate the gift of motherhood, we also want to recognize that every day, every second of each day, we should celebrate those who have been like a mother to us. We should, and want to remember, in a special way those who have gone before us, our mothers, grandmothers, and others who have exuded the charism and qualities of Mary, our Mother to us so that we can become our best self, the person that God created us to be so that we can be a radiant reflection of Her Son Jesus to others.

I am sure that as we all have prayed the Hail Mary, we often envisioned the encounter of Mary and Elizabeth. As Elizabeth approached Mary, she uttered the words that bless God through Mary, the Hail Mary. As you honor Mary on this Mother’s Day, have you ever thought of how she honors you through the Hail Mary?

Here is how I think she honors you, you as mother, grandmother, God mother, foster mother, blended family mother, aunt, sister, adoptive family mother, father fulfilling both roles, siblings that take on the responsibility of raising their siblings due to an absent mother, and those who choose religious life and radiate the love of Mary and their love for Mary to all they encounter. I hope that this reflection brings you to a deeper relationship with Mary and a better understanding of how you echo her YES by your surrender, trust and love for God and her Son Jesus. Mary loves, honors, and hails you as you follow Jesus Her Son, walk with Her, and love God with your whole heart, mind, spirit, and soul. You can take a day to reflect on the various aspects of the Hail Mary or take the prayer as a whole and reflect on it each day.

SUNDAY -Hail Mary…..

We honor Mary as we approach her in prayer. How does she honor us? As we recite these two noticeably short words, we are honoring, recognizing, and blessing God’s action through her. She in turns honors and recognizes God’s action through us. She sees and wants to let us know that she is present in our prayer to her, but also, she recognizes in our actions how we try to reflect her Yes in our Yes, to radiate the presence of Her Son as we strive to be His body, His witness, His love to others. 

 MONDAY -Full of Grace… we are full of the grace of God.

That grace we received at our baptism and continue to receive through the Sacraments of the Church.  Mary wants to remind us that we never are empty of God’s grace, that He is always ready to shower us with His grace whenever we approach Him and ask for it. Full of Grace, means that we are not half empty although there are times when we think we are, God doesn’t do anything halfway. We might think that we are short on grace, but God’s graces are abounding and overflowing, we just need to open the eyes of our heart and mind, spirit, and soul so that we can recognize them as God chooses to reveal them to us. 

TUESDAY -The Lord is with you. 

Although Mary was the first living tabernacle, the tabernacle where the Son of God chose to dwell, the living Christ, we as members of the Body of Christ, who choose to receive Him in the Holy Eucharist, are also living tabernacles for Christ and where He chooses to dwell. Christ dwells within us. As we receive Him as we partake of the Body of Christ, we are consuming His very being into our very being, into the very core of who we are. Our identity as Christ’s followers, as God’s beloved sons and daughters, as builders of the Kingdom of God here one earth, as Mary’s children entrusted by Christ to her care and love, is recognized, strengthened, and blessed as we choose to witness to that presence within us to those outside of us. 

WEDNESDAY -Blessed are you among women……. 

Mary was blessed beyond any other woman that God has brought forth from the womb. She was conceived without sin, chosen to be the Mother of our Divine Savior and endured the sorrow of His passion and death. She was blessed with the grace of God to endure, persevere, and overcome the challenges that the devil presented. These challenges or temptations could have taken the form of doubt, despair, discouragement, bitterness, resentment, and indifference, but she chose to believe in her God and His promise that He would never forsake or abandon her. She chose to live her Yes in complete love, surrender and trust. Many of us, both mothers and fathers, recognize the presence and blessings of God in our lives. Mary wants us to know that we too are blessed by God. He hears our prayers and gives us the answers that we need to hear when we need to hear them, they may not be the answers that we want to hear, but they are what is best for us. Mary was chosen to be the Mother of our Savior when God saw the time as best. Although we have not been chosen to be the mother or father of the Son of God, by our baptism, we have been chosen and commissioned to bear witness to the Son of God in and through our lives. We are invited to share our knowledge of Christ with others, to stand up for what we believe especially when it is difficult, and to carry our crosses and face our life’s struggles and challenges, and to help others carry theirs. It is an invitation by God to fulfill our baptismal promises to enter into His passion death and resurrection, so that we can become our best self, the person He created us to be and have the potential to become. As we face the many temptations of the devil that may come in the form of despair, discouragement, revenge, bitterness, indifference, we can overcome them by remembering that our yes and Mary’s Yes were made in trust knowing that God will never abandon us or forsake us. 

THURSDAY -And blessed is the fruit of your Womb, Jesus.  

Mary gave birth to Jesus and blessed was SHE. The womb of Mary, the place where God chose to dwell in Mary. A woman’s womb is a place, a home, where God chooses to dwell each time she conceives a child. Many women do not conceive. What we conceive in the womb is what God calls the gift of life. Yet we are all called to be life giving, to be the breath of life, to share the life of Christ with others. We are all called to respect the dignity of human life from conception to natural death. Mary’s womb was the first to bring forth the Savior, yet His birth through her, allows us to give birth to His presence to others by how we live, the example we lead by, the love that we show for and share with others, and the love we show for ourselves.  

FRIDAY - Holy Mary, Mother of God…..

God’s love for us is present and alive in and through Mary’s love for us. That love, that dual love, dwells within each of us. She is our Mother, and her love is unconditional, eternal and a sign of Jesus’ presence as she cares for us, intercedes for us, prays for us, and brings us closer to her Son as she knows we want to be. Mary is the Mother of God, and as her children, we are also called to be Mother to those in whose face we are called to see God; the poor, the homeless, the forgotten, the estranged, the addicted, the alien, the refugee, those we dislike and those who even may hate us. 

SATURDAY -Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Mary is always praying for us and with us. We can and are called to pray for others as well. We are all sinners striving to become saints. Christ died for all. You and I are not exempt from His mercy, grace, peace, reconciliation, and compassion, and neither is the person that has injured us deeply.

Mary wants us to realize that as she intercedes for us to Jesus, we are asked to pray for her intercession for others. Praying for others is a selfless act. As we lift others up in prayer, we are placing their needs first. Mary was selfless and as we pray for others, we too are following her example of selflessness and love. As we walk with others in and out of love, who are approaching the doors of heaven, we want to pray that the doors of God’s mercy be open so that they can walk into His loving and warm embrace. As we approach Mary to be with us and our loved ones at the hour of death, we too can ask for her to be with those who may not have anyone to pray for them, who may die alone, who may die at the hands of others, who will suffer to death,  who we might not like but are called to love, who may have caused us harm or injury, or who have made us feel like we were dead, invisible or unloved.

AMEN: I believe. I profess and believe in the love and power of God as witnessed by Mary. I want to recognize, with greater clarity, how I am being called to witness His presence in my life each day.