In August, as summer ends and a new school year begins, the Assumption of Mary and the Coronation of Mary crown a year of Marian feast days.
It is as if they show us the heavenly consequences of living the Beatitudes by imitating Mary, woman of the Eight Beatitudes.
The January 1 Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, says “Blessed are the Poor in Spirit.”
At Christmas, we celebrate Jesus born in poverty to a poor father and mother. Eight days later is the octave of Christmas, when we celebrate his mother under the title of “Mother of God.”
That exalted title shows the astounding consequence of being “poor in spirit”: Detaching from what the world offers leaves room to be a vessel of God himself.
The March 25 Solemnity of the Annunciation says “Blessed are the meek.”
Exactly nine months before Christmas, we celebrate the incarnation of Jesus in the womb of Mary. It came about by her fiat, her “Let it done to me according to thy word” which is the model of meekness.
St. Maximilian Kolbe developed a simple way to explain sanctity, according to Father Michael Gaitley. It’s merely the result of the equation:
W + w = S.
The capital W stands for God’s Will. The small w stands for our will. S stands for Sanctity. It is easy to understand and hard to do, because it’s hard to be meek.
On September 15, Our Lady of Sorrows shows that “Blessed are they who mourn.”
Our Lady of Sorrows is a feast cherished by parents who lost children, including mothers who miscarried. The feast’s icon is the Pieta and its song is the Stabat Mater: “At the cross her station keeping, Stood the mournful Mother weeping …”
Mary is the model of Christian mourning; genuine sorrow at death with real hope for eternal life.
May 31, the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary shows how to “Hunger and thirst for righteousness.”
Mary’s first priority after the incarnation was to visit Elizabeth and serve her needs.
At the Visitation, she speaks her Magnificat, a song of how those who hunger for righteousness will be satisfied: “He has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.”
February 11, Our Lady of Lourdes, and May 13, Our Lady of Fatima, show us Mary the model of “Blessed are the merciful.”
The service that Mary showed in her lifetime continues to this day, as the feast days dedicated to her major apparitions show.
Think of Our Lady of Lourdes as a celebration of Mary’s corporal works of mercy, when she brought healing waters to a small town in France, and think of Our Lady of Fatima as Mary’s spiritual works of mercy where she counseled the doubtful and admonished sinners.
December 8, the Immaculate Conception, shows how “Blessed are the Pure at Heart.”
The Immaculate Conception celebrates the purity of three people: The marital union of her parents and the conception of Our Lady without original sin.
Purity of heart is the ability to see people as they truly are, not as someone to be used for pleasure, money or power. Our Lady sees us for our true worth, and treats us accordingly.
October 7, Our Lady of the Rosary, celebrates the greatest “weapon” of Mary, the peacemaker.
Pope Pius XI, Pope John XXIII, Pope John Paul II all stressed that the rosary brings peace. Our Lady of Fatima said only the rosary would bring world peace. Padre Pio called it the “weapon” for our times.
Be the one to initiate rosaries in your family, and you will truly be blessed as a peacemaker, with consequences that start in your family and spread.
The Monday after Pentecost Sunday celebrates Our Lady, Mother of the Church, blessed in persecution.
On this new Feast that Pope Francis added to the calendar, the Gospel reading recounts how Jesus entrusts the Church to Mary precisely at the moment he is dying nailed to the cross.
It’s a reminder that “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”
But in August we can celebrate the crown on all of these feast days.
By celebrating Mary’s Assumption into Heaven, and her Coronation as queen of heaven and earth, we celebrate the place the beatitudes lead: heaven.
Mary’s life, on earth and in eternity, shows how living according to God’s ways in the darkness of our world will mean living in God’s glory when this world we know fades away.
And today we celebrate...