May pilgrims

Submitted on May 11, 2001

Send to friend This week the Holy Father continued the pilgrim journey that characterized the Holy Year 2000 as he fulfilled his desire to retrace St. Paul's path through Greece, Syria and Malta. It was a sojourn of thanksgiving, and prayerful meditation that sowed seeds for unity and reconciliation and broke through some barriers that have existed for too long. May presents us fitting opportunities for our own pilgrimages, so expressive of the dynamic movement of faith in our lives. One journey should lead each of us toward our mothers on the occasion of Mothers' Day. If we are blessed to have our mother living and near us, we should spend time with her. If she is distant, a card or phone call may help to unite us with her. If our mother has died we should make a spiritual pilgrimage of prayerful intercession and thanks. Our Mothers' Day pilgrimage can be also a fitting time for reflection on the life we enjoy from our mother, thankful expressions of our affection, renewed honor to our mother and, if needs be, the mending of a hurt relationship. May should include a pilgrimage to our Blessed Mother. We might make a trip to a local Marian shrine - to one of the more than 45 churches or shrines within the archdiocese that are dedicated to her under her titles or the mysteries of her life. Indeed, every one of our parishes has some niche or statue that focuses our devotion to Mary, our Blessed Mother. Mary herself is the first shrine, for in her God became present for our sakes. She is a living tabernacle in whom first dwelt the eucharistic Lord. She is the model of the interior life: He who dwelled in her by her maternity, dwells in us by baptism. May ends with the Feast of Mary's own pilgrimage to St. Elizabeth, the Visitation, May 31. Let us ask her prayerfully and with signs of devotion - a candle or flowers - to renew the seeds of faith in Christ within us, and if need be, to assist us in removing any stubborn obstacles to our growth in the spiritual life. May can fittingly include a Memorial Day pilgrimage. Whether we are able to visit the grave of a loved one, or make a spiritual visit in prayerful intercession, these petitions, too, we can entrust to Mary the Queen of the poor souls and the saints. As we make our pilgrimage in May, we can echo the Pope's words in Athens this week. With him we ask the Virgin Mary "to watch over the path we must now walk ... in order to fulfill with one another, in openness and enthusiasm, the mission that Christ has entrusted to his Church."