Happy Mother’s Day, Mary: Holy Mother Mary and the Eucharist

May is the month to say “thank you” to Holy Mother Mary in a special way. In addition to Mother’s Day, several significant feast days are dedicated specifically to honor the Holy Mother of God – Our Lady of Fatima on May 13, Mary, Help of Christians on May 24, Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church on May 29, Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary on May 31 and this year also Pentecost on May 28, appreciating Mary’s participation in God’s plan of salvation. 

On May 1, many parishes participate in crowing Mary with flowery wreaths. Some countries around the world celebrate their national Marian feast days, e.g., Our Lady of Tsuwano, Japan, and The Blessed Mother - Queen of Poland, both on May 3, Our Blessed Mother of Miles (Maronite Catholics) on 5/16, and Our Lady of Cuzco, Peru, on May 23.

Mary is an unprecedented model of perfect adoration of the Eucharistic Jesus and spiritual mother for all Catholics. She invites everyone to imitate her in saying “Fiat,” or yes, to Christ’s great love in the Eucharist, and she leads each person with her tender motherly care to that perfect communion of love. 

No one could ever call her “mother” it if wasn’t for Christ’s offering on the Cross, where the Lord entrusted Mary to mankind (represented by his disciple John) and mankind to Mary. Among all religions and nations, Catholics hold the distinct honor and privilege to call Mary their “mother,” exactly because of the Eucharistic mystery. 

Saint Augustine recognized the singular power of Mary as the mother feeding her children with the Eucharistic Jesus, as he said, “The Word is the Food of the Angels. Men have not the strength to feed It to themselves, nor need they do so. What is needed is a mother who may eat this supersubstantial Bread, transform it into her milk, and in this way feed her poor children. This mother is Mary …”

Mary’s role in the Eucharistic mystery is exceptional as she both received Christ in human form (i.e., the Word made flesh) in the city of Bethlehem (in Hebrew: ‘house of bread’) and offered him to God the Father on Calvary for salvation of souls. In the same way as Mary received and offered Jesus 2,000 years ago, she continues to do so during each Holy Eucharist. Mary offers Jesus to God the Father, in union of prayer with Christ’s representatives on earth, and she receives Jesus through the hearts of priests for the entire Holy Catholic Church as well as through the hearts of every Catholic. 

Saint Peter Julian Eymard stated, “Where on earth shall we find Jesus but in the arms of Mary! Was it not she who gave us the Eucharist? It was her consent to the Incarnation of the Word that inaugurated the great mystery of reparation to God and union with us which Jesus accomplished during His mortal life, and that he continues in the Eucharist.”

Many saints and popes in the history of the Church spoke about Mary’s extraordinary role in Christ’s sacrificial offering, her unique intercessory power in preparation for the Holy Communion and her mission as a channel of love between men and Jesus Christ. 

Saint Maximilian Maria Kolbe asserted, “There is no better preparation for Holy Communion other than offering it to the Immaculate … She will prepare our heart in the best way possible, and we will be sure to give Jesus the greatest of joys and to show him the greatest of loves.” 

Mary was also the very first adorer of Christ, and thus she teaches each person to become like her. Saint Peter Julian Eymard emphasized, “Eucharistic adoration is the greatest of actions. To adore is to share the life of Mary on earth when she adored the Word Incarnate in her virginal womb, when she adored Him in the Crib, on Calvary, in the divine Eucharist.”

May thanksgiving prayers to Mary for her motherly love fill the hearts and souls of all Catholics and Christians around the world, as they repeat after Saint John Paul II, “May Mary, who in the freedom of her ‘Fiat’ and her presence at the foot of the cross, offered to the world, Jesus, the Liberator, help us to find him in the Sacrament of the altar.”

Jad Ziolkowska is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.

Photo: Jad Ziolkowska/Sooner Catholic.