Photo Caption: Dianne and I offered up a bouquet of roses along with a 54 day Rosary novena to see if we were called to marriage. Mary helped us in the discernment!

We’re in the month of May: a month dedicated to Mary, Jesus’ mother! I have two personal stories to share about Mary’s motherly intercession in my life. One, about my consecration to Jesus through Mary several years ago. And two, a more recent testimony of how she brought my spouse and I together.

My spiritual life took a new turn when I consecrated myself to Jesus through Mary. To consecrate ourselves means that we grow closer to Mary’s son by her help. I read a devotional book to help me prepare.This book shared about four great Saints who relied on her intercession: St. John Paul II, St. Mother Teresa, St. Maximilian Kolbe, and St. Louis de Montfort. Mary helped them grow closer to Jesus, in good and bad times, and in sickness and health.

The thirty-three days of preparation ended on the Feast of the Visitation, which occurs on May 31. This is where Mary visits Elizabeth with the good news that she is pregnant with our Saviour. Well, it turns out that Jesus’ mother is also our spiritual mother; her prayer for us is that we are united with Jesus in this life and the next. Mary had a very special and wonderful relationship with her son. She wants us to experience that relationship too! 

I didn’t fully experience Jesus’ love before my consecration. Beforehand, I prayed to Jesus, received the Sacraments regularly, and tried to be a good person. Overall, I thought I was doing pretty well on my spiritual journey. But the consecration prayer opened up new places in my heart. Mary helped me grow a more intense and deep personal relationship with Jesus Christ. 

About a week after I finished the devotional book, I had health problems. For six months I struggled with an illness, and I missed times of work and regular day activities. It was really tough. I was very tired and bed-ridden. In those moments, I asked Jesus and Mary to help me in my suffering. I began to pray the Memorare, a special prayer that puts our trust in Mary’s intercession. Mary was close to me in my sufferings, just as she was close to Jesus in His sufferings. God doesn’t promise us a life without pain or trial, but Mary promises to take care of us when we are going through hardship. Isn’t that what a spiritual mother does?

Luckily, after finding the right medication to help my sickness, I finally got better. My faith didn’t depend on whether I was healthy or not. I learned how to rely on Mary’s intercession—accepting everything from her, the good and the bad, the sickness and health, like those Saints! Because the truth is, our spiritual mother is always with us, taking care of us. And she’s also been there for the good times!

Mary helped Dianne and I make a beautiful and important decision last year. While we were very much in love, we ultimately desired God’s plan. For me, this was hard to enter into. I mentioned to Dianne after five months of dating that I wanted to marry her, and she needed more time to reflect about her answer. Of course I wanted to know what her answer was, but I also had to respect her timing. So together we decided to pray for clarity.

We began a 54 Day Rosary Novena. It contained a series of daily Rosary prayers with a special intention. We asked God and Mary if we were called to marry each other. Each Rosary prayer revolved around one of the four different mysteries about Jesus’ life. Each mystery had its different coloured roses attached to the prayers. We offered red-blood roses for the sorrowful mysteries, snow-white roses for the joyful, royal-purple roses for the glorious, and bright-yellow roses for the luminous. (Of course we didn’t buy and offer roses every day, but we did buy a bouquet at the end.) We prayed for clarity for the first twenty-seven days. And we thanked God for the last twenty seven days, even if our prayers weren’t answered.

During this season, Dianne and I had many intentional conversations about married life. We spoke about topics such as parenting and finances, and discussed our hopes and our worries. This helped us talk about big things that would prepare us for marriage, if we were called. In that time there was also a lot of peace and joy. We had fun dates and quality time with ourselves and our loved ones. It was a really nice season of friendship. 

I’ll never forget when we finished the Rosary Novena. We were at a Grotto in Ottawa, where we ended our prayers. We left our beautiful bouquet of different-coloured roses by the altar. She was by my side and embraced me. My heart beat the hardest it’s ever beaten before when I asked for her answer. And she said, “When the time is right, let’s get married!” And then we got married eight months later. 

Mary was with Jesus at the centre of our discernment. She was a spiritual mother: guiding her children to make a big decision. She taught me to put God first. She gave me courage to talk about harder topics as we approached our engagement. And she also helped me stay abandoned and detached from it all. When we prayed the Rosary, I was able to enter into the different mysteries throughout Jesus’ life. This prepared me to know, love, and serve God in that season of anticipation. And by God’s grace, we’ve been trying to pray a Rosary more often since then!

How can we invite Mary more intentionally into our lives this month? This could be a good question to ponder: for she wants us to be close to God and to her son Jesus. She wants us to discover God’s wonderful plan for our lives and for our summer. And she wants us to experience the peace and joy that comes from living in union with God. We can grow our relationship with Jesus through Mary by consecration or through the Rosary. So join me this month, giving everything to her and accepting everything from her. She is our mother. She’ll take care of us.

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