Lent with Mary

Our goal during Lent is to become intimately united with Jesus. No earthly being was more closely united to him than his mother.  She has been involved in every aspect of Christianity since Jesus was conceived.

As a perfect Mother to Our Lord Jesus, his suffering was her suffering. Surely Mary would have taken his pain upon herself if that were possible.  It’s a mother’s wish: Let me be the one to suffer instead.  She was with her son at every station of the cross and persevered to the foot of the cross.

Mary Gives What She Has

Art from PaintedFaith.net

Mary was the perfect imitator of Christ, according to Anthony Mullen Chairman and CEO and President of, Children of the Father Foundation, a lay apostolate to help the Church achieve New Springtime of Christianity through a unique outpouring of God's Divine Mercy. “God wants us to go through Mary as he went through her,” he said. “She can give us what she has--the perfect relationship with Jesus.” Mullen explained that one of the Foundation’s ministries, MyConsecration.org, encourages people to go to Mary to draw closer to God. “The most perfect way to fulfill your duty is to imitate Christ by imitating Mary,” he said.  “That is her role and it’s a way of life to holiness.”  Mullen said that any other way to Christ is going to be longer and slower.  He also noted that of all the great saints he knows, he cannot think of one that did not have a radical relationship to Mary. “If it’s our goal to be perfect why not go through his mother?”

She Keeps Asking

Through Church approved apparitions of Mary, Mullen noted that one thing Mary consistently asks of us, her children, is to pray the rosary daily.  St. Pope John Paul, in his encyclical on the rosary, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, explained that praying the rosary is a genuine training in holiness.  “The Rosary belongs among the finest and most praiseworthy traditions of Christian contemplation,” he wrote.   

And among all creatures, St. John Paul said that no one knows Christ better than Mary. “This school of Mary is all the more effective if we consider that she teaches by obtaining for us in abundance, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, even as she offers us the incomparable example of her own ‘pilgrimage of faith,’” he said. “As we contemplate each mystery of her Son's life, she invites us to do as she did at the Annunciation: to ask humbly the questions which open us to the light, in order to end with the obedience of faith: ‘Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word’” (Luke 1:38).

 Given fasting is mentioned many times in Scripture, Mullen said that combining fasting with the rosary are two powerful weapons given to us by God to grow in holiness and to defeat Satan’s power over the world.

“The rosary is the fastest, surest, safest way to achieve our only purpose in life which is to perfectly imitate Jesus Christ for the glory of the Father and the salvation of souls,” said Mullen.  “Mary wants what every good mother wants--for her children to have all the good that she has.” It is no coincidence, according to Mullen, that most people who regularly spend time in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, also regularly pray the rosary.   “The Blessed Mother gives her children, the love for Jesus Christ that she has.”

Ways to Make Mary an Intimate Part of Your Lent

·    Consecrate yourself to Jesus through Mary during Lent.  The next consecration preparation begins during Lent. Learn more and get free materials: MyConsecration.org

·    Pray the novena to Our Lady Undoer of Knots. 

·    Accept the Lenten Mercy Challenge to pray with Mary for others during this Year of Mercy. Every Friday, fast on bread and water for lunch and pray a decade of the rosary.

·    Pray the rosary daily.

·    Read about Church approved apparitions of Mary (there are many books) and Marian devotions in which she always seeks to bring us closer to Christ and asks us to pray.

·    Reflect on Mary’s life through the movie Mary of Nazareth.

·    Talk with the Blessed Mother daily and ask her to bring you closer to Jesus.