Mary: Woman of the Eucharist, Our Mother and Model for Christian LifeRead Time 9 min

When you consider the month of September, you don’t necessarily think of a month dedicated to Our Blessed Mother. Maybe Marian months are reserved for May or October in our minds. Yet, the Church sprinkles Marian festivals and observances in the month of September and throughout the liturgical year.

Sept. 8 is the celebration of the birthday of Our Lady (although it was bumped this year for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time). Sept. 12 is the optional memorial of the Most Holy Name of Mary, Sept. 15 is the remembrance of Our Lady of Sorrows (also bumped this year for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time), and on a couple of Saturdays in September we can celebrate the optional memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Sept. 7 and 28 this year).

Why the focus on liturgical commemorations of the Blessed Virgin Mary? St. John Paul II in his encyclical letter “Ecclesia de Eucharistia” (The Church from the Eucharist) notes that, “If we wish to rediscover in all its richness the profound relationship between the Church and the Eucharist, we cannot neglect Mary, Mother and model of the Church.” (53) The saintly pope goes on to say that Mary can guide us toward the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar “because she herself has a profound relationship with it.” (EE, 53)

Marian devotion is inspired by the liturgies we celebrate. St. John Paul II highlights that Mary, the first “tabernacle” in her daily preparation for Calvary “experienced a kind of ‘anticipated Eucharist’ … a ‘spiritual communion’ — of desire and of oblation, which would culminate in her union with her son in his Passion, and then find expression after Easter by her partaking in the Eucharist which the Apostles celebrated as the memorial of that Passion.” (EE, 56) At the Last Supper, our Blessed Lord reminds us to “Do this (the Mass) in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19) as a memorial of all that he brings through his saving cross. From his life-giving cross, we are told by him to behold our mother. (cf. John 19:26-27)

St. John Paul II goes on to note that, “In the Eucharist, the Church is completely united to Christ and his sacrifice, and makes her own the spirit of Mary.” (EE, 57) To understand this saving reality, he urges us to see Mary’s “Magnificat” in a “Eucharistic key.” (EE, 58) He teaches, “The ‘Magnificat’ expresses Mary’s spirituality, and there is nothing greater than this spirituality for helping us to experience the mystery of the Eucharist. The Eucharist has been given to us so that our life, like that of Mary, may become completely a ‘Magnificat!’” (EE, 58), i.e., a praise to the glory of God’s name.

The Canticle of Mary (“Magnificat”)

And Mary said: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior. For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is from age to age to those who fear him. He has shown might with his arm, dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart. He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped Israel his servant, remembering his mercy, according to his promise to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” (Luke 1:46-55)

Through “Our Lady’s Canticle of Praise,” we are spiritually encouraged to contemplate the wonder of our own existence, the power of God’s love for us and the mission that God’s love invites us into. This canticle is a profound reminder that life is a gift, and we are alive because God loves us, and God has blessed every one of us. Mary, who is the new Eve, restores our confidence that we, too, can cooperate with God’s grace, that he will heal us, and lift us beyond the spiritual limits we place on ourselves. Through the Blessed Mother’s advocacy on our behalf we, too, can say “Fiat!” or “Yes!” to the fullness of God’s abundant life here and now. And a “Yes!” to walking with at least one other in person into a deeper love for Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist as we are called to evangelize and accompany others as a fruit of the Eucharistic Revival. Through the aid of the Mother of the Church might we be open to the astonishing vision of Catholicism and the ways in which Jesus, the Holy Banquet, the Perfect Sacrifice, the Divine Victim, who is the Medicine of Immortality, desires to make us whole.

Our Blessed Mother’s perfect discipleship is a model for us especially as we see the closeness she has with her son, the Son of God, whom we receive Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in Holy Communion. We get the chance to allow him to enter us and transform us. The Most Blessed and Immaculate Virgin Mother of God teaches us to receive God’ s love and cooperate with his grace — especially the sanctifying grace we received through the worthy reception of Holy Communion.

These days of September, and every day, especially during this season of Eucharistic Revival, let us turn to Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament with renewed devotion, asking her once again to lead us to her son, Our Eucharist King, Jesus Christ. With humble and childlike faith let us take the lead from St. John Paul II and trust that “Gazing upon Mary, we come to know the transforming power present in the Eucharist. In her we see the world renewed in love. Contemplating her, assumed body, and soul into heaven, we see opening up before us those ‘new heavens’ and that ‘new earth’ which will appear at the second coming of Christ. Here below, the Eucharist represents their pledge, and in a certain way, their anticipation.” (EE, 62)