May 29 – Mary, Mother of the Church
Gen 3:9-15,20
Jn 19:25-34
“Behold your son. Behold your mother.”
Recently, I mingled with some Christian friends, who told me that they did not see the importance of praying to Our Blessed Mother in their lives; simply praying to the Holy Trinity is enough. While I was praying a rosary one day, another Christian friend tried to stop me from praying it. I asked him why, and he told me that we should not worship her, and praying the rosary is tantamount to worshipping her. I tried to explain to him that we are just asking for her to pray for us, and worship is due only to God. But he did not understand what I was saying and immediately changed to another unrelated topic.
Unfortunately, I got affected by these doubts, so I decided to pray less to Mother Mary. I would still sing along the Salve Regina and Regina Caeli after Mass ended, but I would not recite any more Marian prayers when I returned home.
But when the month of May arrived, something stirred in my heart and inspired me to just say 1 Hail Mary or a Memorare every day. And last Saturday, I decided to join my friends to pray the rosary together.
And the very next day after I had gone for Sunday Mass, I was about to board a homebound train on the MRT. Normally, the front wheels of my wheelchair were big enough to go across the gap between the platform and the train. But somehow, the gap at that moment was too big. So, my front wheels got jammed in the gap. I tried to manoeuvre my wheelchair to get back onto the platform, but to no avail. My mind started to blank out and I was looking fearfully at the doors that were about to close in on me anytime.
Thankfully, Jesus, Mother Mary, and my guardian angel were there to protect me. Many kind people on the train rushed to help me. They managed to pull my wheelchair back onto the platform in the nick of time right before the train doors closed!
What a scary nightmare it could have been! I have been feeling very thankful to God and Mother Mary since then for protecting me from physical harm.
Our prayers to Mother Mary may not mean much to ourselves, but to her, each Hail Mary is a lovely bouquet of spiritual roses. I am sure that she protects us all as God’s children. But we must still pray to her because she is closest to Jesus. I am reminded of our Cardinal Goh’s homily when he celebrated the Golden Jubilee Mass of Fr Anthony Hutjes at the Church of Blessed Sacrament on 29 April this year. He said that we can only know the Sacred Heart of Jesus when we devote ourselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, for only Mother Mary knows Jesus very, very well.
We still have a few more days left in the month of May; let us all storm heaven with our spiritual bouquets to our dearest Mother Mary!
(Today’s OXYGEN by Brenda Khoo)
Prayer: Dear Lord, please help us to devote ourselves to our Mother Mary, so that we can devote ourselves better to You. For Your Mother knows You the best. Amen.
Thanksgiving: Thank You Lord, for giving us Mother Mary to be our Mother. She always protects and takes care of us, as her adopted sons and daughters. We love her very much. Amen.
OXYGEN 
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