Mary’s love in every moment

Fr David Howell• May 18, 2025

“Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” (John 7:34)

In this month of May, dedicated to Mary, we can reflect on how she lived her Son’s new commandment of love.

By considering how Mary was loved by Jesus, we will see how she is called to love us.

Mary was loved by Christ from the very moment of her conception, and in every moment of her life until her glorious coronation in heaven. Psalm 45:9 foreshadowed this climactic moment of Jesus’s love for her: “At your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir.”

And he loved her no less at her moment of greatest desolation, when again she was standing at his right hand – but he was crucified on Calvary. There she was clothed in gold interiorly: the Scriptures often speak of God refining us like gold, and Jesus loved Mary in this way from the Cross. Ancient refiners would hold precious metals in the fire and watch them until their face was reflected in the metal – the sign it was fully purified. Jesus looked at Mary from the Cross until he saw in her his own image of perfect love, shining like gold.

If Jesus loved Mary in every moment of her life, both the joyful and the harrowing ones, then she is called to love us in every moment of ours.

Mary our Mother looks at us in every moment – past or present – and loves us, whether that moment be one of sin or goodness, sorrow or rejoicing.

Transformed by the love of Jesus and Mary, let us love others in every moment of their lives – with no exceptions.

Photo: The image of Our Lady of Fatima is carried during a procession at Fatima shrine, central Portugal, on May 13, 2024. Thousands of pilgrims converged on the Fatima Sanctuary to celebrate the anniversary of Fatima’s miracle when three shepherd children claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary in May 1917. (Photo by FILIPE AMORIM / AFP)