Becoming More Like Mary: Part One -- Humility
By Jean M. Heimann During the month of May, we seek to imitate our Blessed Mother in a special way in order to bring peace, patience, and prayer into our home and into every aspect of our daily lives. As women, we are called to imitate Mary, the spouse of the Holy Spirit and the Mother of the Church. This is not an easy task, particularly when we are inundated by messages from our culture encouraging us to behave in ways that is not conducive to developing virtues. According to St. Alphonsous Ligouri, we are called to imitate our Blessed Mother in the virtues of: humility, faith, hope, chastity (purity), poverty, obedience, patience, and spirit of prayer. However, it’s important not to expect perfection in any one of these areas. God does not expect it, so neither should we. During this month, I would like to focus on one or two virtues at a time in order to give them adequate attention. Let’s start with humility. St. Bernard tells us humility “is the foundation and guardian of the vir...