Wow! I can’t believe it’s been one year since I began “Mondays with Mary.” Initially, it was going to be a four-week series that spanned the month of May, but the Holy Spirit inspired me to write more each week, and now I am celebrating a year of giving my readers Mariology – the theology pertaining to the Blessed Virgin Mary. My first “Mondays with Mary” was about how the month of May came to be the month celebrating the Blessed Virgin Mary. I even said in the blog post that this was going to be a short series unless people asked me to write more. Well humans didn’t say much, but as I said previously, God had other plans for me with this series.

Over the past year, my love for the Blessed Mother has grown even more than when I began this series. One year ago, I said that I had taken a course on the Blessed Mother in graduate school at Franciscan University of Steubenville and from that point on my relationship changed with the Mary. She is a major figure in my prayer life, only second to Our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s Mary that assists me in knowing Our Lord better. She truly acts as my (our) Mediator and Advocate in bringing my requests to her Son. She is the Queen Mother!

The biggest prayer she has answered for me over the past year is my girlfriend, Tara. I prayed to the Blessed Mother for years that I could meet someone as beautiful, holy, and fun as Tara. She completes my earthly life, because Jesus and Mary complete it eternally. Tara understands this since it is the same for her. Our Lord, His Blessed Mother, along with a few others saints in Heaven, brought this wonderful woman into my life. As I told her when we were first dating and say it quite a bit to her – she “speaks my language.” The time we have ahead is only going to get better and the Blessed Mother will be our Advocate through it all.

Someone recently asked me, “What are your favorite posts from the past year in regards to “Mondays with Mary?”” I said, “all of them!” Honestly, I can’t really say I have favorites since I enjoyed writing them all. The link at the top of this post will take you to all my posts from this year.

I hope you can read some of them and pass them along to others. Over the next month and the year ahead, it is my mission to provide you greater Mariology posts. I realized there are some great topics I have yet to write on. They are coming…all in God’s time.

Two more things: first, please offer some prayers up for me. I am thinking about compiling some of these posts and trying to publish my first book. Second, I want to thank my friends at “My Mother Mary” on Facebook for posting some of my blog posts over the past 6 months on their page. They are a true blessing.

“May she, who knows the sufferings and troubles of life here below, the weariness of everyday work, the hardships and privations of poverty, the sufferings of Calvary, bring help to the needs of the Church and the world, head the appeals for peace rising to her from every part of the world, and enlighten those who rule the destinies of men.”  – Pope Paul VI, Mense Maio (April 30, 1965).