Catholics usually think of May and October as the two months of the year especially devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Parishes and parochial school children who “crown” the statue of Our Lady as the Queen of Peace celebrate that procession in May. October is traditionally the month dedicated to praying Mary’s rosary. So in what way can August be called a Marian month as well?
Liturgically speaking, August is a very “ordinary” month. All 31 days fall within the church’s season of Ordinary Time. Special periods like Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost never occur in August.
How can the lazy, hazy, crazy days of August be associated with the Mother of God? The answer lies in Mary’s “extraordinary” virtues in this “ordinary” time.
In fact, our daily requirements of living might easily become humdrum and boring. We can go through the motions of commuter traffic, nine-to-five office hours, and week after week of the same old, same old by being resigned to the idea that “ordinary” is a fact of life and not much can change that. What was Mary’s attitude toward the day-in and day-out routines of life in Nazareth and what can we learn from her approach? The answer is not just perseverance but enthusiastic perseverance.
Granted everyday responsibilities and regular routines are a part of living. But the key is not just persevering. That attitude is tantamount to resignation or muddling our way through daily tasks because we have no other choice. This was not Mary’s attitude. Yes, she did persevere and there is virtue in being steadfast and disciplined. But she added a spiritual ingredient to those mundane errands called enthusiasm.
What is enthusiasm and how is it spiritual? The word “enthusiasm” comes from two Greek words: “en” which means “in” and “theo” which means “God” the Almighty. When we bring enthusiasm, working “in God,” to our perseverance, then everything that used to be ordinary becomes extraordinary. We begin doing our ordinary tasks extraordinarily well because we are doing them in God’s spirit.
Did Mary delve into her daily housework on such an emotional high? No. Enthusiasm does not require high-strung feelings. Enthusiasm is perseverance with a positive attitude instead of resignation with its negatively charged “perfunctory adjustment to the unavoidable.” “Enthusiastic perseverance” changes “I have to” into “I want to.” And that virtue moved Mary’s perseverance from ordinary time into extraordinary moments in God’s eternal time.
Holy Homework: This month, let’s convert the ordinarily lazy, hazy, crazy days of August into an extraordinarily spiritual month by adopting the Virgin Mary’s attitude of “enthusiastic perseverance” into our daily prayers and routine tasks.
