Helping Your Child Discover Our Lady’s Motherly Care

Jesus gives Mary to you as your mother

By Example

This is how your child will know what to expect from Our Lady….by your example. It’s by your own invitation to listen to your child’s hopes, dreams and fears; by your gentleness, kindness, love, patience and protection. The same goes for your child’s relationship to God the Father. Relating to God the Father will depend on their relationship with their earthly father or father figure. And how we  relate to Our Lady will depend on the kind of mothering that we have each experienced.

None of us are holy at all times! So, being like Our Lady sounds like a tall order! But there is something that we can all do as we journey towards sainthood and Heaven. We can ask Jesus to keep changing us so that we become more and more like Him. And we can also ask Our Lady for the grace to become more holy!

Teach your child the Hail Mary

By Prayer and Simple Catechesis

You could say “Let’s ask Mother Mary to help us! Hail Mary, full of grace…”

Young children will accept you telling them that Mary is Jesus’ mum and that Jesus has given her to be our Mother too! You can say that we pray to her for help, just as we pray to any of the saints in Heaven. You could also say that Mary is so very close to Jesus that her prayers are very powerful. And for your child to get the idea that she is a missionary mama, you could say: “Mother Mary lives in Heaven with Jesus, but Jesus sometimes sends her on mission to countries on earth. She encourages all people to love Him and to follow Him. She is such a wonderful spiritual mother to us!”

Background for us adults. We know that as Jesus was dying on the cross that He gave us His mother to be our own spiritual mother. Almost taking His last breath, Jesus gave St. John and His Mother special instructions. But there is more to this story than I first realised – and I would like to share this with you. Both St. John, the disciple whom He loved, and His mother Mary were standing at the foot of the cross....

Seeing His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing near her, Jesus said to His mother, “Woman, this is your son”. Then to the disciple He said, “This is your mother”. And from that hour he took her into his home. John 19:26-27

In biblical times, it was a normal practice for the eldest son to take care of his mother. But now Jesus was dying…Mary’s only son. He could have passed on this responsibility to another so called ‘brother’ i.e. to another male relative from His family circle. But He chose to give it to a ‘brother in the Kingdom of God’ – to St. John. This St. John is the same John who is the author of the Gospel of John.

The Catholic church believes that as Mary was given to be the mother of St. John, a disciple in the Kingdom of God, she was also given to all disciples of Jesus – to all Christians. As Pope St. John Paul ll said: Jesus completes his sacrifice by entrusting Mary to John. By calling her ‘Woman’ Jesus is actually giving Mother Mary a new universal spiritual motherhood. A motherhood towards all Christians. ‘Woman’ is only used one other time in the Gospel of John: at the Wedding Feast of Cana (John 2:4). Then, says Pope St. John ll, by calling His mum, ‘Woman’, Jesus is recalling Eve: the mother of all the living. Mother Mary is the new Eve. So, by calling her ‘Woman’ from the cross Jesus is making her the mother of all disciples (L’Osservatore Romano Weekly Edition in English 30 April 1997, page 11). Wow! This reflection has really opened my eyes to Our Lady’s mission on Earth!

My own journey with Our Lady has been a pretty slow one! It was only because my own mum had a devotion to her and prayed the rosary every day that I eventually started doing the same. I am not always faithful to this though…as I allow ‘life’ to get in the way.

So, now that children have got some idea that Mother Mary is a very special mother: one who can look after them at all times and places...

What is the next step? I think the ‘icing on the cake’ is to show them how Mother Mary has intervened in the lives of people in history in an unforgettable way.

Tell your child about Our Lady of Guadalupe

Using videos from YouTube

Show your child her maternal care through her visitation to Juan Diego, a poor peasant, in Guadelupe, Mexico - back in 1531.

I didn’t know till a few years ago, but did you know that Our Lady of Guadelupe is pregnant when she appeared to Juan Diego?! So, she appeared in all her motherliness, literally!

This first 4-minute video would be good for 3 to 4-year-olds. Before showing the video, you could, perhaps, say something like:

“Jesus’ mother, Mary, looked after Jesus while he was a baby and while he was your age and right up to the time when he grew up and left home. After she died and went to Heaven, God has been sending Mother Mary on missions to appear to people in lots of countries on Earth. God does this because He knows that Mother Mary can help everyone believe in Jesus, her Son. Jesus is the only way to Heaven and so it’s very important to learn to love Him, to listen and to do what He says. This is the story of when Mother Mary appeared to a poor man in a town called Guadelupe, which is in a country called Mexico. The man’s name was Juan Diego.”

This next video is a bit longer and is more suitable for 6-year-olds. The story of Our Lady of Guadelupe is played out through the reading of a story book. This link will take you to a video preview. Please click on this and it will then allow you to see it on YouTube. At the end of the story (14:15 mins in) there is a 4-minute version of the story for adults and some information about the site of pilgrimage.

Notice what Our Lady says to Juan Diego when he doesn’t keep his promised meeting with her because he was caring for his sick uncle? She asks him not to be afraid about anything. And then she says to him:

“Am I not here, I who am your Mother?”

In other words, Our Lady of Guadalupe is saying “Come to me…you can tell me anything…just as you would tell your earthly mother. I am always here for you”.

This is how close she wants to be with each of us, including your child. Her look of love and tenderness to Juan Diego, and to all of us, comes from the Holy Trinity. The closer we get to God, the more loving and tender we will become towards our children and to all around us!

I hope this helps you show the motherliness of Our Lady to your child and to any other children whom you care for.