Natalie Hoefer | Last Updated: September 22, 2022
What month has the most Marian feast days? Surely it’s May, the month of Mary. Or perhaps it’s October, the month of the Rosary?
Surprisingly, the answer is September. Three Marian feast days were celebrated this month: the Nativity of the Blessed Mother on the 8th, the Most Holy Name of Mary on the 12th and Our Lady of Sorrows on the 15th.
Not May, not October, but September. It’s as if this unassuming, most-Marian-feast-days month resembles the quiet humility of the very woman it so frequently honors.
Mary’s life is a pilgrimage of humility. Tradition holds that she was born into a poor but holy family. In humility, she said “yes” to all of the unknowns of God’s plan. And while we know her as the Blessed Mother, in her time she was simply Mary, wife of a carpenter and mother of one son, a faithful Jewish woman who loved her God and humbly followed wherever He led—even in flight to Egypt, even to the foot of the cross at her Son’s crucifixion.
Who could have known at the nativity of Mary that she was conceived without the stain of original sin? Who could imagine that this simple woman would one day be called “Mary, Most Holy”? Who but Simeon could see that her pain would be so great, she would one day become “Our Lady of Sorrows”? Who at the time could believe that one so humble as Mary would become the mother of our salvation, with feasts honoring her all throughout the year?
How great our reward will be if we model Mary’s humility—surrendering our lives to God’s holy will, following where He leads with unwavering trust, quietly going about the tasks God sets us to while pondering His love and presence in every moment that unfolds.
As this Mary-honoring month ends, let’s ask the Mother of God and our Mother to teach us how to be humble pilgrims like her, growing ever-closer to our God.
