MARY’S COMPANIONING PRESENCE
May is Mary’s month in the Philippines and perhaps elsewhere in the world. It is a festival of flowers dedicated to her. During this month we celebrate the Feast of the Cenacle Congregation as we remember Mary in the Upper Room (Cenacle) where she waited in prayer with the Apostles and some women for the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Waiting in prayer, companioning the apostles as she does throughout our lives, Mary is our mother we turn to in good and in bad times. God is with us through Mary’s companioning presence.
As 2022 is beset with upheavals like the war in Ukraine, the still lingering pandemic, the crucial national election here in the Philippines, Mary companions the world particularly those reeling from disasters, dehumanizing conditions resulting from war, unprecedented deaths caused by covid pandemic, untold poverty due to corruption, and people’s phenomenal hope for a leader after God’s own heart. Mary is unobtrusively companioning us and all who are in need, in her characteristic quietude yet embracing us all in her Magnificat.
Suggested Scripture Texts: 1. Luke 24:44-53
2. Acts 1:14
1. How do I personally experience God through Mary’s companioning presence in my own life journey?
2. As we contemplate Mary with the Apostles in the Upper Room waiting for the coming
of the Holy Spirit, how are we as a global community experiencing Mary’s companioning
presence amidst the upheavals that beset our own time and age?
3. What are the signs of New Pentecost in our midst?