The month of September, apart from May and October, can also be considered the Marian month, because in it we celebrate three mysteries that concern the Mother of God. Today, we remember her name, which has the original Hebrew shape of Miriam. We cannot explain its exact meaning with certainty. According to some experts, it comes from the Hebrew word márar, or márah, which expresses bitterness and pain. Every mother knows that anger and pain are also associated with the joy of motherhood. How much more this must have been true of the one who became the mother of the Crucified One.
Guy Gilbert, a Parisian priest, recalls his childhood and relates that he loved his father but feared him. When his mother told him about his troubles after returning from work, immediate punishment followed, so he always tried to agree with his mother and interceded heartrendingly for himself. How many such requests did the mother hear before the father returned home? There were a total of fifteen children at home. A promise to her mother that she would get better was often enough, and she did not complain to her father. “I adore Mom very much, she is eighty, and I always see a fantastic look in their loving eyes, adds Guy Gilbert.
Well, we can understand the Virgin Mary by the way our mothers look at us. They certainly have difficult children who were abandoned by their mothers immediately after giving birth, or who were oppressed by their mothers. They were terribly guilty of it. When a man has a loving mother, he has received a great gift from heaven.
Saint Bernard, the great Marian worshiper of the Middle Ages, encourages us:
