Mary Embraces the World

The month of May offers multiple opportunities to learn and reflect on how the Spirit continues to move through Mary. May is the time for Mary gardens and May Crownings, and later in the month, on May 31, Episcopalians celebrate the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, when we honor the time Mary takes during her pregnancy to visit her cousin Elizabeth, and, moved by the spirit, sings the Magnificat. 

This year, May also brings with it the death of Pope Francis, which offers an additional opportunity to reflect on Mary’s influence. Perhaps like many of you, this past year I watched the film Conclave (more than twice!), a powerful movie about the movements the Spirit takes within spaces of power and politics. Perhaps because of the themes of this movie, when Pope Francis died, I found myself particularly moved by his specific directive that he be buried not within the grandeur of St. Peter’s but in the humbler Santa Maria Maggiore (Saint Mary Major), a church where he frequently worshiped during his papacy.

Located well outside the power and prestige of the Vatican and constructed in the fourth century, Santa Maria Maggiore sits in a working-class neighborhood of Rome that the Roman Empire used as a burial ground for the enslaved. Pope Francis’ simple wooden coffin was placed in a tucked-away place that, until that point, had been used for storing candleholders. Pope Francis’ devotion to Mary was well-known, and he described Mary as the mediatrix of all graces. By mediatrix, he explained that Mary is the bridge God traveled to reach us, and Mary is the bridge we travel to reach God. 

Another day this May, I walked out to find an extraordinary new book delivered to my doorstep that I had forgotten I ordered: Our Mother Too: Mary Embraces the World by Shannon K. Evans and Eric A. Clayton, with vibrant illustrations by Ryan McQuade (Paulist Press, 2025). This gorgeously written book emphasizes Mary’s curiosity, Mary’s delight, Mary’s broken heart, and Mary’s unstoppable desire to embrace the world. This beautiful book centers Mary’s embodiment throughout the world—from Portugal to Vietnam, from El Salvador to France, from Rwanda to Mexico—as a woman and a mother who wants each and every person to experience God’s love. 

In so many ways, I feel brokenhearted about the state of this world. But I also feel curiosity and delight. This month has made me wonder where we might feel Mary’s embrace.

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For a spirit-filled 30 minutes with Mary:

Pair a reading of Evans and Clayton’s Our Mother Too: Mary Embraces the World with two additional outstanding children’s books about the movement of the spirit and Mary’s never-ending embrace of the world: 

First, read God Spark by Caroline Vogel, with illustrations by RaRa Schlitt, and then, read  Mother God by Teresa Kim Peckinovsky, with illustrations by Khoa Le (Beaming Books, 2022) 

Close your eyes, and listen to Patty Griffin’s hypnotic Mary (Flaming Red, 1998, Universal Music). Then, finish up with a little dance party to Mama’s Eyes by Mette (Mama’s Eyes, 2023, RCA).