The Church wishes to sanctify the entire year through the celebration of the saints of each day or of feasts and solemnities. It then dedicates a particular devotion to each month of the year. The choice of these devotions is based on some historical event or special liturgical celebration, although it is not always possible to determine precisely the date and place of origin of these devotions.
Let us therefore immerse ourselves in the devotions of each individual month, divided - for ease of reading - into two articles. In this article, we will look at the devotions from January to June; in a subsequent article, from July to December.
January
The month of January is associated with devotion to the Child Jesus and to the Most Holy Name of the Child Jesus.
Child Jesus
Devotion to the Child Jesus finds its focal point in meditating on Christβs humanity in the mysteries of his childhood. Thus, tenderness toward the Child has nothing sentimental about it; rather, it means turning to the One whom the heavens cannot contain, but who became weak, poor, and in need of loving careβ¦ And all for love of us!
Before the child Jesus, we then feel that true human greatness consists in βbecoming smallβ; we discover that the one who is powerful is not great, but the one who makes himself βsmallβ; the one who preserves the soul of a child, filled with love and gratitude.
Most Holy Name of Jesus
January is also the month of the Most Holy Name of Jesus and is a favorable time to strengthen our bond with the splendid name of our Lord: we should repeat the Name of Jesus continually; it should set the rhythm of every breath we take; we should turn to Jesus unceasingly. Only his name saves us; only his name gives us peace.
February
February is the month dedicated to the Holy Spirit and the Holy Family.
Holy Spirit
It is necessary to know and love the Holy Spirit ever more deeply, to pray to him more often with trust and love, and to let him enter powerfully into our lives, in order to attain the fullness of love and conformity to Christ Jesus.
βIf you feel the darkness of loneliness - Pope Francis reminds us - if you carry within you a weight that suffocates hope, if you have a wound in your heart that burns, if you cannot find a way out, open yourself to the Spirit.β
Holy Family
Joseph and Mary remind us of Godβs plan for the couple. They show us that loving one another is possible; remaining faithful is possible; growing within a shared plan is possible.
Joseph and Mary, in their love full of tenderness and hardship, tell us that God chose to be born into a family, to live family dynamics, and to experience the difficulties of married life. The Holy Family reminds us how essential it is to place Godβs plan at the center.
March
The month of March is consecrated to devotion to Saint Joseph, whose feast is celebrated on March 19.
Who is Saint Joseph? He is a fully responsible and practical man who envelops with love those entrusted and given to him: Mary and Jesus. By welcoming Mary into his home, he welcomes the mystery within her, the mystery that she herself is, and loves her with that great respect that is the seal of authentic love.
God desires that Joseph himself, the father and guardian of the Holy Family, give the Son the name - which He Himself revealed - calling Him Jesus: the Most High wants Joseph to do this because He desires that, like Mary, he collaborate intimately in redemption.
April
The month of April is dedicated to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and Divine Mercy.
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
The Eucharist contains within it all of Jesusβ love, and the practice of adoration is our loving response to an immense gift. Saint John Paul II wrote: βThe Eucharist is an inestimable treasure: not only does celebrating it, but also spending time before it outside Mass, enable us to draw from the very source of grace. A Christian community that wishes to be more capable of contemplating the face of Christ [β¦] cannot fail to develop this aspect of Eucharistic worship as well, in which the fruits of communion in the Lordβs body and blood are prolonged and multiplied.β
Divine Mercy
Β«Humanity will not find peace until it turns with confidence to my mercyΒ», Jesus told Saint Faustina. And Divine Mercy is the Easter gift that the Church receives from the risen Christ and offers to all humanity, which at times seems lost and dominated by the power of evil, selfishness, and fear. In this context, the invocation that Providence suggested through Sister Faustina is a great help and consolation: Β«Jesus, I trust in youΒ».
May
Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus and our Mother
The month of May is dedicated to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. The first devotional practices somehow linked to this month date back to the 16th century. In Rome in particular, Saint Philip Neri taught his young people to surround the image of the Virgin with flowers and sing her praises.In the month when nature, with its flowers, releases intoxicating scents into the air, it is beautiful to renew our devotion to our heavenly Mother every single day. This month, the faithful enthusiastically embrace many prayer initiatives with hearts full of love.
June
The month of June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Sacred Heart of Jesus
On the Friday following the second Sunday after Pentecost, the Church celebrates the solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. In addition to the liturgical celebration, many other expressions of piety have Christ's heart as their object. Devotion to the heart of the Savior has in fact been, and continues to be, one of the most widespread and beloved expressions of ecclesial piety, and it has a solid foundation in Scripture. Rediscovering and honoring the heart of Jesus today means learning to love by looking to him and finding in him the strength to have a meek and humble heart, like his.
Immaculate Heart of Mary
Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary allows us to join the chorus of generations who rejoice at seeing what grace has accomplished in Mary's heart. Saint Ephrem states that Β«Mary was made heaven for our sake by carrying the divinity that, without abandoning the glory of the Father, Christ enclosed within the narrow limits of a womb, to bring human beings to greater dignityΒ».
Devotion is an expression of filial, trusting, immediate, and simple love; for this reason, devotions are a treasure for and of the Church⦠Let us preserve and spread them!
