So many Catholics my age and up are quite ambivalent about Mary, seeing any kind of devotion to her as pre-Vatican II, overly sentimental and out of place. But Mary has been an important part of my life, dating back to early memories of lighting a candle at her shrine in our church, novena prayers to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on Tuesday evenings and a nun at Holy Family Hospital taking me in the chapel there and talking about Mary. I frequently went to that hospital chapel for years, praying before the beautiful, gentle statue of Mary, up until I entered the seminary in 1979.

In my seminary years, 1979-1984, devotion to Mary didn’t exist but my love for Mary continued, very much under the radar. I wanted to fit in and not be labeled a traditionalist, truly wanting to be a priest. I didn’t want this to be a “red flag,” so my love of Mary was discrete and private.

Mary has followed me and inspired me in many ways. She has been a powerful witness in responding to God’s calling with one’s whole heart. She has been a “presence” in my life and priesthood, my spiritual “mother” wanting me to be loved by her Son. Mary has only deepened my love for Christ.

It might surprise a number of people, many parishioners, that I made a promise to pray the Rosary daily and I made a personal act of consecration to Mary a number of years ago. I personally dedicated the parish to her when I became a pastor. I have to mention St. Teresa of Avila, who has been another powerful person in my life. These two women are so very important to me.

Why am I writing about Mary now, as I approach the end of the Camino, as we come to the end of our liturgical season, as we are about to begin Advent in two weeks? In short, Mary has been guiding me on this tiresome journey across Spain, making her presence known in simple, gentle ways. Through a ceramic tiled image on a wall off the Camino, watching pilgrims passing by, rarely seeing her image, to beautiful statues of wood, bronze, plaster and ceramic in countless places of prayer, Mary has been a presence of hope and comfort.

Mary and her Son will be with me as I enter Santiago and spend some days there in prayer. Mary and Christ clearly want me back in Chicago. What awaits…who knows but her Son, and He is saying nothing to me but to trust.

Final note: the Eucharist is at the heart of the church, our parish and my priesthood. No one has ever mentioned to me at any of the parishes I have served in over forty years, that in EVERY Eucharistic Prayer, I have prayed, after the priest mentions “Mary, the Mother of God,” “and our Mother.” I was inspired to do this when my rector at the seminary said those very words in each Eucharistic Prayer. That rector was Fr Jim Keleher who became Bishop Keleher of the Belleville Diocese and the Kansas City Diocese. He just died a week ago: November 9, 2024.

Thank you Bishop Jim Keleher for your love of Mary and accepting me at the seminary in 1979. When I called you in 1978, out of the blue, and told you I wanted to be a priest, and you never even heard of me, you welcomed me and my parents to come to the seminary. We did so on that bitter cold Sunday afternoon in 1978. I haven’t thought of that Sunday in many years. A gift of the Camino.