This is an important question. It’s true and clear throughout Scripture and then throughout the rest of the history of the Church that Our Lady has been commissioned by her Son to be involved in the evangelization efforts of the Church. Even from the moment that the Church is born, she’s there in the upper room! She, who is the spouse of the Holy Spirit, is intimately involved with the Church’s mandate. So it’s really important that we don’t just consider her this optional extra on the side that we occasionally call in off the bench when we need extra help, but an arm-in-arm partner in this effort to go out and bring souls to Jesus. She exists, she lives, to see people love her Son. She exists, she lives, to draw people into worship of her Son. She, who knows Him more intimately than all others, is preoccupied with others entering into that relationship as well.
So I’m going to give you four concrete ways, details, tips, for how to invite Mary into our evangelistic efforts. The first one is the rosary. What a weapon we have that we all know! Because if you’ve been around the Catholic Church, or around Catholic people, or a little old Catholic lady, you see the rosary. But seeing the rosary in two different ways: both as a school of grace and as a school of the gospel, where we, in meditating on her life and her life with her son, receive a clearer understanding of what the gospel message is, what the narrative is that we’re a part of. And then secondly, using it as a weapon against the evil one in the strongholds that we are going to face. When we enter into the world, we should not be surprised at suffering, at sin, at brokenness, and an enemy that does not want to see us succeed. And we have so many trump cards, but she is one of our ultimate trump cards. She is the one who crushes the serpent’s head. And this is this tool that we have, this rosary, this weapon, it’s something that she has given us and told us, “Pray the rosary!” She says it every time she reveals herself, at every apparition, it seems like, is, “Pray the rosary. Pray the rosary for the salvation of souls. Pray the rosary to overcome the evil one.” So let’s commit ourselves for two reasons: one, to deeper understand the life of Jesus and the life of His mother, but then also to have this weapon in the battle that we will be fighting.
The second one is, and I’m not going to elaborate too much, because I don’t have time on this, but I would really encourage you to read the messages of Mary from Our Lady of Fatima. For what we’re up against in this time and place, which she revealed to children, three little children, is powerful. In our pursuit of understanding God’s mind and heart for this generation of people, she revealed it to children! Because she knew it was simple and understandable, and yet deeply profound. And so often, we overcomplicate things. We try to think of all these different angles, and out of the mouths of babes is sometimes what the Lord wants from us. “Unless you become like a little child, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3) So there’s a way that, in Mary’s experience at Fatima, she really gives us an image of both who is responsible for bearing the Good News, and the messages she gave to the children are profound for what we’re up against right now.
Another thing I would invite you to do is, every time you’re about to do anything with Jesus, any time you’re about to do any sort of evangelistic work, pray to her. Ask for her intercession. Because what she loves about that is, where two or three are gathered, Jesus is there. Well, she wants to be wherever Jesus is. So if you invite her into that environment as well, and help her prayers be conformed to our prayers, to be brought to the Son, they just are increased in power. So whether it’s a Hail Mary before you begin, or a whole rosary, or whatever you want to pray – I mean, there’s so many prayers to Our Lady, it’s ridiculous. You can figure out any of them, they all work, she loves all those prayers. And the other thing we have to remember is, she loves to glorify her Son. So she loves the invitation to pray with us because she longs for, she lives for, the glory and the majesty and the praise of her Son.
And then the fourth one is another really practical one, but having extra rosaries or extra miraculous medals to just give to people as little gifts. And let the power and the grace that comes with those gifts, and is represented by those physical objects, do its work.
My grandpa was a dentist, and he started doing something at the Ann Arbor Art Fair years and years ago, decades ago, where he would just set up a booth and he would just give out rosaries. Just give out rosaries – rosary after rosary after rosary. And I used to do it with him, I’d have to set him up. I always liked to set up the booth because we’d always get a free dinner out of it, but we’d go and we’d just hand out rosaries.
And you’d be amazed at the number of people who, A, had no idea what it was, and B, who, once you explained it a little bit, or those who did know what it was, but had fallen away from the Lord for a long time – this simple gift, a gift that actually had power, because there’s grace in that gift, these blessed rosaries have power in them, transforms lives. And the thing is, you don’t necessarily always see it in the moment, but the trickle down of grace, that little stone in the pond, the ripple out of grace that happens when believers actually believe, and act on it, and invite Our Lady into it, we’ll find out when we enter into eternity, and I can’t wait to find out.
So those are just a few tips for why including Our Lady is not an optional extra to this evangelistic work, but is something that is a cornerstone, a foundational piece, for this to be as fruitful as Jesus desires it to be.