Imperfect Parents & Mary - August 15, 2021

This weekend we are celebrating the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary! These occasions are a great time to reflect on our relationship with Mary and the ways that she can assist with our mental health.

We all grow up with imperfect parents. No matter how good our parents are, they are human, and humans make mistakes. Some people have significant trauma due to poor relationships with their parents and have lifelong struggles due to their experiences. When we have these experiences, we need grace and healing to recover from them.

This is where Mary comes in. Mary is the perfect mother and we can bring her into these difficult experiences from our past.

An exercise I often recommend is to pray and recall a difficult moment with a parent and imagine Mary present in the memory. What is she saying? What is she doing? What is she thinking? How would she be different from our imperfect parent? This can also be done with God the Father. When we have difficult experiences with our parents, we can learn some harmful lessons about ourselves such as that we are not good enough, we are bad, and we are rejected.

These are lies in the eyes of God and Mary and, if we bring them into the memories, we can learn the truth about ourselves and live from that experience instead of from places of pain and trauma. This will help us to correct any lies we are living into the truth that we are loved and accepted by God.