‘Behold Your Mother’

Devotion to Our Lady is essential to our identity as Knights of unity and charity

AS THE LEADER of a fraternal order with a founding mission to care for women and children, I must begin with a note of honor to our mothers during this month when we celebrate Mother’s Day. I’m grateful for the fact that my own mother is still going strong at 94, and with you I pray for all the mothers in our lives — whether living or deceased.

This month of May, which is devoted to the Blessed Mother, also offers an excellent opportunity to reflect upon Mary’s role in our lives and in the Church today. While Knights are devoted to Mary under many different titles, we have long had a special devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. The tenure of Past Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, who consecrated the Order to Our Lady of Guadalupe when he was installed, formalized that devotion’s place in the Order’s spirituality, but the history goes back even further.

As a fraternity which spread to Canada, the Philippines and Mexico within a generation of its founding in the United States, it is only natural that we would turn to the Virgin of Tepeyac. Mary, under the title Our Lady of Guadalupe, is acclaimed the Patroness of the Americas and the Philippines, Star of the New Evangelization and Protectress of the Unborn. Her reassuring message to St. Juan Diego, an Indigenous layman, in 1531, is a message for all of us: “Am I not here, I who has the honor to be your mother?”

Notably, Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared as a pregnant mestiza woman, and as such she is a symbol of both our work in the pro-life movement and our calling to support our Indigenous brothers and sisters in the faith. And as St. John Paul II wrote in Ecclesia in America, we see in her “an impressive example of a perfectly inculturated evangelization” (11).

This notion of inculturated evangelization should resonate with us as Knights of Columbus — particularly as men of unity. The message of Jesus Christ is for all peoples and nations. Mary appeared in the New World in a way that was deeply meaningful to St. Juan Diego and the people of that time and place, but with a message of salvation that is universal. Mary’s appearance points to the reality that, so long as we are unified in the essentials, we can be diverse in the particulars.

‘We have received a tremendous gift in the rosary, in the message of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and in the Blessed Mother herself.’

Indeed, the impact of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the people of Mexico and the entire American continent is clear. Within seven years of her appearance on Tepeyac Hill in Mexico, almost 9 million people in the region converted to faith in Jesus Christ. Far from conquering or oppressing the native people of the Americas, she appeared as a mother, proclaiming liberty from fear and eternal life in her son.

As such, Our Lady of Guadalupe is an icon of unity for us — especially in terms of our Order’s presence throughout North America, the Philippines and beyond.

A decade from now, in 2031, we will celebrate 500 years since the Guadalupan event. The Order is already discussing ways to mark this anniversary. But for now, and particularly in this month of May, I challenge all brother Knights to renew our devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and her holy rosary.

When we became Knights, we were given this powerful weapon against evil with the words, “Her holy rosary in our hands, going where we go. The salutation ‘Hail Mary’ on our lips. What challenge can we not face? What victories can we not achieve?”

We have received a tremendous gift in the rosary, in the message of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and in the Blessed Mother herself. Christ’s words from the cross to the apostle John were spoken to the entire Church and to each of us: “Behold your mother” (Jn 19:27).

She is our mother. She is our queen. And we are her Knights. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!

Vivat Jesus!