My dear sisters, today our prayers commend to us an inspiration for devotion on this feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary. As a companion to the feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, this humble and modest feast recalls to mind with devotion and reverence the unique, key role of Mary in the salvation of the world. Today, we invoke her as a continual guide for our life as Christians. There is a long history of the celebration of this feast. I noted that it was taken off the calendar for a while, and, providentially, Pope St. John Paul II restored it along with the Most Holy Name of Jesus. How grateful we are for his devotion to our Blessed Mother in which, under the mantle of her protection, he dedicated his life and work. 

The entry in the Roman Martyrology about the feast speaks of it in the following simple and straightforward terms: “The Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a day on which the inexpressible love of the Mother of God for her Holy Child is recalled, and the eyes of the faithful are directed to the figure of the Mother of the Redeemer, for them to invoke with devotion.” Martyrologium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2001)

For us, whenever we pray the beloved prayer of the “Hail Mary,” we conclude by begging in prayer, “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.”

Just as her soul was to “magnify the Lord,” may our thoughts, words, and actions, indeed our very soul, “magnify the Lord” with her assistance as we contemplate, with reverence and devotion, the Most Holy Name of Mary – within the Octave of her birth. May God bless you!