 I don't know where that guy is that you were just talking about. It's an incredible joy for me to be here with all of you tonight, really, and I mean that from the heart. I know speakers always say that, right? We're happy to be here, but I am really happy to be here with all of you tonight, because as a bishop in the church these days, which are not easy days in the church, I get inspired by your faith, by your witness. It encourages me, it gives me hope, and on a bad day, I'll be thinking about all of you. I want to thank the organizers of this St. John Bosco conference for inviting me to speak and to be a part of this. This is just a great work, this conference, but the whole work of catechesis and evangelization is such a great and vital and important work of the church. In fact, with all of these horrible distractions that the church is going through right now and the evil that the church has experienced, it's a great distraction from what the church should really be doing, evangelizing, catechizing, and I know the evil one has his hand in this to keep us off balance and off focus, but we have got to stay on focus, so that's why I'm so happy to be a part of a conference like this. The title of my talk, as you have seen, is Behold Your Mother, and I've been asked to speak specifically about our lady, our lady, and her role in our lives, and I think for the catechist and for all of those who are involved in any way in the church's mission of evangelization, there is no better one to accompany us and inspire us than our holy mother. I'd like to begin tonight by being personal, and I don't share these personal things just, you know, because I have a big ego and want you all to know about me, but for a purpose, and I'll kind of come to that. I want to share with you about my own relationship with our Blessed Mother Mary. I have had a personal devotion to Mary since my earliest childhood, and I can remember watching as a child the stories, or in hearing about the stories of Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Lourdes, the great movie about Our Lady of Fatima, the song of Bernadette, Our Lady of Lourdes, and now I've had the privilege of visiting both of those shrines, Lourdes just for the first time this last February, a profound experience for me. I am personally consecrated to our Blessed Mother. And I began my seminary studies at the retreat center in my previous diocese in Upper Michigan, the diocese of Marquette, and that very first I hadn't started yet, it was a retreat before we began, it was my first year. I went out into the grounds of the retreat facility, and there was a little grotto with the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes, and there I can still see myself sitting on that bench in front of that statue. And I gave my vocation into the hands of Our Lady, I gave it to her. I didn't know what I was in for. I was afraid, really afraid they were going to kick me out. I just gave it to her, and I just asked her to be the mother of my vocation, I put it in her hands. Before I was ordained a priest during my retreat, I consecrated my whole priesthood to Our Lady. I did that at the shrine at Holy Hill in Hubertus, Wisconsin, outside of Milwaukee, the shrine, there we go, we got a Holy Hill fan, Mary help of Christians, I knelt on the floor of the little, and they were working on it at the time, so I was underneath all the scaffolding, I could barely see the image on the wall up there, and I knelt on that floor and I gave my priesthood to Our Lady. Before I was consecrated to Bishop in that same retreat center in Upper Michigan, because I was becoming the Bishop of Marquette, I consecrated my Episcopacy into the hands of Our Lady, and knowing I was being sent to the Great Pacific Northwest, before I left, I gave that to her as well. My whole vocation in priestly and Episcopal life is consecrated to her. I'm so pleased to serve in an Archdiocese that is under the patronage of Our Lady under her title of the Immaculate Conception, the title of our cathedral. What a blessing for me. And on June 28th, 2014, I consecrated the entire Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon to the Immaculate Heart of Our Lady of Fatima, and then the trouble began, because the evil one does not like that. The dark kingdom was not pleased, but I'm protected, we're all protected. Now I say that, I'm sharing that personal devotion, not to make a grand eyes myself, but in the hope that it might inspire some. And I hope that your devotion and consecration to Our Lady would far surpass mine, because I think you could do nothing better. I was inspired also in my personal consecration to Our Lady by the great, great Saint John Paul II. Even though I have no name association with John Paul or Carol, I take him as my patron. He inspired my precy vocation. All my years of precy formation and my years as a priest were under his pontificate. I have a great devotion to him, and part of that is learning from him, his devotion to our blessed mother. He had a great devotion to her, placing himself under her protection. We remember, right? The day he was shot, the anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady of Fatima, he was miraculously spared death, because the bullet missed what would have been a fatal shot, and missed by a very small fraction. And you always said, right? One hand fired the bullet, another hand guided it, and I took great inspiration from him. And I was inspired actually to consecrate the Archdiocese of Portland to the immaculate heart of Our Lady of Fatima by Pope Francis' own consecration of the whole world to Our Lady of Fatima on October 13, 2013. Have we forgotten that? Pope Francis consecrated the whole world to Our Lady, under her title, the Our Lady of Fatima. And I think many of you might know, going back to St. John Paul II, the story of, that was a great part of the root of his own personal devotion. His mother died, as you know, when he was a very small child. I forgot, I think maybe it was nine, I don't remember. But after his mother's death, his father took him to a shrine of Our Lady, one of the very important shrines in Poland to our blessed mother, not Częstochowa, but a shrine to Our Lady, an image of Our Lady in Calvary, which is near his home town, his childhood home of Varivice. It's a Franciscan shrine, Calvary, Calvary, beautiful outdoor stations at the cross, it's an incredible place, if you ever get a chance to visit it, you must. And there's an image of Our Lady there, and he took little cowrel before that image of Our Lady, and he told that little boy that she will now be your mother. And John Paul we know took that very much to heart. He lived that. In fact, he would visit that shrine at Calvary many, many, many times, especially when he became Archbishop of Krakow, used to go there and pray and ask for her guidance or protection. Obviously, that's very touching to think of that little boy. And of course, he took his motto, right? The great motto of the great saintly, Saint John Paul II was what? Toto's tuus, Toto's tuus, I am totally yours. He was referring to Our Lady because he had made the personal consecration to Our Lady and under the true devotion of Saint Louis-Marie de Montfort, and there's a line, Toto's tuus is just a part of the expression. I am totally yours. The fuller expression, I won't bore you with reading it to you in Latin, but it translates, I am totally yours. And everything that is mine is yours, O virgin, glorious, and above all blessed. Place yourself as a seal upon my heart, for your love is stronger than death. Wow. I pray that prayer at least once a day, placing myself under her protection, and I often pray. I pray for myself, I pray for my priests, especially, oh, how I pray for my priests, my beloved priests, and I pray for all of the faithful entrusted to my care, and I pray to Our Lady, and I pray that Our Holy Mother, and I just have this image of Our Holy Mother, just enfolding all of them under her mantle of love and protection, and drawing them close and deep into her immaculate heart, and that is such a great comfort and consolation to me to know Our Mother's love and protection. So how do we live this consecration to Our Lady? Or if not formally consecrated to her in some way, at least how do we live this relationship with Our Holy Mother Mary? A relationship, by the way, which is necessary, necessary. We cannot leave Mary out of the picture. We can't be a Catholic that says, well, you know, I'm really into my Catholic faith, but this Mary thing, I'm just not real comfortable with it. Uh-uh. We cannot leave Our Lady out. She is a vital and necessary part of God's plan for our redemption, for our sanctification, and ultimately, for our glorification in the Kingdom of Heaven. It's a necessary relationship, and I would encourage any of you who struggle with that relationship to work at it, to pray to Our Lady, to ask her to reveal herself to you. But I think it's pretty safe in this crowd. Most of you don't have too much trouble with that relationship. So how do we live this? I just want to share, and this is sort of the substance of what I want to share with you tonight. What I find very helpful in living this relationship with Our Blessed Mother is through the meditation on the mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary that directly involve Our Lady. As I pray the rosary, by the way, my rosary here, this is a great, I love this combination. I have a rosary that I got at Lourdes, blessed at Lourdes, right at the side of the apparition, touched to the walls where the water weeps at the side of the apparition, but I keep it in the case that I got at Fatima, so I got both bases covered. As I pray the rosary, I meditate and I say, what can I learn from Our Lady? What can I learn by reflecting and meditating upon these moments in the life of Our Lady? For my life is a Christian, but also as a bishop. And I just, parentheses, I encourage all of you to pray the rosary, to pray it regularly, to pray it daily. And I will confess, in my 29 years as a priest, there have been times when I have struggled with integrating that devotion into my life on a very regular, consistent basis. But Our Lady recently revealed to me just within the last year how important it is. I didn't have an interlocution, so don't, but it was very clear to me, she was revealing this to me. The rosary is a very powerful prayer, very powerful, a beautiful prayer in and of itself, beautiful to pray and to meditate on the mysteries of Our Lord's life and Our Lady, but it's a very powerful prayer. And anybody who is involved in deliverance ministry, exorcism ministry will tell you the demons hate the rosary. So you want to keep them away, just keep praying it. So let's look at some of these mysteries that involve Our Lady, specifically. Look at the annunciation when the angel Gabriel comes to her. What do we learn from this mystery of Our Lady? Well, of course we learn her complete docility, her complete obedience to God's will in her life. She's completely available to God. She doesn't hold anything back. Her yes, her fiat, let it be done, is such a powerful example for all of us of the docility. I like that word docility, to be generous, docile, open, humble, obedient to whatever God asks of us. Even when we don't understand what's going on, what it's going to mean, where it's going to take us. Holy Mother Mary didn't know. She hadn't, I'm sure, no, maybe some theologians, Mariologists could argue with me, I don't think she had a clue that her fiat would one day land her at the foot of the cross. She didn't know where God was going to take her on this adventure. But she said yes anyway. Because why? Because she trusted in God. She trusted. You know, Pope Benedict the 16th, and I say this to you and my brother priests here. He wrote in the book, I think it was the light of the world, it was an interview book with Pope Benedict the 16th talking about his life. In the early part of the book he reflects upon how he ended up doing everything he didn't want to do. He never wanted to be the prefect for the congregation, for the doctrine of the faith. He wanted to be a professor, a scholar, a teacher, a writer, but he was called to service by the church, by St. John Paul II, and he certainly never wanted to be Pope, but there he was. But he said in the book, he said, but you know, that yes, that a priest says on the day of his priestly ordination, is a yes to everything else that follows. I used to wander around my office sometimes and say, I didn't sign on for this, all I ever wanted to do was say mass, but when I used to say I never signed on for this, I exactly signed on for that. When I said yes, when any of you says yes to God, it's a yes to everything that follows, and we just have that trust. The visitation, what do we learn from the mystery of the visitation? I'm sure you have your own reflections on these mysteries, I don't presume to think my insights are better than yours. But what I learned from the visitation is Mary's incredible charity, her incredible love. How do we know this? Remember what she just found out? She just found out she's going to give birth to the Son of God, without the intervention of a human father, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and guess what? She's going to have to, she's going to have some explaining to do. How is she going to explain this to Joseph? Of course the angel took care of that. Her parents, it's a small town, she's got a lot on her plate, as we say. But when she learns that her cousin Elizabeth is already in her sixth month, what does she do? She runs, she makes haste to go to her, to care for her relative, who's old and probably not having an easy time with this pregnancy. So her instinct is to not worry about herself in her own predicament, if you will, to go in love, in charity, in care, in mercy, to another. I think we can learn from that. To accompany, you know, this is the big word now, right, accompaniment. She goes to accompany Elizabeth during those months, final months of the pregnancy, just to be there. I think that's something we can learn when we, when we're working with people, young and old and catechizing and trying to evangelize and help them come into the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ, sometimes it means just patiently accompanying them on that journey and being the instrument of the Lord. Also from this mystery, I again, we learn humility, Mary's tremendous humility, you know, when she runs to Elizabeth right, Elizabeth greets her, you know, and who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child leapt in my womb for joy, blessed is she who believed that God's Word would be fulfilled. That's pretty high praise. What does Mary do? Oh yes, aren't I wonderful? No. My soul glorifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God, my Savior. She magnifies the Lord. She reflects all of that praise just heaped on her to God, humility, remember, and I say this to my seminarians and my priests all the time. Remember, this is not about you. And in all of our ministries and apostles in the church, it's not about us. It's about giving glory to God through the service, the humble service that we give in our work. The nativity, ah, the nativity. How could it be anything but just simple wonder, Mary, in complete wonder, wonder at the mystery of the incarnation in her arms, a moment of contemplation. And I think we can learn from the nativity to meditate upon the mystery as she gazed into the face of God in her infant child. She must have meditated upon the presence of God on her lap, in her arms, at her breast. Beautiful contemplation, that intimacy, that intimacy that Mary had with Jesus doesn't get more intimate than that. We should never cease to be in awe and wonder at the mystery of the incarnation, at the mystery of God's love for us, at the holy mass. I'm a priest 29 years, and I still am in awe that in one moment words are spoken, and what moment ago was bred in my hands is now the eternal Son of God, body, blood, soul, and divinity. We should never lose wonder at God's mystery of love poured out for us. The presentation, here we have the prediction of the passion, don't we? There's a lot of things, I've got all kinds of meditations I do on the presentation, but involving our lady, this is where the passion is predicted. This child is destined for the rise and the fall of many in Israel, and a sword of sorrow will pierce your heart, but the thoughts of many will be laid bare. Simeon predicts our lady's role and her close association with her son in the great act of our redemption at the foot of the cross. That's when her heart was pierced. Am I right? When the soldier thrust the lance into the side and to the heart of Jesus, that passed through her heart. And how often our hearts are pierced with sorrow for our loved ones, for so many reasons, death, serious illness, children, family members, grandchildren who've drifted away from the church, marital difficulties, financial struggles, drug addictions, and other kinds of addictions, sorrow pierces our heart many times for our loved ones, but we unite in trust with Mary who stood at the foot of the cross, trusting that even though this is a moment of great sorrow, the light of the resurrection is not far off, and we must never lose hope. The presentation in the temple, I mean the finding in the temple, it's another moment of contemplation, right? Joseph and Mary are now beginning to see just who their son is. He's growing up. He's getting older. He's getting smarter. And he's beginning to embrace his own mission and identity as the Son of God sent into the world for our salvation. But what do we see in Mary and Joseph? Still a firmness. You know, you may be the Son of God, but you're our son too, and you're coming home. You know, I learned in that, Mary, I mean she's certainly in awe, I'm sure, and she knows who this child of hers is, but she also knows her role. She knows what God has asked her to do, and her role, her job is not yet finished. She's going to form this child, and so with firmness she, in strength, in fortitude, she takes on that role, say, come home, and we learned that Jesus went home and was obedient. You know, God's plan has had that plan for Mary in raising her son, and as he experienced all of the human condition growing up, she formed him. You know, in his humanity, in his humanity, we have to imagine that Jesus took on many of the qualities and the traits of his parents. Did his laugh sound like Mary's laugh? Did his gestures, and his way of walking resemble how his father walked? There was a lot that Jesus was formed in by his parents, and they understood their role taking him home, because God was not finished with their role in that yet. The wedding feast at Cana, oh there's a big one, big one, Jesus' first sign. Now, many of us would jump to the obvious, right? Do whatever he tells you. So there's our meditation, okay? Mary tells us to do whatever her son tells us to do. Fine, we'll get to that. But here's what I like to think about. Mary's compassion, Mary's compassion. She's the one who's noticed that they've run out of wine. I mean, it doesn't seem anybody else is talking about it, but she notices. Here she is at this big wedding feast. Everybody's having a grand time. We're well into the feast now, so you know, there's been a little drinking. Everybody's just having a great time. Everybody's celebrating this couple. Everybody's getting caught up with each other. I'm sure the conversation and the activity was frenetic. But in the midst of all of that, Mary notices a need. Somebody's in need. They've run out of wine. This is going to be a terrible embarrassment. These poor people, and so she intercedes. They have no more wine. Woman, what is that to me? My time has not yet come. She intercedes. Think about that. She knows your needs. She sees them. She sees them maybe more clearly than you do. Mary as a mother is always looking at you, and she notices just like she noticed at Cana. She notices our needs. She notices this one is suffering from a grave illness. She notices that this couple is struggling with their marriage. She notices that this man has a horrible addiction. She notices that this family has a severely handicapped child. She notices all these things just like she did at Cana, and she intercedes for us with her son. Oh, it's such a comfort to me to know that she knows me. She knows what I need. You know, sometimes what I need is a real good kick in the rear. She anticipates our needs and intercedes for us. When Jesus says, woman, what is this to do with me? My time has not yet come. What does she do? She doesn't try to convince him, talk him into it. She just says, do whatever he tells you, because he's going to do what I want him to do because I'm his mother. And Jesus, of course, helps them. Powerful words, do whatever he tells you. We certainly can learn from that. We must... Mary, Mary doesn't take the glory and honor to herself as we saw at the visitation. It's always about doing what her son wants us to do with our life, at the foot of the cross and the crucifixion. Behold your mother, behold your mother. What beautiful words to hear from the lips of our divine Savior, giving to us his own mother as our mother. Wow, that has always meant so much to me. We're there in St. John, the beloved disciple. We're there. And I think, again, for us priests, there's a special bond here at this moment. This moment is meant for all of us, don't get me wrong. But there's a special moment here for the priests, because St. John is one of the first priests. He's an apostle, he's a priest, and our lady is given to him by our Lord as his mother. Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother. For a priest, this is very intimate. This is very, very real. She formed her priest son, Jesus Christ, as a man growing up. But she's now going to form John, her other priest son. She's going to be his mother now. She's going to take care of him. And he's going to take her into his home, as every priest should take her into his heart. But this is for all of us, though. She is our mother. Jesus gives her to us, not just to John. We're all there in John. And think about it, what a lousy exchange. Jesus is asking his mother to exchange him, her beloved son, the eternal Son of God made flesh for us. And yet the exchange is made, and she is our mother. Think about this, too. I think this adds great importance to this scene. I don't think it's just a tender little scene. Jesus does this at the most important moment in his earthly life and ministry, as he is about to hand over his life for our salvation, for the salvation of the world at that most important moment. That's the moment he chooses to give her to us as our mother. I think we ought to pay attention to that in the importance of this moment. And again, the sword of sorrow pierces her heart. Pentecost, Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit. There's some scriptural argumentation about whether Mary was there or not. Everyone says she was, and there's a way to interpret the story and the acts of the apostles that she was there. There she is, the mother of the church in the midst of the church, as the church is anointed by the outpouring and the fire of the Holy Spirit. My favorite image of Pentecost in art is El Greco's representation, if you're familiar with it. El Greco has that very unique style, kind of elongated body style. His depiction of Pentecost is Mary is there front and center, and the other apostles and others gathered are all gathered in one way or another around her as the tongues of fire come and anoint the infant church and set her on fire. There is Mary at the heart of the church is the mother of the church. The Second Vatican Council we know presented her in strong terms as both, as was said, both model and mother. She is the model for the church of that perfect discipleship, but she is the mother of the church. Matta Ecclesi, you know, St. John Paul II had that beautiful icon, a mosaic of our lady, mother of the church, placed there a part of the apostolic palace overlooking St. Peter's square. Pope Francis has given us a new feast to honor Mary as mother of the church. She is the mother of each of us individually, but she is the mother of the whole church, the body, the church. And just as she formed the body of Christ in her womb, just as she formed and raised her son, Jesus. So she forms the body of Christ in the world today, which is the church, the mystical person of Christ in the world. She forms us, she mothers us, what a great mother to have, her assumption. What do we learn from the assumption? Well, first it's a great honor for her. I mean, that earthly tabernacle that held the eternal Son of God made man, her womb being the first tabernacle, that body which gave him his flesh, that body which nursed him as an infant, gave him nourishment and life. God could not let that body undergo corruption, and so he raised her body and soul to heaven. So it is a great honor for her, and we can celebrate that. But it's also a sign of hope for us. It's a sign of hope for us, because what God granted to the mother of his son will one day be ours. She gets to share already in what awaits all of us who persevere and run the race to the end. We too will be raised up, body and soul, in the great final resurrection and the general judgment when Christ comes again in glory. And so Mary already, body and soul in heaven, already glorified in a glorified body in heaven with her son, whose humanity is there as well. She stands as a sign and a reminder to us of what awaits us and what the real purpose and goal and meaning of our life is. It's to be there with her, with God forever and the angels and the saints for all eternity. So her bodily assumption causes us all to raise our eyes and to have that heavenly perspective, that supernatural perspective, feet planted firmly in this world to do the work that God has given us to do, but with our eyes fixed on heaven to orient our whole life. And she helps us orient our life by waiting for us. I'm convinced, maybe for all, but certainly for those who love her, she's going to be the one that welcomes us. Forget St. Peter at the gates. For those who love her, I know she's just going to gather us and she just, I can see her smile and she's just going to lead us to Jesus as a mother. I'd like you to meet my son whom you have loved and served so well. I hope to hear those words, but this keeps our life in perspective and on focus. See her coronation, queen and mother, queen of the universe. The woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet in the crown of stars. The woman of revelation where she intercedes for us. She is queen and mother. She's forever intercedes for us and for all of our needs. She's exalted. She is higher than the angels, higher than the angels and there as a mother, as our queen, crowned. She intercedes for us remembering what I said earlier about our needs. She presents them always to God. My dear people, I hope that these simple, I mean I'm not a theologian so save that for speakers later. I hope these reflections will help you, especially as you pray and meditate upon the Holy Rosary to see the role of our Holy Mother Mary in your life as well. She loves you so much. She is our mother. She is our model. She is our intercessor, the most powerful one and she is our inspiration. I lost my mother about a year and a half ago. I'm going to try to get through this without, you know what, I lost my mother about a year and a half ago at the age of 89. And I learned to know Mary and to love Mary through the teaching of my dear mother. She taught me about Mary, but she also taught me through her own motherhood about the love of a mother and Mary, our mother for all of us. In fact, when she was dying, I had the privilege of being at her bedside. I was all alone with her in the middle of the night and I prayed the rosary with her. She was unconscious, but we all know about that, right? Hearing is the last thing to go. So I prayed the rosary with her and I just, I just, I laid the rosary across the back of her hand and as I prayed the rosary I just let the beads of the rosary move across the back of her hand, believing that she could feel that. And I had such an overwhelming sense of the presence of our holy mother Mary in that moment and that all of what I've shared with you personally about my own devotion to her sort of came to almost to a climax in that moment. Mary had prepared me, Mary had prepared me for that moment, a difficult moment, as you can imagine, but Mary had prepared me for that and was there to comfort me in that moment. She's there for us, my dear friends. May we always trust her. I'd like to conclude by praying a prayer that was very, very dear to my own mother to whom I dedicate this talk and I think you know it. So let's pray it together. The Memorare. Remember almost gracious Virgin Mary that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection implored thy help or sought thy intercession was left unaided inspired by this confidence. I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my mother, to thee I come before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O mother of the word incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen. Thank you and God bless you.