The Month of Mary

Today,  May 1st, the Church celebrates the Marian Month or the Month of Mary, Mother of God incarnate. It was said that without her "Yes" to the Archangel Gabriel, men and women would not have been delivered from the slavery of sin.
But why would Gabriel appear to a little virgin? Fr. Georges Farah said that the Virgin is the House of God - In Hebrew "Beth El". He also said that in Mary we found a person whose life has been totally dedicated to God's will. "She was with her utter obedience in God's hands the instrument chosen for God to enter human history" he said in one of his great lectures.
Many Churches both in the East and the West venerate the Virgin Mary, Mother of God [Theotokos Deipara], proclaimed so in the ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. This proclamation reflected the faith of the hypostatic union of Divinity and humanity in the single person of Christ.
Mary is accounted preeminent among all the saints.  The unique privilege of being the mother of one who was both God and Man is at the heart of the special honour paid to Mary described by St. Thomas Aquinas as "Hyperdulia"; i.e. a veneration which exceeds that paid to other saints, but at the same time infinitely below the adoration "Latria" due to God alone.
In the New Testament. Mary appeared only at the birth of Christ. She remained in the shadows except in the invitation to the marriage feast of Cana, and later a sorrowful Mary watches her son crucified and buried and stays with John as the crucified Christ asks him to take care of her. She is there with the rest of the apostles who receive the good news of the Resurrection of Christ and with them when the Holy Spirit descends upon them on Pentecost, but always in the background, a little person but a big heart...
In the first centuries St. Irenaeus and Justin Martyr developed the theme of Mary as the New Eve, whose obedience in some way cancelled the disobedience of Eve.  Mary's perpetual virginity was defended since the beginning especially by St. Jerome and St. Athanasius.
In 1854, Pius IX infallibly defined her immaculate conception by her mother; In 1950, Pius XII infallibly defined the Virgin's Assumption body and soul to heaven citing Eastern and Western fathers.
Before passing away in 1979, Venerable Fulton Sheen described his love for Mary.  The reader may wish to watch his impressive, yet humorous, talk here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG5-RSevDBI
Let us sing to Mary:  Ave Maria
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvNf0xg_OPY