Mary Mother of God (2027 Edition)

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins, and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

The Octave of Christmas concludes with today's feast of Mary, the Mother of God. Even though Our Lady was venerated as the Mother of God from the earliest days of the Church, this feast was not established until the fourth century, when this truth of faith was promulgated by the Council of Ephesus. In 1931, Pope Pius XI decreed that this feast was to be celebrated on October the 11th. St. Paul VI decided to move this feast to the Christmas season so as to have it coincide with the beginning of the New Year.

The prayer that's used after communion in the mass is taken from a liturgy of the seventh century. It's interesting to know a little bit of the history of these prayers and the history of the liturgy; helps to put things a lot in perspective. This prayer is notable for the fact that it invokes Mary as Mother of the Church. This is the first recorded instance when this Marian title appears in the liturgy.

Whenever we venerate Our Lady as the Mother of God, we simultaneously claim her to be our own mother. Because that's what Jesus said on the Cross: "Behold your mother" (John 19:27). Look at your mother. Look at her and never stop looking at her. We know that Our Lady takes very good care of her children, especially those who are most in need.

God chose his mother and bestowed upon her all manner of gifts and graces. We're told in St. Paul to the Galatians that "when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son born of woman" (Gal. 4:4). A few days ago, we were focusing on the humble birth of Christ in the stable in Bethlehem. We contemplated him as a little baby, a defenseless child in the arms of his mother. Our Lady shows the child to us so that we might adore him as our Redeemer and Lord.

God the Father has taken into account all the circumstances surrounding his birth: the decree of Caesar Augustus, the census, the poverty in Bethlehem. But above all, God the Father had foreseen the mother who would bring him into the world. This woman had been spoken of on various occasions in Sacred Scripture. She had been predestined from all eternity. God had prepared her creation with more loving attention than he had given to the making of any other creature. This was so because she was to make a free choice to be his mother.

In Genesis, God announced that he would put enmity between the serpent and the woman. Our Lord said to the prophet Ahaz in the book of Isaiah, "Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel" (Isa. 7:14). Our Lady was prefigured in the Ark of the Covenant, in the House of Gold, in the Tower of Ivory. God chose her from among all women before the dawn of time. He loved her more than he loved the sum of all his creation. He loved her with such a love that he bestowed upon her the plenitude of his gifts and graces, more than he granted to his angels and his saints. He preserved her from any stain of sin or imperfection. As a result, Pope Pius IX states, "No creature more beautiful or holy could ever have been conceived."

It's for this reason that theologians and saints have taught that God could have created a better world, but he could not have created a more perfect mother than his own mother. St. Bernard comments, "Why should we be astonished if the God who could work marvels in the Scriptures and through his saints, should choose to reveal himself even more marvelously by means of his mother?" St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that the divine maternity of Mary surpasses all graces and charisms, such as the gift of prophecy, the gift of tongues, the power to work miracles.

Almighty God, omnipotent and infinitely wise, had to choose his mother. We could ask ourselves, well, what would we have done if we had to choose our mother? Probably, we would have chosen the one that we have, filling her with all graces. That's what God did. That's why after the Blessed Trinity comes Mary.

In The Forge, St. Josemaría says theologians have given a rational explanation for her fullness of grace and why she cannot be subject to the devil: It was fitting that it should be so; God could do it; and therefore he did it. That is the great proof, he says, the clearest proof that God endowed his mother with every privilege from the very first moment. That is how she is: beautiful and pure and spotless in soul and body.

Today, as we look upon Our Lady, the Mother of God, we see her with the child in her arms. We could imagine that she offers the child to us. One writer says we have to give thanks to God because surely this was one of God's greatest mercies, apart from creating us and redeeming us—namely to choose to have a mother who would become our mother also.

St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that Mary is the one person next to God the Father who could say to the divine Son, "You are my son." According to St. Bernard, Our Lady calls God Almighty "The Lord of Angels," "her son," when she asks in all simplicity, "Son, why have you treated us so?" (Luke 2:48). What angel could dare to say such a thing? But Our Lady, fully aware of her motherhood, does not hesitate to call the Lord of Heaven and Earth her son. God is not offended for being called what he wanted to be. He is truly the son of Mary.

Whenever we study the nature of Christ, we are careful to distinguish between his eternal generation, his divine nature, the pre-existence of the Word, and his temporal birth. Being God, the Son is begotten, not made, by the Father from all eternity. Being man, the Son was born; he became man of the Virgin Mary. In the fullness of time, the Anointed One of God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, assumed a human nature. That is to say, he assumed a rational soul and human body formed in the womb of his immaculate mother. The human nature—soul and body—and the divine nature came together in the one Person of the Word. From the very moment when Our Lady gave her free consent to the will of God, she became the Mother of the Word Incarnate.

It's similar to the case of each and every mother in whose womb a human body is born, but not the rational soul. We logically consider, said Pius XI, these women to be mothers. So too we should think of Mary as the Mother of God because of the unity of the persons in her Son. From their place in heaven, the angels and the saints contemplate in awe the supreme glory of Our Lady. They know full well, said one writer, that this dignity derives from the fact that she was, and continues to be for all eternity, the Mother of God. Mater Creatoris, Mater Salvatoris. It's for this reason, in the Litany of the Rosary, the first title of glory given to Our Lady is Mother of God. Mother of Mercy. Hail our life, our sweetness, and our hope.

These titles that follow now are those that correspond to her divine maternity: Holy Virgin of virgins, Mother of divine grace, Mother in the order of grace, Mother most pure, Mother most chaste. By nature of her being mother of the Son of God made man, Mary has a unique relationship to the Blessed Trinity. She is the daughter of God the Father, as she has been called by the Fathers of the Church and the constant teaching of the Magisterium. Through her son, the Blessed Virgin has a bond of consanguinity which thereby confers upon her earthly power and dominion over Jesus. Jesus himself, said one writer, is bound to Mary by the same duties of justice which all children have to their parents.

With regard to the Holy Spirit, said Pope John Paul II, Mary is temple and tabernacle, according to the teaching of the Fathers and most recently of Pope John Paul himself. Another writer says Mary is the great masterpiece of the Trinity. This masterpiece ought not to be something accidental in the life of a Christian. God does not bestow upon a person so many gifts just to impress us. One writer says this masterpiece of the Trinity is the mother of the Redeemer and at the same time my mother. Mother of such a wretched thing as myself, who am in this respect no different from any other creature.

Today we turn to Our Lady with thoughts filled with joy and praise, and with a holy pride. Often men like to be reminded of their relationship with distinguished figures in literature, in politics, in the armed forces, in the Church. Sing to Mary Immaculate, said St. Josemaría in The Way, reminding her: Hail Mary, Daughter of God the Father; Hail Mary, Mother of God the Son; Hail Mary, Spouse of God the Holy Spirit... Greater than you, no one but God.

We say hello to Our Lady. Mother of Mercy, Mother of Hope, Mother of Pardon, Mother of God and of Grace, Mother full of holy joy. We say these words that are words of a traditional hymn. With her maternal care, Our Lady continues to present to her Son the offerings made by his people on earth. She deals with us in a motherly manner.

One time I was watching a young kid, about five or so years of age—youngest of eight, a little bit spoiled perhaps—his older sister had taken away his basketball. He went wailing to his mom who was standing a little distance away chatting to a friend of hers. This little kid was making far more noise than the situation warranted. I was a further distance away just observing how this mother was going to handle the situation. When he came close to his mother, the mother, without interrupting her conversation, whipped a handkerchief out from up her sleeve, and without even looking at the child, she reached out and wiped his nose. She seemed to know by instinct where the nose was. I thought this was interesting because it was his eyes that were streaming, but she wiped his nose. Then she turned him around, gave him a little pat on the back low down, and sent him off about his business. The child was calm. I thought the child wanted justice from his big sister; I thought he wanted his basketball back. But really all that he wanted was a little bit of attention and affection from his mother. That is what he got, and that calmed him down.

In all the little turmoils of our life, the little catastrophes or injustices or other things that may arise, we can also always turn to our mother Mary, knowing that she's always there for us. She deals with us in a very motherly manner. Calms us down, distracts us with something else, sends us off about our business.

Our Lady sees Jesus in each Christian, in each person. He also told her on the cross, "Look at your child." Look at your child, and never stop looking at your child. She urgently desires that we become fully united to the divine life. She'll always be ready to lend us a hand in whatever difficulties or temptations may befall us. Our Lady is our great ally. Great ally in the apostolate, which we must make a reality in the middle of the world. "Invoke the Blessed Virgin," said St. Josemaría in The Forge. Keep asking her to show herself a mother to you—monstra te esse matrem—as well as drawing down her Son's grace, may she bring the clarity of sound doctrine to your mind, and love and purity to your heart, so that you may know the way to God and take many souls to him.

That prayer of the liturgy, "Show yourself to be a mother," monstra te esse matrem, is a very appropriate aspiration to pray on this particular feast day. Mother of mine, show me that you are my mother. Help me in this or that necessity, with this friend who needs to come closer to your Son.

As we begin the New Year, we can take advantage of this occasion to make a firm resolution: to grow daily in our recourse to Our Lady. We'll never find a more reliable ally. We can imitate St. John, who on Calvary received Our Lady on behalf of all mankind. We're told "and from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home" (John 19:27).

From his mother, Our Lord must have learned certain turns of phrase, popular expressions full of wisdom, which he was to use later in his preaching. Maybe he saw how she kept back a little bit of dough from one day to the next so that it could act as leaven. She added water and mixed it with the new dough, leaving it to rise, well covered with a clean cloth. When his mother mended their clothes, Jesus would have watched. If a garment was torn, she would look for a piece of cloth to match. Our Lord, with a child's curiosity, would ask why she did not use a new piece of cloth. Our Lady might explain to him that when new patches are washed, they pull on the old cloth and tear it. That is why she had to make a patch out of used cloth.

The best clothes, the ones that were worn on feast days, were kept in a cabinet perhaps. Our Lady took great care to place aromatic plants between them so as to prevent moths from damaging them. All these little homely details, learned from his mother, would later appear in Our Lord's preaching. Our Lady spent every day of her life like millions of other women who took care of their families, bringing up their children and taking care of the house.

In Christ is Passing By, St. Josemaría says Mary sanctifies the ordinary everyday things, what some people wrongly regard as unimportant and insignificant: everyday work, looking after those closest to you, visits to friends and relatives. What blessed ordinariness, that can be so full of love of God. Between Joseph and Mary, there existed a holy affection, a spirit of service, a mutual desire for each other's happiness. This is Our Lord's family: sacred, holy, exemplary, a model of human virtues, ready to carry out God's will exactly.

A Christian home has to be an imitation of the house of Nazareth, a place where there is plenty of room for God so that he can be right at the center of the love that members of the family have for one another. We could ask ourselves, well is our home like that? Are we a home builder? Do we dedicate to it the time and attention that it deserves? From our contemplation of Our Lady as mother in the home, do we learn many things? Do we learn how to live for the others?

The contemplation of Mary as mother can yield many wonderful fruits. The Second Vatican Council says in the family, the parents, by word and example, are the first heralds of the faith with regard to their children. In the case of the Holy Family, well this was achieved in a very singular way. Jesus learned the meaning of the things around him from his parents. They would have devoutly recited the traditional prayers which were said in every Jewish home. In that house, everything that referred particularly to God had a new meaning and content.

How keenly and fervently, and with a great spirit of recollection, would Our Lord have repeated the verses of Scripture, which like all Hebrew children he would have had to learn, and mostly from his mother's lips. He would recite these prayers frequently. When we contemplate these motherly scenes, we could consider the words of St. Paul VI, recalled by John Paul II: "Do you teach your children the Christian prayers? Do you prepare them, in conjunction with the priests, for the sacraments that they receive when they are young: confession, communion, confirmation? Do you encourage them when they are sick to think of Christ suffering, to invoke the help of Our Lady and of the saints?"

St. Josemaría says if Christian homes imitate that home formed by the Holy Family, they will be bright and cheerful homes. United to Christ, said the Second Vatican Council, the family is a member of the mystical body and has been called the "domestic church." It's a community of love and faith, and has to manifest itself in all circumstances, as the Church does, as a living witness to Christ. The Christian family, it says, proclaims aloud both the present power of the Kingdom of God and the hope of the life to come. The family is the simplest and most basic form of society, the main school of the social virtues. It's the seedbed of all social life. The efforts that fathers and mothers place in their own formation has a huge knock-on effect to build up that home. Parents are called to live like great human beings, very virtuous, so the children grow up knowing what it means to be a great human being.

We could ask Our Lady, who is our mother—she's also the Mother of the Church—we could ask her that she might be the mother of the church of the home. Thanks to her motherly help, Mary, may each Christian family really become a little church in which the mystery of the Church of Christ is mirrored and given new life. May you, the Handmaid of the Lord, be an example for us of humble and generous acceptance of the will of God. John Paul II said, "May she, the sorrowful mother at the foot of the Cross, comfort the sufferings and dry the tears of those in distress because of the difficulties of their family life. May Christ the Lord, the Universal King, the King of Families, be present in every Christian home as he was at Cana, bestowing light, joy, serenity, and strength."

Those words of St. John: "From that hour, the disciple took her to his own home" (John 19:27). Mary, may we take those words very much to heart. St. John must have treated you with great refinement and great love. That's how we should deal with Our Lady on this particular day and also throughout this New Year. Mary, we ask your help for that. That we may learn how to do it better all the time. May you bring fruitfulness to all the resolutions we have for this year. May you bless all of our apostolic efforts with great fruit. May you be there, our mother, in everything we do. Just like mothers accompany their smallest children in the smallest and simplest and most insignificant moments of the day, may our mother be there with us always.

I thank you my God for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

EW