Category: Mary

Women of faith and courage

5/1/2019

Mothers are often portrayed in both fictional and nonfictional literature in ways that reflect the complex demands they face in life. This literature often captures our imagination by portraying women of strength who face hardships and challenges with determination, strength, and a selfless love for the well-being of their children. This is indeed a significant part of being a mother – facing the adversities of life and preparing children to withstand them. For Catholics, the Blessed Virgin Mary is an inspiring model of both determination and joy who is not protected from the sorrow and anguish of being a mother.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) 1172 emphasizes the maternal importance of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Church which stems from her care of Jesus, her Son, by stating that the “Holy Church honors the Blessed Mary, Mother of God, with a special love. She is inseparably linked with the saving work of her Son. In her, the Church admires and exalts the most excellent fruit of redemption and joyfully contemplates, as in a faultless image that which she desires and hopes wholly to be." The Gospel of John provides the account of the moment she becomes a mother to Jesus’ disciples and thus the Church, “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son. “ Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” (John 19: 26-27) [CCC 964]

In his 1965 encyclical, Mense Maio, Pope Paul VI recognized May as the month for the Marian devotions, “May is a month which the piety of the faithful has long dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God. … For this is the month during which Christians, in their churches and their homes, offer the Virgin Mother more fervent and loving acts of homage and veneration; and it is the month in which a greater abundance of God's merciful gifts comes down to us from our Mother's throne.”

Many of our parishes are named after Mary, others offer the Rosary daily during the month of May and they could erect an altar with a statute or a picture of Mary as a reminder of this Marian month. It is a long-standing tradition to crown the statue of Mary during May to honour her faithfulness. Additionally, the Feast of Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, was instituted by Pope Francis in 2018 and is celebrated on the Monday after Pentecost. Mary’s example of trust, faith, and strength inspire us in the living of our faith.

These devotions encourage us to imitate the Blessed Virgin Mary’s virtues in our own lives and to think of the women of faith and courage who nurture and inspire us – firstly, our mothers and grandmothers. They have a vital, even irreplaceable, role in our lives. Their love, faith, courage, strength, and humility guide us through the experiences of life so that we can follow God’s call and live our lives in service to others. And then we think of the women who are maternal figures in our lives, the women who devote themselves to living an authentic and courageous witness of faith through acts of sacrificial love.

In his Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete Et Exsultate, On the Call to Holiness in Today’s World, Pope Francis writes about women of faith saying, “Within these various forms, I would stress too that the “genius of woman” is seen in feminine styles of holiness, which are an essential means of reflecting God’s holiness in this world. Indeed, in times when women tended to be most ignored or overlooked, the Holy Spirit raised up saints whose attractiveness produced new spiritual vigour and important reforms in the Church. We can mention Saint Hildegard of Bingen, Saint Bridget, Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. But I think too of all those unknown or forgotten women who, each in her own way, sustained and transformed families and communities by the power of their witness.” (GE, 12)

In this month of Marian devotion, let us pray for and honour the women in our lives and in our Faith Tradition who have “sustained and transformed families and communities by the power of their witness.” (GE, 12)

Most Rev. William T. McGrattan, Bishop of Calgary

Most Reverend W. T. McGrattan, D.D., Bishop of Calgary
May 2019

Picture: Rest on The Flight into Egypt, c. 1510 by Gerard David

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Mary, Mother of the Church

4/14/2018

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This year, on May 21st, the Church will celebrate Mary as the Mother of the Church. Pope Francis has declared that the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of the Church be inscribed in the General Roman Calendar as an obligatory memorial to be celebrated annually on the Monday after Pentecost.

The understanding of Mary as Mother of the Church is not new. The Early Church understood that Mary was not only the mother of Jesus Christ, but also mother of the Body of Christ, the Church. St. Augustine recognized Mary as the mother of the members of Christ by virtue of her cooperation in the redeeming work of our Saviour and the establishment of the Church. St. Leo the Great explained that since the birth of the Head is also the birth of the body, Mary is at once Mother of Christ and mother of the members of his Mystical Body, which is the Church.1

Mater Ecclesiae. The mosaic which overlooks St Peter’s square in Rome. Photo: John Joas.

In 1964 at the close of the third session of the Second Vatican Council, Blessed Paul VI bestowed upon Mary the title “Mother of the Church”. It is no accident that the Council chose to situate its discussion of Mary in the Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium. In chapter eight of this document the Council affirms its special love for Mary due to her role in salvation history and instructs the Church to look to Mary as an example of what it means to be a redeemed person. By meditating on Mary in light of the Word made flesh, the Church enters more intimately into the mystery of the Incarnation and becomes more like Christ. Mary is “the model of virtues”; in contemplating her holiness, imitating her charity, and in receiving the word of God in faith, the Church herself becomes a mother.2

In 1975 the Apostolic See proposed a votive Mass in honour of the Blessed Mary Mother of the Church, which has since been inserted into the Roman Missal, and is the basis of the new liturgical celebration. The Gospel passage for the Mass, from the Gospel of John 19:25 – 27, takes place at the foot of the Cross:

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

Mary is simultaneously present in the Church as the Mother of Christ and as the Mother that Christ gave to humanity in the person of the beloved disciple, John.3

Tradition holds that Mary prayed with the apostles in the upper room awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost that gave birth to the Church. The members of this Church are the Body of Christ and united with Christ their Head they share the same mother, Mary. It is fitting that Pope Francis has chosen the following day to commemorate Mary’s motherly care of the pilgrim Church on earth. The new celebration reflects a maturation of liturgical veneration of Mary that “will help us to remember that growth in the Christian life must be anchored to the Mystery of the Cross, to the oblation of Christ in the Eucharistic Banquet and to the Mother of the Redeemer and Mother of the Redeemed, the Virgin who makes her offering to God.”4

By: Simone Brosig, Ph.D | Director of Liturgy

Notes:

Robert Card. Sarah, Decree on the celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of the Church in the General Roman Calendar, prot. N. 10/18, 11 February 2018.
Lumen gentium, 64 – 65.
St. John Paul II, Redemptoris Mater, 47.
Robert Card. Sarah, Decree on the celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of the Church in the General Roman Calendar, prot. N. 10/18, 11 February 2018.

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Liturgical Calendar Information
Obligatory Memorial: Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of the Church
Monday after Pentecost – Monday May 21, 2018
Mass: Roman Missal p. 1337 (Votive Mass Our Lady, Mother of the Church)
Readings: Ritual Lectionary no. 1002.

First reading: 1002(1) or 1002(2). Genesis 3.9-15,20 or Acts 1.12-14
Psalm: 1002(3) Judith 13, 18bc, 19-20ab, R. 15.9d
Gospel: 1002(5) John 19.25-27

Colour: White

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Women of faith and courage

Mary, Mother of the Church

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