Mary, Mother of the Church

Jesus said to his mother, ‘Woman, this is your son.’ Then to the disciple he said, ‘This is your mother"

Christs last act as man on earth, was to bless us by sharing his mother with us, his disciples, telling her that we are her children. This is a two way relationship, as he also told his disciple (us) that she is our Mother. However long ago it may have been, each of us has a mother, who will remember giving birth to us, and nursing us as we grew. Those intimate human acts create a life long bond that whatever life brings to us are not able to be broken. You may well know someone who has spent a lot of time and money to locate their birth mother, such is the strength of that bond it can survive illness, family break up, all sorts of life trauma.

Christ, having given up everything else, to be humbled upon a cross for us, also gave up that relationship, establishing it as a permanent gift to everyone in his church. This is why we have the long tradition in our church of prayer to Mary the Mother of Christ, who has continued to bless us with appearances throughout history, for example Lourdes, Knock, and Walsingham. It is perhaps surprising that the name "Mary, Mother of the Church" was only formally adopted by the church on 21 November 1964, by Pope St Paul VI although he did acknowledge the long history of that relationship, which had been spoken of by St Augustine and St Leo the Great many centuries before.

Salve, Regina!