Mary, Mother of the Church
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| Mary, Mother of the Church of Novaliches, Quezon City |
The Blessed Virgin Mary is known in numerous titles based from her acts, virtues, offices, sobriquets (named after an apparition site or a specific devotion) that stems back from the early years of Christianity. One of these well known title is "Mother of the Church" and this is one of the recent feasts that Our Holy Father Pope Francis instituted in 2018. So what does this title mean to us faithful Catholics and was there an existing devotion in our country?
For this blog post, we are going to tackle on this seemingly new yet ancient title of the Blessed Virgin Mary and it's importance in our times.
The iconography
The origin of the title
The devotion in the Philippines
The devotion to Mary, Mother of the Church is somehow relatively new in the Philippines since there at least 2 parishes in the country under this Marian title, one in BF Resort Homes in Las Piñas City, established in 1979 and a few decades later in Novaliches, Quezon City in 2005. These two parishes have nurtured the devotion to Mary as the Mother of the Church as it helped the communities to understand her role in the Church, the community of God.
Cardinal Sarah’s commentary reminds the followers of Christ that “if we want to grow and to be filled with the love of God, it is necessary to plant our life firmly on three great realities: the Cross, the Eucharist, and the Mother of God. These are three mysteries that God gave to the world in order to structure, fructify, and sanctify our interior life and lead us to Jesus.”
The Blessed Virgin Mary’s entire life is a model for the Church. Her life was lived in imitation of her Son’s life. Mary was Jesus’ first and most perfect disciple. She always acted faithfully and courageously and dedicated her life to doing God’s will. Her deep faith and love for God offer the Church the most fitting example of how to bring Christ into the world and how to trust always in the Lord’s protection and guidance.
In these times, let us turn to our Blessed Mother on this special day and rejoice in her loving example and motherly care. Let us offer her our sincere prayers for her intercession and heavenly aid, both for ourselves and for the Church.
Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us!
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| The Schutzmantel Madonna |
There wasn't a specific iconography of the Blesssed Virigin Mary under this specific title yet there already numerous kinds of depictions of the Blessed Mother as "Mother of the Church". One of the most ancient was the Schutzmantel Madonna where it became popular during the Middle ages where it depicts the Blessed Mother (sometimes with the Child Jesus) spreading her mantle and beneath her large mantle where the faithful from Popes, clergymen, nuns and the faithful are covered by the mantle of protection of the Mother of God.
As the centuries goes by, new depictions of Mary as Mother of the Church were created where the Blessed Mother either holds a Church or hovers over them and arguably the most famous was the mossaic in the Vatican commissioned by St. John Paul II in the early years of his Pontificate which bears his motto "Totus Tuus" (I am yours).
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| A French prayer card depicting Mater Ecclesiae hovering St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. |
The title “Mother of the Church” has its roots on Calvary as Jesus, hanging on His cross, gave Mary to the beloved disciple as his own mother (John 19:27). This beloved disciple has traditionally been viewed as personifying all disciples of Christ, i.e. the Church. Further, the Acts of the Apostles places Mary in the upper room with the apostles on the day of Pentecost when the descent of the Holy Spirit gave birth to the Church.
St. Ambrose of Milan in the 4th century was the first to use this title for Mary. His protégé, St. Augustine, wrote, “She (Mary) is the mother of the members of Christ because she cooperated by her charity, so that faithful Christians, members of the Head (Christ), might be born into the Church.” In the 5th century, St. Leo the Great, in one of his Christmas sermons, wrote, “The birth of the Head is also the birth of the body,” explaining that Mary, as Mother of the Son of God, is also mother of the members of his Mystical Body, the Church.
Pope St. Paul VI, who had been a successor of St. Ambrose as archbishop of Milan, officially gave Mary this title as he closed the third session of the Second Vatican Council on November 21, 1964. He declared: "For the glory of the Virgin and our consolation, we proclaim Mary the Most Holy Mother of the Church; that is, the Mother of the whole People of God, both the faithful and the pastors." He also added a votive Mass of Mary, Mother of the Church, to the Roman Missal in preparation for the Jubilee Year of 1975, her Votive Mass was approved in 1973 and inserted into the Missale Romanum, editio typica altera. Since that time a devotional memorial to Mary has appeared on a number of proper religious, diocesan, and national calendars. This act was done to better focus the Church’s attention on the maternal care of the Blessed Mother for the disciples of Christ throughout the ages.
Pope St. John Paul II also had great appreciation for this title, using it in his 1987 encyclical Redemptoris Mater. He wrote:
“Mary is present in the Church as the Mother of Christ, and at the same time as that Mother whom Christ, in the mystery of the Redemption, gave to humanity in the person of the Apostle John. Thus, in her new motherhood in the Spirit, Mary embraces each and every one in the Church, and embraces each and every one through the Church. In this sense Mary, Mother of the Church, is also the Church's model. Indeed, as Paul VI hopes and asks, the Church must draw ‘from the Virgin Mother of God the most authentic form of perfect imitation of Christ.’”
St. John Paul II would also add this title to the Litany of Loreto in 1980, then installed a mosaic of Mater Ecclesiae (Mother of the Church) in St. Peter’s Square and found a monastery in the Vatican with this title. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who currently lives in this monastery, wrote of this title, “The Church is virgin and mother; she is immaculate and carries the burdens of history. She suffers and she is assumed into heaven. Slowly she learns, that Mary is her mirror, that she is a person in Mary. Mary on the other hand is not an isolated individual, who rests in herself. She is carrying the mystery of the Church.” Most recently, Pope Francis decreed in 2018 that the obligatory memorial of Mary, Mother of the Church, be added to the liturgical calendar and celebrated each year on the Monday after Pentecost.
In Popular devotion, the title "Mother of the Church" is often associated to an alleged apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary as "Rosa Mystica" to Pierina Guili that took place from 1947 - 1966 where she gave messages regarding the fate of the Church during and after the Second Vatican Council, especially to priests and religious. The said reported apparition also encourages the devotion to the Virgin as "Mother of Church" to help and protect the Church in these times. The devotion to Mary as "Rosa Mystica" has been approved and the apparition site was declared a Diocesan Marian Sanctuary in 2019, however, the supernatural origin of the events is still under investigation as of this writing.
St. Ambrose of Milan in the 4th century was the first to use this title for Mary. His protégé, St. Augustine, wrote, “She (Mary) is the mother of the members of Christ because she cooperated by her charity, so that faithful Christians, members of the Head (Christ), might be born into the Church.” In the 5th century, St. Leo the Great, in one of his Christmas sermons, wrote, “The birth of the Head is also the birth of the body,” explaining that Mary, as Mother of the Son of God, is also mother of the members of his Mystical Body, the Church.
Pope St. Paul VI, who had been a successor of St. Ambrose as archbishop of Milan, officially gave Mary this title as he closed the third session of the Second Vatican Council on November 21, 1964. He declared: "For the glory of the Virgin and our consolation, we proclaim Mary the Most Holy Mother of the Church; that is, the Mother of the whole People of God, both the faithful and the pastors." He also added a votive Mass of Mary, Mother of the Church, to the Roman Missal in preparation for the Jubilee Year of 1975, her Votive Mass was approved in 1973 and inserted into the Missale Romanum, editio typica altera. Since that time a devotional memorial to Mary has appeared on a number of proper religious, diocesan, and national calendars. This act was done to better focus the Church’s attention on the maternal care of the Blessed Mother for the disciples of Christ throughout the ages.
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| "Mater Ecclesiae" commissioned by St. Jo |
“Mary is present in the Church as the Mother of Christ, and at the same time as that Mother whom Christ, in the mystery of the Redemption, gave to humanity in the person of the Apostle John. Thus, in her new motherhood in the Spirit, Mary embraces each and every one in the Church, and embraces each and every one through the Church. In this sense Mary, Mother of the Church, is also the Church's model. Indeed, as Paul VI hopes and asks, the Church must draw ‘from the Virgin Mother of God the most authentic form of perfect imitation of Christ.’”
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| Maria, Rosa Mystica based from the supposed apparitions of Pierina Guili |
In Popular devotion, the title "Mother of the Church" is often associated to an alleged apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary as "Rosa Mystica" to Pierina Guili that took place from 1947 - 1966 where she gave messages regarding the fate of the Church during and after the Second Vatican Council, especially to priests and religious. The said reported apparition also encourages the devotion to the Virgin as "Mother of Church" to help and protect the Church in these times. The devotion to Mary as "Rosa Mystica" has been approved and the apparition site was declared a Diocesan Marian Sanctuary in 2019, however, the supernatural origin of the events is still under investigation as of this writing.
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| Mary, Mother of the Church of Las Piñas City |
The devotion to Mary, Mother of the Church is somehow relatively new in the Philippines since there at least 2 parishes in the country under this Marian title, one in BF Resort Homes in Las Piñas City, established in 1979 and a few decades later in Novaliches, Quezon City in 2005. These two parishes have nurtured the devotion to Mary as the Mother of the Church as it helped the communities to understand her role in the Church, the community of God.
The importance of the title
Robert Cardinal Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, provided some spiritual reflections in a commentary accompanying the decree of instituting the feast of Mary as "Mater Ecclesiae" : “The water and blood which flowed from the heart of Christ on the Cross as a sign of the totality of his redemptive offering, continue to give life to the Church sacramentally through Baptism and the Eucharist. In this wonderful communion between the Redeemer and the redeemed, which always needs to be nourished, Blessed Mary has her maternal mission to carry out.”
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| Mary, Mother of the Church of Novaliches, Quezon City |
The Blessed Virgin Mary’s entire life is a model for the Church. Her life was lived in imitation of her Son’s life. Mary was Jesus’ first and most perfect disciple. She always acted faithfully and courageously and dedicated her life to doing God’s will. Her deep faith and love for God offer the Church the most fitting example of how to bring Christ into the world and how to trust always in the Lord’s protection and guidance.
In these times, let us turn to our Blessed Mother on this special day and rejoice in her loving example and motherly care. Let us offer her our sincere prayers for her intercession and heavenly aid, both for ourselves and for the Church.
Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us!
References:
Benedict XVI, "Mary: The Church at the Source", Adrian Walker and Hans Urs Von Balthasar, 2005.
"Mary, Mother of the Church", Newsletter of the Committee on Divine Worship, Vatican City, March 2018
Mauriello, Matthew, "Mary, Mother of the Church", Fairfield County Catholic, January 1996.
Photos:
Atanacio, Jovi
Mary, Mother of the Church Parish Facebook page
Special thanks to Mr. Jovi Atanacio and Mary, Mother of the Church Parish in Quezon City for the photographs used in this blog post.
+AM+DG+
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