Daily Reflections

Psalm 38:2, 3, 4, 12

O God, do not chastise me in Your anger,
for Your arrows have pierced me through.
– My body is sick because of Your indignation.

My friends and neighbours avoid me in my sickness.
– My body is sick because of Your indignation.

The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church

Pentecost/ Whit Monday (Traditional)

Originally, the feast of Pentecost brought to an end in Rome the 50 days of the Easter celebrations and introduced the fast of the Ember Days of the summer quarter. Afterwards, it became customary to continue to festivity for two more days, the Monday and the Tuesday, and, finally, after the time of Saint Leo the Great, it was extended like the Octave of Easter through the entire week. The station was at Saint Peter in Chains to avoid having two successive stations at the Vatican.

The Gospel (John 3:16-21) shows the immense contrast between God and man. God so loves the world that, in order to save it, He sacrifices His Only-begotten Son, whilst mankind repays this Supreme Love with utter ingratitude and obstinately chooses darkness rather than Light.

THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, MOTHER OF THE CHURCH

Mary’s Motherhood of the Church, her spiritual offspring, is revealed at the foot of the Cross. There, where her Divine Son, the Church’s Head, suffers Death, she takes John—and with him, all of us—as her children: “Woman, behold Thy Son.” (John 19:26) She again obeys the Word to whom she gave herself completely at the Annunciation. In clinging to her like little children, we are all the more conformed to Jesus and thus made worthy to inherit His Kingdom.

First taught by Saint Ambrose in the fourth century, the title of “Mother of the Church” for the Virgin Mary was proclaimed by Saint Paul VI on November 21, 1964, at the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council’s third session. Since that time a devotional memorial to Mary has appeared on a number of proper religious, diocesan, and national calendars. To better focus the Church’s attention on the maternal care of the Blessed Mother for the disciples of Christ throughout the ages, Pope Francis has chosen to inscribe this memorial for the universal Church.

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: “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.”

He also recounted the existing liturgical history of the celebration of Mary, Mother of the Church. In preparation for the Jubilee Year of 1975, her Votive Mass was approved in 1973 and inserted into the Missale Romanum, editio typica altera. Saint John Paul II added “Mother of the Church” to the Litany of Loreto in 1980, and during the Marian Year of 1987, a new Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary was issued, including two additional formularies for the Virgin Mary as “Image and Mother of the Church.”

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.”

From Newsletter of the Committee on Divine Worship, March 2018
© 2018, USCCB

From the Address of Pope Saint Paul VI, at the conclusion of the third session of the Second Vatican Council
(November 21, 1964: AAS 56 [1964], 1015-1016)

Mary, Mother of the Church

Taking into consideration the close ties by which Mary and the Church are bound together, to the glory of the Blessed Virgin and for our consolation, We declare Mary Most Holy to be Mother of the Church, that is, of the whole Christian people, faithful and Pastors alike, who invoke her as their most loving Mother; and we establish that by this sweetest of names the whole Christian people should henceforth give still greater honour to the Mother of God and offer her their supplications.

Venerable Brothers, this concerns a title by no means new to Christian piety; indeed the Christian faithful and the Universal Church choose to invoke Mary principally by the name of Mother. In Truth, this name belongs to the genuine nature of devotion to Mary, since it rests firmly on that very dignity with which Mary is endowed as the Mother of the Incarnate Word of God.

Just as the Divine Motherhood is the basis both for Mary’s unique relationship with Christ and for her presence in the work of human salvation accomplished by Christ Jesus, so likewise, it is principally from the Divine Motherhood that the relationships which exist between Mary and the Church flow. Mary is indeed the Mother of Christ who, at the moment He assumed human nature in her virginal womb, joined to Himself, as Head, His Mystical Body, which is the Church. Mary, therefore, as Mother of Christ, must also be regarded as Mother of all the faithful and Pastors alike, that is to say, of the Church.

Herein lies the reason why we, though unworthy and weak, yet in a spirit of trust and with ardent filial love, raise our eyes to her. She who once gave us Jesus, the Fount of Heavenly Grace, cannot fail to offer her maternal help to the Church, especially at this time in which the Spouse of Christ strives with greater zeal to fulfil her salvific mission.

These closest of bonds between our Heavenly Mother and the human race urge us, moreover, to foster and further strengthen this confidence. Even though she has been enriched with superabundant and wondrous gifts from God so as to be made worthy to be Mother of the Incarnate Word, nevertheless, Mary is very near to us. Like us, she is a child of Adam and so too our sister on account of our common human nature; she was preserved from the stain of Original Sin by reason of the future merits of Christ, but she added to these gifts received from on High the example of her own perfect Faith and so merited the proclamation in the Gospel: “Blessed are you who have believed.”

In this mortal life she embodied the perfect form of a disciple of Christ, she was the mirror of all Virtues, and in her manner of life exemplified fully those Beatitudes proclaimed by Christ Jesus. Consequently, the Universal Church, while She lives out the many facets of Her life and in Her active zeal, draws from the Virgin Mother of God the peerless example of how to imitate Christ perfectly.

Mary, Our Mother

O Mary, my Mother, our Mother, Mother of the Church, with you I will work for the salvation of all people. With you, I will overcome every difficulty and trial for the Church, the work of your Son, so that it may be one. I entrust you with my past, my present, and my future; with my sins, my desires, and my destiny as well as the destiny of those I love. As Joseph’s work was also yours, may my tasks be yours. It is in you that I live, hope, and pray without ceasing, in union with the Holy Trinity. Like you, I want to become Love, and to carry your presence everywhere so as to build an ever more beautiful world, as Jesus desires, in which people love one another and live happily and in peace.

I ask you, O Mary, to give me a heart that loves you more each day. May all people love you, follow your example, and share their pain, waiting, worries, struggles, and joys with you for the kingdom of heaven. Mary, my Mother, for all my life and for all Eternity I will thank you for being our Mother, for having given Jesus to us, for having chosen me as a priest and apostle of your heart. Mary, my Mother, my only hope, my first love, my portion, as you participated in the Sacrifice at the foot of the Cross, stay close to me each day, especially at the hour of my last sacrifice. In Paradise, receive me as the good thief, your Son, and the brother of Jesus.

Venerable Francis Xavier Nguyên Văn Thuân

Cardinal Nguyên Văn Thuân († 2002) was imprisoned by the Vietnamese government for thirteen years, during which time he secretly celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and sent prayers and spiritual writings to his flock. [From Prayers of Hope: Words of Courage, English edition. Copyright 

RESPONSORY

The Holy Ghost came down upon Mary:
– the Power of the Most High overshadowed her.

Once more it filled her, sharing in the Passion of her Son as the Mother of the redeemed:
– the Power of the Most High overshadowed her.

“The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The Tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.”

– Ven. Archbishop Fulton Sheen