Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church



“Then He [Jesus] said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home...” (John 19:27.)

Saint Gregory the Great comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

“The virgin mother, when wine was lacking, wanted Jesus to do a miracle. She was at once answered, “Woman, what have I to do with you?” as if to say plainly, The fact that I can do a miracle comes to me from my Father, not my mother. For it was from the nature of his Father that he could do miracles but from the nature of his mother that he could die. When he was on the cross, then, in dying he acknowledged his mother whom he commended to the disciple, saying, “Behold your mother.” And so, when he says, “Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour is not yet come,”26 he is in effect saying, In the miracle, which I did not from your nature, I do not acknowledge you. When the hour of death shall come, however, I shall acknowledge you as my mother, since it is from you that I can die.” (Letter 10)



Collect
O God, Father of mercies,
Whose Only Begotten Son,
as He hung upon the Cross,
chose the Blessed Virgin Mary, His Mother,
to be our Mother also,
grant, we pray,
that with her loving help
Your Church may be more fruitful day by day
and, exulting in the holiness of her children,
may draw to her embrace
all the families of the peoples.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.


Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen