The inner mystery of God is the mystery of a family, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our prayer life is shaped by this central mystery of our faith, as we pray to the Father, in the Son, and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
As God is a divine family, so he shares his divine life with us and brings forth a spiritual family from among the many children he has created and adopted by grace. The inner dynamism of Christian prayer, therefore, is opened to other members of the family of God. The first and preeminent of such members is the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Blessed Virgin was given to us as true mother by her son, Jesus Christ, as he died upon the cross. The Lord Jesus said to Saint John, who at that moment represented the entire Church, “Behold, your mother!” Mary is the spiritual mother of all believers. As such, she is never a barrier but always a bridge for us to encounter the Lord Jesus more deeply and to love and serve him more faithfully. Mary adds a much-needed maternal touch to our discipleship and to the work of salvation.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: “In prayer the Holy Spirit unites us to the person of the only Son, in his glorified humanity, through which and in which our filial prayer unites us in the Church with the Mother of Jesus.”
No human being loved and served the Lord Jesus as much or as devotedly as the Blessed Virgin Mary. From the moment of her conception, she was prepared to do God’s will. At the Annunciation, she ratified her vocation and gave the definitive act of faith: “May it be done until me according to your will.”
Throughout her life, she always adhered to the “yes” that she gave to the will of God. This includes standing at the foot of the cross and watching her beloved son mocked, derided, tortured, and killed.
The Catechism explains: “Mary gave her consent in faith at the Annunciation and maintained it without hesitation at the foot of the Cross.”
As the mother of the Lord, she was – and is – united to her divine son in all that he did and continues to do for humanity. There is no separation between the mother and the son. In a similar way, the Blessed Virgin Mary is united with us. She comes as mother to accompany, encourage, correct, and guide us in the way of her son.
The “yes” that Mary gave at the moment of the Annunciation did not conclude with her Assumption into heaven. It continues from generation to generation as she desires to walk with all believers and be mother to them. Mary wants to serve all the children of God just as she served the Lord Jesus. And so, in the midst of the sorrows and joys, triumphs and failures of our lives, the Blessed Virgin Mary is always with us and continually offers us her maternal embrace and support.
The Catechism describes this maternal closeness: “Ever since [the Annunciation], [Mary’s] motherhood has extended to the brothers and sisters of her Son ‘who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties.’”
The Blessed Mother is with us. As the mother of the Lord, she is also Mother of the Church. Among all the holy ones who have become members of God’s family, no one is more esteemed or venerated as Our Lady because no one has been entrusted with so precious a vocation as she has, namely, to be mother of all.
Mary takes nothing away from the Lord Jesus. She is mother and handmaid. She always points us to her divine son.
The Catechism stresses this point: “Jesus, the only mediator, is the way of our prayer; Mary, his mother and ours, is wholly transparent to him: she ‘shows the way’ (hodigitria), and is herself ‘the Sign’ of the way, according to the traditional iconography of East and West.”
Our salvation is in Jesus Christ alone. He is Lord and Savior. He is the one who shows us the face of the Father and reveals the mystery of the Holy Trinity to us. And yet, he is also the one who has given his own mother to us. And so, loving Mary and seeking her motherly help is another way of drawing close to the Lord himself. To call Mary our mother, therefore, is an act of gratitude and a sign of trust in the Lord’s plan for us and our salvation.
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