Mary, the Mother of God

Feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The premier station in the epic catalog of saints named in the canon of the Mass is given to Mary most pure, ever a virgin, the seat of wisdom, the Ark of the Covenant and help of Christians, the queen of angels who was immaculately preserved from all sin and assumed body and soul into Heaven where she was “clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Apocalypse 12:1).

The daughter of Sts. Joachim and Ann, the Blessed Virgin Mary was of the house and family and David, and her coming was prophesied repeatedly in the Old Testament (Genesis 3:15; Isaias 7:1-17; Micheas 5:2-3; Jeremias 31:22). Because of her immaculate purity the angel Gabriel saluted her at the Annunciation with “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women” (Luke 1:28). So necessary is her intervention, so pervasive is her empery, that she holds dozens of patronages, and the calendar is replete with feasts in her honor. It was at her request that our Lord performed His first miracle at Cana. Just as Eve was our race’s physical mother because she is the origin of our natural life, so Mary as the new Eve became our spiritual mother because she is the origin of our supernatural life. St. Bernardine of Siena wrote, “She is the neck of Our Head by which He communicates to His mystical body all spiritual gifts.”

From Mary alone our Lord took His flesh, dwelling nine months in her womb that was a temple more splendid that Solomon’s, maturing in stature near her heart that was endowed with an unspeakable treasury of resplendent virtues. It was Mary who stood at our Lord’s feet when His own heart was pierced with a Roman lance, piercing her heart through as well with the sword of sorrow. Yet joyfully did she offer her Son with her own hands for the salvation of the world, for her sorrow was not the grief of despair, but the source of pity, of perseverance in hope, and of repentance unto salvation. To her children who remember her at her Divine Son’s sacrificial celebration she bestows strength of spirit, turns grief to wisdom, and beautifies their acts of penance so that they acquire greater merit. In Mary most holy is an example of how to unite one’s self with the perfect sacrifice offered to Almighty God upon the altar. In loving Mary, we love what God Himself loved. “Mary was the most perfect among the saints only because she was always perfectly united to the will of God” (St. Alphonsus de Ligouri).