Ave Maria!

Beginning with The Wedding Feast at Cana (John 2:1) Fr. Peter Fehlner discusses with host John Primeau the connection between the Divine Motherhood of Mary and her role as Intercessor and the general importance of Parenthood in the upbringing of their children.

Ave Maria!

The post Video – Fr. Peter – Intercession of Mary, Mother of God first appeared on AirMaria.com.

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HOLY MOTHER OF GOD

MARY, you are the Mother of God because you are the Mother of Jesus Christ, the true Son of God. You could not be the Mother of His divine nature, which has existed before all time and from all eternity, but you brought forth Jesus after He had assumed human nature in you.

The Archangel Gabriel recognized this dignity of Divine Motherhood when he said, “The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee; and therefore the Holy One to be born of thee shall be called the Son 01 God” (Luke 1,35). And Elizabeth exclaimed, “And how have I deserved that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1,43)

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Since God was pleased to choose you as His Mother because of your humility, help me to be truly humble of heart, that like you, I may be pleasing to God and may deserve to be exalted in heaven. Banish all pride and vanity from my heart and let me ever seek the glory of God in all things.

MARY, to understand how great you really are as Mother of God, I would have to understand the greatness of God Himself. Your dignity surpasses that of all saints, for they are only God’s ser?vants, while you are His Mother. No. angel or saint could ever say to Jesus, “You are my Son,;’ Your dignity on that account is nearly infinite, since-you are so closely united with the infinite Good. God could not create a greater Mother than His own. Conscious of this dignity, you exclaimed, “Henceforth all gen?erations shall call me blessed” (Luke 1,49).

Sweet Mother of God, I admire your dignity, which was the greatest ever bestowed upon a human being. Each day of my life I wish to thank God for the graces and privileges He has bestowed upon you to make you what you are.

MARY, because you are the Mother of God, I can pray to you with full confidence. Jesus would hardly refuse you any request that was in keeping with God’s will, for if He grants the request of the Saints, who are only His servants, how can He refuse His own Mother whom He loves so tenderly? I am sure Jesus is pleased to have you ask Him for anything, since He wants to be generous to us for your sake. Is not this in some measure a reward for the human nature you have given him?

Mother of God, since God was pleased to choose you as His Mother, and since He was very generous to you in making you worthy of this dignity, I con?fidently hope that He will be generous to me if you pray for me. I entrust my salvation to your care. Never let me fail to invoke your intercession in all my needs, for Jesus will refuse you nothing because we both can call you “Mother.”

Fr. Lawrence Lovasik

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?Such is the ineffable union existing between Jesus and Mary: she is His Mother;? He is her Son. This union is indissoluble and as Jesus is at the same time the Son of God, come to save the world, Mary is intimately associated in this vital mystery of all Christianity. All her greatness is founded on this special privilege of her divine Motherhood.

Blessed Columba Marmion

We recall that Mary’s mediation is essentially defined by her divine motherhood. Recognition of her role as mediatrix is moreover implicit in the expression “our Mother,” which presents the doctrine of Marian mediation by putting the accent on her motherhood…. In proclaiming Christ the one mediator (cf. 1 Tim. 2:5-6), the text of St. Paul’s Letter to Timothy excludes any other parallel mediation, but not subordinate mediation. In fact, before emphasizing the one exclusive mediation of Christ, the author urges “that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all men” (2:1). Are not prayers a form of mediation? Indeed, according to St. Paul, the unique mediation of Christ is meant to encourage other dependent, ministerial forms of mediation…. In truth, what is Mary’s maternal mediation if not the Father’s gift to humanity?…Mary carries out her maternal role in constant dependence on the mediation of Christ and from him receives all that his heart wishes to give mankind.
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Pope John Paul II – Audience Oct 1, 1997

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Ave Maria!  For the first time in history, today the Virgin Mary has been celebrated as Mother of the Church in an Obligatory Memorial throughout the Universal Church.  Pope Francis took the opportunity to reflect on the parallelism between the Church’s motherhood, Mary’s motherhood, and our souls’ femininity as spouses of Christ and spiritual mothers, citing the Church Fathers.  He reminded all Christians that the first duty of any mother is tenderness.

Interestingly, St. Francis of Assisi’s first biographers, Thomas of Celano and St. Bonaventure, both described St. Francis as a mother, and friars who knew him during his life also called him “mother.”  St. Francis said that a good friar should also be a mother, and in his extraordinary tenderness, Francis went blind because of shedding so many tears of love for Christ.  His tenderness also toward the Trinity, the Virgin Mary, his fellow friars (especially those who were most vulnerable or treated him badly), and even the animals and nature is also well documented by his first biographers.

The Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, was observed for the first time on Monday; the movable feast is set for the first day following Pentecost. In his homily during Mass at the Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis said the first virtue of a mom is tenderness.

“The Church is feminine,” Pope Francis said in his homily on Monday, “she is a mother.”

When this trait is lacking, the Pope continued, the Church resembles merely “a charitable organization, or a football team”; when it is “a masculine Church,” it sadly becomes “a church of old bachelors,” “incapable of love, incapable of fruitfulness.”

That was the reflection offered by Pope Francis during the Mass celebrated in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta for the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church. The feast is being celebrated this year for the first time, after the publication in March of the decree Ecclesia Mater (“Mother Church”) by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Pope Francis himself decided the feast should be celebrated on the Monday immediately following Pentecost, in order “to encourage the growth of the maternal sense of the Church in the pastors, religious and faithful, as well as a growth of genuine Marian piety.”

Source: Pope Francis: The Church, like Mary, is woman and mother – Vatican News

The post Pope Francis: The Church, like Mary, is woman and mother – Vatican News first appeared on AirMaria.com.