My dear parishioners,
Peace! On the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, 7 October, 2019, Pope Francis established the feast of Our Lady of Loreto, to be observed each year on the 10th of December. At the same time Pope Francis proclaimed a Lauretan Jubilee Holy Year to run from 8 December, 2019 through 10 December, 2020. There are fifty-one invocations in the Litany of Loreto. The following is a reflection on the second invocation: Holy Mother of God, pray for us.
Saint Mary is the Mother of God (Latin: Mater Dei; Greek: Theotokos). This is the solemn teaching of the third ecumenical council of the Church which was held in Ephesus (22 June-31 July, 431). Jesus Christ is both true God and true man. While He received His human nature from Our Lady, His divine person is eternal. Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary, is not the Mother of the Father or of the Holy Spirit, only of the Eternal Son made man. The ancient doctrine perichoresis as explained by Maximus the Confessor (+662) and Saint Gregory of Nazianzus (+390) and Saint John of Damascus (+749) explicates how what happens according to the humanity of Christ (His death, His resurrection and ascension) is also true of His divinity. Because Jesus is God and Jesus was born of Mary, she is the Mother of God.
The heretical Bishop of Constantinople Nestorius would only admit that Mary is Mother of Christ or Mother of Jesus but not Mother of God. Saints throughout the ages have honored Saint Mary as Mother of God, among them Saint Ignatius of Antioch (+107), Saint Cyril of Alexandria (+ ), Saint Thomas Aquinas (+1274), Saint Bernard (+1153), Saint Bonaventure (+1274). Specifically, in the Summa Theologiae III Q. 35, A.4, Saint Thomas Aquinas addresses Mary as the Mother of God, citing Saint Cyril who was in turn cited by the Council of Ephesus: “If anyone confess not that the Emmanuel is truly God, and that for this reason the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God, since she begot of her flesh the Word of God made flesh, let him be anathema.” (The expression anathema sitor let him be accursed is taken from Saint Paul’s letter sto the 1 Corinthians 16:22; Galatians 1:8). Pope Saint Gregory the Great (+604) established seven processions imploring God’s mercy to converge on the Basilica of Saint Mary Major which commemorates Mary as Mother of God. Pope Saint Paul VI (1978) in his letter Marialis Cultus, 5, (2 February, 1974), established a liturgical feast celebrating Mary, Mother of God on 1 January each year. Of course, Christmas (25 December) also celebrates Mary’s divine motherhood.
That Saint Mary is the Mother of God is the foundation of all Mariology. The latter dogmas concerning the Blessed Virgin Mary all presuppose her divine maternity, that she is the Mother of God. Let us fly to her patronage, heeding her command, to do whatever her Son would have us do.
Father John Arthur Orr