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 sixteenth invocation: Mother of the Church, pray for us.
What does it mean to call Saint Mary “Mother of the Church”? The Church is the mystical body of Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary is the Immaculate Mother of Jesus Christ, therefore she is not only the Mother of the Redeemer but Mother of the Redeemed, that is, of the Church (cf. Ephesians 1:22-23). Jesus Christ entrusted the nascent Church in the person of His beloved disciple to Mary at the foot of the Cross (cf. John 19:25-27). Our Lady was with the Apostles in the Upper Room at Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, when the Holy Spirit descended as tongues of fire (Acts 1:14). Saints Augustine (+430), Leo the Great (+461) and Isaac of Stella (+1169) all wrote about the inseparability of Saint Mary and the Church, as mother and child.
Leo XIII (+1903) called Saint Mary “Mother of the Church” in article 6 of his Encyclical Adjutricem populi(5 September, 1895). Pope Saint Paul VI (+1978) at the conclusion of the third session of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) pronounced Saint Mary to be the Mother of the Church (21 November, 1964) as well as in his Credo of the People of God (30 June, 1968) article 15. Pope Saint John Paul II (+2005) invoked Our Lady with this title repeatedly, for example in his encyclical Redemptoris Mater, 47 (25 March, 1987); ” in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992) articles 963 and 975; and in his General Audience of 17 September, 1997. The invocation “Mother of the Church” was introduced to the Litany of Loreto by Saint John Paul II in 1980. The second (1975) and third (2000) typical edition of the Roman Missal includes a votive Mass in honor of Our Lady, Mother of the Church, composed to encourage Marian devotion during the Holy Year of Reconciliation (1975). The special collection of Masses in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary (1992) includes two additional sets of Mass texts under the title of “Image and Mother of the Church.” As early as 22 April, 2005 Benedict XVI (b. 1927) invoked Our Lady’s intercession as Mother of the Church, Mater Ecclesiae, over the Cardinals and those entrusted to their care, and again on 8 November, 2009, over the people gathered in Brescia and the surrounding region before the Angelus. On 11 February, 2018 Pope Francis (b. 1936) established the Obligatory Memorial of Mary, Mother of the Church to be observed on the Monday after Pentecost each year.
Father John Arthur Orr