Our Lady, Mother of the Church

When Pope Paul VI adjourned the Second Vatican Council in 1964, he proclaimed Mary Mother of the Church, noting that this understanding of Our Lady has its roots in the New Testament. The Catholic League for the Unity of Christians and Unitas are placed under the patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary with this title, since more than any other it provides an interpretatino of her place in the divine plan on which all Christians can agree. It is, therefore, the most ecumenical title for Our Lady and, furthermore, it recognises in Mary the prototype of the Church. So what we see in Mary, we ought to see in the Church: united with Christ at his incarnation, freed from sin by the power of his grace, hearing his word, obeying his will, taking the world to him in prayer, pierced to the heart and redeemed by his passion, raised to new life by his resurrection and ascension into heaven, filled with the power of his Holy Spirit. In his exhortation, Marialis Cultus, Pope Paul put it thus:

The Catholic Church, endowed with centuries of experience, recognises in devotion to the Blessed Virgin a powerful aid for man as he strives for fulfilment. Mary, the New Woman, stands at the side of Christ, the New Man, within whose mystery the mystery if man alone finds true light; she is given to us as a pledge and guarantee that God's plan in Christ for the salvation of the whole man has already achieved realisation in a creature: in her. Contemplated in the episodes of the Gospels and in the reality, which she already possesses in the City of God, the Blessed Virgin Mary offers a calm vision and a reassuring word to modern man. She shows forth the victory of hope over anguish, of fellowship over solitude, of peace over anxiety, of joy and beauty over boredom and disgust, of eternal vision over earthly ones, of life over death.



Prayer

Father of mercies,
your only Son, hanging on the Cross,
gave us his Virgin Mother Mary to be our Mother also.

Under her loving care
may her children grow daily in holiness,
so that all humanity may see in your Church
the mother of all nations.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.