10 June 2019 - feast day of Mary, Mother of the Church - John 19:25-34

       On March 3 of last year, Pope Francis decreed that “the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church,” is to be celebrated  in the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church  on the Monday after Pentecost. Even though this is a new feast day for us, the history of this veneration has been passed down through the centuries from the period of the Early Church. Mary, Mother of the Church is reflected in the writings of St. Augustine and of St. Leo the Great, both from the early 5th century.   C. St. Augustine asserted that “Mary is the mother of the members of Christ, because with charity, she cooperated in the rebirth of the faithful into the Church.” St. Leo the Great stated that “the birth of Jesus, the head, is also the birth of the body, thus indicating that Mary is at once the Mother of Christ, the Son of God, and the mother of the members of his mystical body, which is the Church.” St Paul VI, at the conclusion of the third Session of the Second Vatican Council, declared Mary as the “Mother of the Church, that is to say (the Mother) of all Christian people, the faithful as well as the pastors, who call her the most loving Mother.” Paul VI decreed at the same time that “the Mother of God should be further honored and invoked by the entire Christian people by this tenderest of titles.” The Gospel we hear on this feast day is from the Gospel of John, in which Jesus entrusts his mother Mary to the beloved disciple.  Tradition holds that Mary and the beloved disciple traveled to Ephesus in Turkey, where Mary lived to the end of her days here on earth. As Mary was so beloved by the Early Church, she continues to be beloved by the faithful today.  As we leave the Easter season and as we enter the 10th week of Ordinary Time, Mary accompanies us today as our Mother and the Mother of the Church.