Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of God

Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Mother of God

World Day of Peace

January 1

On this day, the birth of a new year, let us pray for a world renewed
in the peace of God through the intercession of Mary, the Mother of God.
Jesus, Son of Mary and Son of God, let your face shine
 upon us and be gracious to us. 

Today’s feast the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary commemorates the Catholic belief that Mary is the Mother of God. This Catholic Dogma originates in the Bible passage from the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke.

After the archangel Gabriel spoke to Mary telling her that she would conceive in her womb and bear a son by the power of the Holy Spirit, Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Elizabeth greeted Mary with the words, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me that the mother of my Lord would come to me?” (Luke 1:42-43) In this passage, Elizabeth, inspired by the Holy Spirit proclaimed Mary to be “the mother of my Lord,” and Jesus in the womb, she proclamed blessed and Lord.

At the Council of Ephesus in 431, the title Mother of God was given to Mary. In the Greek the term is Theotokos which translates to Birthgiver of God. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 affirmed the Divine Motherhood of Mary as an official doctrine of the Catholic Church.

“Called in the Gospels “the mother of Jesus,” Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as “the mother of my Lord.” (Luke 1:43) In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father’s eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity. Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly “Mother of God” Theotokos.” (Council of Ephesus 431, Council of Chalcedon 451, Catechism of the Catholic Church 495, 467)

“Because she gives us Jesus, her son, Mary is Mother of God and our mother; we can entrust all our cares and petitions to her: she prays for us as she prayed for herself: “Let it be to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38) By entrusting ourselves to her prayer, we abandon ourselves to the will of God together with her: “Thy will be done.”” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2677)

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Art
Madonna and Child - Marianne Stokes
Theotokos Our Lady of the Sign - Russian Icon
Mary with Lamb and Jesus - Innocence - Bourguereau