“On this first day of the year, may the Lord help us all to set out more decisively on the path of justice and peace.” Pope Francis
Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, our Lady's greatest title. This feast is the octave (eighth day) of Christmas. According to the 1962 Missal of Saint John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is also the Solemnity of Circumcision of Our Lord.And since 1967, January 1 has been designated as the World Day of Peace.
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)
A mother can be described in many ways, today I contemplate two. A woman is a man’s mother if she carried him in her womb or if she was the woman contributing half of his genetic matter. Although Mary is the Mother of God, she is not his mother in the sense that she is older than God or the source of His divinity, she is neither. She is however the Mother of God in the sense that she carried Him in her womb and contributed half of his genetic material. Today, January 1, is the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, the Theotokos, “God-bearer” declared by the council of Ephesus in 431, to which the early Church Fathers heartily agreed.
“The Virgin Mary, being obedient to his word, received from an angel the glad tidings that she would bear God” ( Against Heresies, 5:19:1, A.D. 189, Irenaeus)
“We acknowledge the resurrection of the dead, of which Jesus Christ our Lord became the firstling; he bore a body not in appearance but in truth derived from Mary the Mother of God” (Letter to All Non-Egyptian Bishops 12, A.D. 324, Peter of Alexandria)
“The Father bears witness from heaven to his son. The Holy Spirit bears witness, coming down bodily in the form of a dove. The archangel Gabriel bears witness, bringing, the good tidings to Mary. The Virgin Mother of God bears witness” ( Catechetical Lectures 10:19 A.D. 350, Cyril of Jerusalem)
“Though still a virgin she carried a child in her womb, and the handmaid and work of his wisdom became the Mother of God” (Songs of Praise 1:20, A.D. 351, Ephraim the Syrian)
“The Word begotten of the Father from on high, inexpressibly, inexplicably, incomprehensibly, and eternally, is he that is born in time here below of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God” (The Incarnation of the Word of God 8 , A.D. 365, Athanasius)
“I have been amazed that some are utterly in doubt as to whether or not the holy Virgin is able to be called the Mother of God. For if our Lord Jesus Christ is God, how should the holy Virgin who bore him not be the Mother of God?” (Letter to the Monks of Egypt 1 A.D. 427, Cyril of Alexandria)
“Therefore we confess one Christ, one Son, one Lord. According to this understanding of the unconfused union, we confess the holy Virgin to be the Mother of God because God the Word took flesh and became man and from this very conception united to himself the temple he took for her” (Formula of Union, A.D. 431, Council of Ephesus)
