Mary, our Mother!
SS Cyril and Methodius
Dear Family of Mary!
June 25, 2013“Dear children! With joy in the heart I love you all and call you to draw closer to my Immaculate Heart so I can draw you still closer to my Son Jesus, and that He can give you His peace and love, which are nourishment for each one of you. Open yourselves, little children, to prayer – open yourselves to my love. I am your mother and cannot leave you alone in wandering and sin. You are called, little children, to be my children, my beloved children, so I can present you all to my Son. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
Our Lady is our Mother! She is truly our Mother. And as our Mother, she calls to us through her presence in Medjugorje. Her call is life-giving, because she draws us to the source of life, her Son. We have no idea how powerful Mary’s love for us is! As she said in the June 25, 2013 message: “You are called, little children, to be my children, my beloved children, so I can present you all to my Son.”
I found this wonderful description of Our Lady’s motherly role in our salvation in the Magnificat for February, and I just can’t help but share it with you. Fr. Philipon captures the incredible reality of Mary’s motherhood for each one of us. Please read this excerpt with as much attention as you can. It will fill you with such great faith and hope:
Christ acts in his Church as priest and king. Through the offering of the holy sacrifice of the Mass, of which he is the principal priest, and through the sanctification of souls, Christ exercises his eternal priesthood in a manner that is always present and efficacious. Through his visible representatives, authorized by him, the Word Incarnate himself continues to offer the sacrifice of his Church and to administer the sacraments. It is Christ himself who baptizes, gives absolution, ordains his priests, joins his faithful in marriage, and who at the end of their life prepares them through extreme unction to pass from this life to his Father’s house in heaven.
In the communicating of grace, as everywhere else, Mary and Jesus work together. Here, as always, it is in her capacity as mother that Mary is associated with this action of her Son that reaches to the inmost being of the soul. Doubtless, her role in this respect is not priestly or sacramental, but one in keeping with her office as mother. Every mother, it should be noted, brings forth life. In fact, God in his eternal plan bestowed on Mary the office of a twofold motherhood. By her divine motherhood she brought forth God in the flesh; by her spiritual motherhood she gives birth every day to the life of God in the souls of men and women.
At the foot of the cross Mary gave us spiritual birth, having conceived us spiritually by her fiat at the Incarnation. Now in heaven she puts forth every effort to lift us up to God and to form Christ in every one of us. This mother seeks to promote only what is eternal and divine. It is not the ephemeral life of earth that she imparts, but the life that is eternal. Needless to say it is not she who baptizes, confirms, and administers the sacraments. Nevertheless it is she who brings us the life of the Blessed Trinity. To repeat, Mary like every mother is a giver of life. She works with her Son in bringing sanctifying grace to all the children of God: he as the head of the Mystical Body and as priest and mediator; she as mother, all-powerful in action, unceasingly moved and guided by the three divine Persons of the Blessed Trinity. God the Father chose her as the mother of all his adopted children; the Son Incarnate made her a partner in his entire work of redemption; and in the sanctification of souls the Holy Spirit employs her as an instrument of predilection. Accordingly, we can say in all truth that nothing comes about in the supernatural order without the mediatory action of Mary.
(From The Mother of God,by Fr. Philipon, Trans. by Rev. John A. Otto (1953)- Magnificat, February 2022, p. 163-64)
Isn’t this description of Our Lady exactly what we experience in Medjugorje!!! Our Lady truly is constantly trying “to lift us up to God and to form Christ in every one of us!” She promotes only what is eternal and divine in her messages! And she calls us to her Son, and gives us His life, through her prayer and guidance. As Fr. Philipon said: “Accordingly, we can say in all truth that nothing comes about in the supernatural order without the mediatory action of Mary.” Truly Our Lady’s mediation is necessary for our salvation!! And she is with us!!
“You are called, little children, to be my children, my beloved children, so I can present you all to my Son.”
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
