Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church

Today's Mass Readings

This memorial was added to the calendar for the Monday after Pentecost at the direction of Pope Francis in 2018. As with all of the titles that honor the Blessed Virgin Mary, this one is not new. Pope St Paul VI in 1964, at the Vatican Council II promulgated the Blessed Virgin Mary as Mother of the Church (in the document, Lumen Gentium). The declaration in 1964 gave voice to a reality that the faithful had long held. All of Mary’s titles flow from the fact of Mary’s role in the unfolding of God’s plan for the redemption of the world in becoming the Mother of God.

After the Resurrection, Mary is often pictured with the eleven. Images of the imparting of tongues of fire show her with the disciples.

The Gospel recounts Jesus giving Mary to the beloved disciple, and the disciple to Mary.

Mary entrusted to John the disciple, and John, representing the church and all of us is placed under Mary’s motherly gaze.
This is the collect for today’s liturgy: O God, Father of mercies, whose Only Begotten Son, as he hung upon the Cross, chose the Blessed Virgin Mary, his Mother, to be our Mother also, grant, we pray, that with her loving help your Church may be more fruitful day by day and, exulting in the holiness of her children, may draw to her embrace all the families of the peoples.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

Reflection by Fr. Peter Ullrich, OSB