26 The Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our Mother

For College Catholics

In this episode I talk about how the fact that the Virgin Mary is indeed the Mother of God, is at the center of our Marian devotion. We also speak about the three other Marian dogmas, all of which form like the four columns of the theological doctrine related to the Virgin Mary.

Mary carried in her womb the Word made Flesh, Jesus Christ. And just as we say that our mother is “our mother” and not just “the mother of our body, but not of our soul”, even though our soul comes directly from God, in a similar way, although the Divinity existed before the Virgin Mary, because she carried Jesus in her womb, because she provided the living cells from which his body was made, we say that she is the Mother of Jesus, and therefore, the Mother of God.

The Catechism explains (#485): “The mission of the Holy Spirit is always conjoined and ordered to that of the Son. The Holy Spirit, (…) is sent to sanctify the womb of the Virgin Mary and divinely fecundate it, causing her to conceive the eternal Son of the Father in a humanity drawn from her own.”

That Mary is the Mother of God was always believed by the Church from the time of the Apostles. However, it was defined, that is stated irrevocably as a truth revealed by God, at the Council of Ephesus on the year 431 A.D.

We speak about the other privileges that God granted to the one who would become His Mother. God gave her the grace to be conceived without Original Sin in the womb of her mother St. Anne (the dogma of the “Immaculate Conception”, defined in 1854 by Pope Blessed Pius IX). God gave her the grace to be Ever Virgin, that is, she remained a virgin before, during and ever after the birth of Jesus Christ. And finally, after completing the course of her life in this world, she was assumed, by the power of God, body and soul into the Glory of Heaven (the dogma of the “Assumption of Mary”, defined in 1950, by Pope Pius XII).

The theological tradition of the Church has also called her the Mediatrix of all Graces (because God grants all the graces through the hands of the Virgin Mary), and Co-Redemptrix with Christ (because she, being only a human being, participated and cooperated as no one else in the Redemption of man performed by Jesus Christ).

- All the things we discussed in this episode can be found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, #484 through #511.

- About the archaeological discovery of the inscription “Ave Maria” on a wall from before the V Century, in the archaeological site of the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth. It shows that the devotion to the Virgin Mary existed in that specific location in Nazareth, and is dated from before the Council of Ephesus (431 A.D.): https://www.terrasanctamuseum.org/en/%CF%87%CE%B1%CE%AF%CF%81%CE%B5-%CE%BC%CE%B1%CF%81%CE%AF%CE%B1-ave-maria-the-origins-of-the-marian-cult/

- The “Sub Tuum Praesidium” is the oldest Marian prayer of which we have a written record. An Egyptian papyrus was found in 1917 that was dated back to 250-280 A.D. https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2011/02/sub-tuum-praesidium.html#.YTVrbp1Kg2w

- Fr. Patrick Wainwright is a priest of Miles Christi, a Catholic Religious Order.

- Miles Christi Religious Order website: https://www.mileschristi.org

- This Podcast’s Website: https://www.forcollegecatholics.org

- To learn about the Spiritual Exercises (silent weekend retreat), visit: https://www.mileschristi.org/spiritual-exercises/

- Recorded at our Family Center in South Lyon, Michigan.

- Intro music from pond5.com