Ave Maria

Today,  January 1 is  the first day of the year 2010 in the Gregorian calendar.  More important  for us Catholics, especially to the Marian devotees,  today is the feast of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.  The feast is a holy day of obligation.

Mother of God is Mary's highest title and the source of all her other titles and roles in the Church. From all eternity, God chose the Virgin of Nazareth to be the Mother of His Son.  The feast is a celebration of Mary's motherhood of Jesus. The title “Mother of God” is a western derivation from the (Greek: Theotokos, the God-bearer). The term “Theotokos” was adopted at the Council of Ephesus as a way to assert the Divinity of Christ, from which it follows that what is predicated of Christ is predicated of God. So, if Mary is the mother of Jesus, she is the Mother of God. Therefore, the title “Mother of God” and the “Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God”, which celebrates her under this title, are at once Mariological and Christological.

This Marian feast presents an excellent opportunity for liturgical piety to encounter popular piety: the first celebrates this event in a manner proper to it; the second, when duly catechized, lends joy and happiness to the various expressions of praise offered to Our Lady on the birth of her divine Son, to deepen our understanding of many prayers, beginning with that which says: "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, sinners".

Thus, we see that the Church repeatedly points to the Blessed Mother as the model for our prayer and spiritual life.