The title “Mary, Mother of the Church” reflects the deep conviction of the Christian faithful, who see in Mary not only the mother of the person of Christ, but also of the faithful. Mary had been present at the very beginnings of the Church. The Church has traditionally portrayed the Blessed Virgin Mary together with the apostles and disciples gathered at that first Pentecost, joined in prayer with the first members of the Church.
In Roman Catholic Mariology, Mother of the Church (Latin: Mater Ecclesiae) is a title officially given to Mary by Pope Paul VI. The title first appeared in the 4th century writings of Saint Ambrose of Milan, as rediscovered by Hugo Rahner. It was also used by Pope Benedict XIV in 1748 and then by Pope Leo XIII in 1885. Pope John Paul II placed it in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and Pope Francis inserted a feast by this title into the Roman Calendar on 6th June.
Pope Paul VI
The Blessed Mother of God, the New Eve, Mother of the Church, continues in heaven her maternal role with regard to Christ’s members, cooperating with the birth and growth of divine life in the souls of the redeemed. – Pope Paul VI’s “Credo of the People of God
Pope John Paul II
In 1987, John Paul repeated this title Mother of the Church in his encyclical Redemptoris Mater and at a general audience on September 17, 1997. With regard to the title “Mother of the Church”, John Paul used Redemptoris Mater as an opportunity to explain how the Blessed Virgin Mary’s maternity of Christ’s faithful derives from her maternity of Christ, as well as how Mary serves as a “type”, or model, of the Church as a whole.
“Mary is present in the Church as the Mother of Christ, and at the same time as that Mother whom Christ, in the mystery of the Redemption, gave to humanity in the person of the Apostle John. Thus, in her new motherhood in the Spirit, Mary embraces each and every one in the Church, and embraces each and every one through the Church. In this sense Mary, Mother of the Church, is also the Church’s model. Indeed, as Paul VI hopes and asks, the Church must draw “from the Virgin Mother of God the most authentic form of perfect imitation of Christ.”
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI referred to the Credo of Pope Paul VI and stated that it sums up all of the scriptural texts that relate to the matter. Pope Benedict addresses the issue, why Roman Catholic Mariology is related to ecclesiology, the teaching about the Church. On first sight, he argues, it may seem accidental, that the Council moved Mariology into ecclesiology. This relation helps to understand what “Church” really is. The theologian Hugo Rahner showed that Mariology was originally ecclesiology. The Church is like Mary. The Church is virgin and mother, she is immaculate and carries the burdens of history. She suffers and she is assumed into heaven. Slowly she learns, that Mary is her mirror, that she is a person in Mary. Mary on the other hand is not an isolated individual, who rests in herself. She is carrying the mystery of the Church
Pope Francis
In 2018, Pope Francis decreed that the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church be inserted into the Roman Calendar on the Monday after Pentecost (also known as Whit Monday) and to be celebrated every year. The decree was signed on February 11, 2018, the memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, on the 160th anniversary of the Lourdes apparitions. It was issued on March 3, 2018. Pope Francis hoped this devotion “might encourage the growth of the maternal sense of the Church in the pastors, religious and faithful.”
Mary is present in the Church as the Mother of Christ, and at the same time as that Mother whom Christ, in the mystery of the Redemption, gave to humanity in the person of the Apostle John. Mary is our mother too—Mother to the Church and mother to us personally. We need to be reminded of how Mary heard the shepherds running in from the fields with the good news that they heard the angels sing that night, and she kept these things and “pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19) We need the reminder of how Mary told the servers at a wedding in Cana, “Do whatever he tells you.” (John 2:5) We need our Mother to remind us of the magnificent mystery of our Church but also to move us into action. We honor Mary as Mother of the Church on the day after Pentecost, reminding us that Mary was present with the disciples on Pentecost. Mary prayed with the first Christian community, awaiting the gift of the Holy Spirit for all believers. Mary prayed with them as the Holy Spirit descended. And Mary, our dear Mother, continues to pray for us
-Fr. Leslie Gomes
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Mary is still today with our Church as it is charged to witness to Jesus in a culture where the presence of God is constantly being pushed back into the corners of public life and also into a position of less relevance in the lives and the hearts of many individuals. She accompanies the apostles of today in the New Evangelization.
As at Pentecost she is there with us encouraging us to be present in our secularized culture, witnessing through the integrity of our lives to the love of Jesus through works of service and of evangelization.
She sustains us to be present in that world untouched by worldliness.
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Archbishop Emeritus Diarmuid Martin D.D.

No human being makes more of a difference than Mary when it comes to helping people obtain the grace and mercy flowing from the heart of Jesus. Why? Because Mary is the New Eve. Mary truly is the New Eve who brings us to the New Adam on the new tree of life, the Cross. And once there, she lovingly encourages us not to eat forbidden fruit but to drink from the blessed fountain of eternal life, the fountain of mercy. And through the grace of her suffering at the foot of the cross, our gentle mother opens our hearts to receive the gift of salvation that comes to us in the love and mercy that flows from Christ’s pierced side. Such saving faith truly is a gift of Christ through Mary. And such a gift leads the Church to rightly declare, “Death through Eve, life through Mary.”
(Excerpt from "33 Days to Merciful Love, Fr. Michael Gaitley)

HOLY THURSDAY
At the Last Supper Jesus washed the feet of the disciples, providing them, and us, an example of humility and loving service.  Humble service to others is not common in today's self-centered society as many people do favors for another with the expectation of receiving something in return.  Genuine and selfless service is, however, the hallmark of a life of faithful discipleship.  Jesus summons us to do for others as He has done for us. 
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No one demonstrates this better than Mary. Even as the hour of His death approached, Mary's life modeled a faithful response to the Lord's call to humble service.  From the cradle to the cross, Mary never wavered in her faith.  She lives her life as a humble handmaid of the Lord. Mary is here to help us to recognize and lovingly respond to the needs of those in our lives, without expecting anything in return.       

       - from Every Day with Mary by Dr. Mary Amore

Pope Francis has asked all the bishops to pray this prayer on Friday 3/25 (The Annunciation) and our Spiritual Director Father Estabrook has asked all Legionaries in the Comitium and Curias to also pray it.


​Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Basilica of Saint Peter
25 March 2022
 O Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, in this time of trial we turn to you.  As our Mother, you love us and know us: no concern of our hearts is hidden from you.  Mother of mercy, how often we have experienced your watchful care and your peaceful presence!  You never cease to guide us to Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
 Yet we have strayed from that path of peace.  We have forgotten the lesson learned from the tragedies of the last century, the sacrifice of the millions who fell in two world wars.  We have disregarded the commitments we made as a community of nations.  We have betrayed peoples’ dreams of peace and the hopes of the young.  We grew sick with greed, we thought only of our own nations and their interests, we grew indifferent and caught up in our selfish needs and concerns.  We chose to ignore God, to be satisfied with our illusions, to grow arrogant and aggressive, to suppress innocent lives and to stockpile weapons.  We stopped being our neighbour’s keepers and stewards of our common home.  We have ravaged the garden of the earth with war and by our sins we have broken the heart of our heavenly Father, who desires us to be brothers and sisters.  We grew indifferent to everyone and everything except ourselves.  Now with shame we cry out: Forgive us, Lord!
 Holy Mother, amid the misery of our sinfulness, amid our struggles and weaknesses, amid the mystery of iniquity that is evil and war, you remind us that God never abandons us, but continues to look upon us with love, ever ready to forgive us and raise us up to new life.  He has given you to us and made your Immaculate Heart a refuge for the Church and for all humanity.  By God’s gracious will, you are ever with us; even in the most troubled moments of our history, you are there to guide us with tender love.
 We now turn to you and knock at the door of your heart.  We are your beloved children.  In every age you make yourself known to us, calling us to conversion.  At this dark hour, help us and grant us your comfort.  Say to us once more: “Am I not here, I who am your Mother?”  You are able to untie the knots of our hearts and of our times.  In you we place our trust.  We are confident that, especially in moments of trial, you will not be deaf to our supplication and will come to our aid.
 That is what you did at Cana in Galilee, when you interceded with Jesus and he worked the first of his signs.  To preserve the joy of the wedding feast, you said to him: “They have no wine” (Jn 2:3).  Now, O Mother, repeat those words and that prayer, for in our own day we have run out of the wine of hope, joy has fled, fraternity has faded.  We have forgotten our humanity and squandered the gift of peace.  We opened our hearts to violence and destructiveness.  How greatly we need your maternal help!
          Therefore, O Mother, hear our prayer.
Star of the Sea, do not let us be shipwrecked in the tempest of war.
Ark of the New Covenant, inspire projects and paths of reconciliation.
Queen of Heaven, restore God’s peace to the world.
Eliminate hatred and the thirst for revenge, and teach us forgiveness.
Free us from war, protect our world from the menace of nuclear weapons.
Queen of the Rosary, make us realize our need to pray and to love.
Queen of the Human Family, show people the path of fraternity. Queen of Peace, obtain peace for our world.
 O Mother, may your sorrowful plea stir our hardened hearts.  May the tears you shed for us make this valley parched by our hatred blossom anew.  Amid the thunder of weapons, may your prayer turn our thoughts to peace.  May your maternal touch soothe those who suffer and flee from the rain of bombs.  May your motherly embrace comfort those forced to leave their homes and their native land.  May your Sorrowful Heart move us to compassion and inspire us to open our doors and to care for our brothers and sisters who are injured and cast aside.
 Holy Mother of God, as you stood beneath the cross, Jesus, seeing the disciple at your side, said: “Behold your son” (Jn 19:26).  In this way he entrusted each of us to you.  To the disciple, and to each of us, he said: “Behold, your Mother” (v. 27).  Mother Mary, we now desire to welcome you into our lives and our history.  At this hour, a weary and distraught humanity stands with you beneath the cross, needing to entrust itself to you and, through you, to consecrate itself to Christ.  The people of Ukraine and Russia, who venerate you with great love, now turn to you, even as your heart beats with compassion for them and for all those peoples decimated by war, hunger, injustice and poverty.
 Therefore, Mother of God and our Mother, to your Immaculate Heart we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, the Church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine.  Accept this act that we carry out with confidence and love.  Grant that war may end and peace spread throughout the world.  The “Fiat” that arose from your heart opened the doors of history to the Prince of Peace.  We trust that, through your heart, peace will dawn once more.  To you we consecrate the future of the whole human family, the needs and expectations of every people, the anxieties and hopes of the world.
 Through your intercession, may God’s mercy be poured out on the earth and the gentle rhythm of peace return to mark our days.  Our Lady of the “Fiat”, on whom the Holy Spirit descended, restore among us the harmony that comes from God.  May you, our “living fountain of hope”, water the dryness of our hearts.  In your womb Jesus took flesh; help us to foster the growth of communion.  You once trod the streets of our world; lead us now on the paths of peace.  Amen. 

We will be starting regular posts here on our blog that will be reflections on our Blessed Mother and help us as Legionaries serve her, and souls we interact with as part of our Legion Work. 
 
Our Daily pursuit of Modeling Mary
 
"Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." - John 14:27
 
Mary is often referred to as the Queen of Peace.  Although Mary knew difficulty and experienced tremendous tragedy, she never lost serenity because she loves and trusts in the Lord.  
It is very easy for us to have peace when everything is going our way. But the peace that Jesus brings to us is different from what the world can bring.  His is a serenity that surpasses all our understanding and It enables us to find peace in our souls even when life is burdensome. 
Mary chose to live in God's security each day. As our heavenly mother, Mary invites us to follow her example and trust in the Lord on a daily basis. If we give our concerns and all our needs to Jesus the way Mary did, He will help us find the pathway to serenity.  Mary is there to help us walk that path.          (From "Lent and the Holy Week with Mary" by Dr. Mary Amore)

Legion Of Mary Men's Conference - This Friday 12th November - Don't Miss it!
 
Calling all Catholic Men.  The Legion of Mary is organizing a Conference especially for you. 
 
It will be streamed live from De Montfort House in Dublin, on Youtube, by Immaculata Productions
 
7pm Irish Time. (2 PM EST)