Thoughts of Mary – 19 May – Mother of the Church

Thoughts of Mary – 19 May – “Mary’s Month”

Mother of the Church
Moments with Saint Pope John XXIII (1881-1963)

“Mary is with us, among us, she protects and helps us, she leads us along a sure road.
More than once the Pope has heard the wistful cry of some souls – among those brothers of ours who, since the beginning of the sixteenth century, have been cut off from the unity of the Church – who exclaim with profound sadness:  is it possible not to love one’s own mother?
And, yet, some of them have managed to forget her altogether, or at least to keep her at a distance … alas! in certain families, in which the mother, when advanced in years, is borne with, as a burden, instead of still being cherished with loving care.

We, however, by the grace of God, honour Mary as Mother of Jesus and Mother of the Catholic Church.
She, not only receives the homage of an exquisite art, which testifies to her in every place but the ever fervent, beautiful and profound veneration felt for one who never, for a moment, fails in her motherly care.

Let us always share in the sorrows of Mary, when we see her beside the Cross of Jesus.
Let us pour out our hearts to her in the saddest moments of our life, remembering the first announcement of God’s angel made to the most holy Virgin:  “The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary and she conceived by the Holy Ghost,” which is like a synthesis of the whole story of the Incarnation of the Word and the Redemption brought by the Son of God, the glory, which, here below, is the beginning of the eternal glory of Paradise.”