As we enter this season of Lent, it is worth pondering the Doctrines of the Blessed Virgin Mary who did not shy away from suffering for Christ and is known as Mother of the Church.  The reason for this is because she is the gateway for us to see the culmination of God’s healing of mankind.  She exemplifies the wholeness that was meant for us in the Garden of Eden.  While Catholics often get accused of worshiping Mary, the veneration we give to her is because of what God has done for her.  She is the pinnacle of humility, hope and holiness, so much so that she is in complete harmony with the Trinity, and it is why she is given the title Queen of Heaven. We honor her because God honors her by gifting her with His glory.   

The Doctrine of Mary’s Immaculate Conception teaches us that when the angel Gabriel greeted her as “full of grace”(Luke 1:28) this was a title, a name given to her as who she is.  One cannot be full of grace and full of sin.  After all, for the Divine to house himself in her womb, no sin could be present, or it likely would have killed her like Uzzah was killed when he touched the ark of the covenant (2 Samuel 6).  The church teaches us that Mary was saved by the grace of the cross before the cross happened, that is, she was saved at her conception.  This is known as prevenient grace.  This can happen because our God is that big. He can save outside of time.  For us, our God gave us the grace of baptism to restore us to his Kingdom.  His cross heals us and restores us to his Kingdom, whether outside of time like it was for Mary or inside of time when we each get baptized.

The church teaches that Mary is an ever-virgin, this is because her body and soul were both reserved for God alone. Joseph respected and knew this.  She is a tabernacle of God.  He was conceived in her heart before he was conceived in her womb.  Though Mary is singular in her purity, we are each called to purity of heart.  Our hearts can be purified through the reception of the Eucharist.  That is, we can have God in us physically, his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.  We go to Confession for mortal sin prior to receiving the Eucharist because we want our hearts to be pure when we receive Him.  We don’t want to be houses of duplicity, full of sin while trying to receive grace, for this cannot happen. Saint Paul tells us this will bring judgment upon us (1Corintians 11:29).  Mary had a pure heart, mind, soul and body.  She thought no evil of anyone, spoke no evil of anyone, and acted no evil towards anyone. She was and is a whole and healed human person.  We should desire this healing for ourselves.  It is why we are asked to keep the commandments because the commandments are about loving God with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind (Matthew 22:37) which enables us to love our neighbors as ourselves, something this world desperately needs.  When we do this, we conform our minds to God, and we become conformed to Christ and He is so in us that we have peace that surpasses understanding. It is peace in the middle of sorrow and suffering.

The council of Ephesus in 431 defined Mary as the Mother of God.  This is because she is the mother of one person, Jesus Christ, who has two natures, both human and divine.  Jesus is not two people and did not switch back and forth.  We honor Mary’s motherhood because the nature of mother is self-sacrificing.  A mother gives totally of herself, in both body and soul to a child.  There is nothing closer to the cross of Christ than Motherhood.  Mary, as the Mother of God deserves to be honored for the sacrifice she made in the plan of God.  Mary is known as the Sorrowful Mother as her heart was pierced with sorrow walking the Passion with her Son, seeing Him crucified and trusting in God anyway.  She believed God was good and that God would heal even if she didn’t know exactly how.  She believed God’s promises to the core of her being. She united her suffering to her Son; his power made perfect in her weakness, her docility, her humility, her trust.  She was rewarded with what is promised to all of us at the end of time, the Resurrection of the Body.

Mary’s glorious assumption is the culmination of God so alive in her that she rose to heaven Body and Soul.  The ultimate healing has already happened for her and will happen for us at the end of time if we choose Christ.  Our God is so loving and amazing He gave us her to look to and ask for intercession on our pilgrim journey on earth.  In Christ we see the triumph of the Resurrection.  In Mary we see His glory and willingness to share it. 

Though not yet doctrinal, I also believe Mary is the mediatrix of all graces. God wants His grace to flow through His creation. Make no mistake, the grace comes from God, but she, being the crowning pinnacle of creation is the conduit Christ chose to bring Himself and the grace into the world. The grace He gave her comes to us through her. This also makes her co-redemptrix as Christ the redeemer gave her a share in the Redemption of mankind. This is His Mystical Body working in harmony. It takes nothing away from God to say this, in fact it shows how much bigger He is than we think because He shares His gifts with His creation. Love commissions love.

When we pray the Hail Holy Queen we acknowledge all these things. We say of Mary that she is – our life, our sweetness, and our hope. She is all of these things. Mary is the beacon, the lighthouse that guides us to the heart of the Trinity where we have life abundantly, bitterness turned to sweetness, and steadfast hope of in the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

Mary stood at the Cross of Christ weeping but trusting.  Jesus gave her to John the Apostle; a gesture that signals he gave her to us.  He rewarded her yes to living in the will of God by making her, His creature, the crowning glory of His Creation.  I believe a New Pentecost will pour out upon us. It will come upon us as the Epoch of the Holy Spirit and His spouse Mary Immaculate. While we will see the crumbling of corruption and sin, which will seem a great suffering, we must, as Mary did, keep our eyes on Christ and be conformed into His image. It will be a great healing. O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!   

Salve Regina

Salve, Regina, mater misericordiae;
vita, dulcedo et spes nostra, salve.
Ad te clamamus, exsules filii Hevae.
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
in hac lacrimarum valle.
Eia ergo, advocata nostra,
illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte.
Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui,
nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.
O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria.

V. Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei Genitrix.
R. Ut digni efficamur promissionibus Christi.

Oremus. Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui gloriosae Virginis Matris Mariae corpus et animam, ut dignum Filii tui habitaculum effici mereretur, Spiritu Sancto cooperante, praeparasti, da, ut cuius commemoratione laetamur; eius pia intercessione, ab instantibus malis et a morte perpetua liberemur. Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.