Theotokos

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and the hour of our death. Amen.

We affirm the truth, proclaimed solemnly at the Council of Ephesus in the year 431 A.D., that the Blessed Virgin Mary is the Mother of God every time we pray the Ave Maria, the Hail Mary.

The heretic Nestorius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, taught, contrary to the Council of Nicea, that the two natures in the one Person Jesus Christ were distinct from each other, not two natures hypostatically united in Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, thereby making Our Lady the Mother of only His human nature. Nestorius preached openly against the truth that Our Lady is indeed the Mother of God.

Although there are variations on this heresy, suffice it to say that the devil has used Protestantism and its multitudinous sects as "vessels of election," if you will, to propagate the heresy that Our Lady is not the Mother of God, thereby making it more possible to denigrate her role in our salvation and the legitimacy of our devotion her as the Mother of God and as Queen of Heaven and of earth.

Make no mistake about it, ladies and gentlemen: Protestantism is from the devil, who inspired a prideful, lustful Augustinian monk, Martin Luther, steeped in guilt over his sins and despairing of the efficacy of the graces made available to him in the Sacrament of Penance to overcome his sins, to deny that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ had established a visible, hierarchical Church upon the Rock of Peter, the Pope, that alone was the means by which men are to be instructed in the truths of the Holy Faith and the sole means by which the souls of men are to be sanctified until the end of time. The devil used all of the permutations that have flowed from Father Martin Luther's apostasy to create a veritable cottage industry in the over 33,000 different Protestant sects that have arisen in the past 492 years to disparage the role Our Lady played in the salvation of mankind and to portray her as nothing other than another "sinner" who had all of the faults and weaknesses of any other human being.

Attacks upon the Divine Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary are of the essence of Protestantism, which is why we must defend the Divine Maternity of Our Lady with all of the vigor that Our Lord can send us through the loving hands of His Most Blessed Mother, she who is the Mediatrix of All Graces.

Today's feast in honor of the Divine Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary that was denied by Nestorius nearly sixteen hundred years ago now and is under attack daily by Protestants was instituted by Pope Pius XI in an encyclical letter, Lux Veritatis, December 25, 1931, commemorating the one thousand five hundredth year anniversary of the Council of Ephesus, which, in the very Cathedral of the Theotokos (also rendered Theotocos) that Our Lady is indeed the Mother of God.

Pope Pius XI explained the importance of the proclamation of Our Lady as the Mother of God by the Council of Ephesus, explaining that she has been given to us by her Divine Son to be our Blessed Mother, Who earnestly desires the unconditional conversion to the Catholic Church of the Protestants who attack her Divine Maternity that honor that is her due as the Mother of God:

Now from this head of Catholic doctrine upon which We have touched hitherto, there follows of necessity the dogma of the divine maternity which We preach as belonging to the Blessed Virgin Mary. "Not that the nature of the Word or His Godhead"-as Cyril admonishes us-"took the source of its origin from the holy Virgin; but because He derived from her that sacred body, perfected by an intellectual soul, whereto the Word of God was hypostatically united, and therefore is said to be born according to the flesh." (Mansi, I.c. IV. 891.)

And, indeed, if the Son of the Blessed Virgin Mary is God, assuredly she who bore him is rightly and deservedly to be called the Mother of God. If there is only one person in Christ, and this is Divine, without any doubt Mary ought to be called, by all, not the mother of Christ the man only, but Theotocos, or God-bearer. Let us all, therefore, venerate the tender Mother of God, whom her cousin Elizabeth saluted as "the Mother of my Lord" (Luke i. 43), who, in the words of Ignatius Martyr, brought forth God (Ad Ephes. vii. 18-20); and from whom, as Tertullian professes, God was born; whom the Eternal Godhead has gifted with the fulness of grace and endowed with such great dignity.

Nor can anyone reject this truth, handed down from the first age of the Church, on the pretext that the Blessed Virgin Mary did, indeed, supply the body of Jesus Christ, but did not produce the Word of the Heavenly Father; since, as Cyril already rightly and lucidly answered in his time (cf. Mansi, I.c. IV. 599), even as those in whose womb our earthly nature, not our soul is procreated, are rightly and truly called our mothers; so did she, from the unity of her Son's person, attain to divine maternity.

Wherefore, the impious opinion of Nestorius, which the Roman Pontiff, led by the Holy Ghost, had condemned in the preceding year, was deservedly and solemnly condemned again by the Synod of Ephesus. And the populace of Ephesus were drawn to the Virgin Mother of God with such great piety, and burning with such ardent love, that when they understood the judgment passed by the Fathers of the Council, they hailed them with overflowing gladness of heart, and gathering round them in a body, bearing lighted torches in their hands, accompanied them home. And assuredly, the same great Mother of God looked down from heaven on this spectacle, and smiling sweetly on these her children of Ephesus, and on all the faithful Christians throughout the Catholic world, who had been disturbed by the snares of the Nestorian heresy, embraced them with her most present aid and her motherly affection.

From this dogma of the divine maternity, as from the outpouring of a hidden spring, flow forth the singular grace of Mary and her dignity, which is the highest after God. Nay more, as Aquinas says admirably: "The Blessed Virgin, from this that she is the Mother of God, has a certain infinite dignity, from the infinite good which is God." (Summ. Theo., III. a.6.) Cornelius a Lapide unfolds this and explains it more fully, in these words: "The Blessed Virgin is the Mother of God; therefore she is far more excellent than all the Angels, even the Seraphim and Cherubim. She is the Mother of God; therefore she is most pure and most holy, so that under God no greater purity can be imagined. She is the Mother of God; therefore whatever privilege (in the order of sanctifying grace) has been granted to any one of the Saints, she obtains it more than all" (In Matt. i. 6).

Why, therefore, do the Reformers (Novatores) and not a few nonCatholics bitterly condemn our piety towards the Virgin Mother of God, as though we were withdrawing the worship due to God alone? Do they not know, or do they not attentively consider that nothing can be more pleasing to Jesus Christ, who certainly has an ardent love for his own Mother, than that we should venerate her as she deserves, that we should return her love, and that imitating her most holy example we should seek to gain her powerful patronage?

Here, however, We would not omit to mention a matter which has given Us no little consolation, namely that in the present time, even among the Reformers, some understand the dignity of the Virgin Mother of God better, and are led and moved to reverence her duly, and hold her in honour. This, when it comes from the inward and sincere conscience, and is not as sometimes happens effected to conciliate the minds of Catholics, bids Us hope that by the prayers and efforts of all the good, and by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, who cherishes a mother's love for her erring children, they may at length be brought back to the one true flock of Jesus Christ, and therefore to Us who, though unworthily, hold His place and His authority on earth.

But there is another matter, Venerable Brethren, which We think We should recall in regard to Mary's office of Maternity, something which is sweeter and more pleasing; namely that she, because she brought forth the Redeemer of mankind, is also in a manner the most tender mother of us all, whom Christ our Lord deigned to have as His brothers (Romans viii. 29). As Our predecessor of happy memory, Leo XIII, says: "Such a one God has given as one to whom by the very fact that He chose her as the Mother of His only begotten Son, He clearly gave the feelings of a mother, breathing nothing but love and pardon-such did Jesus Christ show her to be, by His own action, when He spontaneously chose to be under her, and submit to her as a son to a mother; such did He declare her to be, when, from the Cross, He committed all mankind, in the person of His disciple John, to her care and protection; and as such, lastly, she gave herself, when embracing with a great heart, this heritage of immense labour from her dying Son, she began at once to fulfil all a mother's duties to us all." (Encyclical Letter Octobri mense adveniente. September 21, 1892.) From this it comes that we are all drawn to her by a powerful attraction, that we may confidently entrust to her all things that are ours-namely our joys, if we are gladdened; our troubles, if we are in anguish; our hopes, if we are striving to reach at length to better things. From this it comes that if more difficult times fall upon the Church; if faith fail, if charity have grown cold, if private and public morals take a turn for the worse; if any danger be hanging over the Catholic name and civil society, we all take refuge with her, imploring heavenly aid. From this it comes lastly that in the supreme crisis of death, when no other hope is given, no other help, we lift up to her our tearful eyes and our trembling hands, praying through her for pardon from her Son, and for eternal happiness in heaven.

Let all, therefore, with more ardent zeal in the present necessities with which we are afflicted, go to her and beseech her with instant supplication "that, through her prayers to her Son, the erring nations may return to the Christian institutions and precepts, which are the firm support of public safety, and from which arises an abundance of much desired peace and of true happiness. Let them implore of her the more earnestly, what ought to be desired above all things by all the good, namely that the Church our mother may gain and tranquilly enjoy her liberty; which she always uses for the best advantage of men, and from which individuals and states have never suffered any losses, but have at all times experienced very many and very great benefits." (From the aforesaid Encyclical Letter.)

But one thing in particular, and that indeed one of great importance, We specially desire that all should implore, under the auspices of the heavenly Queen. That is to say, that she who is loved and worshipped with such ardent piety by the separated peoples of the East would not suffer them to wander and be unhappily ever led away from the unity of the Church, and therefore from her Son, whose Vicar on earth We are. May they return to the common Father, whose judgment all the Fathers of the Synod of Ephesus most dutifully received, and whom they all saluted, with concordant acclamations, as "the guardian of the faith"; may they all turn to Us, who have indeed a fatherly affection for them all, and who gladly make Our own those most loving words which Cyril used, when he earnestly exhorted Nestorius that "the peace of the Churches may be preserved, and that the bond of love and of concord among the priests of God may remain indissoluble." (Mansi, I.c. IV. 891.)

And would that that most happy day might speedily dawn upon us when the Virgin Mother of God, who is admirably depicted in the tessellated work of Our predecessor, Sixtus III, in the Liberian Basilica-which We Ourselves have had restored to its pristine beauty-may see all the sons separated from Us returning, that they may venerate her along with Us with one mind and with one faith. This will assuredly be for Us a source of the very greatest pleasure.

Moreover, We may well regard it as a happy omen, that it has fallen to Us to celebrate this fifteenth centenary: to Us, We say, who have defended the dignity and the sanctity of chaste wedlock against the encroaching fallacies of every kind (Encyclical Letter, Casti connubii, December 21, 1930), and who have both solemnly vindicated the sacred rights of the Catholic Church over the education of youth, and have declared and explained the manner in which it should be given, and the principles to which it should be conformed. (Encyclical Letter, Divini Illius Magistri, December 21, 1929.) For the precepts which We have set forth, concerning both these matters, have in the office of the divine maternity, and in the family of Nazareth, an excellent example proposed for the imitation of all. As Our predecessor, Leo XIII of happy memory, says: "Fathers of families indeed have in Joseph a glorious pattern of vigilance and paternal prudence; mothers have in the most holy Virgin Mother of God a remarkable example of love and modesty and submission of mind, and of perfect faith; but the children of a family have in Jesus, who was subject to them, a divine model of obedience, which they may admire, and worship and imitate." (Apostolic Letter, Neminem fugit, January 14, 1882.)

But in a more special manner it is fitting that those mothers of this our age, who being weary, whether of offspring or of the marriage bond, have the office they have undertaken degraded and neglected, may look up to Mary and meditate intently on her who has raised this grave duty of motherhood to such high nobility. For in this way there is hope that they may be led, by the help of grace of the heavenly Queen, to feel shame for the dishonour done to the great sacrament of matrimony, and may happily be stirred up to follow after the wondrous praise of her virtues, by every effort in their power.

If all these things prosper according to Our purpose, that is to say if the life of the family, the beginning and the foundation of all human society, is recalled to this most worthy model of holiness, without doubt We shall at length be able to meet the formidable crisis of evils confronting Us, with an effective remedy. In this way, it will come to pass that "the peace of God which passeth all understanding" may "keep the hearts and minds" of all (Phil. iv. 7), and that the much desired Kingdom of Christ, minds and forces being joined together, may be everywhere established.

We will not close this Encyclical Letter, Venerable Brethren, without mentioning a matter which will surely be pleasing to you all. Desiring that there may be a liturgical monument of this commemoration, which may help to nourish the piety of clergy and people towards the great Mother of God, We have commanded Our supreme council presiding over Sacred Rites to publish an Office and Mass of the Divine Maternity, which is to be celebrated by the universal Church. And, meanwhile, as an earnest of heavenly gifts, and a pledge of Our paternal affection, We impart the Apostolic Benediction, very lovingly in the Lord, to you, Venerable Brethren, one and all, and to your clergy and people. (Pope Pius XI, Lux Veritatis, December 25, 1531.)

Isn't this a wonderful plea to invoke the intercession of the Mother of God for the return of non-Catholics to the true Church, outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no true social order? There is no ambiguity in Lux Veritatis. Pope Pius XI was calling upon us to pray to Our Lady for the unconditional return of the Protestants and the Orthodox to the true Church. This stands, of course, as quite a contrast to the words of the conciliar "popes," including the now retired Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, who has specifically and categorically rejected what he called disparagingly as the "ecumenism of the return" (see Ratzinger's War Against Catholicism), and, of course, by Jorge Mario Bergoglio/Francis, who has told Catholics that they are not to seek to convert non-Catholics to the Catholic Faith and has constantly inveighed against what he disparages as "proselytism" (see Francis The Insane Dreamer, Rebel And Miscreant, Francis Really, Really Means It, Boys And Girls and, among others, Nothing Random About This, part one, Nothing Random About This, part two and Nothing Random About This, part three).

As alluded to by Pope Pius XI in Lux Veritatis, throngs of the faithful gathered outside of the Cathedral of the Theotokos in Ephesus 1,882 years ago to pray for the anathematizing of the blasphemous heresy of Nestorius about the All-Holy, Ever-Virginal Mother of God, Our Lady. They prayed and they chanted and they sung. It is certainly the case that the prayers and the chants and the songs of the lay faithful who gathered outside of the very cathedral where the bishops of the world were meeting under the inspiration of God the Holy Ghost were used by the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity to prompt at least a few of the assembled bishops to condemn Nestorius and to reaffirm the dogmatic truth that the Blessed Virgin Mary is indeed the Mother of God. Some of those assembled bishops might have feared for their very lives if they dared to uphold Nestorius, proving once again that a little Catholic action on the part of the laity, founded in prayer to the Mother of God, can certainly help our true bishops in times of apostasy and betrayal to see the truth and speak accordingly.

How sad it is, however, that one of the rotten fruit of the ethos of conciliarism is an utter indifference to the holding of right doctrine as a precondition to being pleasing in the sight of the true God of Revelation. Indifference to or acceptance of heresy and/or apostasy characterizes the attitude of the lion's share of Catholics in the United States of America and throughout the world. The growing indifference to or acceptance of heresy and/or apostasy in the middle of the Nineteenth Century was discussed by Father Frederick Faber in his meditation on the Sixth Dolor of Our Lady (the Pieta) in his The Dolors of Mary/The Foot of the Cross (see Our Mother of Sorrows). What was a trend in the Nineteenth Century is now an epidemic as so few Catholics, steeped in the sentimentality of a naturalistic world and the apostasies of concilairism, react with appropriate outrage where offenses are committed publicly against the honor and glory and majesty of the Most Blessed Trinity and against the Immaculate Conception herself, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God.

Very few Catholics, for example, were outraged seven  years ago with The Nativity Story when it premiered in the Paul VI Audience Hall in Vatican City on November 26, 2006, with the full blessing of the then reigning universal public face of apostasy, Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. This motion picture, produced by Protestants, portrayed Our Lady as a sulky, moody and rebellious teenager, thereby denying the doctrinal effects of her Immaculate Conception. Our Lady had the perfect Integrity of body and soul as a result of her Immaculate Conception. Our Lady could never be moody or sulky as she was filled with grace from the first moment of conception in the womb of her mother, Good Saint Anne. The Nativity Story was also an attack upon Our Lady's Divine Maternity (see Easy for Blasphemers to Endorse Blasphemy, Preserved from All Sin, Filled with All Grace and Conciliarism's Blindness Inducing Acid).

Very few Catholics were at all outraged that the attacks contained in the Protestant film The Nativity Story upon the Catholic Church's Marian dogmas had been endorsed by Ratzinger/Benedict, who was so very sanguine about theological errors (see Si, Si, No, No, article on Cardinal Ratzinger). This attitude is far, far removed from the love for the Mother of God that was expressed by the outrage of the Catholics gathered outside of the Cathedral of the Theotokos in Ephesus in the year 431 A.D. No one can say that they love Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and His Most Blessed Mother remain sanguine about offenses given the dogmatic truths about them that Our Lord Himself has entrusted to the Catholic Church for their eternal safekeeping and infallible explication.

Saint Louis de Montfort's The Secret of the Rosary contains this meditation on the beauty of the Hail Mary, including its reference to the dogmatic truth that Our Lord is indeed the Mother of God:

Even though there is nothing so great as the majesty of God and nothing so low as man insofar as he is a sinner, Almighty God does not desire our poor prayers. On the contrary, He is pleased when we sing His praises.

Saint Gabriel's greeting to Our Lady is one of the most beautiful hymns which we can possibly sing to the glory of the Most High. "I will sing a new song to you." This new hymn which David foretold was to be sung at the coming of the Messiah is none other than the Angelic Salutation.

There is an old hymn and a new hymn: the first is that which the Jews sang out of gratitude to God for creating them and maintaining them in existence -- for delivering them from captivity and leading them safely through the Red Sea -- for giving them manna to eat and for all His other blessings.

The new hymn is that which Christians sing in thanksgiving for the graces of the Incarnation and the Redemption. As these marvels were brought about by the Angelic Salutation, so do we repeat the same salutation to thank the Most Blessed Trinity for His immeasurable goodness to us.

We praise God the Father because He so loved the world that He gave us His only Son as our Savior. We bless the Son because He deigned to leave heaven and come down upon earth -- because HE WAS MADE Man and redeemed us. We glorify the Holy Ghost because he formed Our Lord's pure Body in Our Lady's Womb -- this Body which was the Victim of our sins. In this spirit of deep thankfulness should we, then, always say the Hail Mary, making acts of faith, hope, love, and thanksgiving for the priceless gift of salvation.

Although this new hymn is in praise of the Mother of God and is sung directly to her, nevertheless it greatly glorifies the Most Blessed Trinity because any homage that we pay Our Lady returns inevitably to God Who is the cause of all her virtues and perfections. When we honor Our Lady: God the Father is glorified because we are honoring the most perfect of His Creatures; God the Son is glorified because we are praising His most pure Mother, and God the Holy Ghost is glorified because we are lost in admiration at the graces with which He has filled His Spouse.

When we praise and bless Our Lady by saying the Angelic Salutation she always passes on these praises to Almighty God in the same way as she did when she was praised by Saint Elizabeth. The latter blessed her in her most elevated dignity as Mother of God and Our Lady immediately returned the praises to God by her beautiful Magnificat. Just as the Angelic Salutation gives glory to the Blessed Trinity, it is also the very highest praise that we can give Our Lady.

One day when Saint Mechtilde was praying and was trying to think of some way in which she could express her love of the Blessed Mother better than she had done before, she fell into ecstasy. Our Lady appeared to her with the Angelic Salutation in flaming letters of gold upon her bosom and said to her: "My daughter, I want you to know that no one can please me more by saying the salutation which the Most Adorable Trinity sent to me and by which He raised me to the dignity of Mother of God.

"Bye the word Ave (which is the name Eve, Eva), I learned that in His infinite power God has preserved me from all sin and its attendant misery which the first woman had been subject to.

"The name Mary which means "lady of light" shows that God has filled me with wisdom and light, like a shining star, to light up heaven and earth.

"The words full of grace reminds me that the Holy Ghost has showered so many graces upon me that I am able to give these graces in abundance to those who ask for them through me as Mediatrix.

"When people say The Lord is with thee they renew the indescribable joy that was mine when the Eternal Word became incarnate in my womb.

"When you say to me blessed art thou among women I praise Almighty God's divine mercy which lifted me to this exalted plane of happiness.

"And at the words blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus, the whole of heaven rejoices with me to see my Son Jesus Christ adored and glorified for having saved mankind." (Saint Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary, "The Sixteenth Rose.")

As cited in a brief article almost exactly five years ago, Enter Lord of the World?, Our Lady told Juan Diego in 1531, 1,100 years after the Council of Ephesus, that she is indeed the Mother of God: 

"Know, know for sure, my dearest, littlest, and youngest son, that I am the perfect and ever Virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the God of truth through Whom everything lives, the Lord of all things near us, the Lord of heaven and earth. I want very much to have a little house built here for me, in which I will show Him, I will exalt Him and make Him manifest. I will give Him to the people in all my personal love, in my compassion, in my help, in my protection: because I am truly your merciful Mother, yours and all the people who live united in this land and of all the other people of different ancestries, my lovers, who love me, those who seek me, those who trust in me. Here I will hear their weeping, their complaints and heal all their sorrows, hardships and sufferings. And to bring about what my compassionate and merciful concern is trying to achieve, you must go to the residence of the Bishop of Mexico and tell him that I sent you here to show him how strongly I wish him to build me a temple here on the plain; you will report to him exactly all you have seen, admired and what you have heard. Know for sure I will appreciate it very much, be grateful and will reward you. And you? You will deserve very much the reward I will give you for your fatigue, the work and trouble that my mission will cause you. Now my dearest son, you have heard my breath, my word; go now and put forth your best effort." (Mary's words at Guadalupe.) 

Shouldn't this inspire us to pray as many Rosaries each day as our states-in-life permit? Shouldn't we be encouraged by the knowledge that Our Lady reiterated to Saint Mechtilde, that God the Holy Ghost "has showered so many graces upon" Our Lady that she is "able to give these graces in abundance to those who ask for them through" her " as Mediatrix"? Shouldn't we see in this last statement of Our Lady's a little glimpse into how she is able to distribute the graces won for us by the shedding of every single drop of the Most Precious Blood of her Divine Son, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by means of the Green Scapular that she revealed in 1840 to Sister Justine Bisqueyburo in the same convent on the Rue de Bac in Paris, France, that she had appeared to Sister Catherine Laboure to have the Miraculous Medal struck ten years before?

Shouldn't we come to understand once and for all that the Mother of God is on our side. Who cares about the "power" of the minions of Modernity in the world or those of Modernism in the counterfeit church of conciliarism? We have Our Lady, she who made possible our very salvation by her perfect fiat to the will of God the Father at the Annunciation, at our sides. We should and we must be supremely grateful to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus for deigning to give us His own Most Blessed Mother to be our Mother in all of our spiritual and temporal needs at all times.

It is important, of course, to make make acts of reparation for the offenses being given to Our Lady in the world and that receive the endorsement of the counterfeit church of conciliarism so frequently.

Here is one recommendation for such an act of reparation, a "Salutation to Mary," written by Saint John Eudes in the Seventeenth Century. A copy of this salutation (which a booklet tells us to "undertake to widely spread and make known this Salutation to the Glory of Mary") was found in a book belonging to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque after her death. As Pere Paul de Moll, O.S.B., wrote:

This salutation is so beautiful! Recite it daily. From her throne in Heaven the Blessed Virgin will bless you, and you must make the Sign of the Cross. You! Yes! If only you could see--Our Lady blesses you. I know it!

Offered for the conversion of a sinner it would be impossible not to be granted.

Here is the Salutation to Mary:

Hail Mary! Daughter of God the Father.

Hail Mary! Mother of God the Son.

Hail Mary! Spouse of God the Holy Ghost.

Hail Mary! Temple of the Most Blessed Trinity.

Hail Mary! Pure Lilly of the Effulgent Trinity. God.

Hail Mary!! Celestial Rose of the ineffable Love of God.

Hail Mary! Virgin pure and humble, of whom the King of Heaven willed to be born and with thy milk to be nourished.

Hail Mary! Virgin of Virgins.

Hail Mary! Queen of Martyrs, whose soul a sword transfixed.

Hail Mary! Lady most blessed: Unto whom all power in Heaven and earth is given.

Hail Mary! My Queen and my Mother! My Life, my sweetness and my Hope.

Hail Mary! Mother most Amiable.

Hail Mary! Mother most Admirable.

Hail Mary! Mother of Divine Love.

Hail Mary! IMMACULATE! Conceived without sin!

Hail Mary Full of Grace. The Lord is with Thee! Blessed art Thou amongst Women and Blessed is the Fruit of Thy Womb, Jesus!

Blessed be thy Spouse, St. Joseph.

Blessed be thy Father, St. Joachim.

Blessed be thy Mother, St. Anne.

Blessed be thy Guardian, St. John.

Blessed be thy Holy Angel, St. Gabriel.

Glory be to God the Father, who chose thee.

Glory be to God the Son, who loved thee.

Glory be to God the Holy Ghost, who espoused thee.

O Glorious Virgin Mary, may all men love and praise thee.

Holy Mary, Mother of God! Pray for us and bless us, now, and at death in the Name of Jesus, thy Divine Son!

We give thanks to God this day for having inspired Pope Pius XI to extend the feast we celebrate today, the Feast of the Divine Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to the universal church with its own office and Mass propers.

We must give heartfelt thanks every day of our lives to Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for giving us His Singular Vessel of Devotion, the Mystical Rose, our dear Blessed Virgin Mary, conceived without stain of Original or Actual Sin in the womb of her saintly mother, Good Saint Anne.

We must make acts of reparation for the offenses shown to so great a Mother, without whom we not not have been redeemed and without a tender devotion to whom no man can be saved, and what better way to start making our acts of reparation that to keep the Mother of God company mystically at the foot of the Most Holy Cross of her Divine Son in true offerings of the Holy Sacrifice of Mass at the hands of true bishops and true priests who make no concessions to conciliarism or to the nonexistent legitimacy of wolves in shepherds' clothing who dare to offend the honor and glory of God and of His Most Holy Mother?

We pledge ourselves during this month of October, the month of Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary and of the Holy Angels, to give ourselves each day to the Most Holy Trinity through her own Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, making of our own lives a gift of total service and oblation that she made of her own life on earth and from her regal throne in Heaven itself.

There is no greater gift that we can give than that of ourselves as to the Blessed Trinity as the consecrated slaves of His Daughter's, Mother's and Spouse's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. And we we look forward to the day when that same Heart, preserved from all sin and filled with all grace from the first moment of conception, will triumph in the midst of the world, ushering in the restoration of the Church Militant on earth and of Christendom in the midst of the world.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

A blessed feast day to you all.

Vivat Christus Rex! Viva Cristo Rey!

Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?

Immaculate Heart of Mary, triumph soon!

Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us, especially on your feast day today!

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.

APPENDIX:

ADOLPH TANQUERY ON THE DIVINE MATERNITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

THE BLESSED VIRIGN MARY BEHELD OBJECTIVELY

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A. The Divine Maternity of Mary

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827. I. Thesis: The Blessed Virgin Mary is truly the Mother of God. In opposing the Nestorians, the Council of Ephesus made this a matter of faith: "If anyone does not confess that the Emmanuel in truth is God and that on this account the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God, let him be anathema." The meaning of this thesis is that the Blessed Virgin brought forth Christ who is God.

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a. Proof of thesis from Scripture. The Gospels narrate that the Blessed Virgin conceived and brought forth Christ who is truly God. Wherefore Elizabeth under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, called the Blessed Virgin the mother of the Lord: "Whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me"?

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b. Proof of thesis from Tradition.

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1) Through the first three centuries the Fathers professed that Mary gave birth to God; "Christ, born of Mary, is Emmanuel or God with us".

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2) By the beginning of the fourth century the name God-bearing is given to Mary and the use of this appellation is so frequent that Julian the apostate reproached the Christians because they would not stop calling Mary God-bearing; and John of Antioch warned his friend Nestorius lest he stir up the crowds by persistently opposing this title.

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3) In the fifth century, with Nestorius openly denying the divine maternity of the Blessed Virgin, St. Cyril vigorously defend and fought for this Catholic dogma, and the Council of Ephesus, to the great joy of the people, defined the Blessed Virgin as Theotokos.

 

c. Proof from Reason.

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The Blessed Virgin conceived and brought forth the person who is God, namely Christ; But generation is not terminated at nature, but at the person who subsists and continues in the begotten nature; for example, the mother of Peter, although she produces his body only, is rightfully called the mother of Peter himself.

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828 2. The Excellency of this dignity.

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a. In Itself: the dignity of Mother of God far surpasses all other dignities, with the exception of the hypostatic union, because it proximately belongs to the order of the hypostatic union. For, in producing the matter of Christ's body, in willingly conceiving, giving birth to, and nourishing that body, the Blessed Virgin was, so to speak, the instrumental cause of the hypostatic union and the cooperator with the divine persons in the great work of the Incarnation. Consequently, because she is the mother of God, she has a certain infinite dignity from the infinite good which is God.

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b. In its consequences--As the Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin contracted special relations with the three divine persons:

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1) In some manner she shares in the fruitfulness of the Father because she brings forth in time the same Son whom the Father alone generates from all eternity as one consubstantial to Himself.

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2) She contracts a special affinity and a wonderful union with the Word in the Incarnation through generation, in the entire course of life through intimate communion, in the Passion through compassion, in glory through a glorious blessedness.

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3) In a certain manner she has become the Spouse of the Holy Ghost, for the formation of Christ's body in the Blessed Virgin's womb is attributed to the Holy Ghost.

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Thus Mary is also called at times the complement to the Trinity because de facto the Trinity has made use of the Blessed Virgin as an instrument for the purpose of accomplishing the work of the Incarnation.

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From the dignity of the Divine Maternity proceed all the privileges granted to the Blessed Virgin, her most perfect sanctity, and her supernatural relations with creatures. . . .

 

II. THE RELATIONS OF MARY WITH CREATURES

These are four in particular which proceed from her divine maternity: The Blessed Virgin is first, the mother of Christians, secondly, the cooperatrix in the Redemption, thirdly, the queen of creatures, fourthly, the mediatrix of grace.

839 A. Mary is the spiritual mother of men.

1. This is proved from her divine maternity: Mary is the mother of Christ, the head of the mystical body the members of which are men. But the fact that she is the mother of the head makes her mother of her members. Mary's spiritual motherhood is proved also from the title of donation or gift since Christ dying on the cross gave us to her as sons, saying to John (and through extension to all Christians): "Behold thy mother".

2. The manner in which Mary is our spiritual mother. Truly she bears us spiritually because she is the meritorious (de congruo) and exemplar cause of our justification; in a secondary degree, however, dependently on Christ.

840 B. Mary is Christ's cooperatrix in the Redemption; she is co-redemptrix. She cooperated in man's salvation secondarily and dependently on Christ by consenting both to the Incarnation of the World and to the death of Christ.

1. Proof from Scripture. In the Gospel story the Angel announces to Mary the conception of the Son of God who will be the Savior of the world. Mary, however, with the greatest humility gives her consent. Also, she is associated in the work of the Passion and therefore of the Redemption: she stands at the cross, suffering along with the suffering Christ.

2. Proof from Tradition. The Fathers compare Eve, who was the cause of death, to Mary, who is the cause of our salvation. Thus writes St. Irenaeus. This doctrine Pius X and Benedict XVI confirm, the latter with these words: "She (Mary) with Christ redeemed the human race".

841 C. Mary is the Queen of men and of all creatures. She is the Mother of Christ Who is the King of men and of all creatures. So we say: Hail, Queen" and we call her Queen in the Litany of Loreto. She carries on a royal rule of  benevolence and of mercy.

842 D. Mary is the universal mediatrix of grace,  a secondary mediatrix and one dependent on Christ, universal, however, because no grace is dispensed without her intervention.

1. Proof from Scripture: Mary gave to us Christ, the source of all grace; therefore, indirectly and at least in cause she offers all graces to us. Too, directly, and efficaciously as co-redemptrix she intercedes in order to obtain all graces.

2. Proof from Tradition. The Fathers teach that no grace is granted without her intervention; for example, St. Ephraem and St. Bernard. The same doctrine the Holy Pontiffs Leo XIII and Pius X state explicitly. Also, the Liturgy affords an argument which rests on the existence of the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace. The prayers of this office are a further proof.

3. Proof from Reason. Through Mary God gave to us Christ, the universal principle of grace; therefore even the individual graces He always grants through her. Besides, it is quite proper that the Blessed Virgin, who united herself efficaciously to Christ's merits, should be similarly associated with Him in the distribution of all graces.

III. DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

843 A. State of the Question.

1. Errors. The cult which Catholics pay to the Blessed Virgin Protestants bitterly attack as superstitious, illusive, even idolatrous.

2. Catholic doctrine. The cult of the Blessed Virgin is not the cult of latria, which is due to God alone, nor is it the simple cult of dulia due to the saints. But it is the cult of hyperdulia because of her singular supernatural superiority. Therefore devotion to Mary embraces:

1) Veneration and reverence because of the dignity of the divine maternity conferred on her and because of her outstanding holiness;

2) Invocation and confidence because she is a powerful and also a merciful mediatrix with Christ;

3) Filial, love because she is our spiritual Mother; this love leads us on to an imitation of her virtues.

 

844 B. Thesis: Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is altogether legitimate and beneficial. This is de fide from the ordinary universal magisterium of the Church.

1. Proof from Scripture.

a. God teaches us how great a veneration we must have for Mary when, through the Angel Gabriel, He thus addressed her: "Hail, full of grace"; similarly when, through the mouth of Elizabeth, He says to the Blessed Virgin: "Blessed art thou among women".

b. Christ instructs us how great a confidence we must have in Mary when He performs His first miracle at the request of the Blessed Virgin.

c. Finally, why denying upon the cross. Christ shows us with what great love we must cherish the Blessed Virgin when to John and to all Christians He addresses these words: "Behold thy mother".

 

2. Proof from Tradition.

That devotion to the Blessed Virgin flourished in the first centuries is evident from the images found in the catacombs, from the temples, erected as soon as peace was granted to the Church, from the encomiums of the Fathers, from all the Liturgies.

3. Proof from Reason.

This cult is proper:

a. It is in way offensive to God because ultimately it is referred to God, the author of all the gifts which we venerate to Mary;

b. It is an imitation of God's way of acting: because He sent His word to us through Mary, it is right that we approach Jesus through Mary.

c. It is very profitable for obtaining graces more efficaciously: as in human affairs we obtain favors from the King through intercession of the Queen, so we gain many graces from the Supreme King through the intervention of the Queen of heaven.

Corollary. Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is proper, pious, and salutary. Pope Pius XII has set aside August 22 as the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. (Adolph Tanquerey, A Manual of Dogmatic Theology, pp. 102-111)