"In Mary, the Immaculate, we find the essence of the Church"

At the close of the Second Vatican Council, on December 8, 1965, Pope Paul VI made this solemn declaration: that the Most Holy Virgin Mary is the Mother of the Church. In his homily of December 8, 2005, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI highlighted the 40^th anniversary of this proclamation made at the closure of the Second Vatican Council. Here is an excerpt from the Holy Father’s homily:

“The Council intended to tell us this: Mary is so interwoven in the great mystery of the Church that she and the Church are inseparable, just as she and Christ are inseparable. Mary mirrors the Church, anticipates the Church in her person, and in all the turbulence that affects the suffering, struggling Church she always remains the Star of salvation. In her lies the true center in which we trust, even if its peripheries very often weigh on our soul… In Mary, the Immaculate, we find the essence of the Church without distortion. We ourselves must learn from her to become "ecclesial souls," as the Fathers said, so that we too may be able, in accordance with St Paul's words, to present ourselves "blameless" in the sight of the Lord, as he wanted us from the very beginning (cf. Col 1: 21; Eph 1: 4).”

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