Happy Mother's Day, Mother of the Church!

The Vatican just added to its official liturgical calendar a new Marian feast by decree: beginning this year, each Monday of Pentecost becomes the day when the universal Church will celebrate the memory of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in her title of Mother of the Church. It is significant that this celebration coincides with Pentecost.

Indeed, as Father Guillaume de Menthière, pastor of the diocese of Paris and professor of theology, points out:

"The motherhood of the Church must be inspired by the motherhood of Mary, because in order to know what she must be and what she is, the Church looks to Mary. The Virgin Mary is the model, the Mother of the Church, and it is not by chance that the Pope decided to place this Memory on Pentecost Monday. According to Scriptures, the Virgin Mary was present on that day with the Apostles, and she gave birth, so to speak, to the Church: because Pentecost is the bringing of the Church into the world and the opening of the Church to the world.

The Church was conceived a long time ago – since Abel the Just, the Church Fathers say – and is part of God’s plan from all eternity, but we can say that she was born on the day of Pentecost and that Mary presided to this birth of the Church coming out of the Upper Room to announce to the world the wonders of God."

On this day, therefore, we cry out with joy: Happy feast day to you, Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church!

Source: Excerpt from a program broadcast by KTO TV on March 6, 2018.