Monday, June 9, 2025
Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Mary
Hail, Mary! Full of grace.
This is the very special day to remember Mary – Mary accepting the message of Gabriel, Mary bearing the baby Jesus in the stable, Mary guiding Jesus and teaching him and following him as he preached and healed and tended God’s fire within himself, Mary offering him to the world and finally standing by his cross, unable to reach up and wet his lips. Theotokos, pray for us. Mother of the Church, pray for us.
Many popes, many saints, and many of the rest of us, men and women, have loved Mary more than they loved themselves. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Standing by the cross of Jesus was Mary his mother, with her friends. Jesus spoke from the cross, “I thirst.”
Holy Mary, Mother of God. Mary could not reach up to him, although she tried, and Jesus watched her weeping.
Jesus could not leave Mary alone in the world.
When Jesus saw his mother and John he said to his mother, “Woman, behold your son.” And he said to John, “Behold your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
Mary tended to her son’s body, as well as his spirit. She carried Jesus in her womb, delivered him in the midst of her birth pangs and then poured out her afterbirth into the straw of the Bethlehem stable. She nursed him and taught him to eat solid food. She watched when her 30-year-old son was arrested and she watched when he left with soldiers then returned with his gentle head crowned by a ring of thorns, his back bleeding from stripes laid on by the whip. She wept, watching him strain after the beatings to carry his heavy cross.
Then at the last she prepared his body for the grave. But first, standing at the foot of his cross, she watched as Jesus’ body was violated by the soldiers.
Since it was preparation day, in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath, for the sabbath day of Passover Week was a very solemn one, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken. But when they came to Jesus they saw that he was already dead, and they did not break his legs. Instead a soldier thrust his lance into Jesus’ side.
Mary watched as blood and water flowed out of her son, his intestines pierced.
O joyful virgin who gave birth to the Lord, O blessed Mother of the Church, nurture in us the Spirit of your Son Jesus.
Long after Mary died John was exiled on an island called Patmos. It was there he must have had the visions from which came his Revelation. In the unforgettable chapter 12 he records, surely with profound affection and respect, what might be described as Mary’s ascension into heaven, much as Elisha wrote of Elijah when he left earth in God’s chariot of fire.
When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach.
Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
This is the day that the Lord has made, the day to remember and thank God for Mary, the mother of Jesus.
(Genesis 3, Acts 1, Psalm 87, John 19)
(posted at davesandel.net)
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