THIS IS YOUR MOTHER”

 “SPRINGS OF LIVING WATER”

Daily Spiritual Reflections

24th May 2021

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MONDAY, EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Memorial of Mary, Mother of the Church

Gen 3:9-15, 20 or Acts 1: 12-14; 

Ps 87 or Judith 13:18-19

Jn 19:25-34.

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“THIS IS YOUR MOTHER”

“The Blessed Mother of God, the New Eve, Mother of the Church, continues in heaven her maternal role with regard to Christ’s members, cooperating with the birth and growth of divine life in the souls of the redeemed.” (Pope Paul VI’s “Credo of the People of God”). Today is the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church. In 2018, Pope Francis decreed that the memorial of the ‘Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church’ be inserted into the Roman Calendar on the Monday after Pentecost. The decree was signed on February 11, 2018, the memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, on the 160th anniversary of the apparitions there. It was issued on March 3, 2018. 

The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, speaks of the disciples gathered in the upper room, which was well known to them. There were persevering with one mind in prayer along with some pious women and Mary, the mother of the Lord. Mary had lived her life focused on her son, since the time he was sent to her from the Father. Now, that he had returned to the Father, she turns her attention to this community devoted to him, by joining them in praying for the fulfillment of the promise of the Holy Spirit. 

In the Gospel, we see the last gift of Jesus to the world before he breathed his last, when he entrusted his mother to his beloved disciple, and in turn, entrusted him to her, knowing that they would both need each other – she, a home, and he, her strength of faith. The gospel says that John took her to his home. For John, the home was the Church that Jesus established, where Mary took the place of a mother, accompanying, loving and serving the community, just as she had done for her beloved son. Mary embraces each of us as sons and daughters in and through the Church. In loving the Church, we love the Lord who established it, and his mother, who watches over it.

Response: Of you are told glorious things, O city of God!

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