MARY MOTHER OF GOD

Feast: January 1st
Patroness: Universal Church.
Advocacy: Theotókos.
Meaning of the name: Mother of God
Approbation: Holy See (Vatican).


The solemnity of Mary Mother of God is the first Marian feast that appeared in the Western Church, its celebration began to be given in Rome by the sixth century, celebrated on October 11. The antiquity of the Marian celebration is recorded in the paintings with the name of Mary, Mother of God (THEOTÓKOS) that have been found in the Catacombs or ancient subways that are dug under the city of Rome, where the first Christians gathered to celebrate Mass in times of persecutions.

Catholics do not worship Mary as we worship God (ONLY GOD IS WORSHIPPED). We venerate our mother, we honor her, we respect her, we love her, and we ask for her intercession, praying: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners; because God honored her by choosing her to be the Mother of Jesus, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, when He became flesh and became Man. All Catholics begin the year by asking for the protection of Mary Most Holy.


History
According to an ancient testimony written in the 3rd century, the Christians of Egypt addressed Mary with the following prayer: "Under your protection we take refuge, Holy Mother of God: do not disregard the prayer of your needy children; deliver us from all danger, O ever Glorious and Blessed Virgin". In the 4th century the term Theotokos was frequently used in the East and West because it had already become part of the Church's patrimony of faith. The Roman rite celebrated on January 1st, the octave of Christmas, commemorating the circumcision of the Child Jesus. After the disappearance of the ancient Marian feast, in 1931, Pope Pius XI, on the occasion of the XV centenary of the Council of Ephesus (431), instituted the Marian feast for October 11, in memory of this Council, in which it was solemnly proclaimed as Mary, Mother of Christ, who is the true Son of God; But in the last reform of the calendar (after the Second Vatican Council) the feast was moved to January 1, with the highest liturgical category, of solemnity, and with the title of Holy Mary, Mother of God.


The Council of Ephesus
In the year 431, the heretic Nestorius, an archbishop of Constantinople in the 5th century, taught that Christ was two in one: Jesus the man and the Divine man of God; he dared to say that Mary was not the Mother of God, affirming: "that the Greek mythology, which attributes a mother to the gods, should not be condemned". Faced with this, the 200 bishops of the world gathered at the Council of Ephesus (421), enlightened by the Holy Spirit declared: The Virgin Mary is the Mother of God because her Son, Christ, is God. That is, Christ was one person, not two. The word they used was Theotokos (she who gave birth to God, in Greek). And accompanied by the whole crowd of the city that surrounded them carrying lighted torches, they made a great procession singing: "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen." Likewise, St. Cyril of Alexandria emphasized: "The living, subsistent Word was begotten by the very substance of God the Father, existing from all eternity... But in time He became flesh, therefore it can be said that He was born of woman".


The Council of Chalcedon
The Council of Chalcedon (451), continued to use this term and affirmed the Divine Maternity of Mary as dogma, an official doctrine of the Holy Catholic Church. As Jesus is God, and Mary is his Mother, she is the Mother of God, the Mother of the Messiah and the Mother of Christ, our Divine Savior. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word. That is to say that Fiat, let it be done, Holy Mary responded firmly and lovingly to God's plan; thanks to her generous surrender God himself could become incarnate to bring us Reconciliation, which frees us from the wounds of sin.


Biblical basis
We know the great truth that Mary is the Mother of God thanks to the Gospel of St. Luke, in the message that the angel gives to Mary: You will have a Son, and you will call His name Jesus, and He will be called the Son of the Most High. When she said "yes," the Holy Spirit created in her womb the human nature that God the Son would assume. Since motherhood embraces the person and not only the nature, and since Mary is the mother of Jesus, who is true God and true Man, she rightly receives the title Mother of God. After the angel appeared to her and told her that she would be the mother of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin visited her cousin Elizabeth. Upon hearing Mary's greeting, Elizabeth said: "How have I deserved that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

Sacred Scripture teaches us that Jesus was both God and man. St. John writes: the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. St. Paul refers to this event in his letter to the Galatians saying, God sent his Son, born of woman, and he also says: eternally conceived by the Father. So Sacred Scripture teaches that Mary is the Mother of Jesus, God and man, not in the sense that she gave birth to Jesus as God, but in the sense that the Child she carried in her womb had the Divine nature and the Human nature. Mary is Mother, love, service, fidelity, joy, holiness, purity.

The Mother of God contemplates in her arms beauty, goodness, truth with joyful wonder and in the certainty of the impenetrable mystery. She is at the head of all the saints, she is the greatest, the full of Grace for the goodness, wisdom, love and power of God; she is the summit of all possible fidelity to God, human love in fullness. It is not strange the superlative adjective of most holy of the whole Christian people and is that there is no greater power of expression in the language. Mother of God and our Mother.


Prayer
Under your protection we take refuge,holy Mother of God;do not reject the supplicationswhich we address to you in our needs,but deliver us from all danger,O ever-virgin, glorious and blessed Virgin! Amen.