Cardinal Sarah: ‘New Marian
memorial aid to Christian life’
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| Our Lady of Lourdres. |
The newly-instituted Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
Mother of the Church, will help Christians plant their lives on the Cross, the
Eucharist, and the Mother of God, according to Cardinal Robert Sarah.
By Devin Watkins
Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for
Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, on Saturday issued a
statement on the newly-instituted Memorial of Mary, Mother of the Church.
He said the Decree – dated 11 February 2018, the 160th anniversary
of the first apparition of the Virgin at Lourdes – is a result of a decision by
Pope Francis to insert the Memorial in the General Roman Calendar.
The Memorial will be celebrated annually on the Monday
following Pentecost.
‘Mary, Mother of the Church’
Cardinal Sarah said the new Memorial is a result of the “maturation of liturgical veneration given to Mary following a better understanding of her presence ‘in the mystery of Christ and of the Church’, as explained in Chapter 7 of Vatican II’s Lumen gentium.”
The title of Mother of the Church, he said, was bestowed
upon Mary by Pope Paul VI in November of 1964.
“The feeling of Christian people through two millennia of
history,” said Cardinal Sarah, “has cultivated the filial bond, which
inseparably binds the disciples of Christ to his Blessed Mother in various
ways.”
He said Poland and Argentina had already inserted the
celebration into their liturgical calendars on the Monday after Pentecost with
approval from the Apostolic See. The memorial is also held, he noted, in St.
Peter’s Basilica and in certain Religious Orders and Congregations.
‘Spiritual motherhood’
Cardinal Sarah said the connection between Pentecost and Mary’s maternal care is evident. He said Acts 1:12-14 and Genesis 3:9-15,20, if read in the light of the typology of the New Eve, shows that Mary became the ‘Mother of All the Living” at the foot of the Cross of Jesus, her Son.
He said Pope Francis’ decision takes into account “the
importance of the mystery of Mary’s spiritual motherhood, which from the
awaiting of the Spirit at Pentecost has never ceased to take motherly care of
the pilgrim Church on earth”.
The hope, Cardinal Sarah concluded, is that the celebration
of Mary as Mother of the Church “will remind all Christ’s disciples that, if we
want to grow and to be filled with the love of God, it is necessary to plant
our life firmly on three great realities: the Cross, the Eucharist, and the
Mother of God.”
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