In looking to our sources we can gain some understanding of what Mary Mother of the Church means for a Marist.
In order to understand this expression, it is helpful to return to our sources and origins and to see how our founders and the pioneers understood this essential role of Mary in the Church.
“I was the support of the newborn Church; I shall also be at the end of time” (Colin FS doc 4, 1). This inspiration of Colin which is rooted in a profound faith and total confidence in the loving presence of Mary, Mother and Perpetual Superior becomes throughout its history the leitmotif for all Marists in the Society that will bear her name.
“In all things let us look to Mary, let us imitate her life at Nazareth. She did more than the apostles for the new-born Church; she is the Queen of the apostles, but she did it without any stir, she did it above all by her prayers” (Colin FS Doc. 190, 2). Here Colin shows us the way to follow. For the Marist of yesterday and for each of us today, Mary is, from the beginnings of the history of the Church, the first to follow his way, thanks to the action of the Spirit.
Bearing her name, Marists should imitate Mary by their whole life, in her way of being, in her simple, humble and discreet attitude and in her desire to reveal Christ. Every day we greet her and ask her to guide our daily steps so that the Body of her Son will grow in and through us.
This is how Sister Astride Amos, a young sister from Vanuatu, sees the expression “Mary Mother of the Church”:
At the beginning of the day Marists greet the Virgin Mary with the words of the Salve Regina and end with this prayer: “Almighty, everlasting God, who, by the co-operation of the Holy Spirit, prepared the body and soul of the glorious virgin Mary to become a dwelling fit for your Son …”
Giving life, the Mother holds a special place in the everyday existence of people and also in salvation history. A Marist simply understands that salvation comes from God through Christ, His Son “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1, 15a) who became flesh in the maternal womb of Mary (cf. Lk 1, 26-38; Jn 1, 18; Jn 14, 9). How can we forget the role or the place of this woman, Mother of the last Adam who came from heaven and “became a life-giving spirit” (1 Cor 15, 45).
The mystical body of Christ present on the 5 Continents: that is the Church. Mary Mother of Christ and mother of all is in this title the Mother of Church par excellence.
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