J.M.J.
Mater
Misericordiae
Popes and Bishops often end their
pastoral letters with a reference to Our Lady as our Spiritual Mother.
The Ever-Virgin is Mater Misericordiae—the
Mother of Mercy.
Simply put, Mary brought forth Christ
Who is mercy to our human race.
And we acknowledge Our Lady as the Mother of Mercy who spares no effort in being the conduit through which Christ’s precious mercy comes to our Church and our world.
And we acknowledge Our Lady as the Mother of Mercy who spares no effort in being the conduit through which Christ’s precious mercy comes to our Church and our world.
The late Dominican theologian Father
Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange identified four invocations from the Litany of
Loreto that bespeak specifically of Our Lady’s role as the Mother of Mercy:
Health of the sick; Refuge of sinners; Comforter of the afflicted; Help of
Christians.
The realities represented by these
titles, which are by no means exhaustive, help us to understand to whom Mary
dispenses the priceless mercy of God.
We continue to be aware of His abundant mercy that He willingly grants to
us and of our subsequent obligation and privilege to share that same mercy with
our neighbors. The moto chosen by Pope Francis for the recently concluded Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, “Be merciful as the Father is merciful”
(Saint Luke 6:36), will never grow stale; it will always challenge us.
No comments:
Post a Comment