April Allocutio 2026

Mother Mary

Fr. Paul Churchill, Concilium Spiritual Director
Two years ago or so I gave a talk entitled Why Mary Matters to some gathering. It is not a bad piece up to a point but, even if it is implied and understood in the talk, I may not have given enough emphasis to the heart of who Mary is: a mother.

She is who she is because God wanted to join with his creatures and share their Universe and world had first to choose his entry point and so God conceived the idea of Mary as e.g. St. Augustine, Louis Marie de Montford and Frank Duff point out. But God did not just conceive of Mary as a cold instrument but, since the God of love was coming in love, that place of entry into our world would have to be a person of love. Mary would have to be a place of warm love where God would be at home. And so, as he planned this Universe, he sowed a creation which could radiate love. All mothers love their offspring and indeed have a special bond with them. Something of God’s image, something of the divine nature of love radiates from each of us because of that. But since Mary was chosen to be Mother of the Second Person of the Trinity she had to be a special centre of love so as to fulfil her task, for which reason she had to be overshadowed fully with the Spirit of Love.

There is an instinct of self-preservation in all life but sometimes we let that go of that so as to protect or save someone else. Parents make sacrifices. Apart from dying to save their babies, they can go without food so that their children have something, they deprive themselves of sleep in caring for a child who is sick or in pain. Hardly acts of self-preservation! The supreme example of self-sacrifice is Jesus who allowed his death of love to take place although we do hear his natural instinct in the Garden, “If it is possible let this chalice pass from me”. And with him in this act of love stands Mary who unites herself to it in faith although a sword was piercing her heart.

On the Cross Jesus addresses her as Woman. She is supremely what God planned woman for, namely to transmit life, the is a difference between woman and mother. The word Mother carries in it more than just the idea of a transmitter of life but also includes what makes us especially in God’s image, namely love. And from the perspective of love nailed to the Cross, Jesus sees Mary as the supreme example of a creature bearing the divine image of love. This is because her soul is completely subject to that Person in the Trinity who is the expression of the divine love, the Holy Spirit. So Jesus, knowing his end is near, says to her in relation to St. John, the beloved disciple, “Woman behold your Son!”. And thus he made her mother of us all. Her job is to love and encourage us, to protect and nurture us, to help us grow to be mature loving Christians. She is to mother us.

If you go to Google you’ll get many ideas of love. A biological reaction, a feeling, and expression of a relationship. Etc, etc. But for St John, who witnessed Jesus’ death on the Cross, it all came down to one reality. God is love. God is in fact the source of all our loving. And since the Holy Spirit is the bond of love in the Holy Trinity, we also love with the love that comes from the Holy Spirit.

Now as we know so many saints have spoken of a special relationship between Our Lady and the Holy Spirit. That had to be so in view of the role designed for her from the beginning, to be handed the care of second Person of the Blessed Trinity and to love him. With that unique relationship she had with the Holy Spirit she loved him “with a love beyond all telling” (Advent Preface II) .

We all need the Holy Spirit of love to help us. It was when the Holy Spirit of love came to the Apostles at Pentecost it was the power of his love that enabled them to get over the fears that were chaining them and holding them back. The Spirit released them to go out to tell the world for love of it that the Good News of Salvation had come. Mary, the closest to the Holy Spirit, helped all this happen by her prayers. I note also how Maximillian Kolbe, the martyr of love in Auschwitz, had a special place in his heart for Mary. Let us learn from him.

It is only in the context of the love of God that we can help properly understand who Mary is. She was formed in God’s mind to reflect in a creature’s way the love of the heart of God so that Jesus, the Word of God and the Saviour of the world, would find the love of God with him in this world. From the moment of his conception and birth to his last breadth on the Cross she was there ministering to him the love of God, the love of the Holy Spirit. That was her role as his Mother. And once that role ended in this world she was given the role of mothering us all with God’s love.

Let us turn to her as our mother with full confidence in her care for our souls because she is the creature above all who reflects the Holy Spirit of God. Amen.