From the early centuries of the Church, Mary is called Mother of God “Theotokos”, or “God-Bearer.”
Mary, “Mother of God,” is the first official title given to her by the Catholic Church and maybe her most essential and most powerful title, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us,
“From the most ancient
Catechism of the Catholic Church #971times the Blessed Virgin has been honored with the title of ‘Mother of God,’ to whose protection the faithful fly in all their dangers and needs.”
It was at the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D., when the Church officially insisted in defining the importance of this special title, “If anyone does not confess that God is truly Emmanuel, and that on this account the holy virgin is the “Theotokos” let him be anathema.” Furthermore the Council of Ephesus stated,
“We confess the holy Virgin to be the Mother of God because God the Word took flesh and became man and from his very conception united to Himself the temple He took from her.”
The ancient Rite of Exorcism invokes the Blessed Virgin Mary, “with confidence in the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God.” In the rosary (Mary’s weapon), we invoke the title, “Mary, Mother of God” with each Hail Mary, and each year on January 1st we begin the calendar year by commemorating a special mass celebration under the title of the “Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God.”
There are no coincidences in our lives, but only divine providence and God’s hand. Therefore, I wish to give testimony and witness to the great power of this title of Mary, Mother of God, as Mary interceded to save my life.
My life was spared twice during my law enforcement career through divine intervention. The first here and the following is the story of the second incident, for,
“the works of God are to be declared and made known (Tobit 12:7).”
In February of 1999 I was a zealous rooky cop and very inexperienced to say the least. We were called to assist in a drug interdiction operation. I was traveling at a high rate of speed on a limestone road (cailche). When traveling on a limestone road, after you reach a certain speed, the small stones which the road is made up of (similar to a gravel road) begin to act like rollers on a skate but instead the small stones begin to act like rollers on your tires.
Traveling at high speed, I hit some pot holes with the police car back to back, and it threw the vehicle flying off the road, into the air, causing me to lose control and resulting in a roll over.
Many things come to mind when something like this happens. It is as if the mind can process many options and time slows down or so it seems. I remember thinking “I am going to die…Oh, I needed to go to confession…I am going before God.” I thought, “Cry out to Mary your mother,” so as I was rolling over, I cried out to her in desperation three times, “Mary, Mother of God, Mary, Mother of God, Mary, Mother of God,” and everything seemed to miraculously slow down and safely come to an end.
Yes, I was injured with whip lash. Yes, I went to the hospital. Yes, the million dollar drug load was caught, but most importantly, I truly believe that my life was spared to give testimony and witness about the most powerful title of Mary, Mother of God.
This year as the people of God and the Church find themselves in continued crisis let us invoke Mary’s most powerful title in time of danger and great need as the Catechism of the Church reminds us, “We believe that the Holy Mother of God, the new Eve, Mother of the Church, continues in heaven to exercise her maternal role on behalf of the members of Christ (975).”
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Great article! Thanks, Deacon!
You are welcome! Mary, Mother of God, Pray for Us!
Luke 1:47
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
If Mary is holy why does she need a savior, it is sinners that need a Savior.
Dear Mart1963,
Adam and Eve were the first Immaculate (created without sin) creatures in fact all of creation was Immaculate and without the consequences of sin. They were not to die, and they were to live full of grace and joy. There was no tears or death in their lives or in the garden.
When Adam and Eve sinned because they had “free will” to sin or not sin, it affected them and all of creation plus all the generations to follow. When sin entered, death entered all of creation, “…that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption…We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now (Rom.8:21-23).”
Since, they chose to sin, they (Adam and Eve) were in need of a Savior; however, even if they had not sinned they still would still not automatically be in heaven with God. Entering into heaven is still God’s decision and not ours.
God spared Mary from the stain of original sin when she was conceived. He did this (without sin) for Adam and Eve at the very beginning, and God did it again with Mary because He can plus God prophesied from the very beginning after Adam and Eve sinned that there would be a special woman, “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel (Genesis 3:15).”
Mary (Immaculate – without sin) had free will, and she could have chosen to sin like Eve, but she didn’t. She was faithful! Thus, Jesus could take from her flesh to cloth himself without sin.
Even though Mary didn’t sin all her life, she still needed to enter heaven so according to God’s will she underwent a “dormition (CCC 966)” (sleep type of passing), but not the regular death which are the consequences of original sin.
On 25 June 1997 during a General Audience Pope John Paul II stated the following about Mary’s death, “It is true that in Revelation death is presented as a punishment for sin. However, the fact that the Church proclaims Mary free from original sin by a unique divine privilege does not lead to the conclusion that she also received physical immortality. The Mother is not superior to the Son who underwent death, giving it a new meaning and changing it into a means of salvation. Involved in Christ’s redemptive work and associated in his saving sacrifice, Mary was able to share in his suffering and death for the sake of humanity’s Redemption. What Severus of Antioch says about Christ also applies to her: “Without a preliminary death, how could the Resurrection have taken place?” (Antijulianistica, Beirut 1931, 194f.). To share in Christ’s Resurrection, Mary had first to share in his death. The New Testament provides no information on the circumstances of Mary’s death. This silence leads one to suppose that it happened naturally, with no detail particularly worthy of mention. If this were not the case, how could the information about it have remained hidden from her contemporaries and not have been passed down to us in some way? As to the cause of Mary’s death, the opinions that wish to exclude her from death by natural causes seem groundless. It is more important to look for the Blessed Virgin’s spiritual attitude at the moment of her departure from this world. In this regard, St Francis de Sales maintains that Mary’s death was due to a transport of love. He speaks of a dying “in love, from love and through love”, going so far as to say that the Mother of God died of love for her Son Jesus (Treatise on the Love of God, bk. 7, ch. XIII-XIV). Whatever from the physical point of view was the organic, biological cause of the end of her bodily life, it can be said that for Mary the passage from this life to the next was the full development of grace in glory, so that no death can ever be so fittingly described as a “dormition” as hers.”
I hope this helps you understand the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Romans 3:21-26 New International Version (NIV)
Righteousness Through Faith21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in[a] Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,[b] through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to
be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
All have sinned including Mary and that is why she too needs a Savior. Mary gave God’s Word a body like hers which is prone to sin but Jesus did not sin otherwise how can Jesus know everything we go through if He Himself did not go through these things Himself.
Hebrews 2:18
Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Hebrews 4:15
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.
I hope the videos below help you understand the teachings of the Catholic Church.