Catholic Spiritual Living Journal

... and our Heavenly Mother , from The Cross ( Gospel of John 19:26-27 )

First please remember that Catholics meditate on Mary only in the light of Christ.

Jesus Christ is the heart of the Church.

It was St. Catherine of Siena, who lived during the fourteenth century, who said that "All the way to heaven is heaven, because Christ is the Way."

Gospel of John 19:26-27

When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing near, He said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son!" Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

In this passage in the Gospel of John, Jesus dying on the Cross tells "the disciple" to behold his Mother Mary. It seems that Jesus is referring to John, but the actual words are "the disciple."

And so, in that instant, Mary becomes Mother of all disciples of Jesus, including those in our own time who follow Jesus.

To quote Pope John Paul II in his 1987 encyclical Redemptoris Mater, "This is true not only of John, who at that hour stood at the foot of the Cross together with the Mother [of Jesus], but it is also true of every disciple of Christ, of every Christian (45.3)."

Jesus Christ is the heart of Catholic Tradition and Christian life.

Catholics celebrate the Mass, read the Bible, and receive the Seven Sacraments.

In the Mass we share in the one Sacrifice on the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we await his Second Coming.

In the Eucharist the Church is as it were at the foot of the cross with Mary.

Receiving Holy Communion with others during the Sacrifice of the Mass brings unity of the Church, the Body of Christ.

Three of our favorite prayers are the Our Father, the Hail Mary (or Ave Maria), and the Rosary.

The Our Father is the prayer of hope given to us by Jesus himself in the Sermon on the Mount, recorded in the Gospel of Matthew [6:9-13].

The Scriptural basis for the Hail Mary is from the Gospel of Luke [1:26-42].

Mary is the Mother of Jesus, the Son of God [Mark 1:1, Acts 9:20, Romans 1:4, 2 Cor 1:19].

As Jesus is both God and man, Mary is the Mother of God [Luke 1:43].

Her intercessory role in the second part of the prayer is based on her mediation at the wedding feast of Cana, recorded in the Gospel of John [2:1-12].

The Rosary is a Biblical account of the life of Jesus.

Mary is our model of Love and Mercy, who intercedes with her Son Jesus for us, her children on earth.

Mary serves as the perfect example of motherhood for our modern world.

Prayer :

We know that God's commandment of love and our vocation to follow Jesus Christ impels us to cooperate in the mission of the Church. Realizing our own weakness, we entrust the renewal of our personal lives and our apostolate to your intercession .

We are confident that through God's mercy and the infinite merits of Jesus Christ, you, who are our Mother, will obtain the strength of the Holy Spirit as you obtained it for the community of the apostles gathered in the upper room.

Therefore, relying on your maternal intercession, we are resolved from this moment on to devote our talents, learning, material resources, our health, sickness and trials, and every gift of nature and grace, for the greater glory of God and the salvation of all.

We wish to carry on those activities which especially promote the catholic apostolate for the revival of faith and love of the people of God and so bring all men and women into the faith of Jesus Christ.And if a time should come when we have nothing more to offer serviceable to this end, we will never cease to pray that there will be one fold and one shepherd, Jesus Christ.

In this way, we hope to enjoy the results of the apostolate of Jesus Christ for all eternity. Amen.