Mary’s greatest title is “Mother of God”, Mary: Day 137

Mary’s greatest title is “Mother of God”

St. Alphonsus explains why the saints agree that one of Mary’s titles far exceeds, in greatness and dignity, all the others.

To understand fully the greatness to which Mary was exalted, it would be necessary to understand fully the sublimity and greatness of God. It should be enough, then, to say simply that God made this Blessed Virgin his mother, to understand that God could not have exalted her more than he did exalt her. Arnold of Chartres rightly asserts that God, by becoming the Son of the Blessed Virgin, “established her in a rank far above that of all the saints and angels.”

If this is the case, then we have more than sufficient reason not to be sur- prised when we see that the writers of the sacred Gospels, who have so fully recorded the praises of a John the Baptist and of a Mary Magdalene, yet say so little of the precious gifts of Mary. St. Thomas of Villanova observes that “it was sufficient for them to say of her, ‘the one of whom was born Jesus.’ ”

“What more could you wish the evangelists to have said of the greatness of this Blessed Virgin?” continues the saint. “Isn’t it enough that they declare that she was the Mother of God? In these few words they recorded the greatest, the whole, of her precious gifts. And since the whole was contained in those words, it was unnecessary to go into detail.”

St. Anselm agrees: “When we say of Mary that she is the Mother of God, this alone transcends every greatness that can be named or imagined after that of God.” Peter of Celles, on the same subject, adds: “Address her as Queen of Heaven, sovereign mistress of the angels, or any other title of honor you may please. But you can never honor her so much as by simply calling her the Mother of God.” —St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
Have I ever considered that the Gospel writers say so little about Mary, not because she was unimportant, but because her exalted status was revealed in the simple declaration that she was the mother of Jesus?

CLOSING PRAYER
From a prayer of St. Germanus: You who are the Mother of God, the lover of men, hear and grant my prayers, and fulfill my petition.

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