Jesus gave you Mary as your mother, Mary: Day 249

Jesus gave you Mary as your mother

As he was dying on the cross, Jesus gave Mary to John as his mother, and in doing so, he gave her to us all. St. Ignatius Loyola urges us to ponder carefully the circumstances surrounding this gift so that we can more fully appreciate it.

Mary has been given you as a mother. Consider, then, in your heart all

the circumstances of this gift. First, she was given to you by Jesus Christ, God and Master of all creatures, from whom comes all power, paternal and maternal; by Jesus Christ the God-Savior, who had already sacrificed for you the body and lavished the blood he derived from Mary. Having nothing more to give you but her, he bestows her on you as a complement of all his gifts.

Second, she is given to you in the clearest terms, the strongest, the most precise, to enable you to realize what they mean: “Behold your mother.” Jesus said, in showing the bread, “This is my body,” and the bread became his Body. Pointing to his mother, he says, “Behold your mother”; and Mary immediately became our mother.

Third, she was given to you under the most serious and solemn circum- stances. Jesus, while dying, makes his final arrangements and indicates his last will. Alone of all the disciples, the beloved John is present to receive in the name of all Christians the last gift that their divine Master makes to them.

Fourth, she is given to you to be “your mother.” Feel these words at the bottom of your heart. Recall to yourself that man does not live by bread alone; that his soul as well as his body has a life to receive and support. It is in this supernatural order that Mary is your mother; if you live to grace, it is through her. The principle of this spiritual life is in Jesus; but Mary’s is the bosom that bore you, the milk that nourished you, the maternal heart that always loves its children even when ungrateful.

—St. Ignatius Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

What does it mean to say that Mary is our mother “in this supernatural order”? How is it that Mary’s bosom bore us, her milk nourished us, and her maternal heart always loves us?

CLOSING PRAYER

From a prayer of St. Anselm: What dignity, O Virgin, could be more highly prized than to be the mother of those of whom Christ deigned to be Father and Brother?

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