The motherhood of Mary

Why Mary’s motherhood should give us comfort and security

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Philip Kosloski | Jan 01, 2020

St. Alphonsus Liguori urged everyone to seek refuge in Mary, our most caring spiritual mother.

Sometimes we forget that Jesus gave us his mother, entrusting us to her gentle care. He did so on the cross, saying to his beloved disciple, “Behold your mother!” (John 19:27)

While we may not be able to see with our eyes the motherly protection of the Virgin Mary, St. Alphonsus Liguori believed we should be confident in her loving presence.

He wrote in The Glories of Mary, “The Church applies to Mary these words of the sacred Canticles: ‘l am the Mother of fair love’ and a commentator explaining them, says, that the Blessed Virgin’s love renders our souls beautiful in the sight of God, and also makes her as a most loving mother receive us as her children, ‘she being all love towards those whom she has thus adopted.’ And what mother, exclaims St. Bonaventure, loves her children, and attends to their welfare, as thou lovest us and carest for us.”

Liguori goes on to compare the trust we have as children in our earthly mother to the trust we should have in our heavenly mother.

O safe refuge! The Mother of God is my Mother. How firm, then, should be our confidence, since our salvation depends on the judgment of a good Brother and a tender Mother! It is, then, our Mother who calls us, and says, in these words of the Book of Proverbs: “He that is a little one, let him turn to me.”

Children have always on their lips their mother’s name, and in every fear, in every danger, they immediately cry out, Mother, mother! Ah, most sweet Mary! Ah, most loving Mother! This is precisely what thou desirest: that we should become children, and call on thee in every danger, and at all times have recourse to thee, because thou desirest to help and save us, as thou hast saved all who have had recourse to thee.

Mary desires our salvation and will do all that is within her power to protect us from spiritual dangers and guide us along the path of life.

Liguori relates another image that should bring us comfort in our daily trials, “When the storms of temptations rage, the most compassionate Mother of the faithful, with maternal tenderness, protects them as it were in her own bosom until she has brought them into the harbor of salvation.”

The closer we get to Mary, the closer we are to Jesus Christ. May we trust in the words of Jesus that she is our mother and confidently call upon her in our time of need.

She is our mother and as a mother, will do anything and everything to ensure we are in union with her Son, Jesus Christ.