MARY, THE MOTHER OF GOD December 29, 2024
Although we are used to thinking of Our Blessed Lady as the Mother of God, and honouring her as such, we must remember that there was a time in the history of the Church when certain theologians denied that Mary was God’s Mother. They were prepared to allow that she was Mother of Christ the Lord, but claimed that she could not be, nor could any human person be, the Mother of Almighty God.
But the Church constantly believes otherwise, and at the Council of Ephesus in the year 431 A.D. the Bishops of the Universal Church met together to decree solemnly that the faith of the Church from the time of the Apostles has always been that Our Blessed Lady is indeed the “God-bearer” or, in Greek, the “Theotókos”.
To celebrate this definition, Pope Liberius built a magnificent Church in Rome to honour Mary the Mother of God, the Church we still know today as “St. Mary Major”, adorned with beautiful ancient mosaics depicting the role of the Mother of God and the Old Testament prophecies fulfilled in her. The Roman Church from those times has honoured “The Mother of God” on January 1st .
~ FR. PAUL DOBSON
