We Can All Agree On Devotion to Mary

9 June 2025   John 19:25-34

Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church

“Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold your Mother.”  John 19:27​

The Blessed Virgin Mary was officially declared Mother of the Church by Pope St. Paul VI on 21 November 1964.

The Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church was begun by Pope Francis on 11 February 2018.

All devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary traces its lineage to Calvary, and Jesus’ last command from the Cross to the Beloved Disciple: “Behold your Mother,” whereupon the Beloved Disciple took Mary into his home (John 19:27). The Church’s testimony is that devotion to Mary is part of the reconciliation that was achieved in the crucifixion.

Devotion to Mary is also one of the primary stumbling blocks for Protestants and others who see it as a reason not to affirm the teaching of the Catholic Church. There is, however, some common ground that can be affirmed by both Catholics and opponents of Marian Devotion. The purpose of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is ongoing conversion, the power of God to make us worthy of the promises of Christ, and witnesses to the ends of the earth. All believers can get behind that.

The Hail Mary and the Rosary are the most visible examples of devotion to Mary, and both emerged as instruments of reform in the Church. Historians have long known that the Hail Mary prayer as an accepted form of devotion was virtually unknown prior to the 11th century, and when it did emerge it was in the context of reform, particularly reform of various kinds of sexual and economic corruption. It is not a coincidence that the Hail Mary coincides historically with the Second Lateran Council’s requirement of clerical celibacy (A.D. 1139), and the condemnation of multiple benefices, i.e. offices in the church (like the office of bishop) that carried significant economic advantages, which then were being accumulated often at the expense of the poor. According to tradition, St. Dominic promoted and popularized the Rosary in the 13th century in opposition to the Albigensian heresy, which declared all matter evil and only spiritual reality good. Albigensians denied the Incarnation, and even promoted the idea of ritual suicide to liberate the soul from the evil body. Meditating on the earthly ministry of Jesus while praying the Hail Mary – which affirms that Jesus the Savior was not just a spiritual reality but in fact born of a human mother – was seen as a way of combating Albigensianism and affirming the goodness of human life.

The Hail Mary and the Rosary, therefore, are powerful ways in which the Church has declared God’s intention that we glorify Him with our bodies also, and not just our minds; that we take care of the bodies of others, especially those of the weak and vulnerable, because they are also vessels of God's glory. The Hail Mary and the Rosary reject without qualification any attempt to diminish the significance of the body, or submit it to corruptions of the will (as transgender ideology certainly does); they condemn without exception the marginalization and victimization of the poor, the sick, the very old, or the very young.

Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Savior of the World and Lord of the Church bears Mary’s DNA, bears it now, in heaven, forever.Mary’s last words recorded in the New Testament are, “Do whatever He tells you” (John 2:5). It is a call to be continually, degree by degree, transformed into His likeness. That’s what it means to be “born again” (John 3:3). It’s what it means to be a “new creation” (II Corinthians 5:17). It's what we’re asking for when we ask Mary to pray for us. It’s what we’re hoping for when we meditate on the earthly life of Jesus. Marian Devotion is about pointing to Jesus the same way his mother did.

Do whatever He tells you.

“Behold your Mother.”