Since this coming Friday is the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, I wanted share with you the seven blog posts that I have written over the past few years on Mary as both the Theotokos, which means God-Bearer, the Mother of God, and the Incarnation. However, before we get to those blog posts, let’s quickly read what Pope St. John Paul II says in regards to Mary as the Mother of God.

In paragraph four of Redemptoris Mater, the Polish Saint says,

The Second Vatican Council prepares us for this by presenting in its teaching the Mother of God in the mystery of Christ and of the Church. If it is true, as the Council itself proclaims, that “only in the mystery of the Incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light,” then this principle must be applied in a very particular way to that exceptional “daughter of the human race,” that extraordinary “woman” who became the Mother of Christ. Only in the mystery of Christ is her mystery fully made clear. Thus has the Church sought to interpret it from the very beginning: the mystery of the Incarnation has enabled her to penetrate and to make ever clearer the mystery of the Mother of the Incarnate Word.

The Council of Ephesus (431) was of decisive importance in clarifying this, for during that Council, to the great joy of Christians, the truth of the divine motherhood of Mary was solemnly confirmed as a truth of the Church’s faith. Mary is the Mother of God (= Theotókos), since by the power of the Holy Spirit she conceived in her virginal womb and brought into the world Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is of one being with the Father. “The Son of God…born of the Virgin Mary…has truly been made one of us,” has been made man. Thus, through the mystery of Christ, on the horizon of the Church’s faith there shines in its fullness the mystery of his Mother. In turn, the dogma of the divine motherhood of Mary was for the Council of Ephesus and is for the Church like a seal upon the dogma of the Incarnation, in which the Word truly assumes human nature into the unity of his person, without cancelling out that nature. [Paragraph separation is mine].

As you see, Mary’s role as the Mother of God, the Theotokos, is whole heartedly defined by the Catholic Church in the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D., but not only does it solidify Mary’s role in Salvation History, it most importantly clinches the dogma of the Incarnation – Jesus Christ is both God and Man.

I hope for your spiritual development and intellectual formation that over the next week you can read each of these posts, one for each day, on Mary as the Mother of God and how important her role is in the Mystery of Christ.

1. “Mondays with Mary” – The Mother of God in the Christmas Season

2. Mondays with Mary” – Benedict XVI, the Year of Faith, and the Mother of God

3. “Mondays with Mary” – Pope Benedict XVI on the Mother of God

4. “Mondays with Mary” – St. Anselm’s Prayer to Mary as Theotokos

5. “Mondays with Mary” – The Theotokos Brings Joy to the Whole World

6. The Declaration of the Theotokos at the Council of Ephesus

7. Quick Lessons from the Catechism: The Son of God Became Man – The Incarnation

Mary, the Mother of God, the Theotokos…Pray for Us.