“She is more Mother than Queen.” – St. Thérèse of Lisieux
Having just celebrated the Nativity, the Church concludes the octave of Christmas by honoring Mary under her greatest title, the Mother of God.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (paragraph 495) teaches,
Called in the Gospels “the mother of Jesus,” Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as “the mother of my Lord.” In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father’s eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity. Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly “Mother of God” (Theotokos).
From Don Orione:
“I have brought you an image of the Mater Dei that I give you as a reminder… and I ask you to spread it among souls and inculcate its devotion in the hearts of those who are in our Houses and to open them to the most tender and filial devotion to Mary Most Holy, venerated under the greatest and sweetest title of Mother of God. I beg you very much to make it the widest spread to increase everywhere devotion and love for Our Lady in the spirit that you know is proper to the Congregation (…). We wanted to adopt the title of Mater Dei because in this title there is everything. She is Virgo Potens, because she is Mater Dei; she is Mater Amabilis, because she is Mater Dei; she is Salus infirmorum, she is Refugium peccatorum, because she is Mater Dei; and everything, I repeat with joy, comes from there” (August 15th, 1929).
“Forward in the name of Mary, invoked under the title of Mater Dei! Let us walk with Our Lady, let us walk in her immaculate light and we will follow the path marked by Providence!”