Mary in Catholic Doctrine

518. Our Filipino Marian piety is also solidly grounded on the doctrinal teaching of the
Church. Vatican II presents the Blessed Virgin Mary in the final chapter of its Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium).
The Church’s teaching on Mary is presented in four sections:
• the Role of the Blessed Virgin in the Plan of Salvation;
• the Blessed Virgin and the Church;
• Devotion to the Blessed Virgin in the Church; and
• Mary, a Sign of Sure Hope and Solace for the Pilgrim People of God.
 
1. Mother of God
The title of Vatican II’s exposition of Mary is: “The Role of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of
God, in the Mystery of Christ and the Church” (LG Chap. 8). It begins with perhaps the oldest
Biblical testimony: “when the designated time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a
woman . . . that we might receive our status as adopted sons” (Gal 4:4-5; LG 52). The most
basic truth and the essential core of Mary’s unique dignity and role in God’s salvific plan is
sharply etched:
The Virgin Mary is acknowledged and honored as being truly the Mother of God and
of the Redeemer. Redeemed in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her
Son and united to him by a close and indissoluble tie, she is endowed with the high
office and dignity of the Mother of the Son of God, and therefore she is also the
beloved daughter of the Father and the temple of the Holy Spirit (LG 53).
Everything we know and revere about Mary, then, depends upon her unique, God-given
vocation to be the “Mother of God and of the Redeemer.” This doctrine is expressed
everytime we pray the Hail Mary: “Holy Mary, Mother of God” (cf. CCC 495). This asserts not
that Mary is a “goddess,” but that her Son is truly God. Mary gives Jesus what any human
mother gives her baby. Through her, Jesus is truly man. “The Son of Mary and the Son of
God IS one and the same person, Emmanuel” (AMB 52). What is unique here is God’s action:
the Eternal Son of God united to His Person the baby conceived in Mary’s womb by the
power of the Holy Spirit. The baby born of Mary was the God-man, Jesus. “Thus the holy
Fathers have unhesitatingly called the holy Virgin ‘Mother of God’ (Theotokos, ‘God-
bearer’)” (Council of Ephesus; ND 605).
2. Blessed Virgin
Mary, Virgin and Mother, manifests God’s perfectly free initiative in the Incarnation (God’s
Word/Son becoming enfleshed, Jn 1:14). Mary’s perpetual virginity is not simply abstention
from sexual intercourse, but the positive value of perfect personal integrity in her total gift
of self to God. Mary’s virginity flowered into maternity not only for Jesus, the first-born of all
creation (cf. Rom 8:29; Col 1:15,18), but also for all who would be born again to new life in
him (cf. Jn 3:3; 1 Jn 5:11; LG 57; CCC 499-501). The Virgin Birth, then, is not a privilege affecting
only Jesus and Mary, but a positive sign of the Father’s gracious saving love which adopts us
all in sending His Son, and the Spirit’s building a new People of God, the Body of Christ, the
Church.
Against current attacks and doubts both within and without the Church, about Mary’s
virginal conception and motherhood, a Catholic profession of faith could calmly respond
that Mary’s virginal conception is not just a symbolic description or literary device of
Matthew and Luke to describe God’s intervention, nor is it merely a human construct to
insist on Jesus “divinity. ” Rather, it is simply the way God in fact chose to send His Son into
the world when the fullness of time had come (Gal 4:4). We Filipino Catholics believe this
both from Scripture and from the constant and consistent teaching of the Church.
3. The Immaculate Conception
Mary, therefore, had the unique mission from God to be Mother of His Son-made-man, the
Redeemer. She thus shares in a special way Jesus’ salvific mission. From this mission flows
her singular grace and privilege of the Immaculate Conception (cf. CCC 490). This signifies
that Mary was, “from the first moment of her conception, in view of the merits of Christ
Jesus the Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin” (ND
709). The “Immaculate Conception” as God’s gift to Mary, therefore, is doubly Christ-
centered: first, as given because she would be Mother of Christ; second, as showing that no
one is saved apart from Christ, even those who lived centuries before him. “In view of the
merits of Christ” means Mary was made holy by her immediate relationship to Christ, the
source of grace, for whom and towards whom all things are created (cf. Col 1:15-17).
4. The Assumption
Moreover, thus “preserved free from all guilt of original sin, the Immaculate Virgin was
taken up body and soul into heavenly glory [Assumption] upon the completion of her
earthly sojourn” (LG 59; cf. ND 715; CCC 966). With her Assumption to join her Son, the Risen
Christ, in the fullness of her personality, Mary reveals the fullness of God’s redeeming work
for all of us, “a sign of certain hope and comfort to the pilgrim People of God” (LG 68).
Both privileges of Mary, her Immaculate Conception and her Assumption, are not exceptions
that separate Mary from us. They are rather privileges of fullness and completion. Mary’s
grace is universally shared; her privilege is that of fullness. Both privileges are constituted by
the Spirit’s presence, in whom we are all called to share. Thus they put Mary at the inmost
core of all human persons and of the Church. Practically speaking, this meant that, sinless
like Christ himself, Mary was not blinded or confused by pride or false self-centeredness.
More fully and truly “human” than we are, Mary then can truly appreciate our human trials
and failures. These graces were given to Mary precisely in view of her unique role in God’s
plan to save all through Christ’s redemptive mission.
Mediatrix
Authentic Catholic doctrine teaches that Mary’s intercession does not in any way detract
from, or add to, the unique mediation of Christ (cf. 1 Tim 2:5-6). Two analogies help us to
understand this. First, in God’s continuing act of Creating, the one goodness of God is
communicated diversely to all creatures. Second, the priesthood of Christ is shared in
various ways both by sacred ministers and by all the baptized. Hence, in like manner, the
unique mediation of Christ is shared by all, since God calls all to cooperate, in manifold
human ways, in Christ’s redemptive mission (cf. LG 62). Catholics see in Mary a special
cooperation due to her God-given role within His saving work through Christ and the Spirit.
 
Feast Days of Mary
Table 1.
Date Celebration Significance
January 1 Solemnity of Mary, On this holy feast day, we take a moment as we
Mother of God start our new year to honor our Blessed Mother,
who in her “yes” to God brought our Savior into the
world to redeem us.
February 2 Presentation of the Occurs forty days after the birth of Jesus and is also
Lord known as Candlemas day
February 11 Our Lady of Lourdes The Catholic Church celebrates the liturgical
memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, recalling a series
of 18 appearances that the Blessed Virgin Mary
made to a 14-year-old French peasant girl, Saint
Bernadette Soubirous.
March 25 Annunciation The Solemnity of the Annunciation celebrates the
coming of the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary to
announce to her the special mission God had
chosen for her in being the mother of His only son.
May 13 Our Lady of Fatima It was on this day that the Blessed Virgin Mary
started her series of apparition to three shepherd
children in the small village of Fatima in Portugal in
1917.
May 31 Visitation The feast of the Visitation recalls to us the following
great truths and events: The visit of the Blessed
Virgin Mary to her cousin Elizabeth shortly after
the Annunciation
June 27 Our Mother of The devotion to this Marian advocation revolves
Perpetual Help around the picture of Our Lady of Perpetual
Succour,  painted on wood, with background of
gold.
July 16 Our Lady of Mount The feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, celebrated 
Carmel on July 16, was first instituted in the late 14th
century in commemoration of the approval of the
rule of the Carmelite Order a hundred years earlier.
August 15 Assumption his significant feast day recalls the spiritual and
physical departure of the mother of Jesus Christ
from the earth, when both her soul and her body
were taken into the presence of God.
August 22 Queenship of Mary In this feast, particularly cherished by the Popes of
modern times, we celebrate Mary as the Queen of
Heaven and Earth. Pope Pius IX said of Mary's
queenship: "Turning her maternal Heart toward us
and dealing with the affair of our salvation, she is
concerned with the whole human race.
 September Birth of Mary The Catholic Church celebrates the birth of the
8 Blessed Virgin Mary on its traditional fixed date of
September 8, nine months after the December 8
celebration of her Immaculate Conception as the
child of Saints Joachim and Anne.

September Our Lady of Sorrows The feast of Our Lady of Sorrows commemorates
15 the seven great sorrows which Mary lived in
relation to Her Son, as they are recorded in the
Gospels or through Tradition. 

October 7 Our Lady of the On October 7, the Roman Catholic Church

Rosary celebrates the yearly feast of Our Lady of the
Rosary. Known for several centuries by the
alternate title of “Our Lady of Victory,” the feast
day takes place in honor of a 16th century naval
victory which secured Europe against Turkish
invasion.
November Presentation of the  commemorates the presentation of the Blessed
21 Blessed Virgin Mary Virgin as a child by her parents in the Temple in
Jerusalem.
December 8 Immaculate The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first
Conception moment of her conception, by a singular grace and
privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the
merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race,
preserved immune from all stain of original sin."
December 12 Our Lady of The day commemorates her apparition to Saint
Guadalupe Juan Diego in the hills of Tepeyac in 1531. She asked
him to go to the bishop and tell him that the Ever
Virgin Mary, Mother of God, sent him to ask for a
church to be built atop Tepeyac hill.
 
 
The Month of Mary is May.

The Month of the Rosary is October.

The Feast of the Immaculate Heart is the Saturday following the Second Sunday after
Pentecost.

The First Saturday of each Month is also dedicated to Marian Devotions.