With Dobbs v. Jackson in 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned. We rejoice that such a terrible decision has been overruled. However, many see the Dobbs decision as an attack on women and their “rights”. To that end there have been attempts to replace Roe with greater opportunities for abortion throughout the country. South Dakota, Florida, and Nebraska have rejected those attempts, thank God. But others have not.
This is where our Saint is so needed! Mary, the Virgin of Guadalupe, is the Patroness of the Unborn. She spoke to St. Juan Diego Cuahtlatoatzin as the Mother of the unborn Son of God in 1531. We pray for her intercession so that we can foster love and acceptance for the unborn, who are not burdens or problems to be fixed, but children of God! Mary is our mother. We pray for everyone: the unborn, for life and love; the mother of the unborn, for hope and courage; for the abortionist, for repentance and conversion; for our society, for perseverance and justice.
Virgin of Guadalupe,
Patroness of unborn children,
we implore your intercession
for every child at risk of abortion.
Help expectant parents to welcome from God
the priceless gift of their child’s life.
Console parents who have lost that gift
through abortion,
and lead them to forgiveness and healing
through the Divine Mercy of your Son.
Teach us to cherish
and to care for family and friends
until God calls them home.
Help us never to see others as burdens.
Guide our public officials
to defend each and every human life
through just laws.
Inspire us all to bring our faith into public life,
to speak for those who have no voice.
We ask this in the name of your Son,
Jesus Christ, who is Love and Mercy itself.
Amen. (USCCB)
Last spring, Pope Francis decreed that “the ancient devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, under the title of Mother of the Church, be inserted into the Roman Calendar” on the Monday after Pentecost. Cardinal Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, said “the Pope’s decision took account of the tradition surrounding the devotion to Mary as Mother of the Church.” The Holy Father “wishes to promote this devotion in order to ‘encourage the growth of the maternal sense of the Church in the pastors, religious and faithful, as well as a growth of genuine Marian piety.’”
The Scriptures for the day include either Gn. 3:9-15, 20, which is the promise to Adam and Eve that God will save them through the New Adam, son of the New Eve, Mary, or Acts 1:12-14, which mentions Mary as the mother of Jesus after the Ascension and before the Pentecost. The Gospel is from Jn 19:25-34, where Jesus gives his mother to the beloved disciple: “‘Woman, behold, your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother.’”
The Tradition that Mary is the Mother of the Church goes all the way back to Jesus and has been developed more fully through the ages. In 1964, “Pope Paul VI ‘declared the Blessed Virgin Mary as “Mother of the Church, that is to say of all Christian people, the faithful as well as the pastors, who call her the most loving Mother” and established that “the Mother of God should be further honoured and invoked by the entire Christian people by this tenderest of titles”’”. As our mother, Mary intercedes on our behalf to her Son, Jesus Christ. We are blessed with such a gracious, loving mother! Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us.
