← The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 132: Mary Mother of the Church (2026)
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Earlier in the Catechism, we unpacked Mary as the Mother of Jesus. Now, we look at what it means for Mary to be the Mother of the Church. Fr. Mike makes it clear that, when he entrusts his disciples to Mary, his Mother, from the Cross, he’s entrusting us to her as well. Today’s readings are from Catechism paragraphs 963-970.
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Before we dive into today's episode, I want to tell you about an exciting new resource that will deepen your journey through the Catechism. Ascension has just come out with its newest study called Foundations of A Journey through the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It is the only video based program that takes you to over 40 extraordinary places around the world, across 11 countries and four continents to bring the story of the Catechism to life. Led by voices you know like Dr. Ed Sri and Jeff Cavins, Dr. Marcelina D' Ambrosio and myself, Foundations of Faith takes you on a remarkable journey through the heart of our faith. If you've been enjoying this podcast, I know that this study will further enrich your understanding of the Catechism. Foundations of Faith is actually more than a study. It is a pilgrimage that will transform how you understand and live the Catholic faith. Check it out@ascensionpress.com CatechismStudy that's ascensionpress.com Catechismstudy now let's get started. Hi, my name is Fr. Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in Scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by ascension. In 365 days we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. It is day 132, we reading paragraphs 963 to 970 all about Mary today, where I'm using, as always, the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith approach. But you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, for crying out loud. You can also, for crying out loud, download your Catechism in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com ciy and you can also click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Today is day 132, paragraph 6. You know we had paragraph 45 on the Communion of Saints. Now uniquely, paragraph 6 is Mary, mother of Christ and Mother of the Church. We already talked about Mary's motherhood in the past, right? Mary's motherhood. In fact, paragraph 9683 highlights hey, by the way everyone kind of a thing. Since the Virgin Mary's role in the mystery of Christ and the Spirit has been treated. We did that before. It's fitting now to consider her place in the mystery of the Church. Remember that here is Mary's role when it came to the mission of Jesus, when it came to the mission of the Holy Spirit, that mission continues in a really unique way. Why? Because the mission of Christ, the mission of the Holy Spirit, continues in a really unique way via the Church. And so if the mission of Mary was intimately connected, really uniquely connected to the mission of Jesus and the Holy Spirit in saving the world, that makes sense that her mission would continue to be extended as the Son and the Spirit's mission is continued, expanded. Here's God who has redeemed the world, and he brings that redemption to us through the Church. And so we talk about this. The very last line of paragraph 9, 6, 63 is Mary, mother of Christ, Mother of the Church. And this is something that's really powerful for us. Pope Paul VI had said that. But it's something that goes back all the way to the very beginnings of the Church. This recognition from the very beginnings that Mary has a unique role. And so we're going to talk about that unique role that Mary has. But keeping this in mind, this is always so important. Paragraph 964 highlights this. Right from the get go, it says Mary's role is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it. Here's this quote from Lumen Gentium. It says, this union of the Mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of Christ's virginal conception up to his death and keeps on going. Now, I'm paraphrasing, but keeps on going until the end of time. But it all comes from Jesus Christ. Everything comes from Jesus Christ. And so, for example, in paragraph 9 67, it highlights this. It says by Mary's complete adherence to the Father's will, to His Son's redemptive work, and to every prompting of the Spirit, the Virgin Mary is the Church's model of faith and charity. So she's the type, right? She's the type of what it is to be church, because all of the grace in her comes from Jesus Christ. All the holiness in her comes from the Holy Spirit abiding in her. So again, I think sometimes people listening from the outside can think that we're emphasizing the Virgin Mary too much. But from the inside we're like, no, we're just talking about what God has done in the life of one human being a very unique way. And because of that, what God has done in the life of one human being Mary, in a unique way, not only was she able to be the mother of Christ, she's also the mother of the church. She's the mother of all believers in the order of grace. And this is just what we're going to talk about today. Mary is our mother in the order of grace. And so, you know, we ask for her intercession as we begin our prayer. You know, some people have asked me in the past, they said, hey, how come you don't begin your prayer with the sign of the cross? And I think that's a great question, because it's really good to begin a prayer with the sign of the cross. But also you notice probably that I do end with the sign of the cross, and so I just turn immediately to the Father. You know, Jesus said, when you pray, simply say, our Father who art in Heaven. He didn't say, when you pray, make the sign of the cross and say, Father Holy Spirit. You know, so it's good to do that. But to answer people who have asked me about this, sometimes you just launch in a prayer. Sometimes we do begin with the sign of the cross. And for those people right now, yeah, I love you. And I often do begin my prayers, like right now. Let's begin with the sign of the cross. In the name of the Father and of the Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Father in Heaven, we thank you, thank you for every person who has been listening to this podcast. We thank you for every person on this journey with us. We thank you for giving us your Son as our Savior, giving us your Holy Spirit as the sanctifier, and also in that Lord, in that mission. We thank you for giving us the mother of Jesus to be our mother as well. Help us to be faithful not only to you as our Father, help us be faithful to the Church as our mother, and help us to be faithful to Mary, our mother, in the order of grace above all things. Lord, we want to do your will. Keep us close to your heart and never let us be parted from you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As I said, it's day 132. Reading paragraphs 963 to 970, paragraph 6, Mary, mother of Christ, Mother of the Church. Since the Virgin Mary's role in the mystery of Christ and the Spirit has been treated, it is fitting now to consider her place in the mystery of the Church. The Virgin Mary is acknowledged and honored as being truly the Mother of God and of the Redeemer she is clearly the mother of the members of Christ, since she has by her charity joined in bringing about the birth of believers in the Church who are members of its head. Mary, Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church. Mary's motherhood with regard to the Church, wholly united with her Son. Mary's role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it. This union of the Mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of Christ's virginal conception up to his death. It is made manifest above all at the hour of His Passion. Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross. There she stood, in keeping with the Divine plan, enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, joining herself with his sacrifice in her mother's heart, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim born of her to be given by the same Christ Jesus dying on the cross as a mother to his disciples with these woman, behold your Son. After her Son's ascension, Mary aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers in her association with the apostles and several women. We also see Mary by her prayers, imploring the gifts of the Spirit, who had already overshadowed her in the Annunciation, also in her Assumption. Finally, the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up, body and soul, into heavenly glory and exalted by the Lord as queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of Lords and the conqueror of sin and death. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son's resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians. As the Byzantine liturgy states, in giving birth you kept your virginity. In your dormition you did not leave the world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of life. You conceived the living God, and by your prayers will deliver our souls from death. She is our Mother in the order of grace. By her complete adherence to the Father's will, to His Son's redemptive work, and to every prompting of the Holy Spirit. The Virgin Mary is the Church's model of faith and charity. Thus she is a preeminent and wholly unique member of the Church. Indeed, she is the exemplary realization of the Church. Her role in relation to the Church and to all humanity goes still further. In a wholly singular way, she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the Savior's work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason, she is a mother to us in the order of grace. This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she loyally gave at the Annunciation, and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect taken up to heaven. She did not lay aside this saving office, but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gift of eternal salvation. Therefore, the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of advocate, helper, benefactress and mediatrix. Mary's function as the mother of men in no way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power. But the Blessed Virgin's salutary influence on men flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on his mediation, depends entirely on it, and draws all its power from it. No creature could ever be counted along with the Incarnate Word and Redeemer. But just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various ways, both by his ministers and the faithful, and as the one goodness of God is radiated in different ways among his creatures, so also the unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude, but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in this one source. Okay, there we have it. Paragraphs 963 to 970. Just beautiful, I think. I think this is beautiful because I love Mary. And why do I love Mary? I love Mary because Jesus loved Mary. I love Mary because Jesus gave her to us from the cross. We hear this in paragraph 964 so clearly. As Jesus is dying on the cross, you know, he has these seven last words, these. These seven last sayings or phrases that Jesus says. And as he dies, we pay attention, right? When someone's dying, we pay attention to the last words. And among Jesus last words is he saw the disciple whom he loved standing there, who we know as the Apostle John. We see he sees Mary's mother standing there. What does he say? He says to the Apostle John, behold your mother. And he says to his mother, he says, woman, behold your son. And it goes on to say from that hour, that disciple took her into his own home. He took this literally. He took this not figuratively, but he is now her son and she is now his mother. Maybe I've said this before, but I want to say it again because, you know, John not identifying himself in his own Gospel, but rather referring to himself as we understand it, as the beloved disciple. This has a lot of ramifications. One of those ramifications is this, that what he says about himself, you could maybe draw the correlation and say he's saying about all those who are beloved disciples. And so if Jesus from the cross says to his mother, woman, behold your son, and says to the beloved disciple, behold your mother. One of the things that we can extrapolate from that, one of the conclusions we can come to is that from the cross, Jesus is giving his mother to be the mother of every beloved disciple. And if you're a beloved disciple of the Lord, that means Mary is your mom, given to you spiritually by the order of grace from the cross of Jesus Christ himself. And it just has it so clear why? Well, 965, after her son's ascension, Mary aided the beginnings of the church by her prayers. And we, we know that this is true. That's a reference of John, chapter 19, verses 26 and 27. It goes on to say, in her association with the apostles and several women, we also see Mary by her prayers, imploring the gifts of the Spirit who had already overshadowed her in the Annunciation. That's. There's something so powerful. Why this? You know, later on in paragraph 969, we're going to hear some. They might be challenging to some people, they might be comforting to others, inspiring to still others. But some titles that the Virgin Mary has, among those titles are Advocate, helper, benefactress, and Mediatrix. Why would Mary have these titles? We'll go back to this. Here is Mary helping by her prayers, employing the gift of the Spirit to ask God to give those blessings, give those gifts upon the whole body of the Church. Even fact. In fact, look back at the very beginning of the Gospel of John, we have the miracle of the wedding feast at Cana. How does that even happen? That happens because in the order of grace and the mystery of God's salvation, Mary goes up to Jesus and says, they have no wine. Then she says to the servants, after Jesus says, what is this to you and to me, My hour has not yet come. And she says to the servants, do whatever he tells you. There is this instruction. There is this bringing people to Jesus. There is this bringing Jesus to people. There is this, in a certain sense, a mediation that's happening. Now keep this in mind, because the Church makes it absolutely clear. Jesus is the one mediator between God and man. He is it. He is it. But I love this. In paragraph 9, 70 it just hits the nail on the head so clearly. So no creature could be counted along with the Incarnate Word and Redeemer. He is the incarnate God. He is the eternal Word who's always existed, right? He is God himself. So no creature could be counted, ever counted, along with the Incarnate Word. But just as the priesthood of Christ, which is completely unique, right, is completely redemptive for us, he is not only the priest, he's the victim. Just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various ways, both as ministers and faithful, the reality here is, okay, Jesus is the one priest, and yet he shares that priesthood with me like an ordained priest, and he shares it with all baptized in their participation in his priesthood, okay? And also goes on to say, just as the one goodness of God is radiated in different ways among his creatures, so the only good is God alone. Yet we look around this world and we say, oh my gosh, this is good. And that is good because why? Because the goodness of God is radiated in different ways among us creatures. So also the unique mediation of the Redeemer of Jesus Christ does not exclude, but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in this one source. So to say that Mary is a mediatrix, right? She's a co mediator of God's grace. That's not a challenge to Jesus Christ's soul mediation. Not at all. Because here you are. Here we are right now. If you've ever shared the gospel with somebody, you mediated that to them. If you've ever prayed for healing over someone, there's a mediation that's happening. If you've ever even given someone a ride to church, or given someone a Bible, or even turned them onto this podcast, you served as a mediator. In some ways, you shared, you participated in the one mediation of Jesus Christ that He shares, that he wants us to share because he sends out his disciples. He sends and says, go out to all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. Behold, I'm with you always until the end of the age. The reason why we can even do what we're doing is because Jesus does not hoard this mediation. Jesus doesn't hoard his goodness. He doesn't hoard his priesthood. He shares it and he invites us to participate in it. Mary, in a holy, singular way. This is paragraph 968. Mary in a holy, singular way, cooperates by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the Savior's work. Of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason, she's a mother to us in the order of grace, which is so. So I think that's consoling. I think it's incredible. I think it's also inspiring and makes me grateful to the Lord. And that's every one of God's gifts. It doesn't take our minds, hopefully. Sometimes our God's gifts takes our eyes off of the giver and puts them on the gifts. But whenever it's Mary, she always points us back to the giver. Whenever she's the gift or what she's done is. Is, you know, by God's power, she always points us back to her son. She always points us back to the Father. She always points us back to the Holy Spirit. And so this day, when we talk about Mary as the mother of the church, we're going to talk about that tomorrow, too. We give God praise because she is not only mother of the church, she is your mom, and she is my mom. And so we're grateful. So grateful. We ask her to pray for us because that's what good moms do, right? They. They pray for their kids, especially when their kids are struggling. So, Mary, please pray for us. Let's pray for each other. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me, too. My name is Father Micah. Cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.